Page 50 of Duty Compromised

The effect was immediate and hilarious. Raymond’s face went through about six different expressions—shock, confusion, suspicion, and something that might have been panic. His mouth opened, closed, opened again.

“I don’t… How did you…” He took a step back, eyes narrowing. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really? Could’ve sworn I saw you at that hobby shop downtown the other day?—”

“Charlotte needs to get back to work,” Raymond said loudly, his face flushing red. He turned on his heel and stalked back toward his station, shoulders rigid.

Darcy watched him go, eyebrows raised. “What was that about?”

“Nothing,” I said, filing away Raymond’s reaction for later analysis. “Just establishing common interests.”

Charlotte had already moved toward her workstation, booting up her systems while people continued hovering around her. Within minutes, she was fielding questions about the stabilizer code, the countermeasure progress, technical specifications that went over my head.

For the first hour, she handled it with her usual awkward grace—answering questions, delegating tasks, trying to coordinate with team members who all seemed to have different ideas about how to proceed. But I could see the strain building in the set of her small shoulders, the way her responses got shorter, more clipped.

“Charlotte, if you could just review my integration protocols?—”

“—need your input on the frequency modulation?—”

“—the testing parameters you requested are showing anomalies?—”

She stood up so fast her chair rolled backward, hitting the wall.

“Stop.”

The lab went silent.

“Everyone off the project.” Her voice was steady, but I could hear the exhaustion underneath. “I’m finishing the stabilizer code myself.”

The eruption was immediate.

“You can’t be serious?—”

“We’ve all been working on this together?—”

“—typical, Charlotte wants all the glory for herself?—”

That last comment came from someone named Derek, a thin guy with designer glasses who looked like he’d never thrown a punch in his life. Good thing, too, because the way Charlotte flinched made me want to introduce him to some practical physics involving his face and the nearest wall.

“Glory?” Charlotte’s voice cracked slightly. “You think this is about glory?”

“You’re cutting us out right when we’re about to break through,” Derek continued, clearly not smart enough to read the room. “Just like with the Morrison contract. You submitted the final proposal yourself after we did all the groundwork.”

“Because the client requested—” Charlotte stopped, pressing her palms against her eyes. “I don’t have time for this.”

Derek rolled his eyes. “Of course you don’t. Charlotte Gifford, too brilliant to work with mere mortals?—”

I was about to stop this shit, but Darcy beat me to it.

“That’s enough.” Darcy’s voice cut through the rising voices like a whip crack. She stepped between Charlotte and the growing mob of disgruntled team members. “Every single one of you needs to shut up and listen.”

The authority in her tone surprised me. The petite, polished computer engineer suddenly looked like she could take apart everyone in the room—verbally, at least.

“We all know that it’s Charlotte’s brain that has gotten us every major contract we have.” Darcy’s eyes swept the room. “If Charlotte says she needs to work alone to fix this, then we let her work alone. The stabilizer code is more important than your egos.”

“But we’re a team—” someone else started.

“Then act like it,” Darcy snapped. “Support means knowing when to step back. Charlotte’s not asking for glory. She’s trying to save the project. So get over yourselves and let her work.”