Chapter 45
Chapter 45:
The doors opened. The Pulse Interactive team entered. Victor King led the way, looking sharp in a gray suit. Aurora followed him, flanked by Jones, her security detail, who stopped at the door to stand guard.
Aurora entered last.
She wasn’t wearing the hoodie Sterling remembered. She wasn’t wearing the shapeless dresses she used to hide in. She was wearing a tailored navy suit that fit her like armor. Her hair was pulled back in a sleek bun, revealing the sharp line of her jaw. She carried a slim laptop under one arm.
Sterling smirked. He leaned over to Isabella. “Look. Victor brought his secretary p>
Isabella giggled, covering her mouth with a manicured hand. “Maybe she’s here to take notes. Or fetch coffee p>
Aurora ignored them. She walked to the other end of the table and set up her laptop. Her movements were precise, economical. She plugged in the HDMI cable without looking at the port.
“Sit,” Elias commanded.
Everyone sat.
“Sterling,” Elias said. “Present p>
Sterling stood up. He buttoned his jacket. He launched into his presentation. It was flashy. It was full of buzzwords: “Synergy.” “Paradigm Shift.” “Quantum Leap p>
“Our new engine utilizes the core architecture that made Thorne Industries a leader,” Sterling boasted, pointing to a complex diagram on the screen.
Aurora looked at the diagram. She narrowed her eyes. She recognized the code structure. It was the algorithms she had written on a napkin four years ago. He was still using her old work. He hadn’t updated the core logic. She suppressed a smile. He had just handed her the knife.
“Unbeatable,” Sterling finished. “We are the only choice for the government’s secure simulation contract p>
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Victor King stood up. “Pulse proposes ‘Project Phoenix.’” He turned to Aurora. “Ms. Vance, the technical specifications, please p>
“Her?” Sterling scoffed, though he instinctively cradled his splinted hand closer to his chest, wincing slightly as the movement pulled at the fracture. “Victor, you brought your corporate spy? Did you think intimidation tactics would work here? Or is she just here to break fingers if we decline p>
The board members murmured. They looked at Jones by the door, then at Aurora, sensing the underlying threat Sterling was alluding to.
Aurora stepped forward. She didn’t raise her voice. She projected it.
“Mr. Thorne is correct. I do not have a degree from the Ivy League,” Aurora said calmly. “However, I do have the knowledge that his ‘unbeatable’ system has a fatal latency flaw p>
She tapped a key on her laptop. The screen changed.
“The legacy system he presented has a latency of 40ms under heavy load,” Aurora explained, pointing to the data. “That is unacceptable for modern VR applications. We offer 12ms p>
She hit another key. A live demo of the new engine appeared on the screen. The graphics were hyper-realistic. The physics were fluid. The processing speed was instantaneous.
The board members leaned in. The whispering stopped.
Sterling’s face went pale. He looked at his CTO, a sweating man named Greg, who was frantically typing on his phone.