The Roommate Therapy ✓

23 • Habeas Corpus

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"Yes!" I almost punched the air triumphantly the moment the message was displayed in the tiny message box in the lower right corner.

Grabbing my laptop, I stumbled excitedly towards the office of the chief operations officer of the IT department.

A young woman, not much older than I was, stopped me.

"You can't go in there without an appointment, young lady." the woman, who I assumed was the PA, said rather tersely.

"I know. This is very important," I said hopefully, "I promise that I won't be long, just let me go inside."

"No, Mr. Deb is currently very busy, he's answering some very important emails, so please apply for a formal appointment." she replied in a rehearsed tone.

I sighed.

"Ok when can I get an appointment?" I asked, glancing longingly at the frosted glass door just a few yards away.

She opened the almanac on her company sponsored smartphone and scrolled down. "We have one slot free on next to next Friday at four in the afternoon. If you could be kind enough to tell me your name and purpose I'll schedule it right away."

"Akira Joshi," I said, clenching my jaw slightly, "I'm an intern."

The woman paused, a baffled expression crossing her made up face, "You're an intern? Pardon me for being nosy, but why on earth do you want to meet Mr. Deb so urgently."

"Why not?" I shrugged, "You know what, I'm pretty sure the Supreme Court will issue a writ of Habeas Corpus faster than you'll let me into Mr. Deb's office."

Ignoring the PA's feeble protests, I strode to the frosted glass door behind her and knocked. When I got no response I turned to the scared woman standing behind me and raised my eyebrows. She only shrugged in response.

Shaking my head, I barged in.

I gasped quietly at what I saw, almost fainting from a mild myocardial infarction.

So much for answering highly important emails.

"Take that you noob!" Mr. Deb cheered, punching the air with his fist a little too vigorously, "That should teach you not to use a nuke on a pro."

Anish Deb. He was a tall, lanky man- more like boy, for a twenty five year old. His nerd like tendencies still persisted and at first glance no one would ever believe that he was one of the cofounders of a company like TYCHE. I certainly had not.

I stood there dumbfounded, my jaw dropping to the floor as he continued to play the video game on his computer, completely oblivious of my presence.

"Excuse me, Sir?" I called out loudly.

Mr. Deb instantly sat up ramrod straight, fumbling to close the video game tab.

"Ah, yes. Duty calls," he murmured quietly before turning  to face me, "I deeply apologize for my extremely unprofessional behaviour, Miss... Who are you again?"

"Akira Joshi. I'm an intern." I replied politely, trying almost unsuccessfully to bite back a snort, "Were you just playing Call of Duty, Sir?"

"Yes, I just cleared level eight three in the team death match. Do you play too?" Mr. Deb said in a matter of fact tone.

A giggle escaped my lips, and I quickly composed myself. "Sir, I'm actually here to discuss more pressing matters."

"Of course, how silly of me. Please have a seat, Miss...uh," he said, nodding his head from side to side.

"Akira Joshi." I answered quickly.

Deciding that there was no point in stalling further, I started promptly, "Well, Sir I recently stumbled on a bug on the home page of our protection portal and I've come to report it, complete with all the details. I'd really like you to look into it's fixing as soon as possible."

I placed my laptop in front of him for him to see.

Mr. Deb leaned back in his dark brown leather back rotating chair, absorbing the new I'd just thrown his way as he rubbed his light stubble.

"Whoah! This is big!" he admitted, "But how is that even possible? I ran the checks myself?"

A victorious grin made its way to my face, "Well, I guess this slipped your notice."

"Gosh! Miss Joshi, you might have just saved us a couple of million dollars. You have no idea how big this is." He stated, already firing up his own set of programs.

I inhaled sharply at the round figure, as I nodded in understanding. I'd contemplated the worth of this slip up but I most certainly did expect it to be so big.

"I'm glad you sought me right away Miss Joshi but I'm afraid that although the bug identification and correction falls under my department, you do not. So I suggest you report your discovery to your internship head first who will decided what needs to be done." He said gravely.

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. Why the hell did I have to report to Mihir?

"But, Sir..." I began.

"Miss Joshi, you must understand the discrepancies that can arise from this situation. It's better if you report this discovery to your project head first. It'll also help me save face." He cut me off, an earnest expression on his face.

I didn't completely understand the problem. Yet I nodded quietly and rose from my seat.

My work here was done. Office politics could be dealt with later. Right now it was time to celebrate.

"Thank you Sir. Have a great day." I said, making my way out.

"Miss Joshi?" Mr. Deb called out, "Do consider coming to the cocktail party on the twenty fifth of this month. I'll have the details mailed to you. We have some other stuff to discuss."

I nodded in response over my shoulder, "Thank you Sir."

The moment I stepped out, I hugged the oblivious personal assistant who was waiting outside anxiously. She gasped at my sudden embrace, which was more along the lines of a friendly way of attempting to strangle the poor soul.

"I think I'm going to get a new job very soon!" I squealed, before rushing to collect my things from my workplace.

I had to call my parents and share the news. And Vinay, and Roshni and Neel of course.

Things were finally looking up and no bozonic numbskull was going to pull me down!

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There you go peeps...

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For those of you whose civics is slightly rusty Habeas Corpus is a writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person's release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention.

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