Damned!

Settling In

Ein Suarez, former chief engineer at Thas government headquarters. Laura looked at the Linkedin Profile on her computer desk in the small apartment on 21st street she was renting near the capitol. Feeling nervous about her career move, she had taken the liberty to search out the former engineer and was surprised to see very little contact information given. She had tried Facebook but found no information. The Linkedin profile used a government listed email that she knew would be out of commission. In the Linkedin profile, under education, his listed alma mater was Gregorian University, a major in environmental engineering, and hobbies as travel. She tried different tabs to gather more info. Hmm, nothing substantial, but in one of the photos she noted the picture of a small boy dressed in Catholic altar robes, standing next to an altar. Another photo showed the same boy on a bicycle, a street sign within sight of the church - Main Street.

That was enough. Within minutes, Laura had googled the street, located in no less than five cities in Thas. However, only one of the cities contained a Catholic church with the intersection of Main street and Center Park, the town of Median Cruces. This sounded familiar. She looked at a Google map and found this town bordered Watershed Jungle. If Ein Suarez grew up in Medium Cruces he would be nothing but an asset to the project. She wondered why President Hoveting had not been able to persuade Ein to stay.

All her inquiries at the office led to vague details. Ein wanted to travel. He decided to move out of the country to marry an ex- girlfriend, he was an avid futbol fan and was taking an extended vacation in Logria - the capital of the national futbol team. Then there was the rumor that he had joined a science expedition that would tour the planet. Laura jokingly came up with her own theory in case anyone asked about her predecessor, as a former musician Ein Suarez had decided to move to the country of Grandal where he joined a Blues band and is currently performing in a seasonal music festival. Wherever Ein went he was definitely the type to garner a lot of attention as evidence from the unique stories she was hearing. Something did not add up. Ein was a mysterious man hard to pin down, she thought to herself.

Closing her laptop, she decided her attempt to get ahead in learning her job would have to wait. Instead she would need to rely on whatever providence offered and on the spot learning. She was a quick learner, having a photographic memory, but people skills sometimes confounded her. Having the desired effect and reacting to their personalities took time.

Her first official meeting with President Hoveting was a lot of time spent in relaying the description of the job rather than any show of interest as to her ideas. She felt talked down to, listening to mansplained details without being left any room for input. Trying to change the power dynamics, she asked about the gains and impacts of projects past and new. However, he laughed, responding that all the details of their current project goals would be in her mailbox by Thursday. She found his lack of response discomfiting. Timidly, she pressed further, venturing to ask one more question out of concern for the lack of details.

"Concentrate on getting the team oriented to their different stations, making sure to allocate the various duties of the project", was his response. He further patronized her, spelling out the small managerial aspects of her position. Either he was not informed about the details of the Watershed Jungle project, or he simply didn't trust her judgment as the newest department head of engineering. Sighing inwardly, and taking this poor communication as a judgment on her skills, she vowed to work extra hard to prove her expertise..

Continuing to open files on her teammate hires, she began the task of sorting out crew members to work on various tasks. Materials, land excavation, measurements, communication and travel, pricing. Laura was grateful to have been given a small army of workers and installed the ten new members to various departments. She noticed however that there was a gap missing within the communication department category. Since the location of the Watershed Jungle was in the far reaches of Thas' border, she assumed there would need to be a community liaison to work with the native population to address any concerns. It would be nice to have someone from the area, yet none of her crew were from the western jungle edge. Somebody like Ein himself, wherever his infamous self might be. Laura noted with irony that Ein Suarez seemed to be popping up continuously and yet he was mysteriously absent at a time where his expertise would have been beneficial. She was not too perturbed. The one asset that had made her famous during her college professors was Laura Genesis' dogged ability to research and find data. Or in this case people.