by Caldon Mull
“No...” June sighed “But Mr. Bayley here can.”
“Oh, crap.” I cleared my throat. “Hi, Mr. Bayley.”
“Hello, Finch.” He didn’t sound amused. “Is this true?”
“Um, yeah.” I sighed, turned and grinned “It is.”
“I recall we had made the offer for the Saturn probe for eighty millions dollars.” Bayley examined his nails carefully, not looking at me. “Why would they offer you another deal?”
“Well, after the last launch debacle, they offered me the same deal for my commission. I can save the space program seventy six millions dollars of wasted spending. That’s a lot of interested parties and a lot of savings.” I decided to throw caution to the wind, what the hell. “I still intend doing the work. I won’t be here.”
“The last time you did the work was on company time, using company resources.” Mr. Bayley looked at me, I didn’t appreciate the quality of his gaze.
“Which you didn’t pay me a cent for, and I worked in my off time, you still have the Intellectual Property.” June’s eyebrows beetled “But still you billed the principle. This time, I won’t repeat my methodology. I simply won’t be using any company resources at all. I trust you can appreciate my need for thrift.” I snarled.
“We were handsomely rewarded, very profitable.” Mr. Bayley shrugged. I knew I had scored my points.
“I’m sure your profit will last you many, many long years. Pity with a little more caution and a smidgen less profit, the satellite would actually be working and we would already be mapping extra-terrestial planets around other suns. It’s going to take years to get that going, now.”
“Ah, idealism.” Mr. Bayley stood and straightened his waistcoat. “Lovely. But we can make it very, very expensive to leave, Finch. Just sign the Contract.”
“No, Mr. Bayley.” I shook my head “I won’t. June... I won’t. I promise you... this matter is over. You are trying to force me to do something I simply will not do. You can’t, you can’t restrain me and you can’t unilaterally change the first contract, unless I sign another contract after the expiry of the first, the first contact has precedence.”
“Gentlemen.” June stood and took the crumpled papers from my hand. I had been squeezing them. “Andy, you’re right. I am not going to force you. I hadn’t even sent the counter offer to you.” She reached down into a drawer and pulled out a blue envelope, tossed it onto her desk. “You want to take it now?”
“No thanks. Are you going to push this?”
“No, as your superior, this matter is closed. Our department will not be pursuing this matter.” June frowned as she glimpsed over the contract I had mauled. “Where did you get this?”
“Departmental Post.” I growled “So, here’s the deal. I work nine to five, no extra time... just as my original contract states. You have the cameras trained on my desk examined at the end of every day, my mail and post searched by a forensic team. You may fire me at any time my work is below standard, or worse, you find me doing anything over and above my stipulated duties as detailed by my original Job Description. Failing these conditions occurring, when my contract ends, I will leave with the full benefits promised by it. Is this clear?”
Mr. Bayley blanched “You can’t withhold a workload that you have delivered up until now. We have the expectation of your previous achievements...”
“So fire me, already.” I snapped.
“For excellence?” June snorted “Gentlemen! This meeting is closed. Please, both of you... Go!”
“Finch, you’ll sign that Contract!” Bayley puffed himself up.
“Mr. Bayley, you will leave this office, now!” June’s cheeks hued that colour I knew well. “Andy, you too. This conversation is over, this matter is dropped. Both of you, get out now!”
I left quickly, mindful of June’s temper, even though my ire was up. It wasn’t her, so who? Bayley? I sat at my desk, vibrating with suppressed anger. So what was going on? Well, whatever it was I was having none of it. June had said this matter was closed, and so I was determined to leave it at that.
“Charlie, the progs all loaded?” I asked through the intercom.
“Yeah Boss, all done. We going home early?” his cheerful voice burbled. I grinned, why let my shit mood ruin his evening.
“After this, you think there’s any reason to stay?” Charlie and I had been working on this for some time.
“Nah. Quiet time, low yields. Observations are all just data. We send it every hour, or every pass?” I wondered.
“Every hour. We used to upload every day. The reports got huge. Makes it look like we sending it regular enough for them to check for what they want without goin’ through a days work of reports and images.” Charlie was gleeful, I could see his dust coat in the ‘Tank’ bob around as he brought the last routine in. Incremental updates - only the information that had changed in the hour would cut the workload to a tenth of what it had been.
“You got a dartboard? Choose who runs first.” I laughed at his schoolboy enthusiasm.
“Ummm. Metsat. Lets start with the weather they always behind and they always wrong.”
Charlie was obviously having fun. “Perhaps they might even get our weather right... before y’know... a twister, or sumthin’.”
“Point taken, intrepid assistant.” I grinned “Number two, make it so.”
“You think they’ll notice.”
“You read the notice I sent them?”
“Awww... you cheated.”
“No, just warned them we are upgrading our systems and prompting them for instructions after the first day’s reports, see what they’ll say. If they like it, we keep it that way and template my notice to our other clients.” I checked Charlie’s work and pressed the release button.
“Man, I will sure appreciate the extra time with my kids. Thanks Andy, if this works then most of the stuff will be done by itself and all I gotta do is the backlog of the stuff I’m supposed to do.”
“They still not get around to getting you those extra assistants?”
“Heh! No. ‘Sides, if I get my two guys and then you probably need another two to help you do what I’m doing right now, and each of them get two so we can force the workloads back to what they were, so we can keep them busy. I prefer this way, personally”
“Charlie, why don’t we have a larger staff?” I shrugged, the thoughts tumbling in my head “I mean, we got the whole sales department in another city, the marketers in another state and the designers and artists all over on Outsource. Why do we got only you’n me an Petey for all these damn satellite dishes and accountants and administration; payroll and fuck all else?”
“Dunno, Andy. Guess it’s really boring stuff. The machines here are the prize. Thirty, maybe forty years ago, you needed a whole lotta guys to do the calibrations. Then you had cranks and teams of guys with a supervisor with a logbook an’ a slide rule. Things were great, The Company hired these guys from Storyville every month or so, paid good cash, supplement the income, good trusted honest sweat.”
“Hmmm, where you think things changed?” I forgot Charlie had been working here for a long time.
“I dunno, really. You get the company big enough and suddenly you got all these rules and regulations and profits that you want to keep safe from pryin’ and you find the expensive real estate that’s doin’ nothing and you put them in the same place. Why you ask?”
“Tryin’ to understand somethin’, is all.” I sighed as Charlie got up from his console and started walking towards the office.
“I can guess what it is.” Charlie smiled as he walked through the door. “I’ve had a lot of time with your poker face, I think I can read you better’n most.”
“Oh?” I grinned at him. Charlie was pretty bright.
“You got here ‘cos you got all the qualifications I didn’t have. You took a job far under what you should’ve got because your lady in accounts got the position she wanted. So the company sits back and decides to bury the department
in a night watchman role, which you go and upset because you make all these changes and work on all these contacts because you bored and suddenly you got customers askin’ for you.” Charlie chuckled, “Should I go on?”
“Yes, please.” I put down my pen and looked at him, he had my attention.
“So instead of bein’ nice and simple, you got a department that should be tickin’ along beneath anyone’s notice suddenly generating huge amounts of interest and even bigger offers for contracts that you could take, or the Company could take. See, thing is... if you don’t take them, neither can the company. So what do they do? They can’t promote you because then all this demand and all this money will upset the apple cart. If they can’t keep you where you are and they can’t move you, then you gotta be willin’ to follow a new manager who you gonna listen to. Which, knowin’ you, you’re not gonna do because you only listen to someone who knows more than you. An’ that person hasn’t been born just yet.” Charlie stopped chuckling and started to laugh.
“An’ here I was thinkin’ you only quiet because you not payin’ attention.” I grinned. “I gotta level with you, Charlie.”
“I thought you might. You been changin’ since you been here, haven’t you?” He pulled up at chair and waved at my coffee machine, looking hopeful. “There’s still a cup in there....?”
“Here.” I poured him some, he sipped, sighed and looked peaceful. “That is some fine coffee, you should sell it, make a fortune. Cream, cocoa... what’s that other taste?”
“I’ll remember that. Oh, nutmeg. Just a touch.” I put in another pack of grounds, my back to him while I topped up the reservoir. I hoped my face wasn’t giving anything away, but I dreaded telling him what I was feeling, but I knew him too well to lie. Should I trust him? I flicked the switch on and made my decision.
“See, Charlie, they pressuring me to renew my contract. It was only for four years before I could break away, but they want to tie me in before then.”
“Ah.” Charlie nodded, his cream moustache made him look fairly comical. “And you got other ideas?”
“Well, yeah.” I sat down and watched him enjoy his cup. “See, I’ve been doing my job here, as well as all this other consulting stuff, sorta volunteer-like. But there’s been no conflict of interest ‘cause I’ve been doing it volunteer like, y’know to keep busy. I’ve been automating more and more of our process here because it gives me more time to do the other stuff. Important stuff.”
“Yeah, I kinda figured that. All the stuff you did on night shift made my life so much easier every morning. I could finally get through the backlogs.”
“But I saw they didn’t get anyone else since my phase Two changes.” I shrugged “Do you think they saw you coping and decided they could squeeze more out of you?”
“That, and also the better we do our work the less important we become.” Charlie shrugged and looked at the percolator with anticipation.
“Yeah, we perfect when we invisible.” I sighed, listening to the gurgle behind me. “Thing is, Paul stepped in when they were starting to offer huge bucks to second me to their projects. Even if he had no intention of even signing me out, it looked like he’d just sit on me to stop going.”
“Yeah, Paul was a bastard.” Charlie shuddered “I was really pleased when he left.”
“Yeah. You have no idea.” I swivelled and set out two more cups “But Charlie,” I spoke to him with my back turned “I don’t want to carry on doing the dumb-ass stuff when I could be doing really important stuff, stuff that matters. The only contract I’ve had here has been, well, not as successful as I would like. No one’s fault, actually... but far too rushed to be absolutely perfect.”
“Absolutely... Man, you got high ambitions. You ever check in with the gremlins Union?”
“Heh.” I poured two more cups, now the brew was ready. “But I can finish here and move on. June is settled with George and doesn’t need me, work is settled and doesn’t need me and all these big space projects are just waiting for me... and I need to do those.”
“I understand man, I’ve seen three or four supervisors move through here. The Company bought me for life. I got kids here in school and the wife is happy with her crafts and things are good. You’re the only one who actually sat down and showed me stuff and shared what you brought in, though. Just when I thought I could slide through on autopilot you come and shove me to keep up. I’ve enjoyed every minute.”
“I guess you ready to be a supervisor.” I grinned “As soon as you promoted, there’s no-one to do the work. Guess the company must hire more. A staff for you and one for me”
“Where you coming from?” Charlie frowned accepted another cup.
“I’m still officially night shift. I am still supervisor and only on night shift.” I shrugged “I’m going back to doin’ the job I was hired for... and nothin’ else.”
“Hmm. Have I ever said you got the biggest balls I ever seen.” Charlie grinned “You gotta talent... is what.”
“Well, Charlie.” I scratched in a draw for the papers “Congratulations. There’s a raise from last month already and you got your own shift, an’ you’re your own Boss. Don’t need to speak to me no more for permission. We gotta share the desk though. Day shift and Night shift supervisors use the same stuff around here.”
“We already do. You got, like, nothin’ personal in it at all.” Charlie grinned with pleasure as he saw the papers “Man, I can get that new car, at last.”
“Well, I guess I’m not your Boss no more. We’re partners... at least for the next year.”
“Sure Boss, I gotcha.”
“You can stop callin’ me that, Charlie.”
“Yeah, Boss whatever you say.”
I sighed, rubbed my eyeballs “Well Charlie, I’m all set up for tonight an’ I’m going to football practice. I’ll see you tomorrow at shift change. We’re on autopilot and I hope that no-one even notices.”
“OK Boss,” Charlie grinned, holding the promotion to his chest “Whatever you say.”
“Charlie, you gotta stop that now.” I groaned and launched out of my chair, collected my kit.
“You post any incidents on E-mail or Bulletin Board tomorrow an’ I’ll sort them when I get in.”
I arrived five minutes earlier than was arranged and noticed all the Team out in the middle of the field, fully kitted. “Shit.” I cursed and hefted my kit. I was sure this was the time Bobby had said, and loped out to meet them.
“I’m sorry I’m late, I was sure...” I puffed, kitbag jabbing my kidneys.
“You not late.” Bobby stepped forward, the guys formed two ranks banked past me. “This is the first time we all got together since... the November Rain. The guys and I knew you didn’t want to make a fuss, but since no-one else has bothered to go out of their way, I... we... thought to thank you for being so ballsy and saving our Townfolk. Thanks, Andy. You a hellavu guy.”
“Hear, hear.” The guys rumbled down their ranks.
I blushed, embarrassed. “Uhh, yeah.” I cleared my throat.
“So, we’ll say no more on it.” Bobby grinned and tugged off his helmet. I goggled. His normally curly tangle of bed-head was cropped down to stubble. At his right temple, he had shaved to the skin a stripe to the back of his head, four inches long and two inches wide, just like my scar. All the other guys tugged off their helmets, sporting the same cut.
“Ummm...” was all I could say, stupefied. Bobby grappled me and lifted me off the ground, the other guys helped until I was hefted on their shoulders and they walked me to the change rooms carried aloft.
“Now get your wookie-ass changed and let’s practice some. We got some work to catch up.” Alex slapped my ass and hefted the kit into my arms when we got to the door. “Hope you don’t mind changin’ all lonely-like, ‘cos half these boys’d bend in front ya cock if we leave you alone with them an’ I don’t want them all used up a’fore we get through these plays.” Alex winked “Candy-ass girlie-boys playin’ at being football
ers. You’d break half of them with your mare- killer and then there’d be no more Game.” He grinned hugely “Then we gotta look to the loggers taking these slack-assed bitches off our hands an’ getting us some more players.” He stage- whispered.
The guys chuckled and grinned, roughed my scalp and slapped my shoulders, each and every one of them before trooping off back into the field. I went inside and tugged on my kit with a lump in my throat. Damn them all, the stupid, adorable lunks. Sniffing back a good sob, I tugged on my helmet and closed my locker door. There was a name-plate on it now. It said ‘AC Finch, Wide Receiver’. I grinned, turned and looked down the isle of lockers. Each of the team members had their names on the locker on new, small brass plates. I spun my lock and jogged out to my Team.
We practiced hard, but it didn’t seem at all difficult. Time just flew by. We ducked, we dived, we ran we jumped and all the while I noticed that the team had picked up a lot of polish.
The lamps blinked and half of them turned off. “Time.” Bobby called.
“Yeah boys, good practice.” Alex moved through the line, slapping asses. “Some of you almost ready to try out for the Puma’s. Whaddya say boys?”
“Wait Up, Puma’s!” The chorus growled.
“Who’s banging on the door?” Alex punched the air.
“We are!” We all roared.
“Ain’t that right!” Bobby grinned “In another half-hour we gotta let the grass grow some more. What you say we all grab a shower an’ head out?”
The boys cheered and we all tumbled into the change rooms. Halfway through my shower I heard Bobby call for our attention. We gathered around buck-ass naked while he explained his plan. “We gotta catch up some games, an’ I gotta way to do it. First thing is we gotta get the games under our belt an’ the best way to do it is to play the damn things. The next six weeks we gonna be spending driving around like blue-assed flies getting’ the games. Anyone got problems with the times?”