Executive: A Thriller

by Leslie Wolfe

  "Then, one day, Walker comes by the plant to visit, and some assembly workers reach out to him and tell him exactly the same thing. That they're disappointed by the fact that the company is cost-driven, rather than quality-driven like it used to be, and that they feel disengaged and disrespected. Walker listened, and then expressed complete surprise, stating he had never been told about such concerns. What was the VP to do? Call him a liar in front of everyone? The former VP held his mouth shut, and minutes later, Walker turned on him and fired him right there, on the spot, for keeping the situation from him. Many of us knew that the former VP was telling Walker about the situation every week. It served as a warning to all of us . . . we are to silence our disgruntled employees or be fired."

  "Wow, it's unbelievable," Alex said.

  "I hope you won't repeat a word of our conversation to anyone," Janet insisted again. "It's important that you don't."

  "I won't, don't worry. And I appreciate you speaking with me; it will help me navigate the waters at corporate. It's hard, you know. You come on as a new hire, filled with hopes and aspirations, and within days, the honeymoon is over and you wake up to such a reality. By the way, my boss is competing with your boss for the 'Asshole of the Year' title."

  "Who do you report to?" Janet asked.

  "Sheppard. Dustin Sheppard, CTO."

  "Sorry to hear that," Janet said, with a sad smile, "indeed another bastard. Not easy with him either. I heard he's filled with so much hatred and contempt for people that it makes you sick to the stomach."

  "That's correct. He is . . . vicious. That's the only word that comes to mind."

  "Well, we better turn in and get some rest. Tomorrow morning we'll be offered our weekly serving of public humiliation."

  ...59

  ...Thursday, July 8, 6:42AM

  ...NanoLance HQ—Research and Development Floor

  ...San Diego, California

  Before starting the computer, the man looked around for a third time, just to make sure. No one was there yet; it was too early in the day. He started the self-guidance configuration application, and then flipped through the various screens. The graphical user interface was designed to allow humans to control all the parameters for the self-guided drone flight. A flight plan included landmarks, targets, and coordinates of interest for both combat and recon missions, and well-defined safety collars.

  A safety collar was a restriction imposed by the system to prevent the drones from launching missiles on their own, without prior target confirmation from a human operator. The drone would find the target, based on geo-coordinates, or a combination between preloaded imagery and a set perimeter. If a target was identified while the drone was flying above the set perimeter, the drone could even lock the missile targeting system on the identified target, but not launch the missile until the human operator manually confirmed each and every launch.

  The man flipped through screen views until he reached the screen labeled Target Imagery. He read through the configuration and review options available on the screen. Load, Review, Restrict, Prioritize, Remove. He spent a little bit of time reviewing the existing target imagery. Most everyone from the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list was preloaded. Osama Bin Laden, although confirmed dead, was included on the list, together with his adjutants. In addition, there were known vehicles of terrorists and strategic landmarks and military equipment belonging to hostile forces of countries currently at war with the United States.

  "Uh-uh," he muttered, content with what he was seeing.

  He removed a USB flash drive from his pocket and connected it to the computer. Then he clicked the Load New Images option on the Target Imagery configuration screen.

  One by one, the images stored on the drive were opened, allowing the man to confirm the load of each one.

  A front view of a silver Toyota 4Runner, showing the car license plate.

  A detailed view of the California license plate.

  A head shot of an attractive young woman.

  A rear view of the same silver Toyota, showing the rear license plate.

  A full body image of the same woman, approaching the parked silver Toyota in NanoLance's parking lot.

  All selected images loaded correctly, and the confirmation screen disappeared, leaving the user to move on to configuration.

  Satisfied, the man clicked on the Distribution screen tab. Under Distribution, he had three options: General (all flight plans), Single (create new flight plan), and Test (field test and simulator). Without any hesitation, he clicked General (all flight plans). His choice ensured that the target imagery he had loaded would become a part of every active drone's target search.

  Then he moved on to the Restrict screen. This was the collar management screen. Again three options, reflecting three different levels of security: Do Not Target, Do Not Lock on Target, Do Not Launch. These options clearly specified which actions were not to be taken without ground control input. The default setting was for all three options to be checked. Ideally, the drones would not be allowed to get a lock, release a missile, or even set a target without a human's confirmation. The man unchecked all three boxes, removing all restrictions requiring human input. The self-guided software now allowed any drone to target, lock, and launch missiles at will, on any of the targets reflected in the images he had just loaded.

  The next screen was Prioritize. He checked the box labeled Very High, this being the highest level of priority available.

  The man reviewed all his settings in a hurry, looking over his shoulder every minute or so. It was getting late, but he was almost done. He clicked on Save and Exit. The system prompted him for the access username and password required to save any changes in the self-guiding software. He took a piece of paper out of his pocket, and started inputting the data in the required fields.

  Username: DSheppard

  Clearance: Top Secret / L1

  Password: EJgF236jhg@k34g5

  When he finished entering the sixteen-character password, he clicked Confirm. The screen returned an acceptance message and an option button labeled Distribute. He clicked it, watched a status bar for a few seconds, and then saw the message he was waiting for: Field Distribution Complete. Satisfied, he removed his flash drive, turned off the PC, and left hurriedly.

  ...60

  ...Thursday, July 8, 9:59AM

  ...NanoLance HQ—Operations Floor 17

  ...San Diego, California

  With a sigh of relief, Alex walked through the conference room door. She had made it on time. The usual players were already gathered around the table. Janet was there, but Alex decided not to acknowledge her specifically, or divulge the fact that they'd met in private. She greeted the entire group with a brisk "good morning," then took her seat.

  John Dunwood, VP of manufacturing, looked even paler, older, and more wrinkled than he did at the last meeting. He was biting his fingernails. Alex wondered what supreme effort of will, or what desperate situation could make a man come through that door again, after enduring what he had endured. What could be the reason he was still here?

  Robin Maxwell, from HR, was fresh and relaxed, as only an uncaring professional can be in a dysfunctional corporation. Alex could barely refrain from grunting at her. She still remembered Robin enabling Walker in his continued abuse. Ugh . . .

  Miles Putnam, director of R&D, the guy who told Alex that pushing people the way Walker did generates innovation and drives performance, looked a bit worried, sifting through his pile of paperwork and reports. From the peek into the meeting's agenda, R&D results were on the table for discussion, so he was going to be in the hot seat.

  Finally, Peter Wilson from Six Sigma was looking down, avoiding eye contact with everyone. At the last operations meeting, he had been tasked to look into the reasons behind the failure rates of the new designs. He could also end up in the hot seat, despite all his previous enabling. Alex almost smiled.

  Walker slammed the door behind him, startling everyone.

  "
Good morning, I guess," he said. "What do you have for me today? Six Sigma, Mr. Wilson, have you finished the root cause analysis on R&D's new model failures?"

  "We have some preliminary findings," Peter said, shuffling his papers. "We've looked at failure rates for all models currently in a design phase and compared these failure rates with the models already in production. A few of the in-design models have higher-than-average defect rates. The RX5, the reconnaissance drone, has a defect rate of 5.65 percent. This is the worst. Then the CX12, the UCAV, failed at a rate of 5.12 percent, also extremely high."

  "Remind me, please, what is the target rate for the quality of in-design drones?" Walker asked.

  "They shouldn't be failing in more than 1 percent of cases, cumulative, regardless of point of testing. Lab testing and field-testing results are compounded to create this failure rate. Combined, it should not exceed 1 percent," Peter clarified.

  "That is fantastic," Walker responded, in his sarcasm-filled voice. "We're only missing the target by some 500–600 percent! Any insights about what's causing these high failure rates?"

  "From what my team could assess, electronic components fail at an accelerated rate. Microchips failure rates are quite high, even after installation. However, we have also encountered software failures. The CX12 and CX15 combat drones and the RX series are all self-guided prototypes."

  "What's failing on the software side?" Walker asked. "I thought we had the software piece figured out. If I recall correctly, we've already been shipping self-guided drones to the clients, right?"

  "That is correct, sir," Peter resumed his explanation. "We've been shipping self-guiding enabled drones to the clients for almost eight months now, for their testing phase. The drones are still to be flown with remote guidance, rather than self-guided. But the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, and Marines, all wanted the opportunity to test the self-guidance module and prepare procedures for the next phase of deployment. They're not supposed to deploy them into active operations as self-guided—not yet—at least not until we've cleared them, and they have finalized all testing on their end."

  "When's that supposed to happen?" Walker asked. "When can we clear them for self-guided operations?"

  "Not for months, sir, not at these failure rates."

  "We're shipping drones with defective software to our clients for testing. These high failure rates must be costing me a fortune. Hmmm . . ." Walker rubbed his chin angrily. "Someone will pay for all this waste. Let me reassure you, someone will pay." He wasn't yelling. His voice had that bone-chilling calm that preceded his anger-filled incursions into the land of psychological abuse. "What's failing on the self-guiding software?"

  "The drones we tested have failed in orientation, navigation, and target acquisition," Peter answered. "They get lost somehow. They're supposed to navigate themselves via GPS and establish their patrol perimeter or attack, coordinated by either the landmark or target imaging that is preloaded in their systems, or by pre-entered geo-coordinates. In the case of coordinates, the drone's performance is satisfactory; defect rate is well under the 1 percent limit. In the case of landmark and target-image recognition, they fail quite significantly. They exceed their patrol area and have to be manually overridden and brought home. They fail to recognize a target and they just miss it. In a couple of cases, there were issues with correctly recognizing ground captured imagery; the drone in question opened fire on a civilian landmark, one that should have been ignored."

  "Can someone please refresh my memory on how this works?" Robin asked.

  "Yes," Peter answered, "quite simple. We load the drone's memory with two sets of images. One set is landmarks, items that are easy to recognize and should be used for guidance only. The drone should patrol, for example, from the Statue of Liberty, all the way to the Empire State Building and back. While flying, the drone captures ground imagery with its cameras and runs image recognition software, enabling it to recognize the landmark for what it is. The moment it recognizes Lady Liberty, it's supposed to execute a turn and head the other way, scanning the ground for the next landmark in its programming. So, quite logically, if a drone fails to recognize a landmark, it will not correctly execute the patrol or the attack plan. On combat drones, the situation can be even trickier if the drones fail to recognize correctly the imagery that was picked while traveling. It can generate a drone run into enemy territory without any targets being taken out. It can trigger attacks on different targets than intended."

  Silence fell around the table, while the Kandahar friendly fire incident was on everyone's mind. No one spoke a word about it.

  "But the active drones, the ones currently in service, are not cleared to run on self-guided, right?" Walker wanted confirmation.

  "No, sir, no drones currently deployed are cleared to run with self-guidance. This is in the research-and-testing phase only. So far, we have only been evaluating these drones on our testing fields. However, there are also situations in which a hardware error will combine with a software error. We lost a prototype drone like that, on the testing field, just a few days ago." Peter finished explaining, and sat quietly, awaiting instructions.

  "Then, how are you fixing this mess?" Walker asked. "I am not talking to just Mr. Wilson, you know. This is everyone's mess. For all I know, it could have to do with crappy parts being installed on the drones, crappy parts and crappy assembly work, provided to us all by the experienced and knowledgeable plant leader, Mr. Dunwood. Do you also have some lame excuses for this, Mr. Dunwood?"

  "I will have to investigate and see—"

  "You didn't investigate yet? You had no idea this was happening?" Walker slammed his fist down with every phrase, leaning over the table in an attempt to get closer to John. "A couple of weeks ago you came in here with embarrassing performance results for the month of May, and you assured me that you were going to finally step up and do your job for a change. Now you're telling me you didn't even investigate the quality performance of the related parts and assembly processes? Explain to me again, Mr. Dunwood, why the hell should I continue to keep you around here?"

  "This type of investigation takes time," John ventured an answer, in a trembling voice. "If you want good results, then it doesn't happen overnight."

  "You should be the one to want good results, before I do!"

  "That's what I meant—"

  "Mr. Putnam, how does R&D feel about all this?" Walker shifted his attack unexpectedly toward Miles

  "We're extremely concerned with the failure rates, and we're working around the clock to identify any concept failures that might be hiding behind these defect rates." Miles was on top of his game, giving Walker exactly what he wanted to hear. "We are working to isolate the modules, hardware and software, that are related to these defects, and redesign the modules in question, using new concepts and new components. We should be able to give you results within a month."

  "How about you, Miss Templeton, are you sure your quality measurements are correct?" Walker shifted his line of fire again.

  "I'm quite sure," responded Janet. "The quality assurance methodology is standardized, well documented, and followed religiously on every testing point. I vouch for the accuracy of our numbers. The fact of the matter remains that there's something wrong with some of our models, and we just need to identify and fix the problems. My team is ready to assist with all testing, at any time of day you should need us."

  "OK," Walker said, turning toward another victim. "Mr. Wilson, what are you going to give me?"

  Peter replied, "We started a number of projects geared toward identifying the root causes of failure in certain modules. So far, we have identified a substandard component in the guidance module. This module is common to many models. We've also identified a somewhat minor software issue that would require an investment in developer hours to fully evaluate and fix."

  "Investment?" Walker's voice was calm again. "What's your return on this proposed investment?"

  "I thought," Peter said hesitantly, "that these
are strategic projects, requiring no return on investment. There is no ROI, or none calculated yet," he corrected himself, as soon as he saw the glimmer of anger in Walker's eyes. "We can estimate the ROI, if we consider the cost of all the defects we would eliminate."

  "Well, do that," Walker said, "and give me the financial benefit of this investment. Once the projects are complete and the solutions implemented, I'll take that estimation out of the plant's operating budget."

  "This will add some more time to the length of the project," Peter said. "I thought we were focusing these efforts on net quality, without necessarily going after a dollar amount."

  "Mr. Wilson," Walker said, in his dreadfully calm voice, "how much money did you and your team make me this past month?"

  "Sir, we were involved with this quality assessment, as per your request," Peter offered an explanation.

  Alex became painfully aware she was holding her breath. Here we go . . .

  "Involved with a quality assessment, as per my request," Walker repeated in a cadence. "How wonderful. Didn't I make it abundantly clear that you, and any of your Six Sigma belts, are supposed to generate, every year, enough net financial benefit to cover at least three times your fully loaded salary expense?"

  "Yes, you did." Peter was looking down at the papers in front of him.

  "So? Where are we with that?"

  "At our current run rate for the year, we'd fall a little bit short, but we still have almost half the year left to recover. We've also been engaged in these strategic projects that don't necessarily yield much ROI."