by Andrew Ives
"We are pleased here at how you handled this unexpectedly difficult mission with the utmost discretion. We gave you a carte blanche, but despite your somewhat cackhanded and unorthodox approach, at no time did you compromise our position. We appreciate this and hope you find your payment satisfactory. I trust you have no qualms about working with us again in the future."
"In fact, I think we have an assignment for someone with just your qualities... in Europe." Wilkins hoped this sounded appealing enough to entice Karen into accepting. She had been one of the more successful greenhorns he had used in recent years and showed enormous promise.
"I might well take you up on that, but not just this moment - much more stress right now would finish me! Thanks for the offer though." She politely declined... for the time being anyway.
"You will soon grow accustomed to the stress - once you get another couple of missions under your belt. You know my number, don't you?" He pushed for an answer.
"Yes. I'll let you know by the end of the week. Thanks again."
"Thank you." The phone clicked and dialling tone returned.
Karen was delighted at how her not-entirely-credible account had apparently been accepted. There were times when she had felt like an incompetent novice, times when the headset had eluded her and times when she never even speculated on the 'big picture'.
But now, she had been complimented on her handling of the mission and even offered a new assignment. True, it had been a dangerous job but the money more than compensated for such risks. This was more than she would earn in ten years of hard programming for a company like Psi. She only resisted jumping at the opportunity of another mission so as not to seem overkeen, not seeking to be taken for a ride.
With this newfound job security, she could order that new bike - she would certainly need it if she was ever going to undertake any further assignment. If she could only remember their web address...
That very same moment, Wilkins was thinking how lightly he got away with payment. He was willing to pay a further hundred thousand in expenses alone.
"She'll learn." he thought to himself as he lit another cigar.
Hard Labour
JJ sat alone in the long-deserted software development wing. With Christmas fast approaching, the other all-too-reluctant co-programmers had abandoned him long ago. Tepid, half-drunk cups of coffee scattered the desk, surrounded and obscured by a sea of faint and lengthy printouts.
Considering the fourteen hour shift he had just put in, JJ sat surprisingly upright; enthusiastically putting the finishing touches to this stubborn spaghetti code.
The elusive bugs in these hideous routines had yielded to him one by one. It confounded him how they ever appeared, but it mattered no more. The end was in sight and JJ's spirits had risen markedly with every correction since the morning's setback.
Now he just glossed over the code, back and forth, admiring his handiwork before finally saving version 15.5. The ROMs were ready to be pressed again, hopefully for the last time. If they didn't work properly now, he really was flummoxed as to where the problems lay.
As the program saved, he rose from his swivel chair, taking his jacket from the back and returning to the mouse as the screen signalled "Operation completed."
He sighed and turned the monitor off, finding further gratification in his thoughts:
"Those other lazy skivers can do all the remaining work, while I stay in bed. You don't see them staying here until (looking at his watch) 23:22 like Muggins. They can test those new hats on their own heads - I'm not gambling my sanity on a program like this - written almost entirely on guesswork."
Disbelieving his watch, he glanced at the wall clock and left for home.
Perhaps the calendar would have been more appropriate, reminding him of which day follows Thursday the twelfth of December and alerting him to the likelihood of another troublesome early morning call.
THE END
* * *
Acknowledgements
Many of the people I have enjoyed meeting, knowing or working with make brief cameo appearances in all my writing, either by name or description. This book will read like a literary “Where's Wally?” for those who know me.
Thanks go to Ian and Laurence for being the first to read my early Amiga-based scrawls back in 1989, and more recently, Melody and especially Cherie for their diligent proofreading of the Kindle-ised version in early 2011.
About the Author
Somewhat disenchanted with the zany world of IT and having retreated to a Wifi wilderness with only four pygmy goats for company, in 2011, Andrew Ives decided to self-publish his first and long-forgotten manuscript. This he wrote as a daydreaming, wide-eyed and exceptionally penniless student in 1989, undecided on whether to brave university or seek fame and fortune in ice speedway instead. Having lain in a drawer for decades, never seeing the light of day, Psinapse was quickly Kindle-ised and met with rapturous indifference. Stubbornly, Ives typed away earnestly on the prequel Sirene, aiming to eclipse its towering forerunner and woo a fun-starved audience to his fevered writings. He lives in extreme optimism that readers may enjoy his work - whoever, wherever and whenever they may be.
Other works
Sirene
Beautiful Britain - Cambridge
Legal
This book is a work of fiction, set in an alternate future at the time of writing. Some of the locations mentioned are only partly based on real places.. Although the characters may occasionally reflect certain idiosyncratic characteristics of various people I know, all the characters are, on the whole, imaginary. All companies, newspapers, websites, governments, authorities and events, and the times and places of their occurrence, are entirely fictitious. No reference to reality is intended or implied and any similarity is purely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Chapter One - Sensory Shutdown
Chapter Two - Soldering On
Chapter Three - Pixel People
Chapter Four - Sinking Ship
Chapter Five - Night Caller
Chapter Six - Home and Dry
Chapter Seven - Identification
Chapter Eight - Violation
Chapter Nine - Infiltration
Chapter Ten - Look Around
Chapter Eleven - Guesswork
Chapter Twelve - Crashes
Acknowledgements
About the Author