Carl was talking to Brad more often now, but he couldn't relax while talking to him. He had a constant feeling that he was being monitored, and that made him conscious of what he typed into the chat.
His feeling of being watched wasn't unreasonable.
People had been complaining about the new VPN software ever since it had been rolled out.
Collaborate Plus, as it was innocuously called, was causing several unforeseen issues.
Alison had to call the Collaborate Plus Security Services Support Line after the software flagged the number for her daughter's school as spoofed, and blocked it. Alison spent almost an entire day explaining that this was the number for a school, that it was listed on the school's website, promising that she did, in fact, have a child who went to that school, and that it was, in fact, very important that calls from that number went through to her.
The customer service person said that they would escalate the matter, but no one ever got back to Alison.
Kevin meanwhile was locked out of his own personal laptop when he went outside to get a parcel and stopped to talk with his neighbour. Collaborate Plus had set off a "proximity alert" because the phone in Kevin's pocket had been too far from the laptop for too long. Kevin called the Collaborate Plus Security Emergency Hotline to try to get his machine unlocked. It took an hour to sort it all out, and at the end of the call they informed Kevin that he was now "flagged for potential abuse".
Carl kept the phone and the computer next to each other at all times. And unless he was going to the office, he never left the house with either.
YOU ARE READING
Missing Things - FIRST DRAFT
General FictionA first draft of a mess about a guy, a pandemic, and an empty office. It's about missing things. One of the things that's missing is a plot. As I said, this is a first draft and it's here for funsies. At some point it'll be taken down because I'll w...
