Pierce spread his arms wide. “Nadia! Likewise! I take it the calibrations weren’t at fault?”
The woman rolled her eyes with a smirk, rolling the window up before suddenly vanishing backwards into the van. Karen stifled a gasp, and looked back and forth between the now empty driver’s window and Pierce, before the van’s side door opened with a click and rumble. Nadia stood hunched over the driver’s seat, which had rolled back into the main compartment and turned to face the door. She leaped down with a thud and a pair of clicking noises. Karen’s eyes were drawn to Nadia’s left knee.
“Nope. Our calibrations were perfect. The building measurements were off by six inches. Apparently it's a long known and hidden fact that the entire building is out of square by THIS much.” She raised her hand, pinched her finger and thumb together with the slightest crack of space between them.
Pierce cocked an eyebrow, turning his head to look directly at her. “You got someone there to admit it?”
Nadia straightened, cracking her back in an exaggerated motion. Karen’s gaze was pulled from Nadia’s knee as she found herself looking up at a higher angle than she was used to.
“HAH! Good one boss. No, of course not. Well, not until I had the measurements to prove it.”
Pierce’s head wobbled slightly in a motion that Karen had now grown to understand meant he was still looking directly at the woman, but through one or more cameras. Nadia, she noticed, was the exception to the staff in that instead of looking at wherever the nearest active camera was, she continued looking directly at Pierce, even if he was no longer physically meeting her eyes. “Go on. I am on tenterhooks to learn how you managed to measure a two block by two block building to a tolerance of six inches.”
Nadia smiled, starting to launch into an explanation, then stopped as she looked again at the reporter, cameraman standing behind her with the winking lense trained directly on her face. “And who do we have joining us for the debrief today boss?”
“Ah, yes, Nadia, Karen Larsen, ABT news, and her Camera. Karen and Camera, Dr. Nadia El-Reyyes, Developmental Programming. She builds code on the fly for integrating different components, as well as getting devices to do things they were never intended to do. She’s also my chief translator.”
Karen tucked her pad under an arm for a brief moment to pump Nadia’s waiting hand twice. “Translator?”
Nadia grinned again, an infectious smile that seemed to dare Karen not to smile along. “In a manner of speaking. I make his code work for everyone else.”
Karen looked toward Pierce with furrowed brows, a furrow that grew deeper as she recognized that she wasn’t looking at HIM, but had already begun instinctually looking at the lighted patches on the top of the frame of his chair that she now knew were sealed cameras. “I AM more than just a figurehead and business owners, Miss Larsen. I do actually have a degree in programming myself. Most of the technology I use daily,” at this, he raised his hands and spun the chair about without any form of control Karen could see, “runs on code either written by myself, or modified from stock by myself. However, as exceptionally useful as some of the random things I’ve cobbled together are, they are useful for ME and my specific hardware.”
Nadia took back over the conversation without a hitch, “Whereas I have found that I have a talent for making his specialized code more generic, so we can develop it for wider usage.”
“And sale,” Pierce finished. “Moving on, Nadia?”
She looked at Karen and the camera again, wary. “Well… I used… the tertiary communications relays on the wall crawlers and a quad to create a measuring grid, and then ran them up and down each face.”
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Pierce sat still for a moment, and Karen noticed the lights going out on the cameras both on his chair, and the one hanging from the roof pointed in their general direction. Nadia caught her glance and nodded. “It means he’s lost focus. Like someone’s eyes glazing over when they’re thinking hard.” Karen nodded in understanding as Nadia took a short step back, the clink drawing Karen’s eyes again to the noisy knee. Nadia tapped it twice, then lower down on her leg, with a ringing of metal. “Boss isn’t the only one that writes code for his own assistive devices. I have some of the best balancing algorithms outside military hardware.” She stared at Karen, waiting for the followup question, but Karen simply nodded, looking back towards Pierce. Nadia made a low grunt that Karen wasn’t sure was approval or disappointment, as Pierce and the cameras’ focus came back to life.
“You realize you just jury rigged a guidance system into a large scale 3D scanner?”
Nadia grinned widely, “Yes, I do indeed. Already have a dozen ideas for scaling up and use cases.”
“Tertiary communication relays?” The cameraman spoke up, starting everyone who had gotten used to him being a passive presence.
Pierce looked directly into the camera on the man’s shoulder. “Yes, well, trade secret, but not a big one.” He paused for a moment, moving his entire head to look at the blimp hung from the ceiling. “Well, not technologically big. Don’t worry about cutting it, or the clip ending up online somewhere. If someone manages to figure it out.” He stared back directly at the camera. “Well, if YOU manage to figure it out, out there, you know where we are. Drop us an application.”
A small buzz and beeping came from Karen’s pocket, almost instantaneous with a small twitch of Pierce’s shoulder.
“It’s 10…”
Karen and Pierce started to speak in unison, trailing off and then laughing together for a moment. Pierce rolled closer to her, putting a hand out. After a moment, Karen took it and gave a warm shake. Pierce smiled, and spoke again. “Well, our blocked out time is over, I hope you have everything you need?”
Karen thought a moment, and nodded. “Yes, I should have more than enough, and I still need to meet again with Janet later.”
Nadia narrowed her eyes at this, giving Karen a sideways look that went unnoticed.
“Yes, and don’t be afraid to order what you want.” He pointed at the Cameraman without looking. “Both of you. Hindsight is run by some friends of mine, I’m always happy to use support local businesses. So no skimping on dessert!”
“If I DO come up with any followup questions, should I just email your secretary?”
Pierce nodded. “You probably won’t get any response from me today. I have a bit of work to do here, and then my weekly physical therapy that I put off to this afternoon for our meeting.”
At this, Nadia’s frown turned more neutral as she nodded, eyes widening in an AHAH motion.
“And then, I’m going home and going to try and sleep and try not to dream about that day. You’ll forgive me if I don’t catch your segment.”
Karen nodded as Robert put a hand firmly on Pierce’s shoulder, squeezing gently. Pierce turned his gaze up at him, smiling. “Robert, can you show them out?”
‘Of course sir.”
Karen and the Cameraman trailed along behind as he led them back the way they came. Behind her, she heard Nadia talking sarcastically to Pierce. “Early to bed hunh? I half expected you to be out partying it up tonight, you old fuddy duddy. “