by Becca Little
“Bianca?” Mr. Pearson peeked over my cubicle.
“Yes sir?” I almost jumped out of my skin when he appeared—his voice just had that kind of edge and it happened almost every time he surprised me.
“Gary would like to see you in his office.” He sipped his coffee and an emotionless smile crossed his face. “You know where that is, right?”
“I do, yes sir.” I raised my eyebrow in concern, but stood up from my desk.
I walked towards the elevator with my heart thumping in my ears. Had someone found me out? Was I about to be fired? I tried to calm my nerves. If I had been found out and I was about to be fired, I wouldn’t be getting called to Gary’s office. I would be going straight to jail in handcuffs. I rode up the elevator wondering why he was calling me, if it wasn’t for the obvious reason blanketing me with caution. When I got upstairs, his secretary asked me to wait, so I took a seat in one of the red plush chairs outside his office. I had only been up to the floor where the officers worked a couple of times, and none of those had resulted in a personal meeting with someone on the Board of Directors. I sat there staring straight ahead until the secretary said he was ready for me.
“Ah, Bianca.” Gary stood as I entered and smiled. “Come on in and take a seat.”
“Yes sir.” I walked in cautiously and sat down in a chair the resembled the ones outside his office, but was much larger. It almost swallowed me as I sat down. I felt like I sank almost a foot into the soft cushion.
“You’ve been here, what…a year?” He looked at me and folded his hands on his desk.
“Yes, that’s right.” I nodded in confirmation.
“I’m just going to come right out and say it. You’re one of the best data analysts I’ve seen. Most of them just grind through the data and throw it in a spreadsheet. You actually look at it, tell us your thoughts, and you understand it. I’m very impressed.” He smiled and finally took a seat.
“Really?” I raised my eyebrows. “I didn’t think anyone noticed.”
“We notice, trust me. We notice everything.” He pushed a piece of paper over towards me. “That is your new salary. You’re no longer going to just grind numbers for us. I’m in need of a personal analyst and I think you show more potential than any of the cubicle dwellers downstairs, so a few of them are going to report to you so that I can get the reports I need daily.”
“What?” I stared at him in confusion and reached for the paper. I flipped it over to see a figure that was almost double what I was making. “Holy shit—sorry. Are you serious?”
“I am. This is a big deal. This is where you start really learning about Bradford International. What you do from this point forward defines your future with the company. A smart person like yourself could easily use this position to get noticed and one day move into management.” He leaned back in his chair and rested his chin on his folded hands.
“You…” I blinked a couple of times. “You said some of the analysts will report to me? Isn’t that management?”
“Not quite the same thing. This is more like supervision, but it is definitely a stepping stone towards management.” He continued to rest his chin on his hands as he stared, but his face slowly turned to a smile.
“Thank you. Thank you so much!” I felt a rush of excitement that made me tingle from head to toe.
I walked out of Gary’s office and my mind was filled with confusion as I rode the elevator back downstairs. I didn’t see a future for myself at Bradford International. I didn’t think they even knew who I was. I was clearly mistaken, and I had an incredible opportunity in front of me. I sat down at my computer and considered stopping the program. My mind was clouded with uncertainty. If what Gary said was true, I had an opportunity to chase fame and fortune legitimately. I wouldn’t have to retire to a foreign country, and within a few years, I could have a really good job that would give me a lot of opportunities for advancement. The end of my shift came and I decided to let the program run, but I was no longer thinking of it as a retirement opportunity. It was a nuisance I needed to get rid of and erase all evidence that I was the one who planted it in the system.
Chapter 4 — Sloane
If there was one thing I hated more than anything else in the world, it was a thief. I stared at the incident report from our Japanese office. Some stupid kids had managed to hack into the network and change the prices for several products, reducing them down to one percent of their normal price. They ordered hundreds of expensive products and got them shipped out before anyone caught it. Once we noticed, they were quickly apprehended, as criminals usually were, but I still didn’t like the negative attention it put on the company. Several newspapers were running it in the business section and social media was on fire with the news.
“Gary, get in here.” I hit a button on my phone and seethed as I waited for him to arrive.
“This is about Japan, isn’t it?” He walked into my office and took a seat.
“Of course, it’s about fucking Japan. What else do you think I’ve had time to spend my morning doing? I have two interviews this afternoon and I need to get a statement ready for our legal team.” My teeth clenched in anger.
“That’s Alice’s territory. You know she’s been—well—distracted.” He sighed and stared at the papers in his hand.
“That’s no excuse.” I sighed with frustration, feeling my anger start to pass. “I want a full security check at every office. Check everything. I don’t want another incident. Could you imagine what would have happened if they hacked our payment database? It would have been a fucking nightmare.”
“I know.” He nodded in agreement. “I’ll get the security team on it.”
“What’s this shit I saw in my in-box? You’re hiring another analyst and giving her security clearance? Bianca Adams was the name, I think?” I turned towards my computer.
“Yes sir. I wanted to talk with you about her under better circumstances, but I think she’s the real deal. We hired her a little over a year ago. She was top of her class and she did very well on our placement tests. I’ve been very impressed with her work.” Gary’s enthusiasm was dripping off his tongue.
“She’s hot too, isn’t she?” I looked over at him and saw him stare at the floor.
“Well, yes. She’s pretty.” He swallowed hard. “But that isn’t why I wanted to promote her.”
“I’m fucking with you. I trust you, so I’ll approve it.” I clicked the link in the email and clicked through the security clearance requirements. “Just make sure you don’t get distracted with her before you finish the security audit.”
“Yes sir.” Gary nodded in understanding.
Gary normally made good choices with his hires, so I wasn’t going to deny him a new analyst if he felt like he needed one. If he was just hiring her because she was hot, that was his prerogative. I certainly made that mistake a few times when I was moving up in the company. My family’s name was on the building, but I still had to prove myself before I even had a team reporting to me. At thirty-five, I was the youngest CEO, but that had only come so quickly because my father passed away unexpectedly and they wanted a Bradford to sit at the head of the table. The focus groups said it made our shareholders feel better. I had done my best to prove that I deserved to be there and while my family name got me the chair, I was serious about my job.
“Before I go…” Gary sighed and stared at his paperwork again. “About the Bradford Institute.”
“We’re really going to go through this again?” I felt my anger rising again.
“I know, I know…” Gary shook his head. “But look at this proposal. They want to open five new locations in the next five years. It’s aggressive, but the response has been overwhelming. This could make us a lot of money.”
“Who keeps sending you these business proposals?” I reached over and took the paper from him.
“Your cousin, Charles. He really wants to make this his legacy.” Gary leaned over my desk and pointed at some figures at the bottom
of the paper. “Look how much money this could make.”
“If Charles doesn’t want to run a charity, let him head up the Indonesian expansion. Fuck, just find something for him that he can feel important doing.” I tossed the paper on my desk. “The Bradford Institute is a charity and that’s the end of it. If you can’t explain it to him, I’ll drive up there this weekend and discuss it with him over drinks and cigars.”
“You may have to.” Gary picked up the paper and put it back in his stack. “I don’t think he really gives a shit what I say.”
“Fine…” I muttered and looked at my calendar.
The Bradford Institute had been a passion project for my father, based on a philosophy my grandfather wrote about on numerous occasions while he was alive. My father wanted to provide an alternative to prison for young women that found themselves on the wrong side of the law. It was controversial, which was one of the reasons I didn’t like the idea of adding it to the company portfolio. If it was a charity devoted to rehabilitation, a scandal wouldn’t fall on my shoulders or impact the company. If we tried to turn it into a business, the company would be caught up in any of the backlash that resulted from it. I believed in what it offered, but I didn’t believe it needed to be turned into a profit center for the company.
Pairing a young wayward girl with a mentor that served as her Daddy while she learned the difference between right and wrong had been successful. The fact it was a charity kept most of the criticism at bay. As the millennial generation went off the rails, there was a strong grassroots movement for a return to corporal punishment and domestic discipline. The Bradford Institute provided that in a safe environment that prevented young women from being abused as they spent their time being rehabilitated instead of rotting away in prison. Very few young women turned into repeat offenders after they spent time at the Bradford Institute.
Chapter 5 — Bianca
Rebecca was less than thrilled with my new plan. She was happy I got the promotion, but disappointed that I was ready to give up on my program so quickly. I tried to explain that it was a mistake, one that I had made impulsively because I thought I was in a dead-end job. I promised to use the money it had collected to buy her a guitar and a new cell phone, which seemed to pacify her a little bit. It wasn’t like I could return it at that point. The next morning, I went to work like normal, arriving a few minutes early so I could get some coffee before my shift began. I walked to my computer and sat down, turning it on with a flick of my finger. After it booted up, I typed in my employee number and my password, but I got an access denied screen. I started to panic and I stood up to see if anyone was around.
“Mr. Pearson?” I waved to my boss. “I can’t get into the system.”
“Oh.” He walked over and nodded. “They’re doing a security check. Call the help desk and they’ll get you in.”
The crisis seemed to be averted in my head, but the help desk couldn’t get me into the system. They said it was something with my security clearance because of my new job. A few minutes later, Mr. Pearson came over and explained that I would only be able to log in upstairs, on my assigned terminal. I had no idea my new job would start immediately. I rode the elevator upstairs and Gary’s secretary took me to a small office that was no bigger than a broom closet with my new terminal. My password worked perfectly on it, and I found several emails from Gary, most of them marked urgent. I got lost in the data as I started with the first one and cranked out the reports he asked for, complete with an analysis of each one when I emailed it over. The ones I couldn’t do quickly on my own, I emailed to the analysts that now reported to me.
“This is good work, but you should dig deeper.” Gary leaned against the door of my tiny office. “Don’t just look at what is on the surface. Look at the how everything connects together.”
“I will.” I nodded.
“You’re going to do great. This is a wonderful start, but I want to see your curiosity everything you submit to me.” He smiled and walked back towards his office.
Digging into the data turned out to be a rabbit hole of information. Every time I found something that made me curious, digging just created more questions. It was fascinating to see how all the different products connected and how the company’s marketing strategy could be utilized to maximize sales. I felt like I was finally putting my education and my natural curiosity to good use. I was working so many hours I lost track of everything as the days rolled on. I even spent a whole Saturday just combing through data. Rebecca was busy with her music, so she hardly noticed. After a couple of weeks, I had completely forgotten about the program I installed until I checked my account randomly on my way to lunch one day and saw a couple of deposits.
“Oh fuck…” I muttered as I remembered I hadn’t disabled it as originally planned.
I skipped lunch and went straight back to my terminal, planning to disable the program and delete all traces of it immediately. When I got to the folder where it was stored, I found that it was empty. The data scraper I had connected it to had been replaced, and the date said it was replaced that morning. I felt sick to my stomach. My esophagus tightened and bile started to churn in my stomach, making me feel like I was going to throw up. I heard footsteps outside my office and when I turned around, I saw a member of our security team with two police officers. All three of them had serious expressions on their face, and I saw Gary watching from the doorway of his office. The look on his face was enough for me to know that my secret had been discovered.
“Bianca Adams. You need to come with us.” The security officer motioned for me to follow him and the two police officers confirmed it wasn’t a request as one of them reached for their handcuffs.
“Okay.” I tried to straighten my back and leave with dignity even though I was scared to death.
All hope of a peaceful exit from the office was shattered when I got the near the officers. The larger of the two took me by the arm, turned me around, and slapped handcuffs on my wrist. As I did my walk of shame through the sea of people I had worked beside in the trenches downstairs weeks before, I heard nothing but whispers. The data analysts that had been assigned to my team were mortified as they saw me led away with my hands locked behind my back. I tried not to cry, but each step was harder than the one before it. By the time I was being led out the front door, large tears were welled up in my eyes and they quickly started pouring down my face. The ride to the police station felt like the end of the world crashing around me. I was taken to a chair where I had to wait for processing. A short while later an officer took me by the arm and helped me up.
“Do you have an attorney you want us to call?” The police officer put my finger in black ink and pressed it to a piece of paper so they could record my fingerprints.
“No…” I shook my head.
“You get a phone call.” He took me to a phone and I stared at it, realizing I didn’t know anyone’s actual telephone number. Everything was stored in my cell phone and none of them were committed to memory.
I flipped through the phone book until I found a friend that was listed. They were one of the few people left with a landline. Even my parents had given up on it. The name I found belonged to people that were barely more than an acquaintance but they knew Rebecca. I hoped they could at least get word to her. I got their answering machine and left a message, explaining my situation because I really needed them to understand how dire it was. After the message was left and my one phone call was gone, I was stripped, searched, put in a jail uniform, and taken to a cell. It was the lowest point in my life. As I thought about the repercussions of what I faced, I broke down in tears again. Regardless of how things turned out, I was no longer an innocent young woman with a bright future. That was extinguished and I was nothing more than a criminal. Whatever my punishment was, I would be branded with that for the rest of my life.
“You have a visitor.” A guard walked to my cell and motioned for the man in the booth to flip the switch.
“Is it Rebecca
?” I stood and waited for the door to open.
“Well, it appears to be a man, so I don’t think so. I believe he’s a lawyer.” The guard’s voice was like gravel as he pulled the door open.
I followed the guard out of the cell and he put handcuffs on my wrist that were connected by a long chain. He walked me past other criminals, each of them staring at me as I passed. As I walked past them, I thought about the future that was in front of me. Prison would be a lot harsher than the local jail and it was unlikely I would have my own cell. The women I passed looked grizzled and tough. They were hardened criminals and the people I met in prison were likely to be much worse than them. I wasn’t built for prison. I would end up someone’s lesbian bitch or traded for commissary items based on the movies and television shows I had watched. I was short, thin, and I had never been in a fight. I didn’t even know how to fight. My mind was in turmoil when I finally walked into the small room and saw a man sitting at the table reviewing a stack of paper.
“Hello, Bianca.” He stood up and extended his hand. “I’m Andrew Topper.”
“Hi…” I briefly shook his hand and sat down across from him.
“I’ve been assigned as your public defender.” He flipped through pages of notes.
“My public defender? I don’t have a real lawyer?” I blinked a couple of times in confusion.
“Based on the conversation I had with your friend…” He flipped a few pages. “Rebecca? She said your bank account has been frozen, and you couldn’t pay for a lawyer.”
“They’ve been frozen?” I placed my hands on the table as the news washed over me.