Page 12 of Alpha Brock
I grin. “Absolutely.”
Brooke pushes out of her desk chair, stepping over to the conference table and sinking down into one there, instead. “Have a seat,” she urges as she clicks a remote to turn the large screen on, pulling a wireless keyboard and mouse closer to her.
I take the chair next to Brooke’s, watching as she logs onto the conference computer.
“So as you can see,” she mumbles, clicking into an application once she’s logged on. “We’re now fully integrated with Denver’s systems, and vice versa. We’re sharing all of our information in real time.”
She pulls up an activity log that I saw briefly before I left Denver- our head of IT, Rico, walked everyone through it the day before I left.
“Everyone’s been adding any updates and new information they find to this log so we’ve all got access… but you’ve probably already covered this,” Brooke continues. “I’ll get you set up on this computer to work after we conference with Denver. And speaking of…” her voice trails off as she looks over her shoulder, toward the rest of her IT colleagues seated at their desks. “You guys ready for this meeting or what?” she calls out.
There are a lot of mumbles in affirmation, and slowly, the other people in the room begin to make their way over and crowd in around the conference table. Quinn drops into a chair beside me as we wait for everyone to assemble. I don’t think that the six-pack’s IT unit has an official leader, but it seems that Brooke has unofficially stepped into that role since she’s mated to a squad leader and spearheaded the joining of their systems with Denver’s.
“Guys, as you know, this is Astrid,” Brooke says by way of introduction, gesturing to me. “She’s gonna be here with us for the next few weeks, so let’s try to make her feel at home.”
I smile at Brooke appreciatively, then listen as she points around the table naming people off. I’m actually terrible with names, so I doubt I’m going to remember half of them. I’ve totally got the girls down, since there are only four, but the ten guys’ names have already escaped me.
“Alright, you ready to conference with your pack?” Brooke asks after she’s finished introducing everyone.
“For sure,” I nod.
Brooke clicks around the screen with her mouse to connect the video chat, and moments later, I see Rico’s face on the screen set against the backdrop of the Denver hive.
It’s so nice to see a familiar face that I get really excited, giving a little wave and calling out “hi, Rico!”
His face splits into a wide grin. Rico has always liked me- he took me under his wing when I started dabbling in IT and the two of us get along well. Plus it’s fairly obvious that he’s harbored a little crush on me for a while.
“Hey Astrid, nice to see you,” Rico replies smoothly. “We miss you here already.”
“Aww, I miss you guys too!” I gush. Seeing a glimpse of back home tugs at my heart. I’m rarely away from my home in Denver.
“How’s it going over there?” Rico asks.
“Pretty good so far,” I smile. “Still settling in.”
I give Brooke a side-eyed glance, suddenly realizing that I’ve totally hijacked her meeting.Whoops.
“Guess we should probably get to it,” I say, turning to Brooke and effectively handing the reins back over to her.
She smiles at me like she didn’t even mind my interruption, then turns to Rico and starts to speak. “Do you have your whole team together?”
He nods. “They’re here, they’re just off camera.”
“Perfect.” Brooke straightens her glasses, leaning back in her chair. “So going forward, I think we should probably check in once a day to confirm that we’re still on target with the timeline.”
“Agreed,” Rico says. “And right now we’re still at two to three weeks, correct?”
“That’s what we’ve got. Twenty days, give or take.” She looks around the conference table at her colleagues. “Any timeline updates that we should be aware of?”
Nobody speaks up, and after a moment, Brooke looks back to Rico. “We’ll just have to keep a close watch on it. Let us know if anything changes.”
“Will do.” Rico nods again. “And same on your end.”
We go over a few more things before disconnecting, including our intel of the shadow pack’s current position and their projected movements over the coming weeks. When it comes time to say goodbye, I find myself feeling a little sad. I can’t believe I miss home this much already.
“Bye, Rico!” I call, waving as the video feed ends. The rest of the IT staff disperses back to their desks until it’s just Brooke, Quinn and I left at the conference table in the back of the room.
“So how are you settling in, really?” Brooke asks, pushing her chair out and turning to face me fully.