Continuing the sample for my book

Troy sat there, his face buried in his hands, mind racing. He looked at the screen again. From everything he pulled up, this just seemed to “happen”. No explanation, nothing making sense. Yesterday everything was fine, but today everything is haywire. Well, at least his account wasn’t frozen, but of course he really didn’t have anything in his account. For a man in his position, he was not doing well financially. He should have at least $500,000 in savings and have his bills caught up and be ok. But none of that mattered right now. At this moment, he had to somehow figure out what was going on with Mr. Garrison’s money and assets.

RING.

Troy looked at his phone, scared to answer. He didn’t want to talk to Mr. Garrison again right now, but he didn’t think he would already be calling back. If it was him, he was probably calling to fire Troy, in which case he figured he should get it over with. Troy answered.

“Hello,” Troy said slightly hesitating, his voice downcast.

“Baby, our electric just got cut off. Thought I’d let you know. I won’t be home tonight. Just thought I’d let you know. I’ll be spending the night with Brad.” Monica hung up.

Talk about shoving the knife in and twisting it. He knew he still loved her, and that’s what made this hurt even more. Maybe that was one reason he turned to his secretary for comfort, since he couldn’t turn to his wife. Ah, his secretary, maybe she had heard something about this mess with the company.

He pushed the page button on his phone. She picked up.

“Jessica, do you know anything new about the accounts here?”

“No, sorry Troy, I don’t.”

“Ok, that’s fine. Hey Jess…”

“Yes Troy?”

“Do you mind if I come over tonight? I have the whole night free and I’d like to spend it with you.”

“Sure Troy. We’ll have some fun.”

He hung up. He could hear an edge of excitement in her voice. It was obvious she really did love spending time with him, although he didn’t completely understand why. She is a beautiful woman, 25 years old, with a bright future, and single. He still hadn’t figured out why she was single. He’d worked with her now for 2 years and she seemed perfect. Wonderful personality, hard worker, the sweetest woman he had ever met, including his wife, not to mention the best sex he had ever had too. So why wasn’t she married? Or at least have a boyfriend? Well, anyway, she was obviously excited to have him stay with her for the night. That had only happened once before, when he had a business trip planned and she went with him. They stayed in the same room, of course. He had never stayed at her house before, although he had been there several times before or after work.



Olivia hit the intercom button to give Tom a message.

“Tom, the rest of the partners are on their way here. They have called an emergency meeting.” She chuckled. “I’m sorry, but this is funny, 8 of the 9 have to use public transportation today to get here. Needless to say they are not in a good mood. Do you need me to get anything for the meeting?”

“No Olivia, thank you. Just don’t say anything about the cash that we have in there.”

“No problem.”



Troy scanned his computer screen again, hoping to find something, even a tiny piece, that would jump out at him and let him link that to what’s going on. He had to find the source of this whole mess, and fast. As he scanned, his mind raced between his problems at home, his new problems here at work, and wondering how much time Garrison would give him to solve this problem before he took extreme measures.

It was probably a good thing that Garrison was the one to personally hire Troy, so at least Garrison knew him a little better than if Troy had gone through the normal hiring process. He had met Garrison while Troy was a between jobs salesman and Garrison was looking for a special gift for his wife, to make up for all the time he wasn’t with her. Troy didn’t have to ask what he did with all his time away from his wife. Guys in Garrison’s position that held all that power-to Troy it was pretty obvious. He imagined that power would be intoxicating. So Troy had known Garrison for about a month before Garrison approached him about this job. He said he had wanted someone that could keep a low profile at the company and take care of things for him. He told Troy he gave him the offer because he liked his attitude when he had done business with him before. He could see himself in Troy when he was younger.

As Troy scanned and scanned, he was getting more and more frustrated. There was nothing obvious there to catch his eye. This didn’t seem to be some small mistake that just happened, because he wasn’t seeing any obvious signs of that. No one had entered any wrong information by accident. He didn’t see any computer malfunction. It just didn’t appear to be anything that happened within the company.



Jim practically ran back into Troy’s office.

“Troy! You’ve got to see this. Turn on your TV over there.”

“What Jim? What’s up?” Troy was very irritated by this sudden blast from Jim, and it showed in his voice.

“Just trust me buddy.”

Troy sighed, then reluctantly turned to his TV and turned it on. He figured it would be the best way to get Jim to back off. It was on the news station, as usual for Troy. He tried to keep current on things as much as possible. It helped with his job with Garrison.

Troy’s eyes quickly became glued to the monitor. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing and hearing. Companies from all over America, then the world, were reporting the same type of problem that his company is having.

“This is unbelievable.” Jim said after letting Troy soak it in.

Troy sighed with relief.

“Actually, it’s very believable to me. It explains why I couldn’t see anything on the screen when I was scanning the files. It also brings me a little relief. At least Garrison won’t hold me accountable for all of this.”

“I’d love to know how it’s all happening.”

“Well, I’m sure we will all find out soon. With the entire world now linked together with the same computer system, none of the governments are going to sit back and let this go on. They will stop it fast. At least it’s out of my hands.” He sat back in his chair, relieved that this is off of him.

“Are you going to tell Garrison now?”

“He probably already knows by now. That’s probably why he hasn’t been breathing down my neck about this.”

“Well, you’re the computer whiz here. How do you explain this?”

“I don’t explain it Jim. I don’t need to, so I’m not worried about it. I’ve got too many other things to worry about.”

Jim walked out of the office without saying another word. Troy wondered if Jim could feel the tension radiating from him. He felt like the air in the room was heavy.

As he sat there, trying to let the tension drain from him, which wasn’t working anyway, his phone rang again. He looked at it with caution. He let it ring twice before he even attempted to answer.

“This is Troy.”

“Troy, after my partners and I have a meeting, me and you need to talk.”

Troy stiffened up even more. Apparently he wasn’t out of the woods with Garrison yet.

“Understand Troy?” Garrison’s voice radiated authority, as always.

“Yes, sir.”

“Our meeting shouldn’t last long, and we’re about to start. I’ll call you when we’re done.”

Troy heard the click on Garrison’s end. Then he hung up himself, and put his head in his hands again.

Just tto let my dude know. I appreciate a good slice literary pie. Keep the good ideas flowing LA. peace,lvoe and succe SS