Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

C harleston, South Carolina . . .

Waverly Davenport stuffed her SUV so full that she and her sister, Lark, both had to push hard on the liftgate to get it to latch. Inside was jampacked with suitcases, boxes, a mini fridge, a television, and everything a freshman girl needed for her dorm room.

The liftgate finally clicked shut and Waverly turned to her sister and laughed. "I can't believe it all fits," Waverly said, brushing her hands on her jean shorts. Charleston in August was hotter than Hades and the humidity was a free steam room for all the citizens, whether they wanted to sweat or not. "I thought for sure, based on the size of my vehicle and the size of the boxes, there was no way. But with the slight decrease in volume when the clothes were compressed, we made it."

"I can't believe the summer is over already. I really loved spending time with you, sis." Lark had been emotional this past week as they packed up.

"You're going to be able to spend so much more time with me now that we're in the same city. Plus, I'm assuming you'll be coming to my house to get real food and free laundry at least every two weeks."

"I was thinking every week," Lark told her as they got into the SUV.

"You've talked to your roommate, right? Is she moving in today?" Waverly asked as she drove toward the historic campus on the outskirts of downtown Charleston.

"I have. She's from Connecticut. I think that's why they put me with her. Even though I'm from here, I went to boarding school there. I guess that gives us something in common."

"You'll be her guide to the Southern ways. It might be a culture shock to her, as it was to you to live in the north." Waverly still felt guilty about that. Lark had sworn up and down that she'd loved her school. And it was one of the best schools in the country, but it didn't ease the guilt Waverly felt for sending a mourning teenager off to Connecticut.

"It'll be so much fun! I mean, I bet she's never had shrimp and grits before."

They laughed about all the ways it could be a culture shock as they pulled up to the freshman girls' dorm at the Moultrie State University, about thirty minutes from Charleston. Lark hopped out and checked into her dorm while Waverly checked her work email. Before long, they were both hauling ungodly amounts of baggage up to the third floor of Lark's new dorm.

It took most of the day, but the dorm room was unpacked and decorated. The roommates had become fast friends, and Waverly was left standing by her car as Lark waved good-bye to her. Waverly waited for Lark to get safely back into her building before she turned around and ran smack into one of the college boys who had helped during move-in day.

"Oh! I'm so sorry." Goodness. The boy was probably a senior with ripped muscles and a maturity Lark lacked. Not that Waverly would rob the cradle, even though she was only ten years older than Lark.

He smiled at her as she shoved her sweat-soaked hair from her face. Waverly knew he was just being polite. She was more nerd than bombshell. "No, I'm sorry. Are you going to the party tonight?"

"Me?" Waverly laughed. "I don't go here. My sister does. But have fun tonight. Did you know that close to thirty percent of college-aged kids binge drink? So, drink responsibly."

The smile slid from his face as Waverly started in on the chemical breakdown of alcohol within a body and the factors that influence how much you can drink. She totally lost him at the point when consent could no longer be given. "Yes, ma'am," he said, discomforted.

"But have a great time!" Waverly called out as he scuttled off. She didn't worry about it. She had a lab to get back to.

Waverly was a science nerd, much to her mother's horror. She was far more interested in chemistry and physics than she was in dresses and dates. It made her slightly awkward, but she'd long ago given up caring what people thought. It was freeing after feeling caged by trying to be popular in high school. She'd found her people in college and hadn't looked back.

And now it was about to pay off. She was one little problem away from completing a project she'd started working on while getting her doctorate. She'd worked nonstop and completed her doctorate two years earlier. When she wasn't at school, she was at her job at Charleston Research and Development Institute.

Waverly had started working there as a high school intern during the summer. Then she was part-time in an entry-level job during college and worked up to a full-time position while in graduate school. Just three weeks ago, she'd been appointed chief science officer of her department.

Here she could let her geek flag fly. She was in her element discussing scientific ideas and happy to lead them, organize them, and assist with them. Her team was working with drone attachments. She'd developed a new ground penetrating system that could attach to a drone and scan the area, looking for anomalies in the topography while simultaneously scanning for tunnels beneath the surface.

Ground penetrating radar had been around for decades, but it had to be moved over the ground to get a reading. She'd developed a new drone attachment that gave equally good visuals from the air. She could cover an area in hours that would take days to scan the old way. Plus, she could fly her drones over enemy territory. The hunt for Saddam Hussain would have been over in hours instead of six months.

Waverly pulled into her parking spot and grabbed her bag. The building looked like a medical office park, but it actually housed top-secret research, projects, and information. Research that would change the world. Which was why she had to go through two armed checkpoints to enter the parking lot before going through another checkpoint in the lobby of her building.

From there, she secured her phone in a lockbox and went through an advanced screening machine to show she wasn't hiding anything on her body. After clearing that, she scanned her face and was finally admitted to her lab.

Ah, home.

Waverly loved the clean smell of the industrial lab. It looked more like an engineering lab, with pieces of wire, motherboards, and drone parts on the tables, where they built the physical models of what they came up with theoretically.

"Hey Waverly," Elwood said as he pushed up his glasses. "How was move-in day?" Elwood was her engineering genius of a fabricator. He brought to life what she thought up in her head. He was a couple of years older than she was and if possible, even more awkward. Which was probably why they got along so well. He was cute in that way. He was about the same height as Waverly's five foot seven inches, and they were both the same shade of I never leave the lab to see the sun . Whereas Waverly had wavy brunette hair that was almost constantly in a messy bun, Elwood was always freshly shaved and his light brown hair was always parted on the side and neatly trimmed.

"Way more emotional than I thought," Waverly admitted. "She's right down the road, but it feels as if it's a new era, the end of her being my little sister and becoming just my sister."

"She's really grown up," Elwood said with a kind smile. "You've done a good job with her, Waverly. She's a good kid. Sorry... young lady."

"Waverly," her boss, Garvey, called out from his office on the far side of the lab. "I need a word."

"Kelvin has been . . . dramatic again," Elwood whispered.

Dammit. Couldn't they just calculate physics instead of workplace drama? No one, except Kelvin, created high-school-like drama. Everyone else in the lab was happy to be around people who understood and supported their work. Then there was Kelvin. The grad assistant. He thought the sun was created to shine on him.

"Thanks for the warning. Let's do a lab night out soon."

Waverly walked down the aisle between lab tables. Their offices were in a row behind the lab. Her boss had the large corner office. Waverly was two offices down. She'd just been promoted and she was quickly learning with the promotion came aspects of a lab she never had to deal with—employee relations. She barely had time to set her bag down before she had to deal with employee issues.

"Good afternoon, Garvey. What can I do for you?" Waverly asked as pleasantly as possible. Her mother would approve of her manners there.

"Sit." Crap. This meant it was going to take a while. Garvey was a good boss. She liked him enough to keep working there even though she had offers from the government and other larger research institutes. "First, how was move-in day?"

Garvey was very much a parental figure. His kids had recently graduated from college, so he understood. Plus, his wife, Maria, had basically adopted Waverly and Lark. She regularly made them homemade food and invited them over. "I just told Elwood. It was so much more emotional than I thought."

Garvey nodded with understanding. "I know. I hate I have to bring this up today, but Kelvin has filed a complaint with me."

Waverly wanted to roll her eyes. Kelvin was only six years younger than she was, but it felt as if he were generations removed from her. "Let me guess. Over his Rainmaker project?"

Garvey nodded. "He claims you won't let him proceed to testing."

"No, I won't." Waverly might feel awkward dealing with everyday people, but not here in the lab and not with her co-workers. Here, it was all about numbers, facts, and physics. Those were subjects she could talk about forever. "His numbers are wrong. The math isn't there to prove his theory. I've told him that. I've shown him the mistakes in his calculations, but he won't listen. Want me to show you?"

Thirty minutes later, Garvey was shaking his head. "You're right. Not only that, it's obvious. See, this is why I promoted you."

"It's basic multivariable calculus."

"It's still a good catch. I'll explain it to him again," Garvey told her. "Now, how close are you with your project?"

"One kink, but as you know, that could be solved in five minutes or five years." Waverly tried not to sigh out loud. She'd been working on this project for years. She was so close to the end.

"It's going to be huge when you get it right, and I know you will. Let me know if you need anything. Maria wanted to know if you wanted to join us for our Labor Day party."

"That would be great. Is she making her plantains?"

"You know it."

"Then you can't keep me away." Waverly stood up and thanked him. Now, it was time to get to work.

It didn't take five years. It also didn't take five minutes. It took five weeks.

Waverly looked up at the drone Elwood had flying in the field and screamed as clear ground-penetrating imaging came through from the drone to her laptop.

Elwood laughed as Waverly cried happy tears.

"You did it!" Elwood yelled as he glanced over at her.

"I don't believe it. It works," she whispered to herself as the data streamed in.

"I can't wait for you to show Garvey," Elwood told her. "You're going to be so rich, you're going to retire. Please don't let them promote Kelvin to your position when you leave."

Waverly shook her head. Kelvin was so entitled for someone who did so little work comparatively to what he believed he should be getting. "I'm not leaving. I still have to get the patent, manufacture the drone attachment, and sell it."

"You won't have any trouble selling it. The government will pay you enough to buy your own private island. I'm really happy for you, Waverly. You deserve it." Elwood put his arm around her and gave her a side hug, but Waverly couldn't stop looking at the data streaming in.

It worked. She'd done it.

"How are you going to celebrate?" Elwood asked her as he landed the drone.

Waverly took a deep breath and smiled as she thought about the social media posts she'd saved. "There's this resort in the Caribbean with over-the-water bungalows. I haven't been on vacation since spring break of my senior year in college. I want to go and do all the things I've missed out on."

"Sun and surf. Great idea."

"And books. I have a stack of books Lark has passed on for me to read. And those cute fruity drinks that come in coconuts. And no, Kelvin," she said as they both laughed.

It was a strange feeling walking back into work, knowing she'd created something that would alter her life forever. Kelvin rolled his eyes at her. The others looked on as if trying to figure out if she finished her project. Garvey grinned when he saw her. He could tell by her look that she'd done it.

"You did it." It wasn't a question. Garvey led a round of applause that filled her section of the lab. "Good thing it worked. I just got off the phone with the government. They want it and they're going to pay a lot for it."

Waverly's heart stopped. "They want it? How do they even know about it?"

"I had a feeling you figured it out. So, I called them." Garvey grinned. "Good job, Waverly. This will be the company's largest product launch."

"I think she deserves a vacation," Elwood said after Garvey finished shaking Waverly's hand.

Waverly was in a total daze. She'd done it. Her project had taken seven years, but she'd done it. It was . . . over? What would she do now?

"Don't overthink it, Waverly," Garvey warned her. "I order you to take a two-week vacation starting now. Elwood will fill in for you while you're gone. Rest, celebrate, and when you come back, we can start the patent process and get to work on a new project."

"But . . ." Now faced with actual time off, she didn't know what to do. She wanted to look over the data. She wanted to analyze every bit of it.

"No buts. You're on forced celebratory vacation." Garvey smiled at her so she knew he wasn't mad, and for the first time in almost a decade, Waverly walked from the building with no work in her bag or on her mind.