Within seconds the two heat seeking missiles transited the distance to the helicopter, focusing in on the hot helicopter exhaust. When the first missile detonated, the engine and copter blades exploded apart. The second missile impacted the passenger compartment, bursting the thin shell. Bits of shrapnel screamed through the air in all directions, falling sizzling into the water.
Chapter 10
David and Mike were having coffee in David’s office when Gene came in and dropped heavily into one of the chairs.
Slumped in the chair, Gene related his story. “I’m sorry boys, I never anticipated that I had lost all credibility within my department. If we are going to anyone else in management, and I think we should, then you will have to take point on this. You boys have some credibility with these folks.”
“I’m sorry Gene,” Mike offered, clapping the older man on the shoulder, his face still lined deeply in dismay. “I appreciate the attempt.”
“Me too,” David added. “It was a necessary step.”
Mike continued solemnly, “I think the key to this is Gary’s Communication Products Division. Gary might be unreachable, but he’s not the only decision maker.”
“That’s right. There’s a marketing manager. Her name is… Linda Fletcher,” David said brightly. “She’s Gary’s number two. Hell, let’s find out who the Legal representative is, and bring Legal in. If we can convince them of the risk, maybe they put a stop to the whole project.”
“Legal just advises the business managers,” Gene pointed out, bringing his expertise to bear, “so technically they can’t enforce a business action. It’s up to the business manager to weigh risks and make a decision. But I agree, it makes sense to involve them. Perhaps the fear of legal risks will cause the lawyers to side with us.”
“OK, let’s do it.”
It was easier said than done. Trying to avoid the use of phones or emails created all sorts of logistical problems. David walked down the hallway with Mike and Gene in tow. They asked the admin of the next group over to look up the location of Linda Fletcher’s office, and her admin’s name. Then they walked across the campus, traversing sky bridges and elevators to get to Building 7a. They found Linda’s admin, a young guy by the name of Nathan, at his desk outside Linda’s office.
Nathan was more than a little puzzled that they had walked over just to set up a meeting. He grew downright suspicious when they asked him not to put their names in the meeting invitation list. Gene pulled out his badge, showing he worked for Controls and Compliance.
“This is an extremely sensitive matter,” he impressed on Nathan, leaving the young guy with his jaw open. “Just schedule the meeting.”
“Also, I need you to invite the Legal rep,” David said.
“You mean Tim Wright?” Nathan asked, his jaw still hanging open after speaking.
“Yes,” David said. “What’s the earliest you can set it up?”
The admin checked the calendar. “I can get you a half hour next Tuesday.”
“No, we need it today.”
Nathan shook his head firmly. “No can do. Linda will kill me. How about Friday?”
“Look kid,” Gene jumped in, “people’s jobs and more are on the line. Just be straight, what is the earliest possible time we can meet?”
“I can get you in tomorrow right after lunch,” he admitted. He looked sheepishly at them. “She’s in a meeting with a really important business partner this morning, and with the PR agency tomorrow, and she really will kill me if I try to fit you in.”
“Fine, set it up for tomorrow,” Gene said. He started to turn away, and then turned back. “Look kid, I can see from your face that as soon as we leave here, you’re gonna walk down the hallway to gossip about this. Don’t do it if you still want to have a job tomorrow.”
Nathan nodded swiftly, and then the group of three turned and headed to David’s office.
“I’m exhausted,” David admitted on the way back. “I realize how urgent this is, but given that we’re stalled, waiting for Linda, I think I need to go home. I’ve been up since five this morning, to catch our flight back.”
“Let’s meet tomorrow morning before the meeting,” Mike suggested. “David’s office?”
Gene agreed, and then offered them a ride to David’s place.
That night, David picked moodily at Lebanese takeout, one of his favorite foods.
“You better not waste that mjadra,” Christine said with a laugh. She got no answer.
She tried again. “What’s your plan for tomorrow?”
“We’re going to Linda Fletcher, the marketing manager for Communication Products. She has decision making authority while Gary’s out. We’re going to ask her to approve an outage so we can take down the servers and install clean images without ELOPe.”
“It sounds like a reasonable plan. What do you think she’ll say?”
“I think she’ll say yes,” David said, then fell back into silence, staring at his plate.
“Why so glum then?” she asked gently.
“What am I going to do?” David said, suddenly stabbing angrily at his food, and then throwing his fork down. “This could be the end of the project almost certainly, maybe the end of my career. They’re going to ask questions about what ELOPe was doing, how these things happened. I was so close. So close to making ELOPe a success, so close to taking the success and leveraging it into something even bigger. Now what’s the best I can hope for? Some kind of damage control.” He rested his head in his hands.
Christine came around the table and rubbed his shoulders.
The next morning, David, Mike, and Gene reviewed what they’d say at the meeting with Linda, and discussed contingency plans. Then with time to kill, and seeing that everyone could benefit from a little downtime, Gene recommended Kenny and Zuke’s, a sandwich shop a few blocks away, a standby for the Avogadro crowd. The Avogadro cafeteria’s food quality was excellent, and it was well loved by the employees, but eventually the corporate ambience tired out even the enthusiasts. On this particular day, they all felt a little more comfortable a few blocks away from the eyes and ears of the corporation. They enjoyed Reubens and hamburger sliders, and made their way back ten minutes before the planned meeting time.
In the seventh floor meeting room, they started with introductions. Linda was a Scandinavian woman, whose family had lived briefly in Wisconsin when she was a child. She and Mike got off to a great start, laughing together over common experiences growing up in Wisconsin. Tim defied their expectations of what a lawyer would look like, showing up in black pants and a black T shirt. David briefly wondered with fascination if Tim was some new breed of Goth lawyer, but his jovial attitude quickly set them all at ease.
With introductions done, and everyone else sitting at the conference room table, David stood at the front of the room and started the explanation of what brought them to the meeting. Mike contributed details here and there, but let David lead the conversation. As David progressed in his explanation, he couldn’t help noticing that the light-hearted mood they had started with soon disappeared, as Linda and Tim became distinctly uncomfortable. David wasn’t sure if that discomfort reflected the technical nature of the explanation, a sense that they were going to be asked to make a decision without Gary present, or simple disbelief that the software could be acting independently, or some combination of all three. He feared that it wasn’t going to go well.