by Sam Maggs
“This is Margaret,” Nadia interrupted VERA, too ramped up to let the AI do the talking for her. “Margaret Hoff. She invented her first app when she was just eleven years old. She founded her current company, HoffTech, at just twenty-two. She’s one of the only women CEOs in machine intelligence. She’s from New Jersey. And she used to be an intern right here, at Pym Labs!”
Nadia paused for dramatic effect.
Taina blinked. “Cool.”
“Cool?!” Nadia responded, incredulous. “It’s incredible! It’s everything a G.I.R.L. scientist aspires to be! Creative, independent, beholden only to herself, certain of her dream…” Nadia sighed, wistfully. When was the last time she’d felt any of those things? Before she’d gotten so busy, maybe? But even then, she was being held against her will by an evil espionage organization. So…maybe never?
“Indeed,” corroborated VERA. “Margaret got her start at Pym Labs. Though it must be said that while here she did not work on anything quite as remarkable as Pym Particles or Nadia’s Wasp suit.”
Taina’s head snapped toward the brick. “Now this thing knows about the Wasp suit?”
“Well, obviously.” Nadia squinted at Tai. “I told you she helps me keep track of time while I’m in in the Crystal Lab. Which you can’t get to without Pym Particles.”
Tai rolled her eyes. “Obviously. So where’s this Margaret at now?”
“HoffTech HQ recently relocated,” VERA piped in. “They’re currently located in Queens, New York.”
“Wow!” Taina said with more enthusiasm than Nadia had heard from her in…ever? That made Nadia decidedly suspicious of what was coming next. “VERA, can you tell me how Margaret was able to become so successful at such a young age?”
If VERA detected her sarcasm, she pushed on undeterred. It sounded like she had come with this speech prepared. “Margaret began coding as a girl when she wanted to improve her Neopets storefront. She fell in love with the art and developed her first app to help students track their grades and their future school prospects at age eleven. After graduating early from a prestigious STEM-focused high school in the Bronx, she attended both MIT and Stanford. She interned at Pym Laboratories under one of the founding Avengers before Margaret founded HoffTech at twenty-two to execute on her vision of creating me.”
“Wow,” Taina repeated. “So, was that Bronx High School of Science?”
“No,” replied VERA. “It was the Frost School for Science and Technology.”
“Tuition?” Taina asked, keeping her voice casual.
“Fifty-two thousand dollars per year.”
“And Stanford and MIT. Was she there on scholarship?”
“No,” started VERA, “Margaret turned down prestigious scholarships in order to better provide for students with need of financial aid.”
“And she didn’t graduate, just to be clear.” Taina had taken a sudden close interest in her own fingernails. From the bed, Nadia watched Taina and VERA bounce back and forth like she was in the stands at a tennis match.
“She left traditional education behind to pursue founding HoffTech,” VERA said, still smiling.
“And her start-up money came from…?”
“Until this summer, Margaret has never accepted funding from investors or venture capitalists,” VERA said with what sounded like pride. “She built her company from the ground up, on her own.”
“And what’s her father’s name?”
VERA didn’t so much as pause. “Theodore Hoff the Third.”
“And what does he do?” Taina picked at a hangnail.
“Theodore Hoff currently sits on the board of Altas Oil.”
Taina finally looked up. “And his father founded that company and his father was attorney general of New Hampshire, and they’re all three times wealthier than the Starks and three times as lily-white.” She turned to look at Nadia. “Must. Be. Nice.”
Nadia shook her head. She knew what Taina was getting at. But didn’t using your privilege for the public good, to further the pursuit of technology and the status of women in tech, mean that Margaret was different from her father? “She had advantages, but it sounds like she’s still a brilliant woman.”
Taina finally gave in to the eye roll that had been building for the entirety of this conversation. “Please,” she scoffed. “She’s no smarter than you or me or Ying or any of us in this lab. The difference is, none of us grew up burning blood money on the fire for entertainment while our seventeen household staff members washed our feet with twenty-four-carat soap. Imagine what we could have done with that kind of privilege? Where we could have been by now? Where G.I.R.L. could be?”
Nadia felt the familiar tingle in her brain—a good idea was burbling there, just under the surface. She needed to grab it before it fizzled out. She snapped her fingers two, three, four times, putting it together. “Okay,” she told Tai. “Okay, you’re right. So…what if we did get her involved with G.I.R.L.? Maybe get her help?”
Taina looked at Nadia like she had four heads. “No way. I don’t trust this lambona as far as I can chuck her shiny little F.R.I.D.A.Y. knockoff. We don’t need her or her money. We’re doing just fine on our own.”
Nadia didn’t respond. Taina had a point, much as it clashed with the narrative Nadia had been constructing in her mind.
“She’s not some benevolent techie savior, Nadia. She’s a rich white girl in serious need of some perspective.” Taina wheeled closer to Nadia. “Do you realize how vulnerable a network like that is? How easily it could be manipulated? It’s in people’s homes. Collecting data all the time. Medication schedules. Routines. Bad habits. Your data, Nadia.”
“HoffTech’s a reputable company,” Nadia said, a response on the tip of her tongue before she even gave it a conscious thought. “It has to be safe. Secure.”
Taina scoffed. “It’s only as safe as the people who own it decide to keep it. You’re confident that HoffTech’s safeguarding your secrets, the data that makes up your entire life? That it has your best interests at heart? That data’s valuable, Nadia. You really think that HoffTech believes your well-being is more important than their profits?” Taina shook her head. “You know better than that.”
“But—” Nadia was interrupted by a voice floating in through the door to her room.
“Hellllooooooo?” it called. “Anybody home?”
“In here!” Taina called. She rolled, turning her back on Nadia. “We were done anyway.”
Nadia sighed. Tai had been so skeptical of everything she’d brought up with her lately! Nadia knew it came from a place of love; Tai was always worried that Nadia was taking on too much, especially since she had been diagnosed with bipolar. But Nadia found herself talking to Tai almost every day; they were more and more the only two G.I.R.L.s regularly in the lab.
Ying and Shay were always headed off together somewhere trying to make sense of dating, and Priya was either working or out in the gardens trying to make sense of her plant powers. And Nadia would explode if she didn’t have someone to share the exciting events in her life with. So, even though she was usually skeptical, it was all Tai all the time.
Tai just didn’t understand that everything Nadia had on her plate right now was of equal importance; it was impossible to give any one thing up or to put any one off until later. Stop taking driving lessons and put off her dream of becoming a normal Cool American Teen? Stop following Maria’s list and lose the new glimmer of hope for reclaiming her past and connecting with her mother? Stop working on Like Minds and let down all of her friends at the lab? She could do it all; she just needed some help.
And if her friends weren’t around, VERA would be that help. She was a start, anyways.
And Margaret could be just what Nadia needed to get past her science block on the Like Minds project. If anyone knew how to take an idea and make it big enough to change the entire world, it was Margaret Hoff. Sure, she’d had help; but if Nadia could just talk to Margaret, maybe she could convince her to use some of her priv
ilege and brilliance on behalf of G.I.R.L. Maybe she could even help Nadia figure out what to showcase at Like Minds.
Nadia swung her legs off the bed and stood up just in time for Janet to walk in with Tai’s older sister, Lexi. Nadia’s machekha always dressed so well, but today she looked especially sharp in an emerald-green suit. Lexi was in a suit, too, but hers was covered all over in florals. It made Lexi’s athletic shoulders stand out in a way that Nadia thought made her look like she could kick your butt both on the field with a hockey stick and also in the boardroom.
“Big meeting?” Nadia asked, walking over to hug them both.
“Oh, you know.” Janet hugged her back. “Always looking for investors.”
Nadia smiled. She did know.
“You look like a linebacker who fell into a funeral arrangement,” Tai said by way of greeting her sister.
“Thanks, Tai.” Lexi ruffled her sister’s hair as Tai tried to bat her away. “Thought you’d like it.”
“Oh!” Janet pointed to the gold brick on Nadia’s desk. “VERA! You’re using it!”
“I am,” Nadia said excitedly, trying not to notice Tai’s second exaggerated eye roll of the day. “I am actually regretting not opening it sooner. She’s already helping me get things done.”
“I’m so glad to hear that!” Janet smiled while Alexis picked up the little gold brick and turned it over in her hands, admiring how the hologram always stayed upright.
“Did you know Margaret Hoff used to intern here?” Nadia asked, as casually as possible.
Janet nodded slowly. “I recall reading that in an interview when the VERA shipped. She didn’t work with me, though; she might have been working with Hank…I’ll have to connect with HR.” She sighed. “Typical Hank. Can’t believe he didn’t hire her full-time. Our loss.”
“C’mon, let’s get lunch,” said Lexi, tugging gently on the back of her sister’s chair. “You guys won’t believe the dude we just met with. Total jerk.”
“Alexis!” Janet scolded, following the Miranda sisters out of Nadia’s room. “He was only ninety percent a jerk. The other ten percent was pure narcissist.”
“Fair,” Alexis laughed.
Nadia grabbed her phone, checking to make sure her phone charm was still attached. Dangling from the cord looped through a hole in the case was her little Wasp figurine—a miniaturized version of her Wasp suit ready to be expanded and donned at any moment. Nadia never went anywhere without it.
Mostly because she never went anywhere without her phone and she could really only remember to grab one thing before leaving the house. But at least she knew herself well enough to have everything on or attached to her phone she could possibly need, including her lab keycard, her ID, and her debit card.
And her super suit. Naturally.
Nadia stopped before she left the room. “VERA, can you send HoffTech’s address to my phone?”
“Already done,” said VERA. “See you later, Nadia.”
Nadia waved, walking out of the room. The hologram faded behind her—but the white light still blinked.
* Insects and arachnids like the fisher spider and the water strider use surface tension to walk on water. The water strider hits the water with a force of only 10 dynes per centimeter, for the record.
Nadia stood outside the seamless glass doors, squeezing her hands into fists and relaxing them over and over again. She’d still didn’t have what one might normally consider a “plan” for getting into the offices; she was mostly considering just waltzing in like she belonged and asking to see the head of their company. That would probably work, right? Big-money tech start-ups traditionally just let complete strangers off the street walk in and book meetings with their CEOs on a whim?
It will be fine, Nadia decided. It will have to be fine!
She relaxed her fingers and walked through the automatic sliding doors with her head held high, projecting a self-assurance she was mostly just inventing in her own mind. The building’s lobby was huge and airy—in fact, the whole building seemed to defy physics, being more glass than steel. It was like a bright and glittery crystal in the middle of an otherwise dull neighborhood. Trying not to raise suspicion by looking around too much like a gawking tourist, Nadia ignored her bright surroundings and marched right toward the front desk at the center of the hall.
“Hello?” she called out as she approached the desk.
No one responded. After all, there was no person sitting at the front desk. In fact, HoffTech’s front lobby was devoid of any humans at all.
Instead, a small, gold brick sat on the birch front desk, its sleek gold lines in sharp contrast to the live-edge countertop. The whole lobby was a similar story in contradictions. Half of the furniture was made of untreated wood, with plants covering almost every spare inch they could: hanging from the ceiling, covering tables in waiting areas, clustered in corners. The walls were a stark, clean, almost sterile white. The chairs, all empty, were finished with plush, dusty pink cushions. The rest of the furniture and all of the fixtures were metallic gold and glass, reminiscent of VERA’s design. Nadia didn’t know if she was supposed to curl up and feel at home or if she was in a dentist’s office for the very wealthy.
Nadia had convinced Janet to take them all for lunch in Queens. Yes, partially because she had wanted to indulge in her favorite soup dumplings and the free ginger tea that she could easily drink several gallons of in one sitting. But also because it was about forty minutes from Cresskill to Queens by car and easily another two hours on top of that by transit.
And Nadia wanted to make it to HoffTech HQ before they closed today. Now she had plenty of time to come find Margaret, and she was full of crab-and-pork dumplings.
Ideal.
Nadia eyed the gold brick on the desk and took a deep breath.
“Hi there!” Nadia said brightly to the front desk, full of false confidence, feeling a little foolish speaking to…no one. “I’d like to speak with Margaret Hoff.”
“Hi there!” As Nadia had hoped before she started speaking to the air, the VERA hologram sprang to life on the front desk and mirrored Nadia’s speech pattern, a completely normal thing for an AI receptionist to do, Nadia thought. This VERA looked not dissimilar from Margaret’s headshot. “If you have an appointment to see Ms. Hoff, please provide me with your name so that I can flag your arrival to her executive team.”
“My name is Nadia Van Dyne,” Nadia answered breezily, carefully ignoring the first part of VERA’s statement. She pointed to a fluffy pink cushion in the corner of the lobby. “I’ll just wait over here—”
“I’m sorry,” VERA said with a smile on her digital face. “I can’t seem to find you in our system. Can you please spell your name for me?”
Right, Nadia groaned internally. Shouldn’t have come without an appointment.
A group of people not much older than Nadia emerged from an elevator behind the front desk, laughing. Nadia turned her back to them, leaning against the desk in the most nonchalant way she could.
Looking cool. Looking like she was totally supposed to be there.
At least she was wearing a hoodie, just like all the employees.
“Nadia Van Dyne?” she repeated. “V-A-N-space-
D-Y-N-E—”
“Van Dyne?” she heard a voice ask from behind her. Nadia spun—
—and found herself face-to-face with Margaret Hoff.
“Oh! Hi!” Nadia said, half surprised and half not. Sometimes things like this just seemed to work out for her. She was naturally lucky, on occasion!
On other occasions, she was born into a secret espionage child-training camp.
But you really had to focus on the bright side of things, Nadia felt.
“Margie, should we—” One of the girls from the elevator paused by the lobby’s front doors.
Margaret waved her on. “I’ll catch up with you.” She turned her smile back to Nadia, and Nadia immediately understood how this woman—still in her twenties—could have taken the
tech world so by storm. She was tall and willowy, but not imposing—Nadia thought she looked like someone who had grown up riding horses. Her shoulder-length brown hair was pulled up into a hasty ponytail, but some strands had escaped, framing her face completely unintentionally. Her plain white T-shirt, light jeans, and white tennis shoes were so carefully casual that Nadia was certain they probably cost enough to fund G.I.R.L. for at least a month. A maroon HoffTech-branded hoodie had made Margaret almost indistinguishable from the rest of her colleagues.
Except for her eyes. There was something unsettlingly penetrating about Margaret’s eyes. It hadn’t been the hologram; they really were a startling shade of icy blue-gray, like a rock whittled away by glacial waters. Calm and clear and bright. Nadia was immediately enthralled.
“I’m so sorry,” Margaret was saying, holding up her hands apologetically. “We don’t know each other, but I think I know your family—”
“Pym Labs!” Nadia interrupted. “You were an intern.”
Margaret laughed. “I was! I was. Hank Pym gave me my first job in tech, and I’m forever indebted to him. And you look…You must be…” Margaret gave Nadia an appraising look, like a puzzle she was trying to solve.
“Nadia Van Dyne,” Nadia said again, VERA at her back this time. “His daughter.”
“Oh my gosh.” Margaret darted forward and enveloped Nadia in a huge hug. Nadia returned it enthusiastically. She was a hugger, too! “Oh my gosh,” Margaret repeated, pulling away. She kept her hands on Nadia’s shoulders. “Hank was like a father to me for so many years. I feel like that makes us, like…sisters, basically.”
Nadia smiled. She could always stand to adopt another family member.
“I actually never met him,” Nadia clarified. “But Janet Van Dyne is my stepmother, and I’ve continued with some of his work.”
“No!” Margaret looked taken aback. “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. Not about Janet and the work, about not knowing Hank.” Margaret talked quickly, her voice a clear tenor—deeper than Nadia expected. It was nice to listen to. “We should talk. Were you here to see someone? Are you here from Pym Labs? Are you recruiting? Our interns actually don’t finish work for another month, but—”