Alex checked his watch as he stood on the sidewalk. 8:45 AM. Fifteen minutes early.
He looked up at the Helix Building.
It twisted. The whole structure spiraled as it rose, each floor rotated slightly from the one below. The effect made it look like the building was turning even though it stood perfectly still. The exterior was dark blue glass that caught the morning light and threw it back in sharp angles. Where each floor met the next, thin lines of white light traced the spiral from ground to top.
Above the entrance, sleek silver letters: **Helix Tower - Innovation District**.
He walked through the glass doors.
The lobby was clean. White floors. Walls lined with touch screens showing news feeds and company logos. A security desk sat in the center with two guards watching everyone who entered.
Alex approached.
"Valeris Tech Solutions," he said. "Top floor."
One guard glanced at a screen. "Name?"
"Alex Mercer."
The guard typed, then nodded. "Express elevator on the right."
"Thanks."
The elevator opened immediately when Alex pressed the button. The ride up was smooth and silent. Floor numbers climbed rapidly on the display. 10. 20. 30. 40.
The doors opened on the 47th floor.
The reception area was small. Minimal. A single desk with a young woman typing on a holographic keyboard. Behind her, floor-to-ceiling windows showed the city below.
She looked up. "Alex Mercer?"
"Yeah."
"Dr. Valeris is expecting you." She pressed something on her desk. "Dr. Valeris, your 9 AM is here."
A voice came through, clear. "Send him in."
The receptionist gestured left. "Through there."
The door slid open.
Sienna's office was large. One wall was entirely windows. The others were lined with screens showing code and rotating 3D molecular structures. A black desk sat in the center, covered with holographic displays floating above its surface.
Sienna stood behind the desk, studying one of the displays.
She wore a fitted business dress. Dark gray, almost black. It hugged her body, showing curves without crossing any professional lines. Her hair was down today, falling past her shoulders. The gold-rimmed glasses caught the light.
She looked up when he entered.
"You're early."
"Fifteen minutes."
She studied him for a moment. "Good." She gestured to a chair. "Sit."
Alex sat.
Sienna moved around the desk and leaned against it, arms crossed. "Yesterday you spotted a problem in my code in three seconds. Today you're going to fix it."
"That's the plan."
"Good." She waved her hand and a holographic display shifted between them. Code appeared, scrolling. "This is the integration protocol. The quantum exception issue you identified? It's part of something bigger. The failures cascade. One triggers another, triggers another. Whole system crashes in seconds."
Alex leaned forward, eyes scanning the code.
"How long have you been working on this?"
"Three months." She paused. "I've brought in consultants. Other developers. No one's solved it. So if you're about to tell me it's easy, I'm throwing you out that window."
"It's not easy," Alex said. "But it's solvable."
"Then solve it."
Alex stood and moved to the display. He reached out and the interface responded, letting him scroll with his hands.
"The cascade happens because your error handlers are nested wrong," he said. "Here. You're catching the quantum exception but re-throwing it to a classical handler. Creates a translation error. Your system reads it as a new exception. Triggers another handler. Loop."
Sienna moved beside him. "I nested them that way because the classical system needs to know when quantum operations fail."
"It does. But you're translating wrong." Alex pointed. "You need a converter. Something that translates quantum state into classical error codes without losing context."
"That doesn't exist."
"Then we build it."
Sienna was quiet. Then she pulled up another display. "Show me."
They worked for an hour. Alex explained his approach. Sienna listened, interrupted with sharp questions, tested his logic.
She knew what she was doing. This wasn't someone nodding along. She was challenging him, making sure he understood.
Around 10:30, she reached up and unbuttoned the top button of her dress. Casual. Like she didn't even think about it. The fabric shifted, showing the curve of her breasts.
Alex's eyes flicked down. Just for a second.
When he looked back up, Sienna was watching him. Small smile.
"Concentrate," she said.
"Yeah. Right."
They kept working.
By 11 AM, they'd mapped out the foundation. The converter function. How it would interact with existing handlers. What needed to be rewritten.
Alex paused.
He realized something. They'd been working for two hours and hadn't discussed money. At all. He'd just... started solving her problem.
'Wait. We didn't even talk about payment.'
He looked at Sienna. "Before we go further, I want to discuss something."
She raised an eyebrow. "Already?"
"We didn't talk about compensation."
"No. We didn't." She leaned back against the desk, arms crossed. That small smile was still there. "What are you thinking?"
Alex met her eyes. He thought about what June had told him earlier. Average salary. What people made here.
"Five hundred thousand," he said.
The words came out clean. Confident.
Then his brain caught up.
'Fuck. Did I just say five hundred thousand? That's— that might be way too much. Shit.'
But Sienna didn't laugh.
Her smile widened. "Five hundred thousand."
"Yeah."
"That's bold."
"It's what the solution is worth."
"To you, maybe." She tilted her head. "I could hire three senior developers for that."
"And they'd take three months to solve what I'm solving today."
Sienna studied him. Then she pushed off the desk and walked to the window, looking out.
"Most people would've asked for fifty thousand," she said. "You walked in and demanded ten times that."
"I know what I'm worth."
"Apparently." She turned back. "Here's my offer. Two million."
Alex blinked. "What?"
"Two million credits. Per problem." She walked toward him, heels clicking. "This quantum exception issue? Two million when it's fixed. Any other problem I bring you? Two million each. You work when I need you. You get paid when you deliver."
Alex stared at her.
Two million. Per problem.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because three months of failure has cost me more than that in lost contracts. If you actually fix this, you're saving me time and money. Two million is cheap." She extended her hand. "Deal?"
Alex shook it. "Deal."
"Good." She pulled her hand back. "Now let's see if you're worth it."
They went back to work.
The code was more complex than Alex had initially thought. The converter wasn't simple. It required rebuilding sections of the error architecture, redesigning how the system processed state information.
By 3 PM they'd made real progress, but they weren't done.
Sienna scrolled through updated code. "This is going to take more than a day."
"Yeah. Probably ten sleepless nights."
She looked at him. "Ten nights?"
"Give or take. The foundation's there. But implementation takes time. Testing. Debugging."
"Can you commit to that?"
"If the pay stays at two million, yeah."
"It does."
"Then I'm in."
They worked until 5:47 PM.
Alex glanced at his watch and stood. "I need to go."
Sienna looked up. "We're in the middle of something."
"I know. But I have something at six."
She studied him. "You're very mysterious."
"So I've been told."
"Fine." She waved a hand and a display shifted, showing a contact form. "I need your account information. For payment."
"I'll send it tonight."
"When tonight?"
"After I finish what I need to do."
Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Don't forget."
"I won't."
Alex headed for the door.
"Alex."
He turned.
"Tomorrow. 9 AM. We continue."
"I'll be here."
---
Alex glanced at his watch. 5:58. Two minutes until the van was supposed to arrive.
He sat at a small outdoor café two blocks from Industrial Sector 7.
He'd changed. Dark jacket. Dark pants. Plain black glasses that made him look different enough.
The café had a view of the loading bay. Alex watched trucks and vans move in and out.
He sipped cold coffee. He'd been sitting here twenty minutes.
"June, how much longer?"
[Van has not been spotted. Estimated arrival: six to eight minutes.]
Alex drummed his fingers on the table.
Then June's voice cut through.
[Van spotted. Blue molecular transport. Approaching from east. ETA two minutes.]
Alex's eyes found it. Distance. A blue van moving through traffic toward the loading bay.
He stood. Left money on the table. Started walking.
"Alright," he muttered. "Let's see how this goes."
The van was getting closer.