The next morning, the sun shone over Nairobi as if yesterday’s downpour had been just a software glitch. From the rice bowl came a loud, enthusiastic shaking. Wurst shot out of the bowl like a cork, lost a few grains, and floated through the room in perfect “freshly washed mode.” His lenses gleamed like new.
At the same time, Kiko materialized with an elegant triple somersault onto the kitchen table. The little monkey glowed in flawless, ultra-sharp neon pink and held up a digital document that blinked wildly.
“They’re back,” laughed Lukas, who was just pouring coffee. But Amina was already staring intently at her tablet. Kiko had forwarded her an email that had just arrived.
“Lukas... you won’t believe who it is,” whispered Amina, her eyes growing huge. “The headquarters of Vanguard Media in Tech City, the Silicon Savannah outside the city gates. They saw our viral live stream from the day before yesterday.”
Lukas set down the cups. “The 15,000 viewers from the balcony dinner? What do they want from you?”
“They want a completely new, interactive UI design for their continental streaming app. And they want it NOW. The pitch presentation is tomorrow morning at nine,” read Amina aloud. Her face shifted from pure enthusiasm to acute panic. “That’s impossible. For a project like this, I usually need two weeks. The backend for the live animations is way too complex for me alone.”
Lukas sat down next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Who says you have to do it alone? You have the best design concepts in East Africa. And I am – in case you forgot – a damn good software developer who’s currently on vacation.”
Amina looked up. A smile crept onto her lips. “A joint venture? Hamburg and Nairobi?”
“Exactly. A transcontinental tech power team,” grinned Lukas.
The pets didn’t need to be asked twice. Wurst immediately floated to the center of the room and projected a tight project timeline onto the wall. “Efficiency mode activated,” announced the dachshund. “Creator Lukas takes over the code architecture. Designer Amina leads the visual interface. Kiko contributes the animation preview. I will replace the Bavarian march music with soothing lo-fi beats to increase productivity by $14$ percent. Coffee machine is now remotely controlled.”
Kiko saluted militarily, jumped onto Lukas’ head, and started dragging and dropping the first graphic assets into Lukas’ programming environment. The race against the clock had begun.