The Goddess Shines on America

Lockheed Corporation headquarters in Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland.

This is a close distance, because Maryland is located just north of Washington, D.C., and Bethesda is next to Washington, D.C. itself. The distance between the two city centers is not even eight miles. Departing early in the morning, arriving at the city by car from the hotel, and then arriving at the headquarters of Lockheed Corporation, even fifteen minutes is too much for the whole journey.

The company has a huge square building with a wide parking lot in front of the door. When Alice was invited into the building by Oren, engineers could be seen in a hurry everywhere. But when they saw Oren, they all greeted him warmly, and looked at Alice in surprise.

"Hey, Mr. Lockheed."

The Indian man at the front desk saw Oren and greeted him warmly, "You arrived early today."

Oren nodded and said, "Call the guys in charge of the YF-22 project, and have a meeting in conference room B-2 in half an hour."

The front desk clerk glanced at the silent Alice, then nodded swiftly and said, "Okay, Mr. Lockheed."

Seeing that the employee lowered his head to make a phone call immediately, Alice couldn't help interjecting: "I mean Oren, conference room B-2?"

"Northrop Grumman."

Oren laughed and said: "That's right, Alice, the bid for the B-2 bomber was taken away by this damn company, so now we have to fight for the development of the YF-22. If two aircraft projects in a row They succeeded, my father must have a cerebral hemorrhage."

"Okay, I'll try my best..."

Smiling cheerfully, when Oren led her into an elevator, Alice said: "Actually, I've done my best, and I've only been to Washington once or twice. In general, it really deserves to be the political center of the country." What about Oren, the building we passed just now belongs to the NSA?"

Of course Oren knew which building Alice was referring to. He nodded and said, "Washington is that big. Of course you can't expect to put all the agencies there. The CIA is in Langley, and the National Security Agency is in Fort Meade." , the FBI is far away in Quantico, Virginia, and is basically set up around Washington."

Alice clicked her tongue twice, but said nothing more.

After getting out of the elevator, the two continued to walk along the way. From time to time, passing employees would say hello to Oren, and more or less give Alice an extra look. Of course, Alice was also looking at the surrounding environment, and of course it all fell into Oren's eyes.

"This is also your first visit to our company, how do you feel?"

"Very manly."

After thinking about it for a while, when Oren opened the door of the meeting room for her, Alice said: "Maybe it's because they are all male engineers? The interior decoration style of the building is really pitifully monotonous, everywhere is blue and black. The main color is cool, but it doesn’t even have a slightly stylish interior. So, you didn’t invite any outstanding designers to arrange it for you?”

To be reasonable, Oren wanted to let Alice make some comments on the company atmosphere, but this girl picked a lot of problems from the decoration.

"This... is an old building that has been around for decades..."

"It's been decades, but you haven't thought about the decoration problem at all?"

Saying so, Alice strolled in the empty meeting room, looking at the extremely plain snow-white cement walls around her: "We are not a government or public institution, so don't we need to rely on hardship and simplicity to satisfy the public's psychology? Look This wall, look at this window sill, there are no potted flowers, don't you feel bored when you work?"

As she spoke, she sneered and looked at Oren, who really looked deflated.

Reasonably speaking, an arms company that develops military aircraft, missiles, and satellite communications would not focus on exquisite interior decoration! ?

Fortunately, Alice has no intention of embarrassing Oren, otherwise, if she presents the working conditions of those companies in Silicon Valley in the future, someone will definitely be depressed.

Then, it's time for the meeting.

Following the phone call from the front desk staff, a number of employees rushed to the B-2 conference room without stopping. Their average age was over 30 years old, and a large proportion of them were 40 years old. Many people wore uniform clothing with the Lockheed logo printed on it, which was reminiscent of IBM with blue work uniforms for all employees. When the number of people was almost complete, Alice also clearly noticed that the entire design number 30 In the division, there are only a few women.

Of course, before all the staff arrived, all the employees who were seated also looked at Alice curiously, but seeing that Oren, who was sitting at the top, did not intend to introduce, they all suppressed their hearts shyly. The question was simply a greeting to Oren.

However, someone finally broke the silence.

"Are you Alice-King?"

One of the only female employees, when the last employee was about to take a seat, she glanced at Alice casually, but immediately froze: "Which Alice-Wang?"

Alice chuckled, glanced at her breastplate, shook hands and said, "Hello, Susan, if the Alice-Wang you mean is indeed the Alice-Wang you thought of, then yes, I am the Alice-Wang you think of and point to."

The girl's playful answer immediately broke the previous silence, and many male engineers who seemed to have held back for a long time laughed.

"Cough cough."

Seeing that everyone was present, Oren interrupted Susan's next words: "Dear Susan, could you please close the door?"

Susan looked back, she was the last one to enter the room, but forgot to close the door: "Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Lockheed."

When Susan returned to his seat again, Oren nodded and said: "Then, I believe many of you here will recognize that the person sitting next to me is the founder of Cisco Systems in San Jose and the CEO of Microsoft." Shareholder, fifteen-year-old billionaire, genius programmer, Alice Wang."

Every engineer in the audience applauded the expression of silent chuckle, and Alice also stood up in good time and bowed slightly to everyone.

It is worth mentioning that, after all, it was a meeting of more than 30 people, so the area of ​​this B-2 meeting room is not small, and the length of the patchwork meeting table is astonishing. Alice was sitting tightly at the first place on Oren's right hand. Even if she stood up, it would take a little effort to look at the person at the bottom.

"Alice is a very talented programmer, and I'm not exaggerating, she probably could have singled out everyone in our room."

Like provocation or pure rhetoric, Oren laughed and said: "So, everyone must have seen the identities of the colleagues around you, and you all know what the theme of this meeting is. That's right, Alice will use the title of technical consultant, Participate in the design and development of the YF-22 fighter jet."

Although everyone can basically guess the reason, when Oren announced it himself, everyone still showed a surprised expression.

"Olen, you mean a technical consultant?"

The name "Joseph" was clearly written on the badge, and a slightly bald middle-aged engineer questioned, "Don't you work directly in the company?"

"That's right, Joseph, Alice is not an employee of our company."

Oren nodded and said: "I don't know how many of you have paid attention to the news in Silicon Valley. Microsoft's Windows 1.0 system was developed by Alice alone in a week. Related reports... "

Oren paused for a moment, because he had to shut up because of the exclamation in the room: "...all of them can be found directly, the press conference after Microsoft's listing in March last year, and the revelation of IBM , have any impressions?"

"At that time."

The time, place and event are so clearly specified, everyone here will naturally get in touch. At the corner of the table, a man wearing square glasses said: "Miss Wang's programming ability has indeed been tested in practice. I have a A friend who works in the financial industry, the investment company he belongs to has purchased a Cisco router. Ms. Wang, the patent of this product is also yours, right?"

"Just call me Alice, Mr. O'Hara."

Seeing the opponent's badge clearly from seven meters away, and seeing O'Hara's fleeting surprise, Alice smiled and said, "In terms of work ability, please rest assured, as you said, nothing is better than practice." Inspection. At present, the most labor-intensive work of the YF-22 project is to program the avionics system. What is my level? A computer can prove everything, right?"

All the people here are technicians, and, being able to participate in the research and development of a project like YF-22 in a company like Lockheed, everyone can be said to be the top industry expert. Seeing that Alice was about to speak with real ability when she came up, everyone immediately felt a sense of understanding, but at the same time, many people also showed a hint of disbelief.

Of course, Alice can see every expression of everyone.

Fortunately, after all, I am already considered a little famous, and being serious is not an ordinary reputation, those few people are just a little unconvinced, not laughing.

In fact, even today, Alice feels quite lucky.

Because whether it is Microsoft, or Cisco and Lockheed at this time, they are all typical technology-oriented companies, and they have always been prone to geniuses. People like programming masters can never judge their level from their age, which is far from ordinary companies.

If I were now in a company like Coca-Cola or Johnson \u0026 Johnson, and held a position like an account manager, I'm afraid I would have been laughed out of my face long ago.

Oh, of course, DreamWorks, the entertainment industry, youth is the biggest capital.

Seeing that the atmosphere was relaxed and everyone wanted to accept Alice, Oren also heaved a sigh of relief, and said, "Okay, then Joseph, you can give Alice a brief briefing first, and first... introduce us to her in detail. aircraft."