Daniel shot to his feet so fast he knocked his chair over. It crashed to the floor.

“Evelyn… what — what is this?” he stammered, his voice cracking, the untouchable CEO evaporating into a cornered boy. “This is a joke. You’re a clerk!

You work in a cubicle! You don’t know anything about Vanguard!”

I reached into my breast pocket and tossed a single redacted document onto the table. It slid to a stop over the contract he’d been about to sign — the original patent filing for Project Vanguard.

The signature at the bottom read Col. E. Shaw.

“I didn’t just review Vanguard, Daniel,” I said, stepping into his space, watching the terror finally break his facade. “I wrote every line of its code.