There was a discrete knock... and Adam withdrew his hand with a sigh and went to answer the door.
Jim's breathing and heart-rate begin to settle at the reprieve.
Adam smiled when he saw the visitor. "Jim, let me introduce Mr. Conan Bell, the Private Investigator I mentioned. Mr. Bell, let me introduce Jim, one of our best confidential secretaries, really a software engineer in her own right and one of our best operators for Ganesh, our CTO."
"Mr. Sarasvati?" Bell asked with an odd accent... sounded Ozzie or kiwi to Jim. Wait a minute! Ohmigosh... did Adam say "... in her own right?" pant... pant...
"That's right. Jim reports to me, but works cross-department, keeping Ganesh informed as it were." Smiling at Jim, Adam continued, "She's due for promotion and will most likely move into Ganesh's office once his current executive secretary quits to go for her doctorate. Congratulations Jim! Since you're one of mine, I wanted to be the first."
Mr. Bell smiled and with a tip of his head said, "Yes, congratulations! I'm sure we'll get on famously Jin, and I'm honored to work with you."
Jim nods demurely, stunned and whipsawed... promoted? and ... in her own right? ...wait, wait, "Uh Jin?"
Bell looks curiously at Adam, who nods, "Unless you prefer Jinny or Virginia, ...or Ms. Bryant, perhaps?
Shaken to his core and now unsure of anything, Jim merely nodded, "...whichever you please..." and turned to Adam, "I'm afraid I'm still not altogether. I was ill and fainted a while ago Mr. Bell. Who did you say was last missing Adam? Not Jim McNutt I hope," dreading the answer.
"Yes, your cousin never made it to the meeting. In fact, I was surprised that you made it, given your schedule. Are you up to this?"
"I think so. I may have more information, but it's confidential," Jim hedged. "Tell me, Adam, were the buy-out offers contingent on Ganesh's mysterious special project? If so, I think you'd better come clean."
Adam looked at Jim askance, "Yes, and I wasn't aware you knew about that."
At least I know something, Jim thought. "Not much, but it kept coming up during resource planning, so Ganesh told me the bit I needed at the time. So what's this plum project about that's bred all this skulduggery?"
Adam explains, It's a...
Mon Mar 01 08:33:23 2010