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Chapter One

The Weight of Expectations

The sun shone warmly through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Centa Systems Tech Campus. The room was filled with analysts, support techs, and programmers. Most had spent over a year on ClearRoute, the most advanced delivery software ever created. As the crowd gathered, Evan Cole rubbed his eyes. Fresh out of college, Evan had come to Centa and, over the last few years, had worked his way up to project manager. ClearRoute was his baby, and he was looking forward to putting it to bed. At the front of the room, the large screen sprang to life. As scenes of warehouses, delivery trucks, and packages arriving at homes filled the screen, Evan glanced at his watch. ‘Right on time,’ he thought. The presentation was scheduled to play just before the countdown clock started. Evan sighed as he stood and stretched his back. It had been a particularly long night as they struggled to get ClearRoute across the finish line. 

As he watched the display, he squinted and rubbed his eyes as the bright colors raced by. Soon, the presentation wrapped up, and a delivery truck morphed into the ClearRoute logo, a blue truck with a neon border. 

“ClearRoute, from order to doorstep, we deliver,” the narrator’s voice said. Then the logo slid to the top, and the countdown clock began. 

To Evan’s irritation, no one clapped at the end of the presentation. He frowned. The marketing department was not going to be happy about that, but what could you do? As he glanced around the room, he could tell everyone was nervous. Groups of techs huddled around workstations, talking in hushed voices as the countdown clock ticked on. Evan picked up his coffee cup and walked toward one of the coffee stations set up throughout the room. As he passed a group of techs, someone congratulated him. Evan smiled and saluted the group with his coffee cup as he passed. 

‘Congratulations are a bit premature,’ Evan thought. ‘We aren’t there yet.’ 

As he filled his coffee cup, Evan felt a knot tighten in his stomach. He knew the caffeine would only add to his nerves, but he didn’t have much choice. He was currently running on three hours of sleep. ClearRoute was the largest project he had ever overseen, and management was watching him. This project could make or break his career. All eyes were on him, and he felt it. As Evan added sweetener to his coffee, he saw Tom Alvarez, the head of Operations, approach.

Evan tipped his coffee cup toward Tom. “Morning, Tom. How’s it going?”

Tom grinned as he topped off his coffee. “I’ve been on the phone with partners all morning. Everyone is very excited. When this thing delivers, we’re going to make a fortune.

Evan shrugged. “As long as everything works properly.” He winced internally as the words left his mouth.

Tom frowned. “Hey now, don’t talk like that. Do you know something I don’t? Should I be concerned?”

Evan shook his head. “No, we’re good.” When Tom kept staring at him, Evan laughed. “No, seriously, we’re good.”

Tom let his gaze linger for a moment before laughing. “Okay, you had me going for a minute. There’s a lot riding on this, you know.”

Evan grinned. “You’re telling me? Management has been breathing down my neck for weeks.”

Before Tom could respond, his phone rang. He glanced at the screen, then held the phone up. “It’s one of the partners. Gotta run. Good luck with the launch.”

Evan wiped his palms on his slacks as he watched Tom walk away. Ever since he was a kid, his palms had gotten sweaty whenever he was nervous. Why had he shown doubt in front of Tom? The teams had scrambled to finish a lot of last-minute changes, but everything was fine, wasn’t it? Recently, Evan had started seeing a Resilience coach at a friend’s urging. The coach had taught him breathing exercises to help mitigate his stress. If Evan was truthful, he had been skeptical of the whole thing at first, but he had to admit the techniques worked. Evan worked through a few rounds of breathing reps and felt his anxiety ease slightly. Feeling a bit more human, Evan picked up his coffee cup and glanced around the room, trying to figure out where he wanted to be when the program launched. Down front was too much in the thick of things, but hanging out at the periphery might give the impression he didn’t have faith in the project. Before he could get too lost in his own thoughts, Mina Chen, his head programmer, walked up, cradling her open laptop.

Evan nodded. “Morning.”

Mina grinned as she shifted her laptop in her arms. “Hey, boss, how’s it going? You look good for someone who got less than five hours of sleep last night.”

Evan chuckled. “It’s actually less than four, but who’s counting?” He held up his coffee cup. “I’m running on caffeine and nerves.”

Mina laughed. “You and half the room. This is one tense crowd today.”

Evan glanced around the room. Mina was right. You could almost feel the tension that had settled over the room. “Do you think we made the right call pushing through with the launch?”

Mina shrugged. “I think it was the right call. The patch looks solid. It should hold.”

Evan frowned as the knot tightened in his gut. “I don’t like the sound of ‘should.’ How’s it looking?”

“So far, so good,” Mina replied. “Everything looks optimal, but the real test will be when launch traffic hits. Tom went above and beyond to secure deals with partners. Because of that, the system will be swamped right out of the gate. I wish he hadn’t been such a good cheerleader. We could have used a soft launch to ease into it. In fact, if it weren’t for that workaround you approved late last night, I don’t think we would be ready.”

Evan shushed Mina. “Hey! Keep that down. Don’t let anyone else hear about that. Everyone is nervous enough without knowing about last-minute workarounds.”

Mina shrugged. “Well, you approved it.”

“I know,” Evan replied. “But it kept us from having to postpone the launch at the last minute. That workaround kept the project on schedule.”

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown, my friend,” Mina said. “The workaround held up in nine out of ten simulations. It’ll work. Everyone agreed.”

Evan glanced around until he spotted Lena Brooks, the QA Lead. She stood near the edge of the room with her arms crossed, watching the countdown. Evan nodded toward Lena. “Not everyone. Lena was pretty vocal about her concerns last night.”

Mina sighed. “Yeah, but it’s her job to be a skeptic and a buzzkill. It’ll be fine.”

Evan continued to stare at Lena. “Yeah, but the way she’s hanging out at the back of the room, it’s almost like she’s preparing to bolt when and if anything goes wrong.”

Mina nudged Evan. “Don’t let her spook you. Everything will be fine. You’ll see. Speaking of which, it’s almost time. Do you want to move up front?”

Evan shook his head. “Oh, hell no. My nerves are too jittery to be up front in the room.”

Mina laughed. “I gotcha. In that case, why don’t you come hang out at my workstation? I’m over to the side, out of the way.”

Evan nodded. “Perfect. Let’s go. I want to be off the middle of the floor before the launch commences.”

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