CHAPTER TWO
Steve, Ben and Jay said their goodbyes as they parted at Stansted airport. Jay made his way down to the train departures area without really understanding why the others had wanted to drive to the airport. A Liverpool Street train stood by the platform below. The display showed that it would depart in one minute. Jay knew that he couldn’t make it in time, carrying his heavy backpack and, not least, his hangover. He decided to saunter leisurely down the ramp and take it easy instead. Another train would leave in fifteen minutes or so he told himself.
Jay threw himself down onto an uncomfortable metal bench which stood at the end of the ramp. A whistle blew to signal the departure of the train parked further along the platform. Jay glanced wearily down the platform and caught a glimpse of a woman who bore a striking resemblance to the stranger from the night before. He stood up immediately. Jay only saw the back of her as she jumped onto the train. Her rucksack became wedged in the train doors as they were closing. Jay jolted, ready to run to her rescue. The train doors opened momentarily. Jay couldn’t reach her in time - she was too far away. He stood and watched as the rucksack disappeared inside the train and the doors closed once more. The train headed off out of the station.
Damn! Jay thought to himself. Why hadn’t he run? Why hadn’t he at least tried to jump onto another carriage when the doors opened? He took revenge on a nearby luggage trolley, squeezing the handle so aggressively that the trolley almost tipped over.
The next train would depart in fifteen minutes. Maybe he could find her in Liverpool Street station? But that would be like finding a needle in a haystack. A group of travellers stood in the middle of the platform, one of them carrying a similar rucksack to the mystery woman’s. He shuffled closer, trying not to be noticed. He stood about five metres away from them but he could easily make out what appeared to be the words ‘Globus Travel’ printed on the rucksack. Dare he ask about her? Maybe they would think he was weird? He lost courage, sufficing instead to note the travel bureau’s name. At least that was some kind of lead.
Jay found himself a seat on the next train and wondered if he was having confidence issues. Why hadn’t he spoken to them? Was he weird? And why didn’t he just pull himself together? All the questions began to give him a headache. He decided to send a text to his mother as promised, telling her that he had got back safely and with no limbs broken.
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Jay arrived at work the next morning, defying the daily drudge on the tube to spend the rest of the day in vacuous enthusiasm whilst he counted the hours before he could go home. But he was more enthusiastic now than he had been before he left, which he convinced himself was a positive sign. He had been working as an analyst/programmer at the Union Bank of Geneva for four years now, having previously spent two years as a trainee at a software house. He used to really like his work, and his colleagues, but everything had become mundane recently, revolving around profits. Good colleagues had been moved and bad ones had replaced them. Nothing was the same, and he didn’t like his boss. Jay’s boss, Ronnie Beck, was in Jay’s eyes an ice-cold ‘career monger’. His only focus was himself, his possessions and his career. The tensions between them had been obvious since the day his boss started a year and half ago, but came to a head when Jay split up with Gemma. It was as if his boss revelled in Jay’s tragedy, rubbing salt in his wounds at every opportunity. Jay convinced himself that his boss saw him as a threat, so Jay just tried to grin and bear it.
“Morning Jarret! Nice to see you actually managed to get to work on time”
“Morning” replied Jay in a subdued, almost timid tone. ‘Yes, I’ve had a nice holiday – thanks for asking’ Jay mumbled to himself.
“What?” Beck sneered towards Jay, checking to see if he had said anything untoward but quickly lost interest “Err, James, have you got a minute?”
Jay nodded and walked into Beck’s plush office. He sat himself down in one of the two chairs facing Ronnie Beck’s desk, surveying the plethora of office goodies his boss had acquired to show how important he was. He had everything from two large screens, paper trays and a huge television to numerous pictures of his family. Jay decided that the family pictures must have been bought. Beck could not possibly have a real family and real feelings. Beck started smiling, which normally meant trouble. Jay knew something bad was coming.
“So James. Four years in the same job, eh? Day in, day out.. No wonder you’ve got lackadaisical and sloppy” Beck was standing over Jay, rubbing his protruding beer gut whilst belching every second word out under his breath.
“The Interest Retention application you were supposed to finish before you went on holiday has still not been delivered as you promised! You know this is costing us millions, right? Why do I have to keep checking up on you all the time? How can you live with that? Can you even sleep at night? I can’t run a depart..” Jay raised his hand, stopping Beck’s monologue.
“It was you who set the deadline and you knew that I had booked my holiday! You even replied to my email saying that it was ok.. so I’m afraid, Mr. Beck, that it is you that has to take full responsibility!”
“How dare you?!” Beck slammed the palm of his hand down on the table making a half-filled coffee cup teeter dangerously “The deadline was agreed by you before you left!..And don’t answer me back!” Beck was getting more irate and red in the face. Jay wondered if Beck’s head was about to explode. And much as Jay disliked Beck’s patronising aggression, he had to control his himself – he needed the money. Anyhow, who would believe Jay’s version of events, even though Beck’s story was so obviously fabricated? It would always be a case of Beck’s story against Jay’s.
“I’ve decided to let you go Jarrett”
“What?” Jay stood up in disbelief “You can’t..” Jay lowered his voice “..You can’t do that!”
“Oh yes I can Jarrett! I’m moving you to Security with immediate effect” Beck handed Jay some papers which appeared to be a new employment contract. Jay felt a mixture of shock, then sickness. Contempt started to well up inside him. What had he done to deserve this? IT Security was like the Elephant’s Graveyard for programmers. But arguing the toss wouldn’t get him anywhere. The HR director consistently supported managers in disputes, so it would only end up being detrimental to Jay if he even tried going down that route. And thinking positively, he hadn’t been fired, and he would be getting away from Beck. Yes, Beck, the self-opinionated, over-inflated idiot was now history. Jay could start afresh, and he could also start looking for a new job if necessary.
Jay stared Beck straight in the eye and walked out. Beck had abused his power yet again, but Jay was never going to allow Beck to break him, nor indeed earn any resemblance of respect from him.
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Within a matter of minutes a caretaker had bundled Jay’s belongings together in two large cardboard boxes and began wheeling them down to the basement. Jay followed closely behind. They arrived at a door bearing a plastic plate and the letters ‘ITSEC’.
“’Ere y’ar ‘en” mumbled the caretaker as he lowered Jay’s boxes to the floor and quickly sped off down the corridor with his trolley. Jay held his security badge up to the door, almost hoping it wouldn’t work. Unfortunately it did, and the LED light changed from red to green allowing him to enter. A shove on the door from Jay’s left hip allowed him enough room to carry the first box in which he duly plonked down on the floor, ready to collect the next.
“The alarm’ll go off in ‘bout 5 seconds mate.. Better hurry up!” The robust voice of a Cornishman emitted from an office on the opposite side of a large open plan area. Jay hurried to get the second box in and closed the door behind him.
“Paul” a hand stretched out towards Jay “Paul Bates.. IT Security Team Leader.. And you are?” Jay introduced himself, trying not to come to too many conclusions about the nerdy-looking man standing in front of him with what looked like pizza leftovers on his sweatshirt. Jay was placed at a temporary desk by th
e door until they sorted things out in the open plan area.
“All a bit hectic I’m afraid.. but it was all a bit sudden.. Still.. we’re glad we got you James” Paul slapped Jay heartily on the back “Apple, Linux or Microsoft?”.
“I’m sorry?” replied Jay “..and please call me Jay”.
“OK.. Jay., sorry.. are you an Apple, a Linux or a Windows man? We need to know so that nobody upsets you” Paul smiled as he spoke.
“Oh.. I’m not really that bothered.. I’m used to compiling code on different machines so I don’t really care”
Jay had given up caring about many things, but Paul seemed helpful and pleasant enough and he at least felt welcome there. Jay could just about catch a glimpse of daylight through a narrow basement window. Snow was falling outside.
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Jay couldn’t stop delving into the whys and wherefores of what had happened as he boarded his usual home-bound tube. There were no available seats, no smiles and no fresh air. Throngs of people crammed themselves into every available millimetre. A young woman’s hand became accidentally intimate with Jay’s nether regions. He felt a little awkward, but then thought ‘what the hell?!’. Something good had to come out of this otherwise crappy day.
The walk to his apartment felt different. A thin layer of snow covered evergreen bushes as the landscape darkened. Black ice hampered all attempts of swift passage. Jay’s precarious movements were beginning to mimic the rest of his life, with everything ending in an unsteady jaunt into a psychological wilderness. How dare Beck talk to him like that? He didn’t even bother asking if he would be interested in moving! Who the hell did he think he was? And what now? Whatever Jay touched seemed to turn to stone. It was as if he had the ‘Judas Touch’. He was at least happy that the day was drawing to an end.
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“Shut the fuck up Beck ..or else I’ll ram this hole-punch down your throat!” Jay was holding Beck by his shirt collar, pinning him down to his executive swivel chair “It’s dickheads like you that make me sick!.. You get your jobs by kissing the arses of people at your so called gentleman’s clubs and then you play God with your employees lives!” Jay paused for a moment. As a devout atheist he was annoyed that he had mentioned God. He looked down at Beck again. He could see real fear in Beck’s eyes. Tears welled up in his tear ducts. Jay held a knife-shaped letter opener in his other hand, high above Beck’s head. His hand plunged suddenly yet swiftly towards Beck’s head..
‘Jesus Christ!’ Jay woke up, sweating and startled by the events of his dream. His duvet was damp from body sweat and it was still dark outside. He swivelled his legs out of bed and walked over to the window. Snow was still falling in Finchley, softly, gently. He thought of Norway.
Jay went to the bathroom to get a glass of water. He checked his mobile phone briefly for any new messages. He decided to see if he could find Globus Travels in his browser. A list of results came up showing an address and a telephone number. That was easy he thought to himself, but he couldn’t ring them in the middle of the night. He would wait until the morning and try to get some sleep.
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“Mornin’ Jay!” Paul beamed as Jay walked through the door. “Here is your new access card so you can carry on working in this department.. Your old card won’t work anymore by the way.. Oh.. and you know what? We’ve carried out all the security checks on you.. and everything seems to be alright!”
“Checks? What checks?” inquired Jay.
“Ah.. well you see.. it’s like this.. We’ve got to ensure that you haven’t done anything naughty upstairs before we let you loose on this lot”
Jay was puzzled. He’d been through all the security checks when he first joined the bank.
“Sometimes..” Paul continued “the management here decides to.. what shall we call it? ..turn a blind eye to some employee’s misdemeanours in certain circumstances.. as they’d rather not have everything come out into the public domain if you know I mean?”
“Which circumstances?” Jay was intrigued.
“Well.. let me put it like this.. We had one chap who err.. helped himself to interest accruals from several large accounts during the evening.. Quite clever really.. After trading finished he’d make a new account and put some of the larger account’s interest payments into it.. He then transferred the money to an external account at another bank.. finishing off by deleting all traces of activity including the new account he had set up.. Couldn’t happen today though.. We’ve got all sorts of controls to catch that sort of thing now.. Funny though.. He was a programmer just like you” Paul smiled at Jay as he handed over the new access card “So let’s get started shall we?” Paul led Jay to a desk with randomly placed screen, lamp, keyboard and mouse “And this is your new desk matey.. I sit there” Paul pointed to the other side of the desk.
“First off.. we have four basic rules here.. Rule number one: we ALWAYS use two-factor authentication.. You will need to wipe your access card through a card reader and use your personal login information to get into the main security systems here.. This is over and above the AD credentials you already use as a bank employee.. Rule number two.. if in doubt don’t! ..If you are unsure about anything whatsoever ..stop and ask me.. a colleague or Simon our manager.. He is the head of IT Security.. But you’ll meet him later.. Rule number three.. always document what you have done so you can trace back and.. not least.. use your findings as evidence should that be necessary.. Rule number four.. never break rules one, two or three.. All clear?” Jay nodded affirmatively.
“Right Jay.. I have given you a Windows PC.. as most of the others either use Mac or Linux.. so it’s good to have a little variation within the department” Paul pushed the start button on Jay’s PC. Paul assured Jay that his PC was fast enough to catch any criminal in the act before they’d actually committed the act. Bios information whizzed past on the screen.
“We’re currently working on a bit of a delicate issue Jay.. We believe one of the stockbrokers is fiddling the figures and we’d like to know why.. I think it’ll be right up your street.. You can start by acclimatising yourself to Stocks..”
“That’s ok..” Jay interrupted “..I know Stocks.. I did some work on it a while back.. What’s the guy’s name and id?”
Paul handed Jay a yellow sticky note with some user details scribbled on one side and coffee rings on the other.
“Good lad!” Paul squeezed Jay on the shoulder and walked over to his desk “But it’s a gal.. as you can see” Paul stretched his neck up from behind the screen to read Jay’s reaction. Jay thought he looked a bit like an inquisitive ostrich with his big eyes and his neck stretching out of his polo-neck sweater.
Jay decided that, if this was to be his lot in life, he could just as well make the most of it. And it could have been much worse. Beck could have forced him to stay where he was. Jay smiled as he thought of the irony of events and how his emotions had changed so quickly as he typed in the user details in the Stocks system.
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The name of Snow Page 2