Page 18 of Break My Heart

Leanne doesn’t smirk at my quip like I expect her to. She lifts her chin at the device. “Consider this an IOU for moral support.”

I glance down at the contract glowing on the screen. I freeze because I don’t need to scroll further. I recognize the client’s name immediately.

Apex Orion Racing

I lean back in my chair, crossing one leg over the other like this is just another Tuesday instead of a live test of how much I’ve learned from my heartbreak. “You’re right. I want nothing to do with it. Can’t you pass it to someone else?”

“You haven’t even heard the scope.”

“I don’t need the scope. I need a different client.”

“Sorry, that’s not happening.”

I glare at her, but it has absolutely no impact on her since she’s made of titanium. “Fine. Walk me through it.”

Leanne’s all business as she details the assignment. “Apex contracted us because their driver is having instability issues tied to steering wheel input latency and signal integrity under race conditions.”

Part of me wants to dramatically wipe my eyes at Leo’s difficulties, but I’m too intrigued by the assignment. Scrolling to the appendices of the contract, I find confidential telemetry graphs. Input lag spikes. Failover inconsistencies. I frown. “This isn’t just latency. If these graphs are accurate, it will lead to cascading problems.”

Leanne agrees. “Apparently they need a full redesign.”

I tap through the specs. “Within constraints.”

“Obviously.”

“Your ‘obviously’ implies a lot of work on my part.”

Leanne isn’t affected by my antagonism. “And travel.”

I glare at her before listing, “Not only do I have to account for about three hundred different sensors, but I’ll also need to ensure they meet standard FIA regulations. No driver aids beyond the permitted parameters. No automated correction systems. No traction control, no stability management. All input must remain driver originated.”

“Sounds exactly like your kind of fun. Ballpark a timeline of how long this will take.”

“From here to eternity.”

She scowls at my snark.

I hold back a sigh. “Leanne, this is different.”

“Why? You’ve specced out a similar issue for NASA.”

“Because for NASA, I built everything from scratch. With the FIA regulations, I can’t base anything on assumptions without checking their rules. Certain items are fixed by default, and everything else is fully customizable.”

“Walk me through what this involves from your standpoint.”

“At a minimum? I’m looking at monitoring engine, tire, aero, and driver inputs. Not to mention the basics of tire pressure, temperature, brake wear and pressure, fuel flow, aerodynamic load, gear usage, g-forces, suspension movement, and engine RPMs. I can’t—nor will I—shortcut anything.”

“What are the kinds of things the FIA looks for?”

“Slipping in any hidden smoothing algorithms. Predictive correction layers. Everything has to be validated as manual input for integrity, so it’s not giving the team an edge.”

“Which means if the software fails, its failure will be publicly tied to us.”

“Yes.” I scroll further, faster now. Hardware mapping. Rotary encoders. Paddle inputs. “Just based on what I’m seeing, the interface is overloaded. Too many concurrent feeds on limited bandwidth.”

Leanne catches on swiftly. “They’ve layered complexity over old code instead of correcting it.”

“Most people do. It’s fiscally cheaper. They aren’t the first.”