Contributor (Contributor Trilogy, book 1) (5 page)

"And I need to also think about what everyone else can do."

"Exactly."

Taking a bite of her sandwich, Dara chewed it thoughtfully. A flash of insight struck her. "I wouldn't be the only one doing this, would I?"

"No," Letizia confirmed.

"Both Ryan and Javier are doing this already?"

"Yes, though they don't take the same approach to the information they gain. LeTour looks to sabotage while Gutierrez looks to conquer."

"I've been worrying about the wrong person, haven't I?"

"Yes, you have. LeTour is nothing more than an annoyance. You need to learn to ignore him. He'll spend so much time trying to take shots at you that he'll fail to see his own shortcomings."

"How do you know?"

"I've seen it before, Dara. I worked with his father for a while."

"You did?" Dara asked, with a start.

"Yes, I did. And I can tell you that LeTour is just like his father. They'll always resort to brute force rather than brains."

"So I need to stop providing Ryan with opportunities."

"Precisely. You won't be able to stop him from making you a target, but you can make yourself a much harder target to hit."

"And what about Javier?"

"Gutierrez intends to make this a battle of the wits right to the bitter end. Don't ever underestimate his ambition. He may be a nicer, more amenable person than LeTour, but don't ever let that lull you into thinking he's your friend."

"How does that make him any different?"

"The difference is that LeTour is vicious. He wants to cause damage and inflict pain. Gutierrez, on the other hand, has no interest in that because he neither needs nor wants to score points by destroying others. What he wants, more than anything, is to survive."

Letting the words sink in for a moment before responding, Dara finally said, "You've given me a lot to think about."

"Yes, I have. And I trust that you'll not only think about these things, you'll find a way to make this information useful to you."

"I will."

"Prove it to me." With that, Letizia swiftly packed up her things and stood, leaving Dara to scurry after her.

Chapter 7

Letizia's counsel turned out to be rather prophetic. Several weeks later, Dara became painfully aware just how craftily Javier intended to play his cards.

As usual, Ryan carped at her as obnoxiously as he possibly could. Though Dara did her best to stay true to her promise to Letizia, she found it increasingly difficult to ignore Ryan's taunts.

"I've got to hand it to you, Dara, you are tenacious," Ryan said.

"It's not a quality that's unique to me," Dara replied, but Ryan shrugged the barb away with a cocky smile.

"Yes, but it's only an asset for one of us."

"You know, you're right, LeTour," Javier chimed in. Dara felt herself bristling. Were they going to gang up on her now? And, if so, why would Javier want to engage in such an unholy alliance?

"See, Gutierrez does have some brains in his head after all," Ryan sneered.

"That's more than can be said for you. And before you get yourself all excited, you should probably hear me out."

"Oh, should I?" Ryan swaggered over to Javier's station, but Javier ignored him and continued working with an air of the utmost tranquility.

"Yeah, you should," Javier said, in a bored tone. "What I meant was that, while Dara is tenacious about working hard to earn her position, your tenacity tends more toward ass kissing."

Unable to hold it in, Dara snorted with laughter. The glare Ryan sent her way told her she would pay for it later but, truth be told, she found it a little difficult to care.

"You just watch yourself, Gutierrez," Ryan said menacingly.

"You bore me, LeTour. Don't think I don't know about your methods. You're welcome to try, bro, but you won't find a thing you can use against me."

Ryan's face turned an almost purple shade of red and, for a wild second, Dara thought he would haul off and punch Javier.

I wonder if that's what Javier wants him to do,
she mused, as she watched Ryan clench and unclench his fists.
Maybe he thinks taking a good, solid blow to the face would be worth the storm that would come raining down on Ryan's head.

"You'd better watch your mouth, Gutierrez. It's going to get you into trouble," Ryan hissed.

"Still bored, LeTour," Javier yawned.

Although Dara found the drama unfolding before her keenly interesting, she lowered her head and buried herself in her work, which seemed a very wise course of action. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see some of the other engineering staffers watching the apprentices, and she had no doubt that Andersen would hear some very detailed descriptions of the altercation.

It seemed Ryan abruptly became aware of this too, because he took a look around engineering and then, his face dark, stalked back to his station and began to work. He didn't say another word for the next hour.

"He really has it in for you," Dara couldn't resist saying to Javier, when Ryan left to run an errand for Chen.

"He has it in for everyone," he replied dismissively.

"Maybe, but do you think it's smart to provoke him like that?"

"Why are you worried about him—or about me, for that matter?" He stopped working and looked pointedly at Dara.

"I'm not," she lied, dropping her eyes to her screen.

"Good. 'Cause you shouldn't be."

A couple of hours later, the three of them sat down to a meeting with Andersen and the senior engineers. Andersen had presented them with the task of designing a new engine. Dara had slaved over hers for days, pouring every last minute of her supposed free time into her design. Letizia had thoroughly critiqued it, and Dara felt confident in the solidity of her design. Still, she couldn't stop her hands from trembling a bit as Andersen went through their schematics, starting with Dara's and ending with Javier's.

To her relief, Andersen deemed her solution acceptable. He didn't exactly praise it to the skies, but she was glad that it had at least passed muster. Despite her dislike for him, she had to admit that Ryan's was well done, and the smug smile that crept over his face as he sat back in his seat suggested that he thought so too.

Finally, Andersen brought Javier's design up on the screen. The way its simple elegance concealed its complexity startled Dara, and she studied it intently. There was no denying the design's superiority.

Suddenly, Letizia jabbed her sharply in the ribs with an elbow. Confused, Dara glanced over at her master, who shifted her eyes toward Ryan. He stared at the screen, his jaw working, his hands clenched so tightly on the arms of his chair his knuckles had gone white.

Guess I'm not the only one who's unhappy about losing.

Resigned, Dara listened stoically as Andersen pronounced Javier's design the best.

"Thank you, sir," Javier said, his face betraying nothing of his emotions.

"There's more to this than meets the eye," Letizia muttered as they left the room. She strode away before Dara could ask what she meant.

The rest of the day passed in a flurry of activity, leaving Dara precious little time to think about what had happened. She had to drag her tired body to the door to meet Jonathan.

"Feel like a little walk in the park?" Jonathan asked. She almost declined due to fatigue but she noticed his eyes were dancing, telling her he had something important to share, and she didn't have the heart to disappoint him.

"Sure," she said, hoping he wouldn't hear the reluctance in her voice.

When they reached the park, he led her down a less popular path, one they'd taken it many times over the years because it afforded them a modicum of privacy in the midst of the crowded dome. There were few people about, and Dara felt surprisingly energized, the tension draining out of her as they strolled.

"So, what is it you want to tell me?" she asked, her voice teasing.

"I had the most amazing day," Jonathan gushed. "I nailed it, Dara."

He launched into a long description of how he'd wowed his master, and it surprised Dara to find her mind wandering. Usually, she hung on Jonathan's every word, just as anxious for his success as for her own. Dismayed, she realized she envied him. Everything seemed unfairly easy for him.

Ashamed of herself, she trailed a hand along one of the many statues. Though no two were alike, there was an overall sameness to the park, and its charms had long since faded for Dara. It was a pleasant enough place to walk, and it had a nice playground for the younger children, but there was little else to recommend it to her.

"Do you ever wonder what it would have been like, to walk in one of those green parks we saw in our history books?" she asked Jonathan. She hadn't even realized she'd interrupted him until she took in the hurt look on his face.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

"Oh, Jon, I'm so sorry. I'm such a jerk. Things have been so stressful for me, but that's no excuse."

Though he still looked a little hurt, he waved her words away. "It's fine, Dara, really. I'm sorry things have been so difficult. I hope that my talking about what's been happening to me isn't making this harder on you."

"No! No, I don't want you to think that!" she said, horrified by the truth of his words. She dropped her eyes, hoping he wouldn't see her expression. He didn't deserve this. The fact that things were rough for her didn't give her the right to ruin his happiness.

"Okay, well, I just don't want you to think that I don't sympathize with you, because I do," he said, his voice quiet.

"I know." She stopped walking and took his hands in hers. "It's just one of many reasons why I love you."

He smiled and squeezed her hands. "I love you too, you know. If there were some way I could fix this for you, make it easier on you..." His smile melted into an expression of earnest seriousness.

"I know." She hugged him, resting her head against his chest. Every word he spoke increased her guilt.

"You stole it from me, you asshole," a voice snarled nearby.

She and Jonathan both stiffened, silently drawing apart. He shook his head in response to her quizzical gaze, indicating that she should stay quiet. The statues concealed the speaker but, despite the low tone in which he spoke, his voice carried.

"I don't know what you're talking about," another male voice replied, in a blandly distant tone.

"That's Javier," Dara whispered, shocked. "And the other person is Ryan."

"What do you think is going on?" Jonathan whispered back.

Just as she opened her mouth to reply, something thumped against a statue, making them both jump.

"That design was mine. I don't know how you made it work, but you had no right to take it," Ryan hissed.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Javier drawled. "And LeTour, it's unwise for you to touch me."

"Oh, really?" Ryan sneered.

"Really." A second later, there was another thump, followed by a stifled cry of pain.

"This isn't over!" Ryan grunted, his words followed by a slight groan of pain. He limped right past Jonathan and Dara's path, so caught up in his own outrage that he didn't see them. A few seconds later, Javier strolled by, his hands in his pockets.

"Creators," Jonathan muttered. He looked every bit as shocked as she felt. "Is that what you've been putting up with?"

"Yes. Though the violence has just been verbal up to this point."

"You really think Javier would steal Ryan's idea?"

"I don't know." Dara chewed her lip. "Javier is so hard to read, but he does seem to be very...calculating."

"This is unbelievable." Jonathan rubbed the side of his nose, a nervous gesture of his, and Dara knew he was genuinely concerned about her situation.

"Letizia told me I'm lucky the two of them are locked in battle. She says it should make things easier on me."