No Complaints!

When I entered my boss' office Hannah shot me an apologetic look, and pointed to her phone. Mouthing the word "sorry" she gestured at the chair in front of me while she tried to get off the line. While I waited, I pulled out my phone and reviewed the email I had just sent to the newly coined Dana. I was really curious as to what effect an email from me would have on her in her new state.

"Dana - I don't know what I did to piss you off so much, but it doesn't matter anymore. Now that you've been given one of my coins, your animosity towards me is gone. I'm now the most important person in your world. Making me happy is your objective now. You will do what I say, when I say it. If you do, you will be rewarded. Now, I'm going to talk with Hannah to unspool the mess you've caused me. While I'm in her office, I want you to think about what a bitch you've been, to me and everyone else in the office. And how you will make it up to all of us. Especially me. Do not tell anyone about the coins, or this email, until I say you can. -- Mike.

I'd thought about signing off as Master, but that seemed too on the nose. Besides, if the other ladies were any indication, Dana would get there all on her own. Hannah sounded like she was finally able to wrap up whomever she was on the phone with. "Okay, I'll talk to you later. Don't worry, we'll get it figured out." The sigh of relief was audible as she placed the handset into the cradle. "I'm really sorry about that Mike. Lindsay's out today, to the call came straight to me."

"Not a problem Hannah. It sounded important."

"Well, yes it was. But quite frankly, what we're talking about is more important." Standing up and coming around her large desk, Hannah was standing right in front of me, looking me square in the eyes.

"Some very serious allegations have come to my attention. Normally, I wouldn't be able to say who accused you, at least not unless we went to a full formal HR meeting, but after her little stunt in the break room Dana kind of put her cards on the table."

"A little bit, yeah. But, if you'll excuse me, I still don't know what I'm supposed to have done. Could we start there?"

"Good idea. Mike, do you remember when a bunch of our designs got scooped by Chic Culture?"

"I do. Right before our big fashion show. You and the designers had to work 24/7 to come up with new designs to show."

"Exactly. Well, Dana's alleging that you were responsible for them getting those designs. Do you have any idea what she is talking about?"

Like I had thought. Dana had tried to pin that bullshit on me. "Frankly, I do. Chic did get those designs from us. Do you remember Fred? The guy I asked you to fire right before that show?"

"Are you saying he gave them the designs? It's a little convenient to blame a guy who's not here. Last I'd heard he'd moved across the country"

"No, he didn't give them the designs, at least not intentionally. But, he was horrible about preforming the most basic acts of cyber security. I recommended letting him go because he had installed suspicious software on his company laptop for the goal of preventing it from going to sleep or locking, but that was just the straw that broke the camel's back. When all this started on Friday, I had a suspicion those designs were the reason, so I spent the weekend doing a bit of research." And some other things, I mentally hi-fived myself. "I went through Fred's old laptop, and found that he had also disabled a lot of the security features for some unknown reason. According to the device's history, he spent a lot of time on free WiFi, including a lot of cafes and restaurants known for having sketchy free WiFi."

"His laptop was hacked? Is our entire network compromised?" Panic was growing on Hannah's face.

"It definitely looks like his notebook was compromised, but I've been scanning the logs. He might have made his own device , but not enough that they could get to our systems."

The tension left my boss' face at that. "That's good news. But then how did Chic get the designs? Fred shouldn't have had access to the designs outside the office, right?"

"His e-mail was exposed. Do you happen to still have the e-mail where Lindsay sent the designs out for review?"

"I do...let me pull it up." Hannah moved back behind her desk, her ass swaying with each step. "Got it. What about it?"

"Who is it addressed to?"

"Ahhh...I see."

"Yeah, it looks like Lindsay selected the wrong e-mail list, and sent them out to the entire staff, rather than just the design team. We should address that with her, but it was a pretty innocent mistake. Honestly, with the group names being so similar, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. Anyway, I cannot say if it was Chic Culture that hacked him or someone else who then sold the designs to our competitors. As bad as that incident was, I don't think there are anymore landmines left behind by Fred. He was as pretty new hire, and hadn't been roped in on much sensitive stuff yet."

"Okay, I guess we can live with that. Besides, it turned out for the best. Our last minute designs stole the show. So, why would Dana put the blame on you?"

"I've got a theory on that one. Let me show you an e-mail I have on my phone." There was no e-mail. What there was, however, was a coin in the same pocket as my phone. A coin that oh so conveniently landed on Hannah's desk, and oh so conveniently rolled towards her.

"Mark, throwing money at me? I just said you were off the hook, there's no need to try and bribe me." Hannah laughed, "I'm not that kind of..." The office fell deathly quiet as my boss picked up the coin.

"And that's two." I cheered in my head.