Early the next morning Lily headed into the office. CyberBolt Entertainment was the worldwide headquarters of the NeuReality gaming platform. The building was located in the old Sears Tower, and the glass façade gave the illusion of being suspended above Chicago's streets. As she walked alongside the mirrored hallway, she was struck by the large wall-mounted monitors displaying various gameplay footage.

The lobby was quiet and empty except for a handful of employees who were busy typing away at their laptops.

As she approached the security checkpoint, she was greeted by a friendly guard.

"Good morning!" he greeted her. "Welcome to CyberBolt."

"Morning, Bill," she replied. "What's going on today?"

Bill pointed to a monitor showing live footage of the building's parking lot.

"We're expecting a big shipment of new equipment today," he explained. "Please proceed through security and head downstairs."

"Sounds exciting," she shrugged. "Thanks!"

Once she reached her floor, she walked towards her desk and sat down. She opened her email inbox and saw a message from her boss.

Lily, we need to talk about your performance review. Can you please meet with me ASAP?

She sighed. That was the last thing she wanted to hear.

Her boss was an older man with greying hair and a moustache. He was intimidating to her at first, but after working with him for a while, she learned to respect and admire his work ethic. She also came to appreciate his ability to keep her focused on the task at hand.

She had been an exemplary employee until recently though, when she started having doubts about her life choices.

Was it really worth it? Could I continue to lie to everyone? Should I turn myself in?

She shook the thought from her head.

No. Not yet.

She had to focus on her job. She had to stay strong.

She closed her eyes, trying to clear her mind of all her worries. But they just kept coming back. Finally, she got up and headed towards the nearest stairwell and began ascending the stairs.

Halfway up the staircase she heard loud footsteps approaching from behind her. She turned around to see a young woman running up the steps.

"Hey! Wait up!" she shouted.

Lily stopped and turned around.

She recognized the girl. She was one of the younger developers, and was responsible for making updates to the lower levels of Conquest to support gamer retention. Her name was Krista.

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Krista skidded to a stop on the landing below and smiled up at Lily.

"Sorry about that," she apologized. "I must have lost track of time."

"Don't worry about it," Lily laughed. "How is the game coming along?"

"Pretty good actually," Krista responded. “what’d you think of our new features last night?”

"To be honest, I kinda had a hard time identifying what they were. They all look pretty much the same to me."

Krista frowned. "Yeah, I was afraid you might say that. We ran some tests and found that our changes are confusing to players. Everyone thinks that the new stuff is just a part of the original game, so they don't bother paying attention to it."

"That doesn't sound good," Lily agreed.

Krista nodded. "My team has been working overtime to fix all these issues, but it looks like we'll need to run another test cycle before we get everything right. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier."

"That's okay," Lily said. "You probably didn't want to ruin the surprise."

Krista shrugged. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

They continued walking down the corridor together in silence until they arrived at their respective destinations. When Krista left, Lily continued on her way to the conference room.

On the table in the conference room rested a large pile of folders containing employee evaluations.

She sat down across from her boss, and he handed her a folder.

"Go ahead and open it," he instructed.

She opened the file and scanned the contents.

Your performance review shows marked improvement in many areas, however, in the past year you have become increasingly unreliable. Your attendance has been poor, and you have missed several deadlines. In fact, your ability to complete tasks has dropped significantly.

"What?" Lily gasped. "That can't be true! I've been doing my best to stay focused on the tasks at hand!"

"In fairness, I agree that you have done a fantastic job overall. However, your performance has dropped off tremendously since last year. I am concerned that your ability to perform may drop further if you continue this trend."

"Why?" Lily asked. "Tell me what's wrong."

"First of all," he began, "you have been repeatedly late for work. Now granted, there have been extenuating circumstances in the past several months, but overall your punctuality has been unacceptable. Second of all, you have missed important deadlines. These delays put the success of this entire project in jeopardy. Finally, your ability to focus on the task at hand has suffered greatly. You seem to struggle to concentrate when you're not alone, which causes you to make mistakes. This isn't acceptable."

Lily shook her head in disbelief. "But that's not true! I've been working harder than ever before."

"I understand that," he replied. "Unfortunately, your performance during the past few months has indicated otherwise. I'm afraid that if you continue in this direction, it will become difficult for us to retain you."

Lily tried to compose herself and remain calm. She knew that she was losing her cool.

"Look," she said, "this evaluation is based on the most recent quarter of data, which is from April to June. During that time, I was dealing with personal issues…"

"Yes," he interrupted. "I’m well aware of your ‘alleged’ personal issues."

Lily clenched her jaw and bit her lip. She took a deep breath and tried to regain her composure.

"Anyway," she continued, "as I was saying, I have been doing my best to stay focused."

"Really?" he asked. "Have you been taking care of your duties or not?"

"I have," she said. "Trust me."

"Then why hasn't your performance improved?" he scoffed.

Lily paused for a moment, and then leaned forward in her chair.

"Just give me some more time."

He stared at her. For a long moment they remained motionless, neither of them saying anything.

Finally, he stood up and walked towards the door.

"Fine," he snapped. "Just remember, if you continue to fail in your duties, there won't be any opportunity for you to redeem yourself. I'm disappointed in your lack of commitment."

With that, he stormed out and slammed the door behind him. Lily watched him leave, and then slumped down in her chair.

Commander Arlington won't be pleased when I report this latest development to him.

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