Mark walked down the hall to Alan Summer's office nervously, it was kept deep within the companies' sub-basement levels and the narrow hallway lined with pipes and conduit was dimly lit at best. He'd already left behind the comfortable world of his cubicle and descended past the mechanical rooms, the elevator maintenance area and was down two flights of stairs on a level that couldn't be reached by elevator. It didn't help that the pipes would unexpectedly ping or that a valve would release a hiss of steam at seemingly random intervals, startling Mark and leaving him on edge. At long last, Mark arrived at a secured door leading to the R&D section often referred to as 'The Summer's Zone' by employees, though officially the area was listed as 'Special Projects.' Swiping his badge in the reader, Mark was relieved to move from dimly lit sub-basement maze to a well lit, highly polished lab hallway. Two minutes after that, he found himself in Alan Summer's office.
"Ah, Mark, good morning," Alan greeted warmly, stepping around his desk and brushing bagel crumbs off his white lab coat as he came to shake Mark's hand. "I'm glad you made it down here in one piece. Didn't get lost did you?"
"No sir, the directions in your e-mail were very good."
"Ah, good good," the older man continued, running a hand through his short, graying hair as he gathered his thoughts. "Well Mark, I'm glad you made it down here, we've got a great deal of work to do. Now, before we get started, there are some basics that I'm going to go over with you so that you understand exactly where you're at and at least a little bit of what's going to happen next. A great deal is still to be decided, and your performance on this project will be key to your career here at CGMDI, do you understand?"
"Yes sir," Mark said nervously.
"Good, then the first thing you should know is that you will not be returning to your desk and your current assignment for quite some time. You may return to the world of programming at some point along the way, but for now, you're re-assigned as one of my personal assistants. I don't think there's any kind of raise that goes with that, but if it pays less, I'll tell payroll to let you keep your current rate. Is that okay?"
"Sure, that's fine, but what about the projects I was working on?"
"We'll come back to that in a moment son, why don't you come with me into the lab and we can get started."
When they arrived, Alan's lab was filled with computer systems and mechanical devices the purposes of which Mark could not begin to imagine. Also waiting in the lab was a very cute looking young woman who's name tag read 'Susan Hobs, Intern.' Evidently, Mark wasn't the only one who had drawn the short straw here.
"Okay Mark, this is Susan, she's going to be..."   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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