"So, if my AC is off, the device does not communicate with you and does not record."
"It does not communicate with us," Brian said, "but it will record any noise it senses in the car. At the end of each day, you have the option to decide if those recordings are to be saved or discarded. If you have an emergency, and you need to get our attention to the communication in the car, turn on the air recycling after turning on the AC and holding the fan button for two seconds. That will ping our pagers with an emergency code. Any other questions?"
"Only one small detail," Alex said, feeling a little embarrassed, "my car has no climate control."
Brian gave her an all-knowing smile. "Oh, yes, it does."
…15
"How do our clients find us?" Tom Isaac actually expected an answer. He leaned forward, making inviting gestures with his right hand.
"Through advertising, maybe?" Alex volunteered.
"You aren't thinking. What would happen if we advertised? We would be shooting ourselves in the foot with everyone in the American corporate workplace knowing we existed. We'd have increasing difficulties getting the job done. Any other ideas?"
"Referrals?"
"Yes. Mainly, yes. Business owners tend to stick together and interact with one another at a level that is most times inaccessible to their staff, no matter how high ranking." Tom paused for a second and smiled. With a complete change in the tone of his voice, he swiftly became Alex's concerned friend. "How's it going? Are you comfortable with this pace? You know, we didn't get the chance to sit down and discuss what we plan to achieve and the best way to get there."
Surprised, Alex replied without thinking. "Yes, everything is fine, no problem."
"See? You're doing it again," Tom said, with the tone of a parent grounding a four year old. "Relax a bit; you got the job. Now you can afford to really talk to me. You see, experience has repeatedly taught me that in order to function in our line of work, we need to know each other, trust each other, depend on each other, and help each other. I know I should have started with this instead of our client acquisition procedures, but please allow me to make up for it. So, let's start over. If you could ask three questions in the utmost confidentiality, what would those be?"
"Well, I am wondering how come I was so lucky to come across your ad. It seems to me that finding someone for this job isn't exactly easy for you. On the other hand, you don't seem to be recruiting that often." Seeing Tom's expression, Alex felt the blood rush to her cheeks. "I don't want to sound arrogant or anything, but how did I get so lucky?"
"You were not lucky, you were selected."
"But—" she started and stopped, with a thousand more questions to ask.
"Remember, three questions for today, one is already answered," Tom warned her, with amusement in his voice.
She took a deep breath. "OK, then. Brian told me, during yesterday's training, that my car has climate control and it doesn't. Was a climate control device installed in my car?"
"Um… no. There goes question number two. Such a shame to see questions go to waste like that. You need to learn to trust. What's number three?"
She blushed, looked down, but somehow found the courage. "Is Brian married?"
"No. Again, such a waste of a good question."
Intrigued, she asked. "Why?"
"You are analytical to the roof and back, but only when you want to be. My question to you is, 'Why don't you use what you have?' You had the answers to all these questions before asking. For instance, you are smart enough not to believe in coincidences, and this is as far as I'll go explaining the first question. The rest you'll figure out on your own someday. You could have avoided question number two, if you'd only asked yourself what reason Brian would have to lie to you, or to make an unsubstantiated statement. As for number three, even if he's not married today, he could have been yesterday or could be tomorrow. What's the value of the answer you got?"
"I deserved it. I sure did, all of it."
"Don't be so hard on yourself. The training process can be exhausting and can cause, well, questions to be wasted," Tom concluded, laughing.
"And stupidity to manifest itself." Alex joined him in laughter, thinking what had just happened to make her feel she belonged.
…16
It was her fifth day of training. While waiting in the training room for the day to start, she wondered what the day's subject would be and who would be her trainer. Probably they would continue to discuss the pile of books she had read.
Steve walked in and greeted her in a cheerful voice. "Good morning."
"Good morning." She stood up and shook Steve's hand. She was inexplicably happy to see him. After all, he had condemned her to a weekend of reading and no sleep, followed by more homework assignments since Monday.
He started the projector and the laptop and asked, without any other introduction, "Would you ever let that thing touch you? Crawl on your skin?"
She turned and saw on the screen a horrible close-up image of the black, shiny mandibles of a huge bug.
"Is that thing real?" she asked, shuddering in disgust.
"Very real, I can assure you."
"Alive?"
"Alive and well, thank you," he confirmed mischievously. "So, would you?"
"I don't think I would be able to let that happen, regardless of how much money I'd stand to make. Is this for a movie?"
"How about this one? Do you like this one better?" he asked, ignoring her question and changing the slide.
She looked in horror at another close-up image of insect mouths, just as terrifying as the first one.
"No way," she answered.
"Are you sure?" he insisted.
"Yes. Very sure. I'd never let any of those bugs crawl on me. They are equally ugly, and I hate all bugs."
"All right, I believe you. In reality, they are not that big, you know." He clicked his remote and the image started to zoom out. "This is the actual size of this bug, scientific classification: insect, from the order of coleopterans. Its scientific name is Onitis pecuarius, or the dung beetle. Do you like it better now?"
"Absolutely not."
"So you still believe you would not let any bug like this crawl freely on your skin."
"I am positive. If I had a choice, I would not consider it," she said, without hesitation, wondering where all this was going.
"Think again." As he spoke, Steve went back to the first image, and said. "This one, also a coleopteran and a close relative of the one before, is no other than Coccinella septempunctata, by its scientific classification." Zooming out the image on the screen repeatedly, he continued. "I am sure you are willing to reconsider for our little friend, the ladybug."
"Oh," Alex said, completely taken by surprise. On the screen, the terrifying image had zoomed out to show a tiny ladybug in the palm of a little girl's hand, as she was laughing in the sun.
"Our theme for today is the power of preconception," Steve said. "Somehow, someone decided a long time ago that ladybugs are OK, while the other bugs are not. Maybe because ladybugs are not harmful to the crops, but neither are the other bugs, and we wouldn't let them crawl on our skin, would we?"
Alex nodded, captivated by the idea.