Maddy kicks in the conference room door like she's raiding a meth lab, not running late to a Tuesday meeting. She's wearing a tie-dye NASA hoodie and leggings that look like they were manufactured by a child with ADHD. The laptop is already open in her hand. She slams it down on the table, nearly vaporizing Jian's iced coffee, and points at the screen with both hands. "Look," she says, breathless. "Read it. Just read it."
She spins the Thinkpad so it faces me and Jian. The subject line is visible even before Jian's glasses finish sliding down the bridge of his nose. From: Cheryl.L@cencora.com To: maddy@inferthermic.com, alex@inferthermic.com, jian@inferthermic.com Date: March 18, 2027 Subject: Cencora + Inferthermic Integration Path
Maddy, Alex, Jian -
Just got off the call with our CTO. We're moving forward with your endpoints for all internal LLM-based employee queries. This is a go. Next steps are legal and procurement, but you should expect a formal announcement by end of month. You'll be our first non-pilot AI integration vendor. Don't let us down. -Cheryl VP, Enterprise Systems
Jian reads it out loud, monotone, as if scared saying the words too fast will break the spell. My jaw is somewhere under the table. The three of us just stare at each other. "Wait," I say. "Is this real?" I tap the screen. "I mean, is this...