Influx (Book Four)

Chapter Seventeen

"All of your notes make a lot more sense now," she says sweetly, and I grin.

"I spent four years as a beta developing engineer and tester, I'm good at finding what is wrong with things," I say, and the conversation continues. Alexander excuses himself to another team development meeting and he gives me a sweet smile before leaving.

Click stops by at the end of the day and somehow, she makes her way upstairs to my lab without me having to sign her in. Where there is a knock on my lab door, I rush over and open it. Seeing her slick grin, I usher her inside and put my door on override mode so no one but me can get in.

"Let me see!" She squeals quietly, I clear off the worktable some and put all four pairs of boots on the table.

"Hadley, these look insane!" Click squeals excitedly and I can't help but giggle happily. I had worked with our suit designer to rework them after I figured out how to slim down the boots.

"Do you think she'll like them?" I ask curiously and Click nods her head enthusiastically. I peer over at the new boots excitedly; they were all black material with golden seams to match the suits to an extent. I had slimmed down the souls and the boot as a whole so that now it is the size of a normal work boot, it also has half the weight which would make it drastically easier to run around. I even added zippers for ease of convenience, but they have the same locks as the suits.

"They're gorgeous and I know they work perfectly because you made them," she says grinning.

"They are even more efficient than the last pair, they can now go even faster and I increased the stability," I say proudly, and Click laughs.

"Of course, you did that," she says and I put my pair on and drop my work shoes into the corner.

"What did you end up doing to Alexander's, so that he doesn't destroy another pair?" Click asks and I pull the tongue out.

"I had to special order and mix this material; it was a nightmare to do. But the compound sits under this normal sole here and the solid can absorb about forty thousand times its own weight. It probably isn't the final solution but it should work now," I say.

"And our boards?" She asks me and I grin and grab the experimental one from the docking station. Sitting down I expand it and put my one foot on it, it locks into place, and the section of metal under the shoe slides into the internal mechanism.

"It can work on its own, or it can work in conjunction with Aviva's technology," I say excitedly, and Click claps. I laugh at her antics and collapse the new one and tuck it into my wallet.

"So, what are we doing tonight?" She asks me excitedly.

"I figured I could take you to your favorite Italian restaurant and then whatever you wanted," I say. Checking my bank balance, I see I got paid my normal check plus the insane amount of overtime I've been working. It was totally worth it to finish all of this right before Christmas and working on Maverick technology is something I get paid to do now.

"Sounds like a great evening to me," she says with a grin. I wrap the boots up and put one pair in my bag and Click grab's Alexander's and slides them into her empty backpack. Unlocking my door, I almost bump into Aviva.

"Heading out?" She asks and I nod.

"Come on Click," I say, and I usher her and make sure the door locks before we all walk to the elevator together. We are joined in the elevator by Alexander and he gives us a big smile.