The Trap Snaps Shut

The class of twenty-four hovered uncomfortably at the front of the auditorium . Twenty-four was an awkward size. It was too many people for even the large meeting rooms in their standard layouts, but it was too small for the auditorium MaestroTech only usually booked for full company meetings or public events. Still, better arrangements could and should have been made.

Dorothea was standing behind the lectern on the dais, which was an uncomfortable distance away from the front row of chairs with so few people. Dorothea didn't seem to notice. She ploughed through the introductory speech, showed the various prepared films usually directed at new hires or investors, and somehow managed to make even MaestroTech seem boring. All of it was information any of the students could have learnt from the website, with no additional insights that would help new graduates to determine whether they were a good fit.

"And finally," said Dorothea at length. "I am honoured to have select one of your very own classmates to present to us after lunch. I was very impressed with the quality and enthusiasm you all showed for the task, but one presentation stood head and shoulders above the rest. This presentation was so excellent that, not only will the person in question be able to present it now, they're also invited to present it in the convention we will be hosting in two weeks."

Dorothea paused, so the students clapped. It was more a conditioned response than anything else, however. Presenting to hundreds of strangers on short notice probably struck most of them as more of a nightmare.

"I have to admit here that I peeked a little," said Dorothea. "I just had to know who had created it, so I actually went into the logs to find out who it was. Without further ado, the winning presentation is: 'Designing for a Happier Workplace', by Georgina Saffer!"

Under noise of the second round of clapping, the person next to her leaned over to whisper, "I thought that was your presentation."

"So did I," replied Lillianna dryly. Internally she was feeling a little smug. It was always satisfying when a plan came together.

"Are you going to say something?" asked the student.

"I'll leave it and have a word with the professor afterwards," said Lillianna. "No point in embarrassing anyone."

"Come on up here, Georgina," said Dorothea with an encouraging smile.

"Is she going to say anything?"

That was something Lillianna was curious about as well. From Georgina's expression, it didn't look like they had discussed anything in advance, so there was still the one additional escape route that Lillianna had offered. If Georgina disclaimed ownership of the presentation, then Lillianna would only score a half victory. Dorothea would only look a little incompetent to this small group, and Lillianna would get to do her presentation as planned. If Georgina went along with the lie, however, then Dorothea would quickly find herself in too deep to extract herself. Lillianna believed in judging people by the company they kept, so she would allow Dorothea's friends to save or damn her.

"Thank you," said Georgina. "I'm honoured that you chose me."

That answered that then. It would be the full treatment.

As they brought in the catered lunch to the auditorium (which was little more than wilted cucumber on bread triangles – really, was Dorothea trying to make MaestroTech look cheap?), Lillianna pulled the professor aside.

"Professor, I believe there has been some mix-up," said Lillianna. "I don't want to embarrass our guide, but the 'Designing for a Happier Workplace' presentation is mine. Unless Georgina and I used the same title?"

Georgina had not submitted a presentation at all. That had been one thing that Lillianna had triple-checked before setting up the trap.

"No," said the professor with a frown of his own. "The submissions were anonymised, but I would have noticed if there were any duplicate titles."

Lillianna grimaced as if she was genuinely disappointed the easiest option wasn't available. "Miss Blake probably just read out the wrong presentation name then. It's not a big deal, but we should probably let her know so she doesn't introduce it incorrectly later."

"I'll do that now."

The professor walked over to where Dorothea and Georgina were still huddled next to the lectern. Following his progress, Lillianna watched as Georgina took a USB from the machine running the display and scurried off out of sight. The class had all been asked to hand in a full package that included the proposed speech as well as the visual presentation, and Lillianna had been particularly thorough about it, writing the speech out in full rather than her more typical bullet points. Georgina was no doubt heading off to practice 'her' speech. Lillianna gave Georgina a fifty/fifty chance of not failing miserably later that day, and that was only because this particular group of people would be the most forgiving audience she would ever be in front of.

After a few minutes of conversation, the professor waved to Lillianna to join them.

"Is this your presentation?" asked the professor, pointing to the smaller display on the lectern.

Lillianna scrolled through it. "Yes, that's it."

The professor said, "Miss Blake here says that she went into the time logging software to determine the author, and it showed it to be Miss Saffer."

"I believe it started as a group project," said Dorothea with a fake smile, "But by the end of it, one person was clearly the major contributor. I just confirmed with Georgina that she did the bulk of the preparation. I'm sure you won't want to take credit for someone else's work, now would you, Lillianna? I can easily prove the time logs if you're in any doubt."

Lillianna kept her face completely expressionless in response to Dorothea's barely veiled gloating.

"If Georgina says it's hers," said Lillianna, "Then I'm not going to contradict her. Thank you for your time."

Lillianna turned and walked away, making sure her hands were visibly shaking. She was playing to more than one audience. It didn't take more than a few seconds for the professor to join her.

"Do you want to pursue this?" asked the Professor.

He clearly not buying the group project excuse. His assumption that she really was the true author of the presentation was also as Lillianna had expected. Georgina did not have a particularly bad reputation, but she wasn't Lillianna Kendrick. Even aside from her money and power, it didn't seem likely that Lillianna would need to indulge in fraud. Lillianna was consistently at the top of the class, both in project work and exams. Georgina stealing from Lillianna made sense. Lillianna stealing from Georgina did not.

Lillianna but her lip, then shook her head. "It's not for marks or anything. I just… Let's not wreck anyone's reputation or job prospects over this. I'm sure the logging thing was just some sort of glitch, and then Georgina just caught up in the moment and lost the chance to correct Dorothea. She's also a victim, in a way. I don't want a scandal attached to either the university or MaestroTech."

"It is possible to put pressure on Miss Saffer without making the whole thing official," said the professor.

"Thank you, professor," said Lillianna, "But let's just let this go."

"Very well," said the professor. "It's your choice. But let me know if you change your mind."

"Thank you, professor," she said with a sincere smile.

So many people in his situation would have been urging her not to make a fuss or rock the boat. It was nice to encounter people who were willing to put themselves out there just because it was the right thing to do. She would have to remember him in future.

After the lunch, they waited while only a handful of MaestroTech wandered in. Lillianna frowned to herself. If she had to guess, she would say that Dorothea had simply scheduled it and informed the company at large that they could come if they wanted. That, predictably, would only result in the most socially conscious and the most bored attending. In the previous life, a fair sampling of some of the more senior staff members including her brother had been in attendance – and had, now that she thought about it, also attended the lunch as well to answer questions.

It didn't seem likely that Dorothea would deliberately sabotage Georgina's big chance. Lillianna could only imagine that something else had changed – perhaps someone more competent had been working with Dorothea the previous time around, and Dorothea had excluded them. That was unfortunate. She had planned on her brother's presence.

Almost ten minutes in, when it seemed they were more likely to lose the viewers they had than gain new ones, the presentation started. It was… fine. Georgina stuck to reading the prepared speech aloud. It was hardly captivating, but it did make her seem simply nervous rather than entirely out of her depth. Lillianna watched as her classmates exchanged glances with each other, and then started texting each other, discretely hiding the light from their phones from view. The rumours behind the situation had already circulated, and the presentation was crowning those off. Lillianna had never been shy about doing speeches at university, and her speaking style was instantly recognisable even in Georgina's voice.

Lillianna noticed a silhouette sitting half concealed next to the door, and felt her shoulders relax in relief. She would not have to plan again entirely from scratch. Raphael had made it after all. Part of her was a little disappointed that he had not done anything to interfere, but most of her had expected exactly this inaction.

She quietly moved over to sit next to him as the talk began to wind down and Dorothea took over to make some closing statements. "Did you see the whole presentation?" she asked quietly.

"Most of it," said Raphael.

"As you could no doubt tell," she said, "The speaker does not have a great deal of experience. It's great that it was selected for the convention. But to make sure the convention goes well, perhaps it might be worth scheduling a practice run in the same format? Get her used to answering audience questions, and defending herself to the panel?"

Raphael snorted. "Lillianna. I know that you wrote that presentation. It even has some examples I talked about in it. Why is it being given by some other girl?"

"Believe me, it wasn't my idea," said Lillianna. "Dorothea chose the presentation, and says she has proof that Georgina was the real author. There wasn't any real way of defending myself without making a scene."

"I'm sure it wasn't like that," protested Raphael. "There must have been some sort of misunderstanding, or perhaps that girl misled her in some way."

"It was exactly like that," said Lillianna, with more bite to her voice. "And it's getting rather tiring to always give someone else the benefit of the doubt when they never return the favour. I did bring it up to her in person. She all but accused me of lying. And also…"

Lillianna trailed off as if she had accidentally gone too far.

"And also?"

"And also, I knew you'd support Dorothea over me," said Lillianna, dropping her volume again to avoid being noticed by anyone else. "You always do."

"That's not fair," said Raphael, matching her quietness. "I've always stayed neutral in any of your arguments. You know that."

"I know that's what you think," said Lillianna. "But it isn't true. Not doing anything is not the same thing as not making a judgement. It's the same thing as judging the person doing the attacking to be in the right. Neutral would be condemning us equally for the same actions we take. Not condemning either of us is only be truly neutral if we're both doing the same thing. I know I am biased on the matter, but I do not think it is fair to compare my attempts to defend myself to her constant need to attack me."

"You're exaggerating," said Raphael. "And Dorothea is a really sweet girl underneath. She's just a little insecure because of her upbringing. You just need to be a little patient with her."

Lillianna looked away, making sure Raphael could not see her face in the dim light. "We've lost track of the point. I don't care about the presentation. I'll no doubt prepare plenty more that I can give during plenty more conventions. But I do care about MaestroTech's reputation if it becomes obvious Georgina doesn't know what she's talking about. So, again, I advise you organise a practice run. If Georgina does well, then fine. Let her have the victory. It won't get her very far when she can't do it again. If she doesn't do well, then we have an excuse to pull the speech from the convention without mentioning anything about theft."

The room lights came on suddenly, momentarily blinding them.

"Class! Please group up," said the professor. "We've run a little late, and the bus is here already."

"I have to go," said Lillianna.

"We can discuss this later," said Raphael, waving her off.

Lillianna nodded, but knew they wouldn't -- or at least, not soon. That was fine. She had planted all the seeds she intended to in this discussion, and was happy to give them time to grow.