The next morning, Carson sat reading the Configuration Fusion manual when he heard a knock on the cube frame.  He turned to see Ruben standing in the doorway.

"Lucky, isn't it?" Ruben asked.

"Yes," replied Carson, "my last name is Lucky."

"I need to go over a couple of things with you.  You have a sec?"

"Sure, have a seat," said Carson as he pulled Jason's chair out from the other desk.

"No," Ruben shook his head, "in private."  He motioned to Carson and turned down the hallway.

Carson followed and felt a pit form in his stomach.  He wondered if this might have anything to do with what happened in the project meeting the other day and feared some kind of retribution.  Ruben led him into an empty conference room and shut the door.

"Okay," Ruben smiled as they sat, but his eyes remained dark and unfriendly.  "This new project," he paused, "the supposed ‘Dreadnaught' project, is extremely important."

Carson nodded.

"We can't afford to have any delays, or surprises, or any other issues that may interfere with the success of this project, do you understand?"

Carson nodded again and the pit in his stomach got bigger.  He suppressed the urge to burp.

"That's one of the reasons I was assigned this project instead of Twinner." Ruben leaned back and crossed his legs.  "You see, I'm Gruber's man.  He trusts me.  I'm a ‘get things done' type of guy," he said, forming quotes in the air with his fingers.  He frowned and traced his finger over the table, then looked sideways at Carson.  "The department needs a big win.  Twinner was just spinning his wheels... wasting his time," Ruben looked away and pulled a yellow pencil from his pocket.

Carson jumped as Ruben suddenly uncrossed his legs and rushed forward, leaning over the table and staring straight at Carson.  His fake smile had left his face.  "I know you're new," he hissed, "but you need to understand how things work around here."

The pit in Carson's stomach moved up to his throat and he felt like he was going to vomit.

"If you, or that silly Configure Fusion tool, interfere at all with me or this project," he paused, "you will be very, very sorry."  Ruben held the pencil in both hands and attempted to break it for effect, but the pencil refused to snap.  He tried again, harder this time, but it still wouldn't break.  He looked down and his face turned red as he tried a third time, then gave up and tossed the pencil over his shoulder.

"Just stay out of my way, stay away from Gruber, and everything will be just fine."

Carson could feel his eyes began to water and he wanted to look away, but he held his eyes in Ruben's gaze.

"Do we understand each other?"

Carson nodded again.

"Well goood," Ruben said, drawing out his words and slapping the table as he leaned back.  His fake smile returned momentarily, but when he stood, he was frowning again.  He pointed his index and middle finger at his eyes, and then pointed them at Carson.  "Don't forget, I'm watching you," he whispered, and left the room.

Carson sat alone in the conference room, taking a moment to regain his composure.  He felt ashamed after being so easily intimated and he wished he handled the situation better.  His fear was replaced with anger as he thought of things he could have said.  He envisioned himself sticking his finger back in Ruben's face, telling him what he could go do with himself.  He pictured himself like Dirty Harry, laying his forty-four on the conference room table and saying, ‘What'd you say to me, punk?'  The thought made him smile and gave him the incentive to leave the conference room and carry on with his day.

***

On the way back to his cube he saw a small crowd gathered around the entrance to Horace's cube.  He walked over to the group of onlookers but couldn't see what all the commotion was about.

"What's going on?" he asked one of the bystanders.

"It's an actual IT guy! Can you believe it?  I didn't think they were allowed out of their cage anymore."

Carson peered over the side of the cube and saw a skinny figure hovering over Horace.  His belt was adorned with wire cutters, a precision screwdriver kit, a PDA, two pagers, a cell phone, and a multitude of other techie looking gadgets.  He wore black jeans, a black concert T shirt and looked like he had just graduated from high school.

"I'm telling you, the file was there, and now it's gone.  That's why I called.  It's an extremely important file!" complained Horace.

"Okay, Dude.  I can't fix this looking over your shoulder.  You're gonna have to let me drive.  Move over," said the IT guy, making sweeping motions with his arms.

"I can't let you use my computer," said Horace, as he pushed his glasses back up his nose. "Nobody sits in the commander's chair but me."

"Okay, Captain Kirk.  Do you want this problem fixed or not?"  The IT guy folded his arms and stared down at Horace.

Horace's glasses magnified his eyes, making him look like a bug.  He blinked several times as he considered the situation.  "Well, okay, but promise me you won't break anything?"

"Don't worry, Gomer, I can fix it."

Horace surrendered his chair and the IT guy plopped down in front of the computer, took control of the mouse and started clicking away on the screen.

"Hey, these files are all read only.  What is this program, anyway?"

"It's Configure Fusion, our software configuration management tool."

"Configure what?"

"You mean you don't know what it is?"

"This is not an IT approved tool!  Look, Dude, I think you just deleted this file by mistake.  We're going to have to restore the entire system image and do a data restore from backup.  I'm going to have to take this down to the shop with me."

"No!" shouted Horace, grabbing the keyboard and pulling it away from the IT guy.  "You can't take my PC!  I'll never get anything done!"

Just then one of the IT guy's pagers beeped.  He pulled the pager off his belt and his eyes widened as he read the display.  "Dude!  I've got an emergency call.  Can I use your phone?"  Horace pointed to the phone on the desk and the IT guy dialed a series of numbers. 

"Hey Vinster, it's Paul.  You paged me?  Yeah...  Left over pizza?  Awesome! What room?  I'll be right over."  The IT Guy hung up the phone and stood up.  "I'll have to fix your machine later; I gotta run."

He jumped out of the chair and cut through the small crowd of people crowding the doorway.  They followed him down the aisle like a bunch of groupies, pleading with him for help. 

"I need administrative rights on my machine!" demanded one man, grabbing the IT guy's arm.

"I need Visio installed!  I've got a huge project due by the end of the week..." pleaded a young woman, running in front of the IT guy, attempting to block his exit.

"Call the help desk!" said the IT guy, waving his hands over his head and speeding up his stride to escape the mob as they disappeared around the corner.

Carson walked into the cube.  "Horace, you mind if I take a look?"

"Okay, if you think you can fix it," said Horace.

"What is the name of the file you are missing?"

"SystemCrash.cpp."

Carson moved the mouse around and made a few clicks.  "Here it is.  You were just using the wrong view."

Horace looked over his shoulder.  "Sonofagun.  There it is, plain as day."  Carson got up from the chair and Horace sat down. "Thanks," said Horace.  "I guess I should have called you first."

"Sure, any time," said Carson, as he turned to leave the cube.

"Carson?" said Horace.  Carson stopped and looked back.  Horace held out a plastic jar.  "Would you like a gummy worm?"

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