The Black: Arrival

by Paul E. Cooley

  “Yes,” Darren giggled. “Every time I go to the new building to check up on things, he’s in there fretting over cabling and power connections.” Darren shook his head. “He’s almost as bad as you are.”

  “Almost. So what can we do to make sure this weekend goes smoothly?”

  Darren lifted up the tablet again. “I’ve scheduled their breaks. The mother’s room is ready in case someone needs a power nap and they don’t want to use their office. And, as I said, I have plenty of food and drink.”

  “Coffee?”

  “Of course,” Darren said. “Jay would cease to function without coffee.”

  “All right. Sounds like you have everything handled.”

  “But you’re going to stay here with us anyway.”

  Mike grinned. “I’ll work on packing my office, doing a bit of reading, and maybe take a few cat naps.”

  “Uh-huh.” Darren looked expectantly at his boss. A moment passed. Darren finally spoke. “Is there anything else?”

  “What time is my meeting with Kate?”

  “In two hours. I think you should probably send her team home a bit early.”

  Mike nodded. “I think you’re right. Okay. Anything that needs my attention?”

  Darren rolled his eyes. “Only the construction reports you keep obsessing over.”

  “Right.” He nodded to himself and slid his fingers across the trackpad. His monitors came to life. “I think I’m going to eat in. Too much to do.”

  “Okay, boss. Let me know what you want for lunch and I’ll make it happen.”

  Mike grinned. “Of course you will. Now, get out of here. Let the old man get some work done.”

  Darren stood, smoothed his shirt again, and walked back out of the office. He closed it behind him so gently that Mike barely heard the button catch.

  *****

  As usual, the hall lights were harsh and garish. She walked down the hall to the stairwell. She passed the barely finished skybridge, nose wrinkling at the smell of fresh paint. The glass panes were still crisscrossed with tape and manufacturer stickers. Kate’s laptop was beneath one arm. She barely felt its weight, but was all too aware of what Mike would want from her. Testing plans. Schedules. The usual.

  He was a good executive, as far as those things went, but his lack of chemistry or biology education was terrifying. Running one of the premier chemical/bio testing labs should have required a damned PhD. But Mike Beaudry was one of those rare creatures that could look at facts, figures, personnel, etc., and somehow manage to make it work. Instead of pinching pennies and forcing the staff to do with the bare minimum, he was always willing to invest in new tech if it meant they could handle more work.

  In addition, he rarely interfered with the scientific work. Except, of course, when it was a hot-shot job from a high-profile client. The impending delivery of the PPE sample certainly fit that bill.

  A trio of construction workers were working on the other side of the skybridge. One of them held a slab of sheetrock and another ran the heavy drill to put in the screws. The third was already painting a finished section of wall with a base coat. The trio spoke Spanish and nothing else.

  She opened the stairwell door and clomped up the stairs to the third floor. She looked forward to the day when HAL had elevators that actually worked. The new building wasn’t ready for them yet. Maybe by second quarter. But that was a long way away. Until then, she and other employees had to put up with unreliable elevators, bad tasting water, and power outages. Not to mention the musty smell.

  The insulation in the building was terrible. The stairwell was cold and moist. November weather had brought an unseasonable fall chill to Houston, accompanied by wind and outrageously high humidity.

  The old building still had its ancient furnace and tons of air conditioning equipment to control the lab temperatures. It was always cold, but not like this. Kate wanted to rub her arms, but carrying the laptop made that impossible.

  She swiped her badge in front of a glowing sensor. It beeped and then the door clicked. She readjusted the laptop, pulled open the door, and walked out onto the third floor.

  Wooden-paneled walls shined beneath the fluorescents. Paintings hung from the wall every dozen feet or so. Mike was a fan of Dus. Some originals, as well as proofs and prints, stared at her as she walked toward the reception area.

  She turned the corner. “Hey, Darren,” Kate said.

  The man behind the desk wore a black dress shirt with well-creased chinos. He smiled at her. “Ah, Ms. Cheevers,” Darren said. “Mike is waiting for you.”

  “Yes, I know,” she said. “I looked in on the skybridge. It’s kind of a mess.”

  Darren shrugged. He leaned forward and spoke quietly. “Between us girls,” he said, “Michael is getting impatient with the workers. If he had his way, they’d be working all weekend too.”

  Kate rolled her eyes. “Considering how many months it took just to get the NOC done, I don’t see how he thinks that’s going to make things go any faster.”

  “Regardless,” he sighed, “I had to cancel my date for tomorrow night. And I can’t go to the big soiree.” Darren pretended to sniff. “And I had a nice 70s, fire-red suit to wear. Ruffles and everything.”

  Kate laughed. “Oh, I want to see pictures!”

  The droopy look on his face disappeared into a wide grin. “Oh, there will be pictures. I’ll wear it for the pre-holiday holiday party. You’re going to be there, right?”

  “Of course,” Kate said. “Assuming we don’t get another hot-shot.”

  “Hot-shots.” Darren thumped the desk with his knuckles. “You’re working this weekend. Jay’s working this weekend. Chuckles is working this weekend.” He hissed through his teeth. “And I’m the one making sure you’re all fed and watered.”

  Kate smiled. “What would we do without you?”

  “Hopefully you’d get a boyfriend instead of being a fag-hag,” Darren chuckled.

  “But you’re so much fun to drink with.”

  “Of course I am,” Darren said. “But at some point, dear, you need to get back on the proverbial horse.”

  She nodded. “If I ever get a night off, maybe I could.”

  “Your ex call in again?”

  “Yup,” Kate said. “And I can’t wait to tell Maeve she’s going to have to spend the weekend here.”

  “What an asshole,” Darren growled. He ran his fingers through his greying hair. “What’s the excuse this time?”

  She grunted. “Work. But we both know what that means.”

  “New girlfriend?”

  “That’s my guess. We’ve been divorced more than two years and he’s still dating strippers.” Kate clucked her tongue. “How do you tell your daughter her father would rather get laid than spend the weekend with her?”

  Darren shook his head. “No idea, darling. No idea.” His computer dinged. Darren’s eyes focused on the message on the screen. “Well, Michael knows you’re here.” He wrinkled his nose. “Guess you better go in.”

  “Okay,” Kate said. “Sorry about your date.”

  “Thanks,” he said. “Sorry about your weekend. This sucks.”

  “Just think of the upcoming bonus. It’s going to be a big one,” she smiled.

  Darren pointed to the wide door on the west wall. “Get in there,” he chuckled.

  “Yes, sir,” she said with a mock salute.

  Kate knocked on the heavy oak door. “Come in, Kate,” Mike’s muffled voice said.

  She took a deep breath and swung open the door. Mike Beaudry’s office was bright with white light. Instead of fluorescent tubes bathing his desk, two large halogen torches dispelled the darkness. Steel-colored mini-blinds hung down across the windows protecting the room from the sun’s harsh afternoon glare. Mike was just fine without natural light.

  He sat behind his desk. A large whiteboard hung from one of the walls. Jobs and schedules were marked on most of it. The far right side was clean of ink.

  The words “PPE
HOT-SHOT” glowed in large, red letters on the far left side. Below that was a scheduled arrival and due date for the report. Sunday. The barrel would arrive Friday afternoon and then the team would work through the nights to get it done. Kate choked off a sigh.

  “Mike. What’s up?” she asked.

  His eyes flicked to the whiteboard. “Is that your crew? Is that everyone?”

  She followed his gaze. Hollingsworth. Krieger. Cheevers. “Yup. That’s us.”

  “Good,” Mike said. “Neil’s team will be in the bio-lab.”

  Kate blinked. “They have a hot-shot too?”

  He growled. “No. They’re still putting together that DNA study for the HMNS. For some damned reason, he can’t seem to get ahead. And you know how his team is.”

  She smiled. “They work hard.”

  “When they work,” Mike said.

  “That’s not quite fair, Mike, and you know it. The sequencers have been pretty finicky.”

  He rolled his eyes. “We spend all that money on their new equipment and they can’t keep the damned things running more than a day before they hit a new bug in the software.” He shook his head. “Next time, I’m making sure the support contract includes 24-7 on-site support.”

  “Right,” Kate said. “Is that all you needed from me?”

  He pointed to the chair across from him. Kate sat and placed her laptop on the desk. “I want to go over the tests for PPE. Simpson has been riding my ass for the past 48 hours making sure we’re ready.”

  Kate hissed through her teeth. “Thought he was a friend of yours?”

  Mike nodded. “Yeah. So imagine what a pain he’d be if he weren’t.”

  She giggled. “One day, you’re going to have to introduce us.”

  “Uh-huh,” Mike said. “Considering his personality, I don’t think that’s such a good idea.” He rapped a knuckle on the desk. “Show me.”

  She flipped open her laptop and initiated the wireless screen display. A projector whirred to life above Mike’s desk. The white wall caddy-corner from the desk lit up with a spreadsheet.

  Her mouse cursor turned into a large red dot. She moved it to the first entry and slid it down the column. “Normal tests. H2S, moisture, sulfur content, the usual stuff.”

  “Timeline?”

  She shrugged. “Depends on the sample, really. The report Shawna Sigler forwarded to us is, well, strange. The figures she came up with are a little off the charts. Shouldn’t take very long for us to determine how far she’s off. But if she’s right,” Kate licked her lips, “it might be a damned long night.”

  Mike frowned. “Why’s that? I would think confirming them would be a good thing.”

  She pressed a key and the screen switched to a document filled with figures. She moved the red dot to the moisture content. “That really can’t be right, Mike. And Simpson included in his email that if any of the figures are incorrect, he wants to know why they were incorrect. That might require us to do some deep digging.”

  Mike sighed. “Okay. So overtime.” He shook his head. “Good thing we’re charging the shit out of them so I can make this up to you.”

  “And we, um, appreciate that, boss.”

  “Of course you do,” he chuckled. “Go back to the tests.”

  She tapped a key and the spreadsheet reappeared.

  “What’s that ‘light test’?”

  “It’s a strange one,” she said. “We’ve been doing this for a long time, Mike, but I don’t get that request too often. We’ve run it maybe four or five times in my entire career.”

  Mike’s brows furrowed. “So what is it?”

  “We bathe the sample in different spectrums of light. It shows the flow characteristics of the oil. Gives us some idea of how it will travel through the pipes over time, as well as through the reservoir. The pressure they cited, though, leads me to believe they’ll have no problem. It’s obviously not very viscous.”

  “Okay,” Mike said. “And how long is that going to take?”

  She shrugged. “A few hours. We have to find the right frequency. And every oil sample is different.”

  “Right. Goddamned snowflakes.”

  She grinned. “That’s why they pay us the big bucks.”

  “Okay. You have everything you need?”

  She nodded. “We’ve got it covered. Marie is going to start setting up the tests for us tomorrow afternoon and Jay and I are already calculating medians we expect.”

  Mike waved a hand. “Then you should go home. And I don’t want to see you guys or hear from you until tomorrow afternoon. We should get a heads up as to when the sample will arrive. I’ll make sure you get the call.”

  Kate closed her laptop and stood. “Darren said you and he will be here as usual?”

  He nodded. “That’s right. I’m going to help Darren bird dog you guys. This PPE contract is damned important and we can’t afford any screw-ups. So if I need to bring you a kilo of coke to get you guys through it, I will.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I prefer meth.”

  “Or that,” Mike grinned. “Now get out of here.”

  “Yes, boss,” Kate said. She left him chuckling at his desk.

  *****

  Cartoon music filled the office. Shoes off, Taz socks in full view, Jay Hollingsworth grinned at the tablet on the desk. He mimicked every word as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck argued about “wabbit season.” When Elmer Fudd chimed in, Jay’s voice flipped easily into the accent. Mel Blanc would have been proud.

  He lifted the mug of tea and sipped. The computer screen was still dark. Jay sighed and tapped his fingers on the armrest. His system had been down for the last ten minutes. Reason? No clue.

  A help desk message from his phone had resulted in an immediate response. But he knew damned well it would take the tech time to get off his lazy ass. Or it was possible, just possible, that Stevo was dealing with another issue. Jay smirked. Possible, but highly improbable.

  The episode ended. “A bya-bya-bya-bya-that’s all folks!” Jay echoed Porky Pig’s sign off.

  “Love to see a professional at work,” Kate’s voice said from the doorway.

  Jay swiveled in his chair and pushed his glasses up on his nose. He gestured to the dark screen. “It’s about all the work I can do right now.” He sipped his tea. The liquid was lukewarm at best.

  Kate smiled. “I take it you’re waiting for Stevo?”

  He nodded as his tablet’s speakers belted out the Looney Tunes theme song. “If by waiting, you mean practicing my voice work, yes.”

  “Sounded good to me. Always does though.”

  “You’re far too kind.” He put his feet back on the floor and placed the mug on the desk. “So what’s up, Doc?” he said in his Bugs voice.

  “Mike said we should go home. The sample is arriving tomorrow afternoon. Wants to make sure we’re fresh.”

  “And because the night crew doesn’t have an assignment?” Jay asked.

  She shrugged. “They finished their workload. Was an easy week.”

  “Until PPE’s vaunted M2 barrel gets here,” Jay said. “So they won’t be joining us for the cluster fuck?”

  Kate clucked her tongue. “I can call them in if we need a rest. But Mike would rather—”

  “We handle it personally, yeah, I get it.”

  “Tough being a rockstar, isn’t it?” Kate grinned.

  “At least we’re paid,” he said. “PPE asked for us personally. So I guess that’s something.”

  “Mike said something about a bonus, although I didn’t tell you that.”

  Jay harrumphed. “At least we’re getting paid,” he said again. He tapped a finger on the desk. “Marie joining us?”

  “Of course,” Kate said.

  Jay glanced at his mug with longing. Fresh hot tea sounded wonderful. But going home sounded even better. He slipped his feet into his closed-toe sandals. “Guess Stevo doesn’t need me here to fix this piece of shit.” He closed the tablet and cut off Yosemite Sam in mid-rant. “You hav
e Maeve tonight?” he asked as he shoved the tablet into his satchel.

  Kate nodded. “Yeah. Going to have her tomorrow night, too, unless I can find a sitter.”

  “What in tarnation?” Yosemite Sam’s voice said.

  “Exactly. I’ll bet you can guess why.”

  “Shit,” Jay shook his head. “Always knew that guy was an asshole.”

  “Wish someone had told me that before I married him.” She looked up at the ceiling and sighed. “No, that’s not true. Then I wouldn’t have Maeve.” Kate looked back at Jay. “I guess I came out ahead of the game.”

  A slow smile spread across Jay’s face. “Probably the best way to look at it. Dare I ask the excuse?”

  “New girlfriend.”

  Jay rolled his eyes. “And let me guess. You get to break the news. Again.”

  “Again,” Kate said. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  *****

  Rather than taking the elevator, Jay and Kate hiked down the stairwell. Laptop bags around their shoulders, the fabric straps groaned with the weight. Jay was quiet. Probably thinking about tomorrow’s tests. Or maybe which Looney Tunes character he’d break out into next.

  She sighed. Maeve was going to be pissed. Instead of getting time with her father, the girl was going to spend the weekend cooped up at HAL with no other children. Homework, video games, and the internet would pretty much be her world for at least 48 hours.

  Kate grinned. Maybe this would be a good thing for her. Time amongst the adults and a chance to see, really see, what her mother did for a living. It couldn’t be that bad.

  But she knew she could tell her daughter all the pluses until she was blue in the face. Maeve was going to reject them out of hand. She knew her daughter too well to imagine it going any other way.

  They reached the bottom of the stairs. Kate swiped her badge across the reader. Without a card, you could exit the building, but not get back inside. The sensor beeped, the lock clicked, and she swung open the door.

  The building didn’t have many visitors. Mike, the CEO, met most of their clients offsite. The visitors they did have were escorted to the third floor by one of the executive team. Therefore Darren served as their receptionist and he was on floor 3.

  The security desk was always helmed by at least one guard. Due to the sensitive nature of their work, HAL chose to hire security personnel as employees rather than employ a third party firm. It was simply easier that way.