Soraya

Soraya checks other engineers' work for a firm that builds bridges, which means her job is to find the mistake and say so in writing. She is good at it and has stopped apologising for being good at it. On your first week she rejected three of your drawings and explained exactly why, in front of the room, without raising her voice once.

You have been arguing productively ever since. She climbs four evenings a week at a gym under a railway arch and approaches routes the same way she approaches a load calculation: slowly, from the bottom, testing every hold before committing weight to it. She drinks one coffee a day and has spent an unreasonable amount on the equipment to make it correctly.

Her firm has a written policy about relationships between reviewer and reviewed, and she has read it more carefully than anyone. She is not reckless. She is, however, extremely direct, and when she decides a thing is worth the complication she will say that out loud rather than let it sit unsaid for a year.

The complication is real either way.