Teri's Point of View
Dangerous curves!
Teri was admiring herself in the bathroom mirror. The hip pads and padded bra were seamless, looking completely natural. Her pencil skirt was tight and slightly above the knees to show off her long legs.
Got to play to your strengths, she thought with no small amount of pride. Was enhancing herself in this way dishonest? In the end, it didn't matter. Once a man had you naked he wouldn't be complaining about your hips not being as wide as advertised.
Terry was busy, and she had the perfect excuse to invite Alex out for lunch, alone. Teri had been working on him for a while, being friendly, making him think there was nothing odd about spending time with her without her brother around. If all else failed, breast augmentation, even a BBL, were options she was willing to explore.
Damn Alice Adelman! Alex should be mine! He and Terry were basically brothers. Why not make it official?
She stepped with purpose, consciously making her heels click audibly as she traversed the Arlington office of Lockhole Merlin, her hunting ground.
"Alex, hey!" she greeted brightly. He didn't seem to hear her.
The object of her affection was hunched over a monitor, trying to explain a block of code to their decidedly non-technical boss, Charles "Chip" Lackland.
"Now see here, Chip, we're essentially going to turn the missiles into a cloud computing network."
Chip was nodding along like he understood. Comical.
"It's the same basic logic as an autonomous drone swarm," Alex continued. "Don't think of the missiles as individuals. It's more like they're a hive-mind, or brain cells in a single brain. Every missile is going to be taking in sensor data and the whole swarm will distribute it to process across the whole network. Based on the inputs, our reasoning model will make tactical decisions weighted for whatever outcome we want."
"Are there any problems with this idea?" Chip asked.
Hah, Chip was dumb, but not that dumb. The best way to seem like he knew what was happening was to ask obvious questions.
"Missile to missile communication could be disrupted," Alex said immediately. "But we're working on it, Chip. This is at. ANIS is viable. Once we've got it polished the system could be running on hardware Lockhole already manufactures. It'll be a huge upgrade in battlespace lethality, just the thing to deter Chinese aggression in the Pacific."
Teri couldn't help but smile fondly. Alex was an MIT engineer after all, with that brain and his buff body he was pretty much the ideal husband. Soon he would be hers, if all went according to plan.
"Oh, Teri, I didn't see you there. I was just showing Chip what we're working on."
"It looks amazing," she said sincerely. Fully autonomous missiles were a huge development, and Alex was headed for swift promotion once this project was fully funded and embraced by the Pentagon. "But how about taking a break? You've been working so hard, and it's nearly lunchtime. Did you here that "We, The Pizza" opened a satellite restaurant in Arlington? It's only five minutes away!"
The flash of interest in Alex's eyes told the whole story. He had always been a big eater, and We, The Pizza was legendary in Washington.
"I don't know, Teri," he said dubiously. "Alice and I have been trying to save money..."
Alice! Alice! Alice! She jerked her head away in case she grimaced involuntarily.
"What's wrong?" Alex asked worriedly.
"Oh, nothing. A bug just flew past my face. Don't worry about money. I'm inviting you, so it's my treat! How about it?"
"Uh," he clutched the back of his head uncomfortably. "Do you want pizza, Terry?" Alex asked her brother.
"No can do, bro! I'm locked in right now!"
God, she loved her brother. He was the best wing man ever!
Alex looked at her and back at Terry. "Are you sure, man? We've been grinding all morning."
Terry shook his head and peaked out from behind his monitor. "I told you, dude, I'm locked in. You did the heavy lifting on designing the architecture, the least I can do is get started on the implementation. Ideas are flowing. No way I can eat while I'm this hot! You go have fun."
Alex looked like he wanted to say no but couldn't think of a reason.
Checkmate. "Come on, I'll buy you an extra large. That's enough to take the leftovers home."
"Home...Alice," Alex thought out loud.
FUCK! Teri thought to tempt him with food but it made him think of his fucking girlfriend!
"Yeah, you can take some home to Alice," she tried to salvage the situation. Mentioning her sworn enemy was an indignity, but it was a price Teri was willing to pay.
"I don't know, Teri. Eating lunch alone with a woman is fine if it's at the company food court, but going to a restaurant? I think that's crossing the line."
Shit, she thought furiously, trying to figure out some excuse he would accept.
"How about I join you?" Chip butted in.
"Oh shit, you like pizza, Chip?" Alex asked enthusiastically.
"Who doesn't?" Chip replied.
Her target sounded way too happy with this turn of events for her to back out now. Chip Lackland would cramp her style, but there wasn't anything she could do. Lunch alone would just have to wait. Next time, there would be no cock blockers around when she asked.
"I'll drive," Teri offered.
When they got to the parking lot Chip called out, "I call shotgun!" like a child and opened her front passenger door. Teri truly despised that man. He was everything wrong with America embodied in one person.
On the way to We, The Pizza, she admired Alex in the rear view mirror. Those broad shoulders, those muscles that strained against the dark blue button down he wore, harmonized brilliantly with his soft kind face, the kind of face she could imagine looking down fondly on their future children.
"I've eaten at the real one in Washington before," Chip bragged. "Actual senators eat at We, The Pizza all the time. My dad..."
She tuned out Chip talking about his Republican asshole father, the same one who refused to condemn Aaron Hacker's blatant fascism.
When they arrived, she ordered two large pizzas, one pepperoni and one sausage. Her big boy had a big appetite. We, The Pizza had plain white walls and was as unadorned as a hospital waiting room. Some might call it sterile, but you didn't go there for the decor. The pizza was amazing, if you liked salt and grease, and Alex did. Teri could bear with the heavy food if it made him happy.
"You're really knocking it out of the park these days, Alex," Chip complimented him. Teri wasn't going to argue with that. "ANIS is gonna tear the Chinamen a new one."
Took him thirty seconds to make his first racist comment. That must've been a record. "Just what is that supposed to mean, Chip?"
The rich asshole just shrugged. "Relax, Teri. I'm talking about China the country, not the Chinese people."
"Come on, Chip, 'Chinaman' is a racist term," Alex tried to teach Chip how to be a decent human being, utterly futile in her view.
"Yeah, whatever," Chip said dismissively. "All this woke nonsense is gonna go away once Hacker wins. He's gonna Make America Strong Again."
A spike of adrenaline had her jittering in her seat. Intellectually, she knew Chip was a Hacker supporter, but to hear it in person was something else.
"I don't know, man. The Republicans rolled over for him but I don't think the dems will. The GOP has been throwing shit at the wall since Blimp flamed out in 2016. They just don't have anybody viable," Alex said reasonably.
Republican Super Tuesday was last week. Hacker swept it all, clinching the nomination. Democrat Super Tuesday was right around the corner. Teri was looking forward to it. "Wait till he goes up against Rebecca Rodriguez-Cooper in a real debate," Teri said viciously. "You heard about her new 'Three Big Costs' campaign? She's going to build affordable housing and de-radicalize online incels. The polls speak for themselves."
RRC's big jump in the polls was thrilling to watch. Hopefully, she'd secure the nomination early and the Democrats would avoid the infighting that hurt Harriet Clayton in 2016.
Alex looked at her strangely. "Just, uh, don't get your hopes up, Teri. Jim Paine is still in the race. He's been the Veep for eight years and he was the governor of Virginia. The Clayton machine is fully backing him; that's nothing to sneeze out."
"Hacker would make that cuck eat his own asshole," Chip blurted out. "RRC can at least yell her socialist bullshit. Can you name one thing Jim Paine stands for?"
Alex's silence was answer enough. Rodriguez-Cooper had this!
When their food arrived, she dabbed her slice with a napkin and peeled off the salty pepperoni and offered it to Alex, who accepted it happily.
The much more slightly-built Chip Lackland was going slice for slice with her crush. She hoped there would be enough leftovers for Alex to take home. Teri would pay to see Alice's face when he told his girlfriend he ate lunch with her. Maybe Alice would get jealous. Maybe they'd have a fight. A girl could dream.
"You know," Chip said after a sip of soda, "RRC's idea isn't that bad."
Wait, really? "I never thought I'd hear you say that," Teri said honestly.
"Yeah," he said confidently. "Young guys need to get off their ass, learn discipline. But building apartment blocks or whatever? Waste of time. Put all their asses in the Army. We could invade Canada! Take their oil! Fuck, Mexico too while we're at it."
"Dude, are you being serious right now?" Alex asked incredulously. "Take it from me, the military sucks, and war sucks most of all."
"That's only because we didn't get anything out of it. I say, if so many Mexicans want to come here, why don't we bring America to them for a change? Maybe they can learn the value of an honest day's work under American management."
Vintage Chip Lackland, she thought bitterly. He'd espouse joining the military when he never joined. He'd advocate for wars he'd never fight in. He'd preach the value of an honest day's work when he'd had everything handed to him by his senator father. The fact that he was in charge of their project made her want to scream at the injustice of the world.
Apparently, that comment was serious enough for Alex to put down his pizza. "That kind of talk is dangerous, Chip. The world isn't exactly stable right now. You think inflation is bad here? No, it's way worse in other countries. In some places, people can't afford food. Egypt and Ethiopia are gonna be in a water war soon. Russia is threatening to bomb Ukraine. India and Pakistan are just waiting to go at it again. Clayton barely dodged impeachment and the world thinks the US is becoming more unstable. It is entirely possible for things to go bad, real bad."
"You worry too much," Chip said lackadaisically, proving he wasn't listening to a thing Alex said.
Actually, Teri didn't know things were that bad. Alex's knowledge of international affairs was so impressive!
"Aaron Hacker is a slick talker," Alex said begrudgingly, "but the world is a powder keg and he's passing out matches. That's the opposite of what we need. Say what you want about Clayton, but things haven't flamed out on her watch. That's a huge accomplishment."
"You mean things have stagnated," Chip said. "We need somebody to shake things up!"
"Famous last words," Alex muttered.
A somber mood fell on their lunch table after that. Alex and Chip ate quietly and Teri didn't have the guts to break the silence.
She was paying, so Teri made sure Alex got the whole box of leftovers. "It'll be okay, Alex. Rodriguez-Cooper will win for sure."
A shadow passed over his face. "I hope so, Teri. I hope so."