Adam Wilson
“Listen, if you don’t fix the problem today then I might lose one of my most important clients. If that happens then you will certainly lose your job too, trust me.” I ended the call and threw my phone on the desk.
I was extremely angry with all the engineers, especially Craig! The security programme they installed for Sytner’s branch in Michigan was diagnosed with bugs and this affected their surveillance and protection. In other words, they were hacked! They shut down immediately and now the company is prone to encroachment. I have been trying to fix the problem for the past week but I can’t go over to Michigan, I have a lot to do here in New York!
I also have a conference call with the board of Sytner group starting in 5 minutes and I don’t know what to say to them! The problem still hasn’t been identified because we don’t have a copy of the software to work with! I managed to have a copy posted to New York a few days ago but it hasn’t arrived yet!
“Fuck.” I ran my hands through my hair. Its been so long since I’ve been under this much pressure.
Once I find out whoever is responsible for this, they will get sacked immediately without severance pay because this error is crucial and my company could potentially face legal actions.
A Skype call rang on my desktop. It was them.
I braced myself before joining the conference call. It was the CEO George Sytner himself, and the Branch manager for Michigan.
“Adam.” George greeted, very apathetically.
“George. I’ve been expecting your call.”
“Indeed. I am sure you are aware of what’s happening.”
“Completely.”
“You seem rather… relaxed.”
“This is an unforeseen incident and my team is currently taking every reasonable step to resolve the problem.” I assured him.
“That is not how I do business Adam. You pitched your idea brilliantly to me and you made it seem flawless. This is not what we agreed on. I did not sign up for this.” He flared up.
“Neither did I George. I agree to cover the cost of every security data lost before the system was shut down, and I guarantee that the problem will be fixed before the end of this week.”
That seemed to calm him down a bit.
“It is currently Tuesday. I want everything sorted by Friday.”
“We’re working on it George, consider it done.” I said.
“Good.” He said before disconnecting the call.
Well, that went okay… except for the fact that I just made the company lose thousands of dollars.
My intercom buzzed with a call from department 09, ie Craig. I picked up instantly.
“Any progress?” I asked.
“Yes sir, I can confirm that the copy of the software just arrived and we are currently reviewing its encryption.” He said.
“Excellent, I’ll be down in a second.” I said.
At this point, I didn’t trust anyone to do the job properly. I had to supervise.
I took the elevator down to the engineering department and met with the team. We all reviewed the programme but could not identify the problem.
“The problem might be in the encoding.” Craig suggested.
“Then we all have to review the encoding. This will be done independently so make a duplicate for each person. Everyone suspend whatever it is that you’re doing and work on this task. No one leaves until it’s been fixed.” I said strictly.
It was 4pm so they had an hour to do so. If not, they’ll all be working late. Unpaid.
After it was duplicated, I took the main copy for myself and headed back to my office to do some personal reviewing of my own.
I haven’t done work like this in a while because I employ people that are supposed to do the job for me. Now that I can’t trust them, I have to do it myself.
I loaded the programme on my system and looked at it thoroughly. The arithmetic and logic instructions were right, and the control flow instructions were right. I was just about to check the memory instructions when my intercom buzzed. It was my secretary who was disturbing.
“What!” I answered.
“Sir, there’s someone here to see you.” Alice said.
By this time?!
“No, tell them I’m busy and I can’t see anyone.”
“But sir, its-”
“Are you deaf?!” I yelled and hung up the phone immediately.
I don’t understand why that person can’t come during normal hours.
I went back to work only for a minute before the front door of my office was swung open.
“What the-” I looked up and saw an angry-looking Sophia.
“I’m so sorry sir. I told her you were busy but she didn’t listen.” Alice said from behind her.
“You should have told me it was Sophia.”
“I tried to but you didn’t give-”
“Leave us.” I said.
She turned and left, leaving the both of us alone in the room.
“Are you okay?” I asked the woman bearing my child. She looked mad, as if she was about to throw something at me.
“No. I’m not okay.”
“Okay… What happened? Is there anything I should be worried about?” I raised a brow in confusion.
“Are you really going to sit in that chair, and act like you don’t know why I’m here?”
“Um… Yes. Because I really don’t.” I shrugged.
What in the world was she on about?
“Hold on, is this about the baby? Did I miss something?” I asked.
“No you didn’t.” She sounded upset which had me wondering what I’d done this time. It’s always one thing or the other with her.
“Sophia. I haven’t done anything to you. So I don’t know what you’re upset about.”
I was getting sick and tired of her games. All I did throughout today was work. I haven’t done anything that could possibly instigate problems with Sophia so what the fuck was all this? I have more pressing issues to attend to.
“Yesterday, I poured my heart out to you. I told you the truth that I’ve been holding back for months. I explained the reasons why things did not work out between us. And after that, you just dropped me off at my apartment and left!”
My mind was completely blown.
Is that the reason for her anger? Because I dropped her at home?!
“Was I supposed to drop you off somewhere else?”
“No!”
“Then what the hell did you expect me to do?”
“Oh my god! Did what I said last night mean anything to you?!”
“Of course it did.”
“Then clearly you don’t get it.”
“Please help me understand.” I crossed my arms, trying to be patient with her, but I was actually annoyed. I had been in the middle of something crucial which I stopped because I thought she had something important to say to me.
“Mr Wilson, I didn’t just meet up with you last night to have a friendly chit-chat about our past. I… expected more to happen.” She said.
“What more did you want?”
“I still can’t believe you don’t get the message. Last night, I wanted you. I even tried to save the night by inviting you over to my place but you were so dismissive of me. You ditched me and I was so embarrassed… and disappointed.” She wiped the side of her eyes as teardrops began to fall from them.
Sophia wanted me last night?
My brain did some recalling and then I realized a lot about last night which I hadn’t before.
How could I have been so insensitive? And how did I not see this? There were so many signs I’d failed to read last night!
Sophia may not want to be with me but that doesn’t mean I should shut her out completely. If she wants me I will happily indulge. It’s the best I can get from her since she doesn’t want us to be together properly…
I can’t believe I rejected her last night. Does the offer still stand? I hope it wasn’t too late.
“Maybe I should have told you my true intentions.” She continued. “Perhaps that would have worked and I would have gotten to you first. But I guess I’m too late. Caroline is a really pretty model and I’m sure last night, she made you very happy.”
“What?” I screeched to a halt. “What makes you think I saw Caroline last night?”
“Didn’t you?”
“No!”