Page 15 of Code Block
Later that morning, Claire walked into Cheryl Riser's office carrying a small plate of the fried pies she'd brought to work this morning. She'd asked Cheryl for a deep dive into the distribution process earlier in the week and she thought bringing in a treat might gain her some brownie points with the brusque woman. Her face lit up when she spotted Teresa in the office and she relaxed.
The two women were laughing at something on Cheryl's computer monitor. Teresa waved her over and, as she stepped further into the room, male laughter piped through the speaker. She recognized the rich voice belonging to a certain elusive production manager she'd been chasing for the last three days. "But seriously, that's a complication we're dealing with from the move of the Glasgow tooling operation. The machinery's in and everything's working physically. It's the modified processes everyone's still getting used to."
"Makes sense," Cheryl said. "Just make sure those Scots keep their kilts out of the machinery." And the chuckles started again.
Claire stepped around to look at the screen. As soon as Noah noticed her, his grin dropped.
"That should answer your questions. It's quitting time here, so I'll catch you two later."
Before Claire could open her mouth, the video app ended. Teresa gaped at Claire with eyebrows raised.
"Well, that was an abrupt goodbye. He must have a hot date," Cheryl said. "Hey, Claire. Teresa said you have some questions for us. Have a seat."
Claire's lips pinched together. His dating life must be super busy if it caused such a brusque departure.
Claire stared at the monitor, disbelieving the error message on her screen. Her stomach roiled. Locked out again. This was the third time this week—and she'd logged in just fine twenty minutes ago using the exact same password. The technology mishaps were hauntingly familiar.
She switched to her phone app and found Vicki on her Favorites list. Vicki's number sat near the top thanks to her frequent issues with accessing the documentation system. Claire hovered over the call button, then stopped. She flung down her headset and stood. She needed a walk. Movement helped and exercise was a good outlet for frustration.
As she headed for the stairs, she reminded herself to breathe. This wasn't NanoTechwise. It was probably just a glitch. But still… she'd be logging this. Just in case.
"Hey, Vicki," Claire said as she walked into the older woman's office.
"Claire, check this out." Vicki motioned for Claire to join her behind her desk and pointed to her computer screen. Lines of code filled the screen. "Isn't this cool?"
"What is it?" Claire asked. It didn't look like any coding program she had seen before.
"It's a fake coding and hacker simulator. You hit any keys on the keyboard and it looks like you're typing badass code. Cool, huh?"
Vicki was so delighted, Claire didn't have the heart to disagree. She wasn't sure what the point of such a website was, but she shrugged it off and focused on Vicki. "Are you interested in coding? I thought you liked project management."
Vicki snorted. "I do some coding in my free time. Not that anyone around here is interested."
Claire froze at her tone. Before she could inquire further, Vicki closed the browser on her computer and turned to face her. Claire moved back around to the front of the desk.
"Did you need something?" Vicki gave her an overly bright smile. Claire blinked. That megawatt smile could've powered a small town.
Claire shook off the thought and sighed. "I seem to be locked out again."
"Really? How many times does that make this week? And it's only Wednesday." Vicki shifted back to her computer, clicking through screens. "Maybe you just have bad juju." She laughed, fingers tapping happily across the keyboard.
Claire forced a smile. "I guess. I've never had this much trouble before. Can you reset me?" She tucked a loose curl behind her ear, then crossed her arms. "No one else is having any issues?" she added, trying to sound casual.
"Nope, only you." Vicki hit the enter key with a flourish and spun around. "Okay, done. Give it a few minutes and you should be good to go."
Claire bit her thumbnail. Only her. If others were having similar trouble, it could have been a network glitch or a permissions thing—something fixable. But this hit a little too close to what she'd dealt with before.
She kept her tone light. "Thanks. Not to ask for trouble, but I was kind of hoping it was a system-wide issue. You know… something we could fix with a setting or a reboot."
"Humph. As if the others would say anything. They're so insular, you never know what's going on with them. Those guys work, eat, and play together. No one ever gets invited to their parties. Did you know they call themselves 'the core team?' Like they're the varsity and everyone else is supporting staff or the B team."
The snark underlying Vicki's words made Claire blink. She opened her mouth to reply, but Vicki waved her off with another toothy smile. "Anyway, you're all set. By the time you get back to your desk, everything will be back in order."
"Thanks again, Vicki. Hopefully, this will be the last time I bother you. I hate constantly interrupting your work with something so silly."
"No problem." The woman focused on her computer, dismissing Claire. "It's not like I'm doing anything important, anyway. Just uploading documents to the repository. Boring, brain-numbing stuff, really."
"Oh." Claire wasn't sure what to say. Hopefully, Vicki was just having a bad day. "Well, thanks again. Bye."
