When They Beg, I Rise!

The meeting room was expressly quiet.

It wasn't just Lemira who was shell-shocked; Orion hadn't expected to see her there either.

Thaddeus cleared his throat purposely, "Well, isn't this a full house? Heard there was a snag with the firewall, so I thought I'd pop in to check."

His initial plan was to stir up some trouble, but he hadn't banked on Lemira being the one to crack the code. That put a wrench in his plans.

The manager stood up, offering a respectful reply, "Indeed, just a moment ago, Ms. Langston here ran some tests on the software. Everything's ticking along nicely now. Anything else you reckon needs looking at?" Thaddeus, feigning interest, grabbed the report and flipped through it without really seeing anything.

After all, the firewall fiasco was nothing but a fabricated flaw, a strategic move to put the Langston Group in the hot seat.

After a cursory glance, Thaddeus turned to Orion, "What's your take on this?"

It all hinged on Orion's verdict now.

surprised look at Lemira, "You sorted this out

a piece of

this company was Thaddeus'. So, all those late nights

more of a mental block. In her past life, she'd spent a good chunk of time pinpointing the crux of the issue, which was why she could fix it in a snap this time around. Orion's tone was laced with casualty, "If it was such a simple fix, why couldn't your team handle it, instead of asking a high school grad to

in the mix,

part of the

Lemira as the

dabbling in software development, you should've nurtured that talent. How did you

in too, but frankly, she was out of her depth, just slowing things down. You sidelined Lemira in the

glass of water, but accidentally choked on a gulp. He had never thought

the

moment, he launched into

a clueless outsider, you hamstrung your own flesh and blood,

on his glass faltered. His voice was hoarse, "I-I didn't think it much