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Chapter 1 – Part 4

‘You’re sure?’ gushed Ms. Hathaway, ‘I love to see how others solve code problems…’

She just helped herself to his PC, and started to tap away at the demo running on Jenks’s computer. Shocked, Jenks looked at Emily, what had he inadvertently agreed to? Surely, she’d be too old to understand modern code? That would be left to her company’s coders, her tech people, wouldn’t it? This was for show, for the dissipating crowd, for PR fluff, wasn’t it? Would she see the holes and shortcuts in it? That the university exam board had missed? The shoddy patches that held different pieces together? Would she see his genius? Or his folly?

‘Don’t worry, Nora got me to sign an NDA,’ said Hathaway conversationally.

‘Nora?’ spluttered Jenks and Emily in tandem.

Hathaway continued tapping and chatting, ‘Well, I don’t think it’s right for the only dropout-with-a-doctorate to be kowtowing to titles. Levelling, that’s the way I work,’ then indicating at the screen, ‘This is an interesting choice…’

‘Well…’ Jenks started.

‘…all yours?’ Hathaway interrupted.

‘Just… standing on the shoulders of giants,’ Jenks replied, his eyes begging her to stop, his lips repeating back one of her lines in a recent interview.

Hathaway locked Jenks’s eyes, they glistened with a glint of mischief, ‘…what do you think of it here?’ and then she returned to the code.

The multi-billionaire Hathaway was tapping away at his code, like an intern looking through a company’s filing system! The most successful female in tech, was sitting at his demo, wanting his input. Jenks just wanted to pinch himself. All his Christmases had come at once. The ones where you got what you really wanted, not just the care homes’ well-meaning, but absent, custodians assigned a gift – based on age, sex and a tick sheet of interests filled in 8 months ago. Surely this would get some of the other big executives to notice what he’d done, the vast achievement he completed.

‘Well…’ Jenks checked with the Dean.

‘Speak freely, you’re amongst friends, right Nora?’ Hathaway said.

Jenks felt himself go through all his gears, wishing he’d chosen something else… but he so wanted Hathaway’s confirmation… and this could have been his only chance… she told him to speak freely – didn’t she? Oh, why didn’t he just say the usual bullshit? Couldn’t he just say it this time, change the past? He cleared his throat… ‘well…’

‘Good, you’ve said that…’ teased Ms. Hathaway.

‘The tech is out of date, the support is from the stone-age, our work is owned by the university, we get the huge debts to manage for the rest of our lives, they get IP and licencing deals that grow their profits, and I could have done this without any of their support,’ splurged Jenks.

‘…could you now?’ murmured Hathaway to herself.

Dean Dr. Nora Cooper jerked Jenks to one side and snarl-whispered, ‘That’s not fair Mr. Jenkinson, your IP is academically shared, we’ve given you a lot of rope and leeway, god knows you’re not an easy individual to deal with…’

Jenks couldn’t retrieve all of the Dean’s berating; it just became a noise in his ears. He did recall Emily’s eyes full of disappointment, yet again. All her time spent helping him rehearse responses to questions, to get his presentation honed, to keep people on his side. He’d let her down with his lack of discretion, his need to tell it straight, honest without favour, always. Her shoulders slumped.

Jenks recalled seeing a lot of his shoes and the sports hall walls, as his head flopped around like a fish choking. It was then his eyes latched on to Alex, and ‘that’ total arse of a VIP. He could see that Alex was going bright red. The nob was spitting words at her. The obvious venom in his intent written all over his body language. She was deflating like a hot air balloon on fire. They’d always shared a quiet rivalry, pushing each other to new heights. The VIP’s academic chaperone tried to pull him away. Now, seeing Alex in distress, he felt a protective surge—he couldn’t just stand by.

The tension, that had started with the Dean’s dressing down, now welled up like a volcano, the red mist filled him. His muscles tightened. His fingers locked into fists. He felt his shoulders widen. The definition of his gym-hardened physique crystallised. And then it happened. The VIP released his chaperone, sending her stumbling, and jabbed his accusing finger hard into Alex’s chest. Jenks just gently, but firmly moved Dr. Cooper to one side, saying, ‘excuse me…’

In his memory, Jenks was next to the guy in just one step, demanding, ‘Hey! What’s wrong with you?!’

The drunk VIP twisted his head around, finger still planted on Alex, to take in his accuser. An evil little smile spread across his face. ‘Oh, it’s pretty muscle… go back to your obsolete lies.’

Through the fog of his memories, Jenks felt his face try to contain the snarl that rippled across it. As the VIP turned his attention back to his current victim, Jenks half-stepped, half-pushed himself between him and Alex, while opening up his physical dominance to square up to the prick, spilling the guy’s drink on him in the process.

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