She looked at me pleadingly. I wrote a note. I can fix their system first. Four hours.
“Hudson, I understand your frustration. We experienced a system-wide failure due to…”
She glanced at Garrison.
“…an implementation error. We have our lead architect working on priority restoration. Your systems will be functional within four hours.”
“Four hours is still four hours too many. We have contractual guarantees of 99.9% uptime.”
“I understand. We’ll discuss appropriate compensation once systems are restored.”
After she hung up, Octavia’s professional facade crumbled.
“Fix Hudson’s systems first, then we’ll discuss your consulting fee.”
I smiled politely.
“My fee just increased to forty percent.”
“That’s absurd,” Garrison exploded.
“Data recovery is more complex than system restoration. Different skill set, higher premium.”
I gathered my things.
“I need access to my old workstation and credentials.”
“Give her whatever she needs,” Octavia told Garrison.
Working through Hudson’s data issues took exactly the four hours I’d promised. Their systems came online first while the rest of the company remained in various states of disarray. By that evening, I’d stabilized about thirty percent of the affected systems. As midnight approached, I sat alone in the server room, surrounded by the hum of equipment. The door opened, and Garrison slipped in.
“I know what you’re doing,” he said quietly.
“Saving your career?”
I didn’t look up from my screen.
“Playing the hero after sabotaging us.”
I swiveled my chair to face him.
“That’s a serious accusation.”
“You knew the cycling system would fail if we changed it.”
“I documented that fact in twelve different reports.”
“Reports nobody had time to read.”
“Reports you were paid to read, Garrison. That was literally your job.”
He stepped closer.
“I’ve been going through the logs. There’s an authentication signature showing you accessed the system remotely last night.”
My heart stuttered, but I kept my expression neutral.
“That’s my automated monitoring alert. It pings the system daily to check status. Again, documented in the system specifications.”
“Convenient.”
“Thorough,” I corrected. “Unlike your understanding of the infrastructure.”
He leaned down, voice low.
“When this is over, you’re done in this industry. I have connections you can’t imagine.”
