Executive

…31

Travel coffee mug in one hand and briefcase in the other, Alex was mingling with other morning-rush NanoLance employees as they were making their way to one of the elevators in the large lobby. On her first day, she already had her day planned to the finest detail. See her office, get set up—30 minutes. Meet her new team — one hour. Meet with a series of directors and vice presidents from all areas of the company — the rest of the day. No time had been set aside for her to spend with her new boss; atypical, yet she felt grateful for that.

The elevator doors slid open on the third floor. She stepped out, trying to find her new office. Just steps away, in the opposite corner of the floor from Sheppard's office, was her workplace, with her name printed neatly on the glass wall and the door open. She stepped in. Her office had no windows and was rather small, but it gave her the privacy she needed to do her job. Both jobs, she thought with a silent chuckle.

She sat down at her new desk and opened her new laptop. Everything felt different from what she had envisioned her first day as an executive to be, but she didn't feel like a real executive either. This job was about something else, she reminded herself, this job was about finding the way to right some wrongs, some extremely serious wrongs.

A knock on the glass wall disrupted her thoughts. A young man popped his head in.

"Hi, I'm Louie, Louie Blake, your analyst?" The young man paused.

Alex smiled, acknowledging him with a nod.

"When you're ready for us, we're in conference room 302," he said, gesturing vaguely.

"Just a minute," Alex said. She sat up, grabbed her briefcase and laptop, and followed Louie across the IT floor.

"The conference rooms are numbered. The first digit or digits stand for the floor number, and then most floors have the same layout for conference rooms, so it's quite simple to remember. You can book the conference rooms, just like you'd book any resource, through Outlook."

They were there. Conference room 302 also had glass walls. There didn't seem to be much privacy anywhere in this building, which was going to be quite helpful from one perspective and a potential problem from another.

At the conference table, two men and a woman were already seated. Louie sat next to the woman, leaving Alex to take the seat at the head of the table. She sat with imperceptible hesitation. It was the first time she had ever led a meeting.

"Hello, everyone, I'm Alex Hoffmann, your new director of support and infrastructure," Alex said, smiling encouragingly.

Without delay, the people around the table started introducing themselves.

"Bob Foster, infrastructure manager." Middle-aged, with a nice smile and kind eyes, he leaned across the table and firmly shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you," Alex replied.

"Alan Walden, hardware deployment manager, nice to meet you." A tall man stood to come around the table to shake her hand. He had intense eyes and a look of permanent worry on his face, yet still managed to convey an image of reliability and dependability.

"Nice to meet you too," Alex replied.

"Lisa Murphy, your support manager. It's a pleasure to meet you." This was a young woman with long, sleek, dark hair, and a look of shyness on her face. She didn't have the face for technology; she seemed more the soft, artistic type.

Alex shook her hand with a smile. Lisa's handshake was in contradiction to her soft demeanor, expressing determination and openness.

"And I'm Louie Blake, senior analyst for infrastructure and support." Louie looked professional in his charcoal suit and gray shirt, yet his build and gait were revealing of some military background of sorts.

"Nice to meet you, Louie, and thank you for showing me to this conference room." Curious, she continued. "Let me ask you, were you in the Army?"

Chuckles were heard around the table.

"Navy SEAL, retired last year," Louie said. "How could you tell?" he asked, with a wide smile, denoting pride in his background.

"Oh, well," Alex responded with a hand gesture, bringing more smiles around the table, and a more relaxed attitude by all the team members.

Their new boss appeared to be all right.