Four Thousand Miles

Untitled Part 2

7:56 am.

NATALIE MADE IT to her desk at Syntech in record time. She sat down at her computer and entered her password.

EMPLOYEE ID OR PASSWORD IS INCORRECT. PLEASE CONTACT THE HELP DESK FOR ASSISTANCE.

"Oh, come on," Natalie muttered as she entered her password again, being sure to type it correctly.

EMPLOYEE ID OR PASSWORD IS INCORRECT. PLEASE CONTACT THE HELP DESK FOR ASSISTANCE

"I don't have time for this!" She complained out loud.

Her co-worker, Tom, popped his head up over the wall of her cube, prairie dog style. "Are you getting that sign-on error too? There are a bunch of us locked out. I called the Help Desk, but they said they'd have to get back to me for some reason. We're a tech company! It makes me wonder what kind of service our customers get."

Natalie sighed. She would have to handle her morning meeting without her notes, but she felt pretty confident that she would be okay. The Omega Project had been her baby for the past year. If successful, it would revolutionize the way her company ran its marketing campaigns for the software product line. It might also put her in line for a sizeable bonus, and possibly a promotion, but Natalie didn't want to jinx herself by thinking too far ahead.

The Monday morning status meetings were really just a way for the team to update her on each portion of the project, so she wouldn't have to say much anyway. If she left now, she'd have just enough time to get some coffee from the break room on her way.

As Natalie stood to leave her desk, Vernon James, the director of the marketing department and her boss, came sauntering around the corner, coffee cup in hand and his ever-present Bluetooth hanging on his ear like a permanent appendage.

"Natalie, I need to see you right now in the conference room off the lobby," he said with his permanent plastic smile. The combination of his narrow shoulders and long face made him look out of proportion and slightly cartoonish.

"I'm sorry, Mr. James, but I actually have a meeting with my project team right now—"

"It's been canceled. I'll see you in the conference room in a few moments."

Canceled? He was walking down the hall before she could ask. She skipped the coffee and headed to the conference room. When she walked in, most of her project team was already there, looking as confused as she, and wanting answers.

"What's this about, Natalie?" Mary Ellen asked. Natalie just shrugged and took a seat at the long table. A few others from her department shuffled into the room, followed by Vernon and some woman who she recognized as being in Human Resources, but couldn't recall her name.

"I think we are all here now," Vernon said with what seemed to be faked cheer.

The man creeped Natalie out. He'd been sent to their office from the corporate headquarters less than a year ago to serve over the entire Marketing Division. The rumor mill claimed that he had gotten into some kind of scandalous situation with a woman at their headquarters in Toronto and was exiled here to Milwaukee. She wasn't prone to office gossip, but the more she knew of him, the more she suspected it may be true.

Whatever the reason for his new assignment, he had no marketing background and even fewer people skills, which made him the least popular director they had ever had. Natalie was skeptical of him because he seemed determined to put his mark on the department. Whether it was an attempt to win a promotion back to headquarters, or merely for his personal ego boost, she didn't know. Because of this, he was fond of making changes without first understanding the full consequences of their results, which infuriated everybody in the department.