Am I missing something? The obvious explanation is that the other dev wanted him to fail so that the other dev would not have to finish his own part or account for it. There must be something missing from this story that the writer knows and we don't, otherwise I don't understand why he didn't deal with this possibility.
Possibly just poor writing on my part, but I was trying to convey a story where passive aggressiveness and personal issues coupled with poor planning produced a failed project.
One that took too long to fail.
edit:
I actually didn't consider that possibility, but that wasn't the case in this situation. I think I'm a tad light hearted in describing something negative.
Oh, and you conveyed it well. It's a good story, and I think it really is a hard pill to swallow that some people who are ostensibly on your team will hope for you to fail. I was just confused about that minor point.