Dark Tidings

Chapter 14 - Home Sweet Work

"This way, Mr Phillips," barked the security guard, without so much as a hint of a 'please' or 'thank you'.

Michael was shepherded into the lift which would take him to his new working home on the third floor. A tiny CCTV camera whirred as it swivelled to get a better view of them entering.

"Big Brother is watching, eh?" He nodded towards the camera in the top corner of the lift.

"I've got nothing to hide," said the guard, fixing him with a steely glare before swiping his key card and pressing the button.

The guard escorted him across a large, open plan office.

"This is Melissa, Mr Toner's secretary," he said.

"Personal Assistant," corrected the tall lady who stood to greet him with an outstretched hand. She turned to the guard. "Thanks, Martin, I'll take it from here."

A sense of relief ebbed through Michael when Mr Scary Uniform headed back to the lift and left him alone with Melissa. Something about that security man was menacing and more than a little bit threatening. His demeanour pointed to a military background and he looked as if killing people was just a normal part of his day. The man reminded him of the immortal line from one of his favourite films, 'City Slickers'. Billy Crystal asked Jack Palance 'have you killed anyone today?' Jack replied in his gravelly voice, 'day ain't over yet.' That security guard was definitely a 'day ain't over yet' kind of guy.

"Hi Michael, I'm Melissa and Mr Toner has asked me to get you settled in. He's got back to back meetings up until about two o'clock and he said he'd see you after that. In the meantime, I'll show you around and get you acclimatised. First, we'll meet a few of the people you'll be working with. Follow me."

Before he had a chance to exchange any pleasantries she was off, so he just tagged along behind her like an obedient puppy as they started to wend their way round the enormous open-plan office.

He wouldn't remember the names of all the folk he was about to meet, however he'd try and make them remember his. Time to impress everyone. It was an old cliché but 'you never get a second chance to make a first impression' was definitely true. By working ostentatiously hard he'd make IIBE view him as the oil which kept their applications lubricated, the glue which held everything together and the dependable custodian of their precious systems. These great digital programs enabled the bank to screw enormous profits out of each and every one of their clients so they were effectively the beating heart of the beast, and he wanted to be thought of as the trusted cardiologist.

Every introduction was much the same.

"Hi John, this is Michael Phillips. He's joining the computer support team so he's the man to ask if you have any problems with the system. You'll be talking to him a lot if past performance is anything to go by."

She had the same dig at 'the system', as she called it, over and over again. She was clearly not a fan.

"Michael, this is John Kerr. He looks after the wages so he's an important man."

After an hour's worth of introductions, handshakes and small talk he eventually ended up at his new place of work. The oak veneer desk and large faux leather chair were quite impressive, however they weren't important in his great scheme of things, what mattered to him was the PC. It was his window into the heart of the banking beast. As it turned out, they'd given him an ultra-high specification computer with three 32-inch monitors. That gave him plenty of desktop real estate to play with.

"Let the games begin," he whispered silently to himself, thinking about the Roman games. They were brutal affairs; Christians versus lions, gladiators versus slaves. Now it was to be Michael versus IIBE.

"Here's some light reading for you," said Melissa as she patted a pile of chunky documentation manuals with a degree of contempt. "Apparently they tell you all need to know about the main systems you'll be responsible for." With that, she swivelled on her stilettoed heel and walked away.

He settled into his new chair and folded his arms to give the impression that he was casually surveying his surroundings. Lots of people were clicking away at their keyboards, talking on fancy phones and furiously scribbling notes on their IIBE notepads... not one of them was looking at him. Not one of them suspected that the man who was going to destroy their cosy world was sitting in their midst.

'Network Security – Volume 3'. He flipped it open, skipped to the section on 'Authentication Protocols' and started to read. Wow, this is badly written. Not much time had been spent on writing the manual and it showed. It was over-simplistic and clearly hadn't been updated for some time. He knew from his Noviru days that the bank's Authentication Protocols were complicated and complex however this manual described them as simple and easy to maintain. Maybe that's how things used to be, but now it was the very lack of simplicity which kept computer specialists like him in jobs. The true computer professionals replaced simple systems which worked just fine with complex systems which were the devil to maintain ... that way, they kept their buddies busy and well paid.

Shortly after two o'clock Malcolm Toner returned from his rounds of meetings. He called Michael into his office and introduced himself. Toner ran through his standard welcome and motivational speech, and then made it crystal clear who was in charge.

"If you play ball with me then I'll play ball with you. But always remember... it's my ball."

Michael was motivated. He returned to his desk more determined than ever to destroy this place, and he was going to have a ball doing it.