Chapter 1

 

He parked the car and opened the door. The car made its beeping noise, tapping him on the shoulder to turn off his lights. He scowled, flipped the switch, the car stopped reminding him, and he shut the door. Grabbing the briefcase from the backseat, he turned and walked to the elevator where a growing mass of co-workers was starting to form. This caused him to scowl again.

Before deciding to turn around once more to drive home to his lovely bed that was becoming colder and colder with each passing moment, Alan Arthur forced a grin and merged with the blob of employees from TechNine Enterprises waiting in front of the elevator shaft.

TechNine was one of those companies whose original vision had failed but somehow the market had ignored, letting the company give it another go. Like most companies in this rare and unsettleying position, the powers that be had been axed by the stock holders and new management brought in. What made TechNine Enterprises unique was that the new management had failed yet again. The new vision, which was a pretty poor rehash of the old vision, had failed much the same way its forefather had.

Everyone at the company braced for the almost inevitable and well deserved foreclosure the market had ever seen in a good long while.

But again the market ignored TechNine Enterprises. This sort of irked the investors and hired new management, even less qualified than the two administrations before, who promptly caused the company to fail yet a third time. Still nothing from the free market who should have been grinding its heel on TechNine Enterprises. Undaunted, the board TechNine Enterprises tried again. This happened several more times, with the market ignoring TechNine each time, almost as if to say 'Almost, you're getting better at it.'

Through all these restructurings and management workshops, TechNine Enterprises had shifted from its original purpose, to provide and service new and emerging technologies, to its new profitable purpose, to provide and service paper products. TechNine Enterprises also had several other divisions doing several other things, each blissful unaware of the other. In fact, a TechNine Enterprises division would recieve a shipment of paper products from TechNine Enterprises, pay the bill to TechNine Enterprises, and deposit the TechNine Enterprises check into the TechNine Enterprises account.

It was all a horrible mess.

So one really can't blame Arthur Alan for hating his job. In other circumstances, Alan would have loved his job. Alan's job was to assess and consult on new broadband technologies (Alan did not work for the profitable paper division of TechNine Enterprises). His job was demanding and would have provided Alan with an incredible career, had TechNine Enterprises not been focused on other things.

When the paper products division of TechNine Enterprises had become profitable, the investors let out a collective sigh of relief. Finally, the company that would not die nor turn a profit, had done just that. The board had than focused all its resources on the paper products division, intent on making it as profitable as humanly possible (they had a lot of money to make back). Within several quarters, TechNine Enterprises was one of the leading providers of paper products. Actually, it was the one after buying all the competition.

Instead of closing the other divisions, the board had opted to simply ignore them much the way the free market had ignored TechNine Enterprises. This left the other divisions crippled and rotting. Which left Alan miserable.

 

Chapter 2

 

Alan was a nice enough fellow. He wasn't rude or boarish, always held the door open for others and was likeable to all who met him. He had graduated from William and Mary with an information systems degree and had begun working at TechNine Enterprises shortly there after. He was single, rented a modest apartment about 20 minutes away from the office park TechNine Enterprises inhabited, and ate chinese food every other week.

At first, he found working at TechNine Enterprises very much college. The constant goal at TechNine Enterprises was to find something that was profitable. If you could propose and idea that might one day become profitable you were music to the companies ears. It was an open and relaxed enviornment Alan walked into which suited him just fine.

All that changed 7 months after he had been there. That was the time the paper products division had done its thing, and all the divisions were told to piss off. Like one child being served steak by an adoring parent while the others starve. Or an example less sad than that.

Quickly, rules began to be written and enforced, people were laid off, and the party at TechNine Enterprises was over. Alan had kept his job not because his division was profitable, which it wasn't, but that it hadn't lost nearly as much as the other divisions. This was partly due to some clever paper work but mostly because the other divisions products were truly awful.

 

Since then Alan's job had become more demanding, less enjoyable, and dull. (do something better here) The more he worked, the less he wanted to get up the next morning.

Lest you think Alan was on a course towards anything as dreadful as suicide or worse, unemployment, Alan had found other outlets. He had taken up cooking and was taking courses at a local gourment school. Alan wasn't a good cook able to make frozen dinners and cheerios. But Alan felt he should learn to cook. To improve himself and his dinners, he felt this was a wonderful way to do something other than work.

This was of course a rubbish excuse. Alan could have gone many years before eating frozen lasagna with a side of stringbeans, maybe even his entire life. The real reason he had begun taking classes was to talk to Rebecca.

Yes, Alan was single. Like most single men, he had but one objective. To get laid. Of course, his second objective, should the first ever be achieved, was to keep getting laid on a regular basis. In Alan's mind this meant finding and commiting to girlfriend. In other men's minds this meant dating regularly.

Alan, like most broadband technology consultants, did not particularly like dating. He did not like dressing up, buying flowers, or playing the delicate balancing act of conversation. The reason he disliked all of these was that he was really awful at them. He could have been good at them, like the suave men Alan envied, but configuring and optomizing the companies new DSLAM server seemed more important. Ah, Alan.

So instead of dating, Alan wanted to avoid the whole process entirely. He agreed that he must go on dates to get laid, and hopefully a relationship, started, but with as few dates as possible. Which made Alan a very selective and lonely man.

Which brings us back to Rebecca.

(this far and no dialogue. hooray)

 

Chapter ???

 

His alarm sang, the red numbers flashing. Alan woke up.

Trudging into the bathroom, his feet had the sudden and unexpected morning joy of meeting soggy carpet. Looking up, his eyes barely slits, Alan could see the source of the problem.

-------

For sometime now a hole had been forming in the ceiling of Alan's bathroom. Alan was no plumber, but he could safely assume by the water hitting his floor every so often that a pipe was leaking. He had put in a work order, and yes the building maitenance man had come to his apartment.

The man examined the hole for a good three minutes and then confirmed Alan's assumption that yes there was a leak. Alan agreed with the man that yes there was a leak, thats why he had called. The man turned back to the hole and stared at it for a couple more minutes. Then he turned to leave.

"Excuse me, are you leaving?" Alan said. Maybe he was going to get the tools to fix the leak.

"Looks like there's a leak." the man stated.

"Yes.

" Alan stumbled "There's a leak." He wasn't sure how to proceed after so obvious a statement. The repairman appeared to be leaving again.

"So are you going to be fixing the leak?" Alan said hurriedly. This appeared to catch the man offguard. He walked back to the hole. Fingering the water damaged ceiling, he nodded than turned to leave. This time he didn't respond when Alan asked if he was going to fix the leak.

The door slammed, and Alan stood in his bathroom, unsure whether a resolution had occurred.

------

He grumbled.

"Damn apartment."

He took the wet piece of carpet and put it in front of his roommates door. Alan would not be the only one with the morning joy of wet carpet.

Alan showered and shaved and soon was off to work.

"Damn TechNine Enterprises"

(Alan is too unhappy. )

 

Chapter ???

 

Two guards stood outside the headquarters of (someone). One smoked a cigarette, the other dozed against the side of the makeshift camp, a halflit cigarette quivering between his lips. A dim light shown from inside the quarters, muffled voices ignored by the guards.

-----

A man in a black trench coat laid the suitcase on the table.

"$1.2" the man said, unlocking the case and pushing it across the table.

The man at the other end of the table, a tired and grumpy guerilla general, pushed the suitcase back.

"Is too much."

The man in the coat paused. "Too much? I don't understand."

The man in the coat was just a courier. He had been hired five hours before. He had been minding his own business, relaxing against his store in (figure out some city) when he had been approached by two men wearing trench coats very similar to the one he was wearing now. At first he had refused, he didn't want another mans problems. But if another mans problems happened to be padded with $5,000 up front and another $5,000 on completion, he'd listen to them. The two men assured him it was a simple assignment, handed him the briefcase, told him the codes to open it with as well as the place to deliver the suitcase, warned him not to open the case till he reached his destination, gave him a curt nod and melted back into the crowd.

This sort of arrangement happened a lot in (city) although this was the first time the man had ever been involved in one.

 

Chapter ???

 

Alan stared into her seductive eyes.

He knew he had to open his mouth and begin constructing words and hopefully witty sentences, or atleast as witty as Alan could be, but his mind was swallowed whole by the beauty of the womans eyes. He felt his body shrink, as the one pupil grew, the green and blue iris became an ocean which Alan felt himself falling into. The rational part of his mind tried to yank him back to reality but Alan's empty and lovestruck heart would have none of it.

At this point, Alan started drooling.

------

Vanessa rolled her eyes, which caused the strange mans eyes to roll as well.

"Great." she thought "Another schmuck lost." Vanessa was all to aware of the turmoil Alan was expierencing. Since an early age, people had been drawn to her eyes, like moths to a flame. This had been splendid at first, with plenty of dates and attention coming Vanessa's way.

But after awhile being stared at, especially being stared at directly in the eye, has its limits.

"I do have a mind." She muttered, hoping the fool would wake up out of his revere and start talking. She had so hoped for a night of conversation and drinking. And if certain criteria was met, a companion to return home with. So far Alan wasn't meeting the criteria.

She sighed.

She had tried several pairs of contacts when the stares had become too much. Which ever tint she chose, seemed to enhance the aqua coloring of her eyes. The contacts had not worked as expected, and had only made her eyes itch. You'd think a woman rubbing her eyes would cause some one to turn away but the red hue that formed only accentuated the problem.

She had given up in a fit of rage, and began punching people in the face when they stared too long. This new strategy was working a lot better than the old one of hiding her eyes. Alan was rapidly approaching the critial time when Vanessa's social interest changed to a clenched fist.

-------

Alan was saved by the bartender tapping him on the shoulder. The bartender had been lost in Vanessa's eyes on a previous occasion and knew the plight Alan was currently expierencing. He also saw Vanessa's hand clenching her Long Island Ice Tea and felt a moment of compassion for Alan.

He also didn't want another brawl in his bar. Vanessa had been the catalyst for several in the past weeks.

"What can I getcha?" the bartender said.