Contributor (Contributor Trilogy, book 1) (13 page)

"You should expect me at your apartment tonight. We still have a lot to do. Right now, I want you to write up a report of the meeting we just attended."

"Yes, Senior Engineer D'Angelo," Dara replied, her spine stiffening.

Letizia turned and strode crisply off, leaving Dara alone. Chen's voice rose, and Dara flinched. She had no idea why she felt sorry for Ryan. After all, he had tried to sabotage her.

Get to work. Work will distract you
.

But no matter how hard she tried, she could not block out the sound of Chen's shouting.

Chapter 17

Taking a deep breath, Dara did her best to ignore her churning stomach and shaking hands. She looked around, noting Ryan's smirk and the way Javier held his stylus poised over his tablet, ready to begin scribbling notes. Chen's twitching right eyebrow bespoke his impatience, but Walters looked as coolly regal as a queen examining her court. Andersen sat with his hands steepled, his searing blue eyes fixed on her face. With one last breath, Dara hazarded a quick glance at Letizia, who studied her intently, her face rigid.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Dara had been elected to begin the presentations. Though the hours and hours she and Letizia had spent preparing had felt nearly endless, Dara felt panic sharpening its claws on her nerves, now that the day of the presentations was already at hand. Letizia had picked her presentation apart piece by minute piece, but Dara wished her master had critiqued it one last time.

Her exhaustion only exacerbated her nerves. There had been precious little time for sleep. It seemed that, rather than decreasing, her workload had increased exponentially over the past few days. Whenever she crossed one task off her list, another one cropped up.

Things hadn't been any easier for her father. Due to a major systems issue, his twelve-hour shifts had stretched to as many as sixteen hours, which meant he had little time for getting things ready at the apartment. Despite her vehement protests, Jonathan had insisted on helping Dara, though she knew that it meant he couldn't devote as much time to his work as he wanted.

Dara did her best to put all of this out of her mind. Though it had never been explicitly stated that the apprentice chosen to attend the meeting would become Andersen's assistant, everyone knew this was very likely the defining moment in the competition. It was imperative that she focused.

Her eyes on Andersen as Letizia had instructed, Dara launched into her presentation. At first, she felt shaky but, as she delved into the intricacies of her design, she began to relax. She had been through her presentation so many times that she could recite it in her sleep, and it flowed beautifully, her schematics and graphics flawless.

When she finished, Letizia rewarded her with the briefest of smiles. The other engineers were impassive, but Dara could see a hint of worry in Ryan's eyes and acknowledgment in Javier's. She couldn't read Andersen's expression, but he did incline his head toward her ever so slightly as she sat. Her heart beat wildly, and she concentrated on breathing as Javier began his presentation.

Her confidence increased as she listened to him. Though his presentation was good, it was not in the same league as hers, she was sure of it. His approach was far more pedestrian, his ideas less innovative.

She was pretty sure she wasn't the only one who thought this way. Hazarding a glance at Walters, she noted that the engineer's had pressed her lips into a rather thin line. Letizia must have noticed as well, as she looked a little smug.

Ryan's presentation was the weakest; that much was obvious from the start. Chen had a thunderous look on his face, and Dara swore that Andersen was bored. She almost felt sorry for Ryan. He must have known he was floundering, but he somehow managed to give the impression of being fully in command. His words flowed easily, and his tone made it sound as though his ideas were the most innovative yet. Some small part of her couldn't help but admire his composure.

Almost before Ryan had even finished, Andersen stood up and stared at each of the apprentices in turn. "You will return to your stations and complete your assigned tasks while the senior engineers and I discuss the merits of each of your presentations." Andersen's eyes moved to Dara as he spoke the word "merits" and lingered there until he'd finished speaking. Dara did her best to keep her expression neutral but, inside, she shouted for joy.

"Yours was the best," Javier conceded as they made their way back to their stations.

"Thank you," Dara replied. "I thought you had a lot of great ideas."

He shook his head. "They were nowhere near as good as yours." He spoke as if stating fact, betraying nothing of his emotions.

"I'll bet your master did all your work for you. There's no way you could have come up with that on your own," Ryan said spitefully, his color high. He looked like he was on the verge of an eruption.

"You never were a very graceful loser were you, LeTour?" Javier asked.

"Not all of us have had as much experience with losing as you have, Gutierrez," Ryan responded, his tone cutting.

"Is that the best you can come up with? Must be rough to have to cheat to make up for your lack of skill."

"You know all about cheating, don't you, seeing as how you stole my design."

Though Javier kept his face neutral, a muscle worked in his jaw, and his eyes flashed. "You're a filthy liar, LeTour. I never stole a thing from you. Why would I want to steal your sad excuse for work?"

Ryan's face turned redder than ever. His fists balled at his side, he began to walk menacingly toward Javier. Before she think about what she was doing, Dara jumped between the two of them.

"Listen, asshole," she hissed at Ryan. "Maybe you don't care about your reputation, but you should. You think the other Contributors haven't seen how you operate? You can fling all the accusations at Javier you want, but you're the one everyone is talking about."

Ryan's face went from red to white as her words registered. Deluded as he was, he couldn't contradict her. Without another word, he turned on his heel and fled.

Javier sighed. "You should have just let me handle him."

"He was going to punch you!" Dara said indignantly.

"So what? You think a pathetic idiot like that could hurt me? All you did was move yourself to the top of his hit list."

"You're welcome." She didn't bother keeping the indignation from her tone.

Sighing again, Javier turned to meet her eye. "Look, I appreciate what you tried to do. You're a nice person, Dara, that much is obvious to me. But in here, it's survival of the fittest. Being nice is a liability."

"You don't really believe that."

His expression turned sad. "Yes, I do. I may not like it, but it's true."

She opened her mouth to respond, but he shook his head curtly and walked away as well. Stunned, she stopped in the middle of the corridor for a second, watching his retreating back. Gradually, she became aware of other Contributors approaching, and she realized that she had best move lest she become an object of curiosity or, worse, speculation.

When she reached her station, she found that neither of the other two had yet made it back. She should have been elated at her apparent victory but, instead, she felt a little ill.

Javier returned a few moments later, wordlessly walking up to his station and getting to work. Ryan didn't make an appearance for another twenty minutes. When he did come back, he had a murderous expression on his face, and Dara didn't dare do more than peer at him out of the corner of her eye. Nervously, she wondered what he had been doing.

No one emerged from the conference room for two hours. At first, Dara did her best to concentrate on her work but, the longer Andersen and the senior engineers were gone, the more she began to doubt herself. After multiple futile attempts, she gave up on concentrating, instead going through the motions while her mind wandered over her many worries. As difficult as things had been lately, she knew they would be exponentially more challenging once her mother returned to the apartment.

Do I have the strength for that?

But what was the alternative? If Magnum moved her mother to a facility, Dara would rarely ever see her again, and she simply could not bear the thought of such a separation.

At long last, Walters summoned them back into the conference room. By this time, Ryan had smoothed his face into an expression of blandness, though she could see a glint of malice in his eyes. Javier looked supremely unconcerned as always, and she marveled at his self-control.

Dara looked intently at Letizia, but could read nothing from her master's expression. As Ryan approached the seat next to Chen, his master shot him a look of daggers, and she knew that Ryan hadn't won. Though this came as no real surprise, given the mediocre quality of his presentation, Dara still felt the tiniest bit of relief.

"After a great deal of discussion, the senior engineers and I have come to a decision," Andersen announced. His hands behind his back in a rather military posture, he began to stroll around the room.

"Apprentice LeTour." He came to a stop next to Ryan, so close that Dara was certain his posture was deliberate, calculated to intimidate. It appeared to work. Though Ryan kept his face straight, he blanched. "I will state up front that I found your performance extremely disappointing. Your ideas were mediocre, your research unsatisfactory. Any further misstep will result in your immediate termination from the program. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," Ryan answered, his voice strained. Andersen smiled a slow, avid smile, and Dara felt her stomach turn.

He's actually enjoying this!

As Andersen turned his back and moved away from Ryan, Chen shot his apprentice a look of such vile disgust that Dara had to look away. Much as she disliked him, she still found it difficult to see Ryan the subject of so public a flogging.

"As for you, Apprentice Gutierrez," Andersen said, moving to stand in Javier's personal space. "Your contribution was more than adequate. You had a few ideas that approached innovation, but you did not demonstrate the vision I expect from a candidate of your stature."

"I'm sorry, sir," Javier responded. Emotion flashed in his eyes, and Walters shot him a brief, sympathetic look. It was almost more than Dara could bear. She wanted to win, but not like this.

That would have been me, if not for Letizia's help,
she realized, feeling bile rise in her throat.

"Apprentice Morrow," Andersen said, his voice so close that Dara jumped. As she looked up at him, she saw he had noticed. She had to resist the urge to lean back in her chair to put some space between them.

"Let me be the first to congratulate you on a superior presentation," he said, his cold tone at odds with his words. "Your presentation showed a remarkable level of innovation. You will have the honor of accompanying us, and your performance had best continue to be of the same caliber, or I will be very disappointed."

"Thank you, sir," Dara said, her lips so stiff she could barely get the words out. She felt as though a crushing weight had settled on her chest.

Andersen stood in front of her for an interminable minute before he turned and moved back to the head of the conference table. At last, Dara could breathe.

"Apprentice LeTour, Apprentice Gutierrez, your masters will provide you with instructions for the projects you will complete while the rest of us are at the meeting. As you will each be working on something different, I trust that intellectual property theft will not be an issue."

Andersen quirked one of his eyebrows as he looked from Javier to Ryan, and Dara almost gasped. How had he found out about Ryan's accusation? Javier's expression hardened, while Ryan went a bit whiter. One corner of his mouth quirking up in a sneer, Andersen turned away and waved his hand, dismissing them. Dara watched in stunned silence as Javier walked slowly out of the room in a dignified manner, Ryan stumbling after him.

For the next several hours, Andersen conducted a strategy meeting with the senior engineers while Dara took furious notes. When it finally ended, she was limp with exhaustion, and she sat numbly as Andersen sent Chen and Walters out of the room.

"Congratulations, Apprentice Morrow," he said, offering his hand.

She shook it as firmly as possible, suppressing a shudder at the contact with his cold, smooth skin. "Thank you, sir. It's a great honor."

"Don't forget it." Turning to her master, he said, "Letizia, you're doing a fine job of training your apprentice—maybe too fine. If you're not careful, she may steal your position."