Chapter Two
"I'd like to show you something I've been working on," Gracie said to Dean Weiner when she approached him at the next meetup. To hide her nervousness she took a sip from the plastic cup of cheap wine they always served at the faculty monthlies. It had taken a while for her to get the Dean alone and she was depending on the background noise of conversations and the elevator-quality music that always got played at these events to mask her words. From the corner of her eye she saw Dahlia watching them.
"Correct procedure, Miss Bell, is to request an appointment through my EA."
Weiner's executive assistant seemed to have a standing order to schedule Gracie's appointments at least six weeks in advance and then postpone them a couple of times. Normally Gracie was fine with that, since she didn't want to meet with Weiner any more than he wanted to meet with her. But not this particular meeting. "I would do that, except you're so busy we'd have to wait too long for it." She pretended to sip the wine while she looked up at him, trying to give a pleasant expression. She'd wanted to wear heels tonight to get closer to his height and look him in the eye. The spikes she'd used with Damon were her highest, but she didn't want to wear them here. She'd settled on a pair of mid-height pumps she'd bought on a whim at a comics convention. "This is a breakthrough. I don't think we should wait. You know, IP."
She did her best to suppress a smug smile. Another thorn in the Dean's side was Gracie's significant and growing list of software patents the U. loved and that he resented. He checked his watch for no good reason. The meetup was winding down. "Very well. I can only give you five or ten minutes."
"That should be enough." The new video was less than two minutes long.
They walked back to his office. She caught Dahlia's eye and motioned for her to follow. He took a seat behind his overlarge desk while she closed the door. She didn't bother sitting down in the low, uncomfortable chair he kept in front of his desk. It would have put her too far away, and anyway she was nervous. This new video was unexplored territory for her, both technically and sexually. She'd hardly looked at it as she assembled it, uncomfortable with the images. She took out her phone, swiped to the 1.6D version, set it down on his desk in front of him, leaning forward to get it close, right in front of him. She'd bought a phone case with a little stand so she could prop it up. It was aimed right at him.
"What is this?" He was suspicious.
"New tech," she answered and started the video.
His lips started to sneer, but then the adaptive GAN engaged. His jaw slackened and his eyes grew big and round. She'd made 1.6D especially for him. It included the ML enhancements of 1.6, but the payload was special content, very special content. She'd scraped the Web for a range of images she thought might work: a knight kneeling before his queen, kissing her hand; old men kissing various female non-sexual body parts, especially shoes and stockinged feet-- there seemed to be an endless supply of those. More men crying, confessing; a little boy hugging his mother's leg. She was shotgunning, adding basically whatever she could find that would show female authority. She'd thrown in some images of pussy eating, of course, and of course not her own. Some photos of small penises, a little joke. And for good measure, a giant server farm.
She slipped out of his office quietly when the video had done its job, phone in hand. Dahlia was waiting just outside, a quizzical look on her face.
# # #
Earlier she'd found Dahlia and said to her, "I'm going to ask for a private meeting with Weiner in a while." That immediately got Dahlia's interest. Deliberately engaging with that man was not what Dahlia would have expected from Gracie. "I'm not sure how it will turn out, so I'd like you to stick around to... I guess... talk to him after."
Dahlia looked her up and down. Gracie wanted to get with Paul again after the meetup, but the miniskirt was too much, so she'd found a mid-thigh skirt mentioned a while back in a Reddit post in r/animefashion, that she'd bought, plus a tube top to give Paul easier access. And the shoes she'd picked up at a comics convention. They were silly, sporting little cartoonish images printed all over them. She was particularly aware of how short she really was. In Dahlia's eyes she must look a bit manga. Oh well. That's what she was.
"If you need help, sure," Dahlia had agreed.
"I don't think I'm the one who'll need help." She wasn't sure how to explain what to expect. She didn't know herself. "Give me a few minutes with him. I just think you'll want to talk to him after."
They'd moved on to talk about other things, U. politics, a new movie Gracie hadn't heard about. Dahlia didn't seem to be into anime.
"That fucker," Dahlia said, looking over Gracie's shoulder and indicating two men in an uncomfortable conversation. "Gordo's such a pig." The pig was Gordon, Dr. Hardin, as he insisted everyone call him. He was giving an earful of something unpleasant to Stan, a new member of the Computer Science department. "Fucking homophobe. Won't leave Stan alone."
Gracie didn't know Stan very well, but he'd seemed pleasant the few times they'd talked. He was deep into theoretical foundations, one of those people wondering if P really could be equal to NP, not something Gracie wasted her time on. But he never hit on her. It was hard to imagine he'd done anything to deserve whatever Hardin was dishing out in low but harsh tones. "Stan's..." she began. She was so oblivious. He was gay? Not that it mattered to her. "What could Stan have done?"
"It's not Stan, it's Gordo. For people like him, every accusation is a confession."
Dahlia moved in to rescue Stan from his tormenter. Gracie liked Stan, as much as she knew him, which wasn't much. Not Hardin, who never missed a chance to either hit on her or find some kind of little dig, or both. She studied Hardin as Dahlia pulled Stan away from him. He had strong features, muscles, a mustache. She thought she heard Hardin say "Bitch" as Dahlia and Stan left. She glowered at him. He noticed her. She quickly turned away. The last thing she wanted was for Hardin to be aware of her. But she had an idea.
# # #
"What should I--" Dahlia began outside the Dean's office, but Gracie stopped her.
"Just go in," she said in a low voice. When Dahlia stepped inside Gracie stayed outside and pulled the door almost closed, but left it open a crack so she could watch.
Weiner looked up as Dahlia entered. He immediately scurried around from behind his desk and knelt before Dahlia. He looked up at her briefly, his jaw still wide open, with a subservient, even obsequious expression on his face she'd never seen before, quite satisfactorily pathetic. Then he put his head down and began to kiss Dahlia's boot. Gracie had chosen photos of shoes as much like Dahlia's as she could find. Dahlia lifted her other boot and placed it on the Dean's shoulder, pressing him lower. She turned to Gracie, at first surprised. She rolled her eyes and wagged her head at Gracie, an acknowledgement between them that she understood, then waved her good-bye. Gracie closed the door fully and went back out to the party and Paul.
# # #
