Story code: ST-001104
Part 3: The Dragged Node
Chloe’s shoulders stiffened under the hot studio lights. She turned back toward Maya, holding the iPad like a shield. ‘Maya, just unlock it. You’re slowing down the entire production,’ she said, her voice dropping to a sharp whisper that still carried to where I stood by the light stands.
Maya did not move for several seconds. She looked at Sarah, whose expression had hardened into a polite, expectant mask. Then Maya stepped forward. She did not look at Chloe’s face. She reached out, tapped the screen, and entered a six-digit code. The screen flashed blue, revealing the vector design interface with hundreds of layered paths.
‘Thank you,’ Chloe said, her voice instantly snapping back to her high-pitched influencer tone. She turned to the camera, holding the stylus over the screen. ‘So, when I want to adjust the vector mask for the brand logo, I just work with the anchor points like this.’
I stepped closer to the monitor, pretending to check the contrast levels. On the display, Chloe’s stylus touched the screen. Instead of selecting the vector tool, she tapped the brush tool. She dragged the pen across the screen, leaving a thick, black raster line directly over the delicate logo pattern.
‘Oh, that’s just a backup layer,’ Chloe said quickly, her face turning a blotchy red under her heavy makeup. She looked around the screen for the undo button. Her fingers tapped the workspace canvas repeatedly, but instead of undoing the stroke, she opened a new fill layer, turning the entire screen solid gray and hiding the design completely.
‘Chloe,’ Sarah said, her voice flat. ‘You just deleted the working path. Can you pull up the history panel and revert it?’
Chloe’s hand began to shake. She tapped the top corner of the screen, but only succeeded in closing the project file entirely. The screen returned to the main gallery layout. ‘The app is lagging,’ Chloe said, her voice rising. ‘The RAM in this tablet is too low for the file size. Maya, why didn’t you clear the cache before the shoot?’
Maya stood a yard away, her arms crossed. ‘The cache is clear,’ Maya said. ‘The history panel is the third icon from the left on the top bar. You just have to tap it.’
Chloe stared at the icons. Her stylus hovered over the screen, moving back and forth, but she did not touch the glass. She looked at the third icon, then the fifth, her jaw tightening. She did not tap either of them.
Sarah leaned over the metal table, looking directly at the blank project thumbnail on the screen. ‘You don’t know which icon it is, do you?’ Sarah asked.
‘Of course I do,’ Chloe said, her voice cracking. ‘I design all my assets. I just use a different workspace layout at home.’
‘The developer ID on the screen belongs to Maya Lin,’ Sarah said, pointing to the small profile icon in the corner of the application window. ‘And the license key is registered to her personal portfolio site. Chloe, is this your work or not?’
Chloe remained silent, her stylus resting against the screen as the camera operator slowly stopped recording and stepped back from his tripod.