“Okay folks. We’re going to do this again.” Cammy had assembled her entire staff in her lab. Raj sat at a computer on one side of her, Ben on the other, and several other technical support people had crowded in the room with laptops and large display screens.
“Bollinger’s given us until the board meeting to get a successful simulation, and you all know the General has planned a test at the Atlantic Facility. This is no longer a marathon. It’s a sprint. So I want new ideas, anything from anyone. I know Raj, Ben and I have been taking the lead on this thing. But now I don’t want you to genuflect. Stand up and be counted.”
“I’ve got a mezzanine idea,” a young woman announced from the side of the room.
“Lay it out,” Cammy suggested.
“It may not get us to the Penthouse, so to speak. But it may get us off the ground floor.”
“And right now, we’re at Ground Zero,” Ben mumbled.
The woman hit some keys on her computer and a series of numbers showed on the screen at the end of the room. “It’s another algorithm we could try.”
Remembering the old adage that you never learn anything while you’re talking, Cammy held her tongue and simply nodded her encouragement.
The test began when Cammy hit a button releasing a simulated missile attack. As the object traced a path across a series of screens, Cammy, Raj and Ben tried the new formula. They combined it with others, reversed the protocol and tried again. Then once more.
Nothing.
The white blip fell off the screen and a collective groan permeated the silence.
“Kind of makes you feel like Dilbert’s in the next cubicle screwing things up, doesn’t it?” Ben whispered.
Cammy shook her head. “That’s okay. It was a good idea.”
“Just not a good enough move to make the highlight reel,” the young woman said.
“Come on, gang. Let’s keep going here.”
They worked for two more hours when suddenly Ben leaned over and showed Cammy another formulation. She studied it, nudged Raj and he said, “Why not? It just might help us break out of this chrysalis.”
Cammy suddenly had a vision of a multi-colored butterfly circling around her lab. Color me nervous, but let’s go for it.
They geared up again as all eyes focused on her computer screen. Her wrist was aching again. This time the pain shot up her arm. She grimaced and tried to focus on her keyboard. She couldn’t let her train of thought get side-tracked by a little discomfort. She sat up straighter in her chair, rubbed her arm and began again.
Seconds stretched to minutes. Raj added an equation to Ben’s idea. Then Cammy supplied a code.
All of a sudden, a loud tone sounded, accompanied by the word SESAME flashing on her screen. There it was. A lock onto the missile. She quickly invaded the program and began to take control. The white blip had stopped moving. It simply hovered in the center of her screen.
“You did it.”
“You locked on.”
“You can redirect.”
“That missile is ours!”
“Wait ‘till the board hears about this one!”
“Yeah. To hell with Bollinger. We’ve got it made.”
They all seemed to be chiming in at once. “What is this? The Hallelujah chorus?” Cammy laughed, glancing around the room. “Ben, you’re a genius.”
“Hey, it was a cameo.”
“This show couldn’t have made it without you,” she said, leaning over to give her young assistant a hug.
“It gave me goose bumps,” a fellow in the back volunteered.
“Me too,” the young woman agreed. “Mine are so big you could hang your hat on ‘em.”
A wave of laughter swept the room as Raj quickly made notes on the successful set of numbers.
Cammy ended the program, sat back and beamed at her staff. “Okay, everybody. It worked. Q-3 really worked. That’s it for today. You all deserve a little time off. And thanks. Really. Thanks to all of you.”
For the first time in weeks she felt excited. Elated. We still don’t know if it’ll work against a live missile, but it’s a damn good start.
The support staff gathered their notes, computers and props and began to file out of the room. Cammy turned to Ben. “Great work! How about a little celebration tonight? Dinner? I’m buying.”
“Sure. Great. Just tell me where.”
“There’s a little restaurant in Georgetown right near the place I’m staying. You go down Wisconsin to N Street. Martin’s. It’s on the right.”
She turned to Raj. “Want to join us?”
He raised his eyes and answered quickly. “No. No thank you. I still have work to do. And I’m going over to Sibley to see Melanie later.”
“Oh good. I’m going to stop there myself on my way home. I’ll tell her to expect you.” Checking the wall clock, she thought about how long it would take to wrap up here, get to the hospital, go home and change clothes, and make it to the restaurant.
“Ben, how about seven-thirty? First one there picks the table. It’s a week night so it shouldn’t be too crowded.”
As she saved her notes and straightened her desk, she remembered Hunt’s admonition about moving around town. Another one of his military terms “Whatever you do, Cam, watch your six!”