The City and the Country - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Alistair

I can’t see the time. The glass on the watch is scratched and the damned early morning sun is flashing off the face, blinding me. There it is. 8:57. Must quicken the pace or I’ll be late. The bloody footpath’s like a slalom. So many people. Here we are. Bugger! Nearly tripped on the step.
‘Morning Sir.’
‘Yes, morning.’
Come on, come on! Where’s the bloody lift. Forget it, I’ll use the stairs. Hell, I’m so out of shape. Must cut down on the smoking and the drinking. No, I have to stop or I’ll die right here on the stairs. Breathe deep, like the doctor said. One two, one two. Now I feel sick. Hold it together now. You don’t want to embarrass yourself. There, that’s better. If I can make it to the loo I can straighten myself out. Here we go. Good, there’s no one here. Now, a quick sloosh. God! Is that my face! I’m dying. I give myself about three months. OK, straighten the tie. Quick comb of the hair. There, that’ll do. Right. Deep breath. Here we go.
The boardroom looks packed. Must be something important.
‘Morning Crow. Take a seat. I think you know everybody here.’
‘Thankyou sir. Here OK?’
‘Fine.’
Yes, I know you. I know you all. Jill Monaghan from the Home Office, Mike O’Brien from the Met, and, my god! Charles Keleher from Cougar Oil. What the hell is he doing here?’
‘I’ve called this meeting… Alistair, are you listening?’
‘Yes sir, just reading the notes.’ Hell! Nearly dropped off then.
‘Forget the notes and listen to me. We have recently received disturbing evidence of something we have suspected for quite some time. It concerns something that I know, Alistair, you are familiar with, namely the security of some of the major financial systems within the City.’
Oh dammit! I thought they’d dropped that enquiry. I was getting nowhere with it. I thought I’d buried it in the files.
‘You may have thought you had buried it in the files Crow but we can’t ignore it any longer. We are convinced that somebody is inside our systems, doing god knows what for reasons that are at the moment unclear.’
‘Well I can’t quite see what the problem is sir. Even if some hacker has been showing us how clever he is by breaking in..’
‘Oh! And I suppose Crow that if somebody was searching that little house of yours in the country and not actually taking anything that would be all right with you would it? You’d just lay in goose-down bed, staring at the ceiling and listen to him rummage around? Well I’m afraid we take a different attitude here. We want these criminals found, we want them stopped and we want them punished. Is that clear?’
‘Sir.’
They’re all looking at me, and I don’t think they like what they see.
‘Now I want you to make this your highest priority. Drop everything you’re doing and go with Mike and Jill for a briefing. And I warn you Crow, if you screw this job up I can make sure you never work in the City again!’
Jill and Mike are getting up. I’d better follow. So the boss and Keleher are going to have a little tête-à-tête. Does that mean I’m working for Cougar and the government? I know if I fuck this up I won’t be working at all. Mary’s already getting on my back about the car. And the kids are demanding a trip to the States. I can barely afford to pay for it all now. If I lost this job I might not get another for a while. Not in the present climate. And I know what my reference will be like. Damned by lukewarm praise. In this world, if the reference doesn’t scream out to the world that you’re a brilliant fucking genius and God’s gift, it’s tantamount to saying that you’re worthless. God, I’m depressed. And I’m stuck with this bloody job, chasing shadows across computer systems.
‘Are you coming Alistair?’
‘OK Jill, be right with you. Just need the loo.’
Public toilets. I hate public toilets! The glinting tiles and the badly masked smells; the furtive hush. How many times have I stared into this urinal and wondered what I’m doing here. I hate my job, I hate myself and I really can’t see any way out.