GRIND (The Silver Nitrate Series Book 1) (11 page)

“T
his can’t be
right…” Silver leaned forward, her eyes squinting as she stared at her computer screen. Her cubicle desk was barely visible under piles of documents to sign off on and illustrations to review. The morning had been filled with meetings, most of which left a bad ass taste in her mouth. The new video game, ‘Hell Runner’s Apex’, had a severe timing issue. The enterprise had a steady fan base, but complaints were now flooding their department about two of the player platforms sticking and slowing down for no apparent reason once they’d reached level 12.

“This is insane! There are duplicate frames… but how did this happen?” Just then, her boss approached her, the woman’s stylish cat eye glasses pushed high onto the top of her head, hair slicked back in a short dark brown ponytail.

“So, how’s it going, Silver? Have you figured out what’s going on with this mess?” She crossed her arms over her sheer pale pink and black polka dot blouse.

“Not completely, Simone,” she huffed, swiveling her chair in her direction. “But I have eliminated some issues. For one thing,” she pointed at the screen, “the algorithms are all wrong. All of these are fine until it reaches right here.” She tapped the computer with her short fingernail. “You see, it has a 33 millisecond elapsed time from frame to frame until it reaches this level. It then jumps to 45. That is a huge difference, especially when these creatures right here,” she pointed to the left side of the screen, “come out of the cage at such rapid speed. The players don’t even have time to reload their guns and by the time you get to level 12, you have approximately 7 weapons to choose from, 5 of which require 4 seconds exactly, to reload. Most are empty or at least low by the time you reach level 12 and this is the first chance to reload the larger ammo amounts.”

“Why doesn’t that occur before level 12, hell, or when it gets to level 19, which has an even faster rate and less artillery?”

“Because level 12’s platform is the basis for all the subsequent levels. It’s a training field, if you will.”

Her boss nodded in understanding.

“So, since John isn’t here anymore, and this was his baby, I am going to have to completely erase level 12’s procedure, do it over, and then use that same platform for the subsequent levels. This will take weeks!”

“Weeks? But we don’t have weeks, Silver.” The woman was stricken with panic. “Silver,
please
.” She plopped down in a chair beside her, scooting in close, rolling out the drama. She pressed her hands together as if praying. “What do we need to do here? You have to work your magic or something because in two weeks, Andy will be here and they need to see the relaunch upon his arrival and not a second later. Not to mention, Hell Runner’s Apex II will be out, so this series of bugs must be fixed.”

On a sigh, Silver rubbed her eyes, wishing she could simply disappear for a moment or two.

I could kill John! This was just sloppy ass work! He didn’t care because he was leaving the company… He had no idea the game would be so huge I bet, take off like this…

“Okay, I can work faster, but I’ll need help. This isn’t a one-person job at this point.”

“Okay, what do you need?”

“You’re not going to like my suggestion.”

“Well, run it by me. Let’s see.”

“Pull Scotty and Regina off of their assignments and let me borrow them.” Silver sat a bit straighter in her seat. “They’d be the best for this. Once I have level 12 squared away, they can help me with the others. I know what I need to do; it’s just going to require some time is all.”

“I can get Regina but Phil is going to shit a brick about Scotty. He’s working on the Bingo game and—”

“Bingo?” Silver rolled her eyes.

“Yes, I know.” Simone laughed. “But the deadline is approaching. I will see if I can get him, I’m certain he’d like to help.” She got to her feet.

“Good… by the way, the elapsed game time for the loops in level one to eleven are fine, so I don’t need to redo those.”

“Oh!” Simone closed her eyes and sighed. “Thank goodness. That would have been just another issue we don’t need.”

Silver nodded in agreement.

Simone put her hand on her shoulder. “I want to tell you that I’m really pleased with your work performance, Silver. You’ve been doing an awesome job. I wish our budget would allow me to give you a bigger raise, but I’m hoping that your upcoming bonus will reflect just how much we appreciate you. Honestly, nothing we could pay you would really demonstrate that, but…” She shrugged, offering a cheery smile. “I am thankful you’re here and just want to make sure you understand that.”

“Thanks, Simone. That’s nice to hear.”

“Well, it’s true. You’re one of the best employees I’ve ever had. You’re a problem solver, creative, and jump right in the trenches. You’ve been my right hand since you first stepped foot in here and I hired you four years ago… I knew you were a great fit, but I had no idea just
how
great.”

Silver lowered her head, her heart filled with a sense of accomplishment, but then her thoughts went somewhere dark and murky…

Well then, why in the hell won’t you people let me do my own shit? It’s always me working on someone else’s crap! I’ve asked you, and I hear over and over and over again about budgets, yet other people are given the opportunity!

“Thanks, doing what I love makes it a bit easer…and despite moments like this, I really enjoy my job.” She choked out the words, swallowed her true feelings—and hated the damn flavor.

“That’s what I like to hear.” Simone shoved her hands in her pockets and turned to walk away.

Yeah… I bet it is.

“Um, Simone! If you can get me Scotty and Regina, I can have this done in about two weeks, maybe a day or two sooner…” she called out, hoping to put a bit more pressure on the woman. Truth was, if she busted her ass, she could do it solo, but Scotty was a damn genius in this area and would make everything go so much faster. It would be a succession of boring and tedious tasks, so any help she could rally for, she would. Regina was great with scene graph splicing, not to mention, she’d be an extra set of eyes for any potential hiccups along the way.

Not only that, but this could be her big break. Simone was under the gun, and this could be just the leverage she needed to sit down at that woman’s desk once again, and ask the never ending question:
‘Can I create my own game for this company?’

“I’ll see what I can do!” Simone responded as she disappeared from sight.

As soon as she got back to hammering on the nightmarish task once again, her cell phone rang. Her heart beat a bit faster when she took note of the number.

“Hi, Fran.”

“Hi honey, I was just thinking about you.” The older woman sighed. “I’m on my lunch break down here at the restaurant and wanted to just call and check on you…you know… I hadn’t heard from you in a while.”

“I’m good, well… that’s not completely true.” Silver leaned back in her seat and crossed her legs. “I have a game error situation that is kicking my behind. I’m frustrated beyond words and overall, the week has been rough. But I’m hanging in there.”

“You know I don’t know anything about that computer game jargon.” Fran laughed. “Whatever is going on, I hope it gets better though. But that’s not the only reason I called. I had a dream about you and David the other night…”

Silver swallowed and rested her hand on her knee. She hated her mother-in-law’s dreams… but she loved them, too.

“What was it about?”

“You were sittin’ over here like you used to, when you two were just teenagers… playing video games on my couch.”

Silver could not help a smile. The old memories peeked through like bits of sunlight through a partially boarded up window.

“I was cooking in the kitchen, and you two were horsin’ around and I…” She paused for a brief moment. “I overheard David say to you, ‘I want you to win this time…’ It was the damndest thing, baby… that’s what he said. And it struck me. I rolled it over for a couple of days and wanted to call you and tell you about that dream. Maybe it means something, maybe it doesn’t, but I wanted to share it with you…just in case.”

“I love you, Fran. Thank you for calling me, thinking about me…” She sniffed, feeling a wave of emotion trying to take her down and under.

“Silver, I always think about you, baby. I told you after my son messed up that you were
still
my daughter and would always be. I refused to lose what we have just because you and he didn’t work out. You two were the best of friends long before you fell in love, so I’d known you for years… you’re a part of my family, Silver. Even though I’ll be moving to New Jersey soon, or at least I hope so, that won’t change anything. You’re
still
my daughter.”

“Thank you, Fran, thanks so much.” She kept her tears from falling, which proved a slippery slope. Dealing with this whole David issue had begun to take its toll on her. She hated that every time she thought about what happened, she came close to losing complete control of herself. Nothing else in the world made her feel so vulnerable, so… weak. She hated herself for what she’d become, and a part of her hated David now, too…

“Stop thanking me. It’ s true. My son loved you; he respected you. He and I had private discussions about you all the time, Silver. Well, regardless of all of that, I want you to call me more and stop by before I move, you hear? Don’t know when that will be but you know I’m trying to get my butt out of here!” The woman laughed heartily.

“Yes.” Silver said. “I will do that.”

“Oh, and don’t think I don’t know what you did.”

Silver’s heart froze up; the taste of fear was bitter, yet all encompassing. She tried to swallow it down, but it got caught in her throat, refused to budge.

“What… what do you think I did?”

“You come to Brooklyn to see your friends, your mama and everyone else, but you can’t come to see me, too?! You were just down here a couple days ago! I’m not going to put up with this, Silver.” Her voice was light-hearted, and Silver felt relief at the tone.

“Word spreads fast, huh?”

“Yes it does, so don’t you pull that again!” the woman chastised behind a chuckle.

“I won’t, I promise.”

“Alright, well, I’m going to let you go. You try to enjoy the rest of your day, okay?”

“I’ll try. Thanks for calling me though. I really appreciate it.”

“Love you, Silver.” And then, the woman hung up.

Silver steepled her hands and twirled back and forth in her chair, in slow motion. She played the words from Fran’s dream over and over in her head,

‘I want you to win this time, Silver…’

You want me to win what, David? There’s nothing to win out in this world, only things to lose… You found that out first hand, now, didn’t you?

A
t two in
the morning, Zenith heard little to nothing, minus the maddening drip from his nearby bathroom sink. He’d worked sixteen hours straight and once he’d crawled back home, he called Javier and made it known he would not be attending practice. It was rare for him to miss rehearsal, damn near unheard of, but his body sighed and moaned with angst; his bones even seemed sore down to the marrow.