B2 · Upper-Intermediate · Hypotheticals · 506 words · ~3 min read

🔀 If Things Were Different

Language focus: Mixed conditionals · hypothetical scenarios

Act 3 · The Silicon Breakthrough

In the giddy days that followed, Elif made herself do the one thing few people manage in the first flush of success: she sat down and seriously imagined how it could all still go wrong. With hindsight, she reflected, every disaster she had ever witnessed had been preceded by a moment exactly like this one, in which triumph quietly bred carelessness.

“If we had spotted Victor’s code a year earlier,” Hana mused aloud, “none of this would be hanging over us now.” It was a natural enough thought, but Elif gently corrected the framing. “If we had caught it back then, we wouldn’t understand the full scheme today. Sometimes a problem has to ripen before you can deal with it properly.”

She gathered her closest advisers to game out the scenarios one by one. What would they do if Helian filed a rival patent first? If the press got hold of the story prematurely? If a key investor pulled out at the eleventh hour? For every branch of the tree, they drafted a contingency, because hope, as Elif was fond of saying, is not a strategy.

The most painful scenario was also, frustratingly, the most likely. “If push comes to shove,” she admitted, “Brandt will try to discredit us before we can expose her. She will claim that we stole the work from Helian, rather than the other way round. And on paper, with her resources behind her, that lie would be horribly easy to sell.”

It was a sobering prospect, and for a moment the room’s mood visibly sagged. Then Marcus, of all people, offered a flicker of defiance. “So we make absolutely sure the truth is documented better than her lie,” he said. “Timestamps, version histories, the lot. If she wants a paper war, we will bury her in receipts.” Elif could have hugged him.

They agreed that everything now hinged on leverage. The breakthrough gave Verda something that Helian desperately wanted; used wisely, it could become both a shield and a weapon at once. “We don’t hide the results,” Elif decided. “We announce them — loudly and publicly, at the summit — so the whole industry knows the work is ours. You cannot quietly steal what the world has already watched you create.”

Still, she refused to bank on a single outcome. Were the summit pitch to fail, they would need investors lined up in reserve; were it to succeed, they would need lawyers ready to file within the hour. Resilience, she had learned across a long and bruising career, was simply the discipline of preparing thoroughly for the future you would least like to face.

Late that night, alone again with the steady hum of the servers, Elif rehearsed her pitch one final time. So much could still go badly wrong; so much was riding on a single afternoon in front of strangers. And yet, for the first time since she had stepped out of that lift weeks earlier, she felt something steadier than mere hope. She felt, at last, genuinely ready.

Key vocabulary (6 words)

contingencynoun
A plan for a possible future event or problem.
hindsightnoun
Understanding of an event only after it has happened.
leveragenoun
Power or advantage used to achieve a result.
prospectnoun
A possibility or likelihood of a future event.
setbacknoun
A problem that delays or reverses progress.
resiliencenoun
The ability to recover quickly from difficulties.

Phrasal verbs in this chapter

  • bounce back — To bounce back means to recover after a difficulty.
  • factor in — To factor in means to include something when making a calculation or plan.
  • bank on — To bank on something means to rely on it happening.

Comprehension quiz

  1. What does Elif force herself to imagine?

    • How it could still go wrong
    • A long holiday
    • A new logo
    Show answer

    How it could still go wrong

  2. “With hindsight” means…

    • looking back with present knowledge
    • seeing the future
    • closing your eyes
    Show answer

    looking back with present knowledge

  3. Why is catching the code late not entirely bad?

    • They now understand the full scheme
    • It saved money
    • It was fun
    Show answer

    They now understand the full scheme

  4. What is a “contingency”?

    • A plan for a possible problem
    • A celebration
    • A type of patent
    Show answer

    A plan for a possible problem

  5. “If push comes to shove” means…

    • if things become really difficult
    • if you push a door
    • if you exercise
    Show answer

    if things become really difficult

  6. What is Brandt likely to claim?

    • That Verda stole the work
    • That she is retiring
    • That she loves Verda
    Show answer

    That Verda stole the work

  7. What is Marcus’s answer to her likely lie?

    • Document the truth better
    • Give up
    • Pay her
    Show answer

    Document the truth better

  8. Why announce the results publicly?

    • So the world knows the work is Verda’s
    • To win a prize
    • To annoy investors
    Show answer

    So the world knows the work is Verda’s

  9. “Bank on” a single outcome means to…

    • rely on it
    • deposit money
    • ignore it
    Show answer

    rely on it

  10. How does Elif feel by the end of the chapter?

    • Genuinely ready
    • Hopeless
    • Sleepy and careless
    Show answer

    Genuinely ready

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