Chapter 2

Chapter Two

“ E nya, are you okay?” Mr. Holt asks standing in my doorway. If I wasn’t okay, the fact that he’s standing there not helping is crazy to me.

“Yes. Yes I am.”

“Have you read the email regarding the new migration outage?”

“I have.” Shit. Shit blessings blocked. I gain composure because what is happening right now?

“And are you okay to shadow Mr. Furey?”

“If that’s what you need me to do.” Shit. Shit! I’m definitely going to hell.

“This is what I need for you to do.”

“May I ask if we know the source of the patch missed?”

“Don’t worry, its nothing you and your team have done wrong upon the original install.” Julian Furey speaks from the doorway. I haven’t actually met Mr. Furey since it was announced that he was filling my temporary acting position. There happens to be an on-site project that I inserted myself into Julian’s first week at D.I.C. The second week, I decided to take an impromptu vacation. I did nothing at all. There was no real reason for me to avoid this man. I just refuse to train the person that this company is replacing me with. Which brings me to today; the second day of the third week, of which I have yet to be introduced to my predecessor. “I wasn’t.”

“You weren’t what, exactly.” Julian says, with his hands behind his back.

“Worried.” I say in a tone of assurance. Julian nods, and my boss steps into my office.

“May I come in?”

“Sure.” I tell Julian as he stands reluctantly in the doorway. Like there’s an energy force preventing him from entering. I refocus attention back to my computer.

“Are you sure?”

I look up from my computer, “why wouldn’t I be sure?”

Julian shrugs, “you seem defensive, and annoyed.”

“I’m not defensive.” How dare he make that assessment of me?

“But you are annoyed?”

“Does it matter?” I ask in a blown breath.

“It does, actually.” Julian says, as he smiles. His smile isn’t full on, but he’s handsome and somewhat intimidating at the same time. There’s something else in his smile, something roguish and pantry dropping.

“I’m annoyed that this outage has happened.” I’m annoyed that I’m not leading this case. “Again, your team did everything correct. This issue most likely happened because of the storm, and because the patch that was missed was an important part of protection, it was easily compromised.”

“I know my team installed everything correctly. We offered to install the patch extension for the customer, but they declined.” Julian nods, as Mr. Holt does the same.

“We need to resolve this matter quickly. Sixty percent of the western suburbs use the same application programs, and the main base stations are being repaired. Within this time, we will need to get a team onsite to make sure our customer systems are restored. We also need a team offsite to retrieve the original install before the patch. Before I forget, or before Enya disappears for a week, Julian Furey this is Enya McCabe, your predecessor.

“Wow, tell me I’m fired, without telling me I’m fired.”