If he’s not here, then what the hell is this?
“Do you want me to call security?” she asks.
“For IT?” I raise a brow. “What are they going to do, bludgeon me with a mouse?”
“They seem... upset.”
I let out a slow breath. “Let them in.”
What the fuck now?
Five of them file in like they’re marching to war. Roy leads the pack, looking like he might vomit on my floor. His hands tremble as he clears his throat. “We’re here to voice our grievance at what’s happening to Georgie.”
Is this guy fucking serious?
“As much as you might not like the decision, she broke protocol,” I snap. “There are consequences. If you’ve got complaints, use the proper process. Bursting into my office isn’t it.”
He blinks, throat bobbing. “If you’re not willing to hear us out, sir… then we’re going on strike.”
Strike? These guys have lost their fucking minds. “You can’t strike. You’re not unionized.”
“Fine.” He glances sideways at the others, who nod tight. “Then we walk.”
I stare at him. The balls on this guy. Standing in my office, thinking he can issue ultimatums. “That’s quite a threat.”
“It’s not a threat. It’s fact. Sir.”
My first instinct is to tell them exactly where they can shove their ultimatum. I don’t run a billion-pound company by letting junior staff dictate terms. The door’s right there if they don’t like how things work.
One of them—Christ, the kid looks about twelve—pulls out a handmade poster.Justice for Georgieis scrawled in marker like this is some sort of protest.
These people are angry enough to risk their jobs. Angry enough to riskmywrath. That doesn’t happen without something real underneath it.
“Alright then,” I say, leaning back in my chair. “You’ve got the floor. Say your piece.”
A quiet voice pipes up from the back. “I heard Craig order her to push it through. It was late, everyone else had gone home. Craig’s so loud you can hear him a mile off, even on the phone. He told her QA had signed off and to go ahead. He just assumed—like we all do—that Georgie’s code would be perfect. It usually is. But that’s not how it works. We’re a team. We can’t rely on Georgie overachieving all the time.”
I frown. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
He flinches like I’ve shouted, even though I haven’t. “I... I don’t lie, sir.”
Roy steps forward, steadier this time. “You can look at the last year’s worth of projects. Georgie led nearly all of them. She built most of IRIS herself. Every feature was her idea.” Roy pauses. His whole body is tense. “Craig took the credit, but it was her work. She never said a word. And he bulldozed her every chance he got.”
“You’re saying Craig lied about this?” My voice drops. “That’s a serious accusation.”
“What he did to Georgie is worse,” Roy shoots back. “And if you let this stand, this isn’t the kind of company we want to work for.”
I stare at them, something cold settling in my gut. Craig stood right here, in this office, hand on his heart, and swore blind that Georgie went rogue. Showed me the deployment logs. Made it sound like she was a loose cannon who couldn’t follow protocol.
Now these guys are painting a different picture, and it’s getting harder to ignore. Georgie’s voice threads through it too—her saying I only ever back the loudest bloke in the room, that I’ve built a culture where someone like Craig comes up on top.
Five people are willing to put their necks on the line. They wouldn’t gamble that much over nothing. There’s something seriously wrong here.
Another developer steps up, laptop tucked to his ribs. He adjusts his glasses three times in five seconds. “We can give you proof of Georgie’s work this year. It’s all logged. Obviously.”
The lady with them lifts her chin. “Even the name of the system tells you who built it.”
“What do you mean?”
