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James was alone in the office when Sue spoke. She made
him jump. "I'm over here, by the file cabinet,"
she said. "Where's Kath?"
"Sue?" James hissed. It was strange to be
talking to someone invisible.
"Who else would it be?"
"How did you get in?"
"Never mind that. How long do we have? I need
to talk to you."
"Kath will be back in a couple of minutes."
He sensed Sue move closer to him and then felt her
whisper next to his ear. "I'll stay invisible.
Just listen. If she comes back I'll scoot off. OK?"
"OK," he agreed.
"I went to the meeting. They're running out of
money. They can't pay people after this month. They're
trying to get more investment and they have to reduce
costs to keep afloat until the money comes in. They
made a list of people who are critical to the project.
Everyone else will get laid off tomorrow."
"I don't think they'll have me or Kath on the
list of critical people. Do you know?"
"I'm sorry," Sue admitted. "I checked
carefully. You weren't on the list. I think you should
clear your desk." She gave a long loud yawn. "Sorry,
I didn't get much sleep."
"Working late again?"
"No, I had to move out. My landlord told me to
go. I slept on a friend's floor."
James heard voices coming closer. "It's Kath,"
he warned just as she rushed into the office. She was
very excited.
"Now guess what I found out," she said, proudly.
Despite the bad news James was intrigued. He could
sense that some new rumor was sweeping around the building.
"Now what?"
"Want to know why the network went down yesterday?"
She gave him no time to answer. "They shut it down
deliberately. Someone hacked into Doberman's email account
and printed out a bunch of cashflow forecasts, staffing
information, funding information. They found it on the
printer."
"Jesus! Can they trace who did it?"
"Nope, that's what makes it so wonderful. They
actually logged in as Doberman. There's no way to trace
who it was."
"Better make sure we stay out of his way today.
He'll be mad as hell."
Kath sat down heavily in her chair. "Forget that!
If someone's giving Doberman a hard time I want to watch."
Hamlet's face appeared briefly at the doorway. "He
deserves it. He's a pervert. I played racketball with
him last week. He had red marks on the back of his legs.
Looks like someone whips him."
It was unlikely that Hamlet had ever set foot on a
racketball court but he spoke with such authority it
seemed somehow unreasonable to question him. His chubby,
jowled face always looked earnest. Bits of it wobbled
when he shook his head, which he did on a regular basis,
to deny an accusation of insincerity.
"Heard about the hacking?" he asked.
"Just now."
He glanced around the room, though it didn't seem to
interest him. "Wonder who did that?" His voice
was full of innocence long departed.
Before they could speak he withdrew. James stared at
Kath, and then they spoke in unison. "It was Hamlet!!?"
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