The Reunion Read Online Free PDF Page A

entered the room and wasn’t at all what Charles Brockton expected.  She wasn’t the angry, flustered, waif of the previous day in her boss’s office pacing and ranting.  She looked elegant in a nice suit, hair up and had great legs.  He hadn’t seen the legs in the webcam the previous day.  She seemed younger and shorter than he thought she would be.  She walked calmly to the four men at the end of the conference table.
    “Em Connally, this is Charles Brockton, and you’ll remember Mark Marshall and Shaw Cummins.”
    “Nice to see you again.  Nice to meet you.”  She offered her hand to each of them and Brockton held her hand a moment longer, probably asserting himself, she thought.  She dismissed it as corporate who-doo, she smiled to herself, now she was making words up for bullshit.
    “Coffee Em?”
    “Yes.  Thanks Ham.  I'll get it.”  She got herself a cup after setting her folder down on the conference table then came back and sat down.  The others sat after her.  Manners too.  Interesting.  Next they’ll be opening doors and pulling out chairs or something.  Shaw started.  He seemed to be the resident public speaker.
    “After our meeting a few weeks ago…”
    “And presentation.”  She interrupted.
    “Yes, and presentation.  It was mentioned that there were specific areas of the information presented that you had submitted to corporate earlier.”
    “Yeah, so?” Her defensiveness was instant and her slight scowl puzzled Brockton.
    “Mr. Hamilton provided us copies of memos, analysis, and proposals that he had copies of and Mr. Sanchez submitted copies of proposals and memos he had and after review it was determined...”
    “That the analysis and proposal for the upgrade and implementation were mine.  So?”  She interrupted again.
    “Well we thought you’d want credit for…”
    “No.”  She snapped.  “I don’t want credit.  I just want the stuff fixed.  The data needs to be set up properly, the material disseminated and the security tightened so we won’t have future problems.”
    “You weren’t looking to implement this yourself?”  Shaw looked puzzled.
    “No, of course not.  I’m not a lead.  I’m an analyst.  I don’t supervise or lead projects.”  She had gotten pale and was looking to escape.  Brockton sat forward and looked at her more closely.  “Ham.  I thought this was about implementation, not fault or blame or any of that bullshit.”
    “Em.”  It was a very fatherly tone.
    “Sorry.”  She looked down and suddenly found her ring on her left thumb very fascinating.  “Stuff.  Sorry.”  Marshall was biting his tongue and Cummins felt embarrassed for her.  He was beginning to like her for some reason.  She wasn’t at all what he had heard or expected.
    “I thought when you brought up that the proposal was your idea…”
    “That I wanted credit?  PLEASE …” her eyes flashed.  “I don’t care who does the work or implements the project.  I don’t care if you hire Anderson and Anderson to analyze and created proposals.  I just think that the company needs to redistributes some of their functions, take security and their network more seriously and lock it down a little so we don’t get hacked or wormed or attacked in some way.  I could give a damn… "
    “Emily.”  Ham was losing patience.
    “Sorry.  I could care less who does it or who suggested it as long as someone gets the job done.”
    “Em I’d like a word, in private.  Excuse us.”  Hamilton took her by the elbow and pulled her out of the conference room to the office next door. 
    “GOD DAMN IT HAM!”  She was shaking and tears filled her eyes; she was scared and frustrated.  “This is a fucking ambush! They're going to bust my ass back to the fucking mail room.  If they keep me at all.  You!  You and Curtis got me my job, practically created it for me.  I feel like it’s some kind of fucking inquisition.  They’re going to find out