She paused dramatically.
“Welcome to the Future,” she said, dramatically, “This, gentleman and ladies is the future of computing. The Internet is now. No more peer-to-peer, some sad geek in his parent’s spare bedroom talking about ‘interacting’ with tiny cartoon figures, but real, person to person...”
As she gestured, behind her the sorceress echoed her action and sparks flew from her fingers.
With a snap of her wrists, mirroring her actions, the cowled figure raised its head and the cloak fell away to reveal a woman wearing a thin white dress, vaguely Grecian in style, over a dancer’s body. The face was the face of the woman on the stage, the body on the screen was hers, too. Beautiful, high-breasted, sexy, as her hips shifted.
Ali gestured and the sorceress spun to face a demon from Hell as on screen lightning flashed.
With a snap of those fingers the sorceress faded into the background. Business programs blossomed on the screen.
“Business applications,” she said, “in real time with real people whose expressions you can see.” Faces appeared on the screens, real people in real offices. They touched the screens before them, changed key details. The clocks behind them indicated the time in their area. “Real, human interaction as you talk, work, conference and communicate, no miscommunications because you didn’t see the body language, see the expression. A conference call where you really conference ― highlighting the data you want the other person to see, adding or subtracting it in real time, on the same screen, saving the data locally to both stations.”
Beside Aidan and Jacques, Adam grinned like a madman.
Jacques gave him a look. “You knew?”
“Sorry,” Adam said, unrepentantly. “Best kept secret in the industry. No one talks about it, so it’s a surprise for the next. A. J., Alex, Dearborn. She walks in, looking like that…and jaws drop…”
“A woman,” Jacques said, smiling and shaking her head. “C’est magnifique. So is she. Lovely. Is it true Jensen hired her out of MIT?”
It had been an intriguing enough story when he’d thought she was a man. It was even more so knowing she was a woman, and a lovely young woman at that.
“True. She completed her bachelor’s degree the year she left high school,” Adam said. “Brilliant. I tried to score on her while she was at Jensen but she wouldn’t give me the time of day. Not that she had it to give. They loved using her and they used her a lot. Believe it or not, she’s only twenty-five or six. Brain by MIT, body by Botticelli.”
He remembered both well.
“Why did she leave Jensen?” Aidan asked, curious, his eyes locked on the woman on the stage.
Ali. She was beautiful, incredible.
Shrugging, Adam said, “No one’s saying. Jensen locks up tighter than a turtle any time she’s mentioned, although it had to have hurt them when she left. There were rumors she wanted to go her own way. Other said she might have burned out. There was some substance to that. They used her unmercifully. She was like a meteor, flying high and fast but apparently not very long. She made a mint while she was with Jensen, though, from what I hear.”
Elegant, sexy, yet still accessible, the woman on the stage smiled warmly.
Turning to face them, Ali said. “Everything here uses current technology, available on the open market. Available here in the Vendor’s Hall. It’s all here, ladies and gentlemen. It’s all now. Questions?”
“This is all existing technology?”
Nodding, Ali called the man’s name up from memory, “Yes, Mr. Gregson, it is,” she said, then added, “with a few tweaks.”
Startled at the use of his name, Gregson sat up.
“What tweaks?” someone else said.
“Bill, that’s my secret,” Ali answered with a grin. “If it was easy, anyone could do it.”
Implying it wasn’t easy, and she was the only one who could do it.
“How’d you know my name,” the man demanded, his Liverpool accent strong.
With a small shrug, Ali said, unabashed, “It’s a parlor trick, I’m afraid. Eidetic memory. If I see it, I remember it. I saw the seating chart. Perfect recall, right side up, backward, forward.”
If this was to work it wasn’t only her computer skills she would have to sell but herself. This was a one-shot opportunity.
Remembering breakfast that first morning, Aidan felt a twinge.
In the audience, someone went very still as alarm raced through him. If it was true, if she remembered everything she saw? She’d seen the diagrams. A chill went through him.
A hand shot up and Ali turned, smiling. She inclined her head slightly. “Mr. Sato.”
“Who owns the software licensing?” Sato demanded.
“For the moment,” Ali said, “no one does. Most of what you’ve seen is existing hardware and software, available from the vendors here, save for this and that.”
This was what the organizing committee had hired her to do, highlight all the newest technology, find a way to bring it all together.
That caused a stir. Everyone sat up.
One person, though, had put it all together, had made it all work, seamlessly.
Another voice rang out of the men and women seated before her, so familiar.
“Who did the this and that?”
Mentally Ali scanned the seating chart ― she didn’t memorize the way some people did, that was something different, to her it was a mental image ― and her breath caught sharply as she recognized the name.
Kerry Software―Aidan O’Connell.
Her breath froze in her chest.
The only blessing was that she couldn’t see him, the stage lights blinded her but then she didn’t need to. His face in her mind’s eye was so clear, the beautiful blue eyes, the dark wavy hair, the broad shoulders. A breath whispered out of her but the mouthpiece didn’t pick it up, thankfully.
“Mr. O’Connell?” she said…and if her voice shook a little she thought she was the only one who heard it.
“Who wrote the software for the demonstration?” Aidan demanded. “Who wrote the code?”
Aidan had to hear it directly from her but he suspected he knew.
Ali looked to where his blue eyes would be.
Her voice level and calm, she said, “I did.”
Then she turned away from him, deliberately to look out over the crowd. This in the end was what she was here for, to reinvent herself, to reemerge as a force in the industry. A force to be reckoned with ― the sorceress ― and one to be attained, obtained. This time, though, she would be in control. No one else…
“I’m very, very good at what I do as you might have heard,” Ali said, with a wry smile. “As I am at cards, vingt-et-un, poker, baccarat, since I remember all the cards that are dealt or pages of software code. So don’t bet against me…bet on me because I can work magic…”
She flung her arms out.
On the screen behind her, the sorceress shot lightning from her fingertips, a clear reminder.
The potential was enormous. If her system worked as demonstrated it could very well revolutionize the industry. There were millions to be made…or more.
That was sufficient, Allie thought. It was time to finish.
Cuing up the music, her eyes sparkling, she sent her voice ringing out over the crowd. “This is the future...”
On the screens different images flashed.
In one section, fire flashed from her fingertips as the sorceress did battle with every twitch of Ali’s fingers. On another, mathematical figures did battle as well.
To Aidan’s astonishment Kerry Electronics soon to be released software appeared ― he vaguely remembered signing off on the right to use it – as Jacques raised an eyebrow in surprise. Other images appeared on the other screens then dissolved into a sound and light show.
The music keyed up, filling the room with swelling sound as all the screens erupted into a fireworks show. Rockets exploded on screen and the snap and crackle of shells bursting filled the room
.
Ali raised her arms, gracefully, and dropped into a courtesy as graceful as that of any dancer, bowing to all of them as the applause broke out, swelled.
Once again, she inclined her head, and then she smiled, “And I wish you all, good night.”
The lights went down for a moment, only a moment.
When they came back up she was gone.
It was a trick as old as time, Ali reflected as she dropped down onto the massive bean bag pillow below, a nice little addition to the show. She’d discovered the little hatch in the floor―probably originally intended to allow maintenance to run cables and whatnot but it suited her purposes.
George Parnell, her announcer, grabbed her hand to haul her out of the bag.
She’d hired him from a local theater group, as she had the girls who’d appeared with her, paying them scale.
“What did you think?” she asked, as she scrambled to her feet.
“I think they don’t know what hit them, Alex,” he said, grinning. “Good show.”
She smiled.
The space was beneath was tight and low even she had to stand crouched to keep from bumping her head. Amid the shadows the far wall was invisible.
It had been as amazing as she had hoped it would be, there had been no glitches, thank goodness. Excitement ran through her, shaking off a little of the heartache and pain.
Her first venture as a consultant, her reemergence after Jensen, after she had crashed and burned in exhaustion from the demands they’d made on her, and she’d done it.
Above her she could still hear the applause. It had been spectacular.
She just wished she had someone to share her success with.
The memory of Aidan’s voice cut through her.
She shook it off. This was her triumph and she would enjoy it.
“Thanks for your help,” she said to George.
“No problem,” he said, patting her on the shoulder as she went past him, toward the back entrance to the stage above her and followed behind.
He glanced out through the little access door into the back hall, gave her the all clear.
Blowing a kiss to him in thanks, she went to another room to change.
The business suit had been for the stage, she’d needed to look more professional there. Ali had wanted something softer for the one on one afterward. Thinking of Aidan, though, she changed her mind from the simpler dress she’d intended to wear to something sexier, more aggressive.
She’d bought the dress on a whim and she’d brought it with her tonight on impulse, but had decided to wear the other dress as the safer choice.
Tonight she wasn’t taking the safe road.
She had other presentations to do in the coming week, all about innovation and possibilities, but this night for her was key.
Quickly she popped her wireless earphone on and dialed Cam, Molly and Jesse. There wasn’t much time, but she wanted to let those in the hall reach the bar and refreshments.
“How did it go?” Molly asked, breathlessly.
“It was incredible,” Ali said, hearing Cam and Jesse in the background. “Amazing. I think I did it.”
Jesse whooped.
Pulling out her hand-held Ali searched Aidan on-line. Something inside her went still as the information appeared on the screen. There was so much he hadn’t told her.
Aidan O’Connell. CEO of Kerry Electronics and the primary force behind one of the premier internet service providers in Ireland. One of the first to see the potential of wireless. A self-made millionaire. She’d used his new software in the presentation, found and fixed a glitch in it. She’d been intending to tell his people about it in the morning.
He was on her short list of potential employers.
Not anymore.
According to what she read he was also one of the richest men in Ireland.
“Oh, Christ,” she whispered.
Chapter Seventeen
Almost all of the attendees were in the bar, post the first night of the conference. That was normal. What wasn’t normal was the ‘bar’. It was a magnificent hall, all done in rich woods, like a King’s receiving hall with rich carpeting and magnificent artwork. One wall held a marvelous landscape of Ireland that was simply breathtaking, especially since Ali had now been there, in a manner of speaking. The gloriously green hills spread away in the distance. On another was depicted another moment in history, the Battle of the Boyne.
Everyone who could be here was, for this first night. The room was jammed, people drifted in knots and eddies, or wandered. However much she tried not to, Ali found herself scanning them for a glimpse of Aidan. She told her aching heart it was because she needed to know where he was so she could keep her distance.
As people became aware of her presence in the room, a spontaneous round of applause broke out. A little embarrassed, Ali smiled and bowed her head as she made her way toward the serving bar at the far end of the room. She desperately needed a drink to calm her nerves.
Turning at the commotion Aidan saw the discomfort Ali always felt with pressing crowds, but the same graciousness he’d seen onstage, smiling warmly as people stopped her to talk.
Beside him, Jacques and Adam turned, too.
She looked astonishing, elegant and sexy…brilliant.
That incredible hair had been caught up here and there with glittering gold and emerald stars, the rest had been left to tumble loosely over her shoulders. Her eyes seemed more intense somehow, the brilliant gold glowed, the hint of green shimmered in them.
It seemed as if the dress she wore had been poured over her, draping from thin gold chains at her shoulders to spilling elegantly over her dancer’s body, the neckline a deep V between her breasts, clinging lightly to her cleavage, sliding over the curve of her hips. As she turned, he saw the back was open, loose, draping down to just below her waist, with another thin chain dropping from a v to allow another length to dangle at her lower back.
The colors of it matched her hair and eyes, a blend of shimmering golds with a touch of green.
Breathtaking. He remembered touching her. He remembered her, tears shimmering in those fairy eyes.
To one side Adam grinned, turned toward the bar.
Beside Aidan, Devon moved restlessly, her gaze following his, narrowing. And Aidan cursed silently, softly, wishing now he hadn’t brought her. It would only make things worse.
Ali made her way through the crowd.
“Wow, Alex,” Jiro said as he caught her on the way to the bar. He’d developed the view screens―his words, straight out of Star Trek. “That was incredible.”
A small man nearly as short as she was, he was also an incredibly gifted engineer. It was those screens that had given her the idea for the main focus of the show.
She smiled. “So, it looked as good as I thought it did?”
“Better,” he said, grinning widely.
The man who’d developed the software that had imaged her into the ‘sorceress’ hurried up, pumped her hand, grinning as madly as Jiro.
She had to smile at his enthusiasm.
These people had depended on her to show what they had to offer and show it right. She couldn’t and wouldn’t have let them down. They depended on her, but it seemed as if she’d succeeded.
More people stopped her to congratulate her, to ask questions, until she finally gave up on all hope of getting a drink. Every attempt to catch the attention of a waiter or waitress in a roomful of powerful men was useless, especially at her height. She must have answered a dozen before she saw an opportunity to break away while they debated the various merits of some of the systems and excused herself. After so much talking her mouth was absolutely parched.
Suddenly a familiar face appeared before her and she smiled.
“Adam,” she said and smiled with delight at seeing his familiar face, throwing her arms around him. “I haven’t seen you in ages.”
Tall, handsome, his sandy hair tousled, his hazel eyes gleaming, he held up a glass.<
br />
“Need this?” he asked, his voice a mellow tenor.
Looking at it, Ali let out a sigh of relief. ”Adam…Bless you…”
It was a glass of water.
He laughed as she pounced on it, sipped gratefully. “It’s good to see you, again, too, Alex.”
“You, too, Adam,” she said.
Looking at her, Adam thought she’d only gotten more beautiful as time had gone by. Those eyes were still incredible. He’d been half in love with her back then, held back only by the fact that she was already seeing someone. She had no ring on her finger now though and there was no one with her. Looking at her now…
Ali remembered Adam fondly as the one good memory from her days at Jensen, one of the few she could talk to openly outside of the company.
“Let me introduce you to my boss. He was very impressed,” Adam said and tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow even as his own trepidations gave him pause.
Jacques had a reputation with pretty women and Alex had blossomed into one of those but there was no way to avoid the introduction.
The crowd parted before them and suddenly Aidan was there, a beautiful brunette on his arm―her face cold, black eyes glittering.
It was like a punch in the gut. Whatever faint hope Ali had had of seeing him again vanished. The woman clung to Aidan possessively, her body curved into his and glared.
Dark and dark, they looked beautiful together, tall, perfect, his blue eyes to her black.
Ali’s breath caught, the pain sudden and sharp. That hadn’t taken long, she thought, and the pain went deep, but then she imagined a man as handsome as he was had women by the dozen hanging around him. Maybe she had been only some kind of an Irish fling.
Beside Aidan was a tall, elegant Frenchman, handsome in his own right, with deep black hair, deep widow’s peaks. His face was stern, marked by perfectly arched brows, deep black curious eyes. A hint of amusement glimmered in eyes that saw far too much.
Jacques caught that perceptive look. Interesting.
With an effort, Ali wrenched herself back into the moment.
Aidan saw the flash of pain, the sure knowledge in her eyes of his relationship with Devon and his heart wrenched
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