VELOCITY - DEE JACOB [36]
“Is it true that you and Viktor were once married?”
“Yes, we were in fact. Years ago,” said Sarah – then quickly added, “Actually, we’re still very good friends. And we work well together. We just can’t stand to be married to one another.”
Both of them smiled at this.
“But it doesn’t bother you that he’s your boss?” asked Amy.
“No. He doesn’t intimidate me. I can tell him anything – and I do.”
Well, all right then, Amy thought.
They left the women’s room and began walking back to the auditorium.
“So what do you think of LSS?” asked Amy.
“I’m still forming an opinion.”
“Let me just say this: I would be delighted, Sarah, if you would get involved and go through the training. And it’s certainly not going to hurt your career any if you do.”
Sarah considered that and said, “Thank you. But I’d like to talk it over with Viktor.”
“Understood. No problem.”
Late in the day, after the Highboro contingent had left, Sarah went to Viktor’s office. He was tidying up, getting ready to leave.
“Before you go,” she said.
“Yes?”
“I want to be involved in LSS. I want to be a part of it.”
Viktor fluttered his eyelids and regarded her with a most puzzled expression.
“Really, I want this,” said Sarah.
“Do you have the time for it?”
“I’ll make the time.”
He plopped down and slumped back in his office chair, stroking his chin and thinking about the ramifications.
“All right,” he said at last. “By all means, get involved. In fact, I like the idea of you being a part of it. Yes, go for it! I think it might give us an edge, maybe even some leverage.”
“An edge? Leverage? What are you talking about?”
“Just that it’s always a good idea to know what one’s competitors are up to.”
Sarah, who had been standing in the doorframe, came more into the office and folded her arms, even as she smirked in disbelief.
“Is that really how you see them?” she asked. “As competitors? As adversaries?”
“Well, aren’t they? Oh, all right. Maybe that’s too Darwinian. Let’s just say it’s always a good idea to know what one’s allies are up to.”
“Viktor, I am not going to play the role of agent provocateur.”
He rolled his eyes and said, “Sarah, dear, I haven’t asked you to do any such thing.”
“I want this to work,” she insisted. “We need this to work. We – and I mean all of us, not just you and me – need something to work. We have clients who are really getting tired of big invoices and slow results. I’m worried there are some who are ready to walk away from us.”
“Sarah … do you know why our marriage ended in divorce?”
“Because you were always screwing around?”
“Aside from that – and for the record, I was faithful for the first five years. No, the central problem in our marriage was that I am an optimist and you are extreme pessimist.”
“Am not!”
“I do not understand what you are so worried about. You make it sound as if Formulation and Design is going to dry up and blow away in a swirl of dust. It’s not going to happen! True, there will always be little fires to be put out. Sometime in the future, there will be necessary adjustments to the course of the business. But we have a backlog that others can only envy! We are all but turning away business! I mean, seriously, we are nearly maxed out in terms of what we can handle!”
“Yes, Viktor, I agree. I am maxed out. And it’s not the volume of business, it’s the internal pressures.”
“And so I go back to my original question: are you sure you can handle the added responsibility of … of something I am not sure is necessary or even valid?”
“You … and I … and everyone else here – we have built over the years an excellent research and engineering organization,” she said. “We’ve won awards, we’ve made money, we’ve advanced the state of the art, and so on and so forth. But I feel like we’re slipping. I personally don’t talk to that many clients, but I do read the emails coming in and the reports going out. I know that under the surface, we are not held in all that high a regard. Therefore, I don’t want us to be groveling five years from now to get some piddly little contract