He had decided long before that night that he was going nowhere in his current position with pumped storage research and development, because McDougal was on a power trip. McDougal, it seemed, could not get enough of it. Ate it, drank it, rolled in it. Although David was supposed to have as much to do with the plan and design of the holding reservoir as anyone, he was handcuffed by McDougal, who refused to allow anyone else’s ideas to cross the drawing board. Or if he did, he claimed them as his own. David had finally complained to the CEO, Marc Killingly, but Killingly had shown an obstinate refusal to listen, and he decided it was time to get out. But the economy was bad and his job was their only source of income (We made the decision that I would stay home with Jessie, Helen had said, the one and only time they talked about it before the trouble really started. We need the money.) And he had remained mute, unable to make her understand the impotence he felt when he was at work, his self-image (say it, yes, your pride) shattered by McDougal’s refusal to recognize his potential contribution to the company. He knew he was good at what he did, but he wanted to prove it, he wanted to design and help build the plant, not continue to turn over his ideas to some scavenger who claimed them as his own.

And then he had seen the problem. Even now he felt the urge to reaffirm to himself that he had been right, that there had been something wrong with the plans and that he was not just looking for revenge. He had seen a structural weakness one night, purely by accident. The lower section of the reservoir simply would not hold up under the pressure of a continuous flow at peak rates, no matter how many times he figured it. It didn’t add up. Of course, he didn’t try to deny the rush of triumph that had flowed quickly through his limbs, but that was all right. Because the mistake was there in plain sight, for anyone to see.

Anyone except McDougal, that is.

McDougal was dismissive, all but throwing him out of his office. But David wouldn’t walk away that easily. He showed the man the figures, shoved them in his face when he refused to see them. Finally, he stormed out, intending to go to Killingly the next morning, but by the time he got back to the office the plans had been corrected with his suggestions. And McDougal didn’t say anything to him at all; McDougal took the credit for it, even going so far as to tell Killingly the change was his idea, and that it had been to correct the mistake of one of the younger engineers.