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The General Manager’s announcement never left John’s mind long after the meeting had ended. Everyone else had walked out casually, but John felt like the air had grown strong. Timothy, on the other hand, sat too calm as if he had already seen something like this coming.

John maintained closeness as they walked down the corridor. “Timothy, this feels bigger than just a car rental app. Did you notice the urgency in the boss’s voice?”

Timothy gave a small smile, the kind that never revealed much. “Yes. And that’s exactly why we can’t afford to fail.”

That afternoon, both managers locked themselves in John’s office. The window blinds were half-drawn, showing long shadows across the whiteboard. John went ahead to scribble words: DEMAND TRACKER, PRICING ENGINE, PROMO MANAGER.

“This is the skeleton of our system,” John said, tapping the marker on the board. “If one part collapses, the whole program fails.”

Timothy studied the board silently, then said, “We need engineers who can think. People who won’t stop under pressure.”

John raised an eyebrow. “Pressure? Do you know something I don’t?”

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Timothy’s smile was deep, but he didn’t answer and left.

By the next morning, they had brought in five of the company’s best engineers. Each one looked troubled after hearing the timeline. Six weeks was difficult in their field.

One of the engineers whispered, “Is this even possible?”

Timothy clapped his hands, his voice focused. “We’re not here to doubt, we’re here to build something no one else has built. If we succeed, my budget won’t just be a software company, it’ll be a market leader.”

John remained serious, “And if we fail, don’t bother polishing your résumés, because the boss made it clear: there’s no room for failure here.”

The room went quiet once again.

After some moment of silent, they broke the project into phases: research, build, integration, and testing. Every hour mattered, John obsessed over architecture diagrams, algorithms, and scales. Timothy handled the human side, making sure the team didn’t break down under the pressure.

But as the days passed, the team began to show signs of breakdown.

During week two, an argument came up.
“This pricing engine is overcomplicated!” one engineer said.
“It has to be,” John shot back. “The client wants real-time demand tracking, do you want the system to collapse during rush hour?”

The air went tense until Timothy raised his voice, “Enough! Think like users you guys, imagine you’re booking a car at midnight or during a storm, what would you expect? Simplicity, Reliability, not mathematical fireworks.”

Reluctantly, the team adjusted the design. But John couldn’t stop having the feeling that Timothy always knew how to steer the storm in their favor.

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By week four, the office no longer felt like an office, it was a battlefield with empty coffee cups littered on the desks. The hum of computers filled the silence in the room as everyone worked past midnight.

John felt the weight of every passing second. Sometimes he caught Timothy watching him, too calmly, as if he was measuring how he handled stress.

“Why are you so calm?” John asked one night. His eyes were already turned red from staring at code for hours.

Timothy bent against a desk while he responded. “Because panic solves nothing, and also because I’ve done projects under worse conditions.”

John frowned. “Worse than this?”

Timothy didn’t answer directly. “Let’s just say… this project matters more than you realize.”

Something in his tone got John worried.

Week five brought disaster, a major bug appeared in the pricing engine. During a simulation, the app charged a user negative fare, practically offering to pay them to rent a car.

John sound his fist on the desk. “If this happens during the client demo, we’re finished!”

The team panicked, voices raising, until Timothy raised his hand. “Silence!. Fixing this isn’t about rewriting the whole system, it’s about finding the weak link.”

They traced the bug to a single miscalculation in the demand curve algorithm. John rewrote the formula with shaky hands because he was already tensed. Hours later, the system stabilized.

But the scare left a question hanging in the room: Was someone intentionally preventing their efforts?

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The deadline came quietly, and everyone was already exhausted, running on caffeine and adrenaline. But slowly, the app began to come alive. Real-time pricing responded to the test scenarios: rush-hour deals, weekend drops, and promotional offers that adjusted without running out profits.

Now, on the morning of the demo, John barely slept. Timothy walked in, looking perfectly organized, as if he had been waiting for this moment all along.

The General Manager sat at the head of the table, watching like a bird. The client began testing, morning booking: success, evening surge: success, midnight discount: perfect.

When the final testing ended, the client leaned back, impressed. “This is groundbreaking.”

The General Manager’s face lightened. “Gentlemen… you’ve outdone yourselves.”

John became relieved after hearing this, but as applause filled the room, he looked at Timothy, who simply gave him that same mysterious smile. For a moment, John wondered if Timothy had known the outcome all along or if there was still more beneath.

The project was over. But for John, the suspense had only just begun.

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