Complete Trust

Maggie's face was red with rage. "They both sound like horrible people. Are you going to tell Roland that he has such mean employees?"

Veronica smiled contentedly. "There's no need; he's already given that bit—not very nice lady what for. He's made it clear that he trusts me the most."

…

In Roland's office, a short, timid man was whimpering in apology. "Sir, words cannot express how sincerely apologetic I feel right now. I doubted you, and you were right."

The man dabbed his forehead with a handkerchief. "However, I must say, you can't really expect us to find such well-hidden spyware. That's something made by the infamous Nightingale; mortals like us dare not fathom the prowess required to crack their code."

His head was bowed down, his eyes peering up. He stopped his groveling for a moment, waiting for Roland to respond.

Roland, with his usual calm, cold exterior, was staring intently at the document.

As the seconds ticked by, the silence remained unperturbed, and the sweat on Louis' forehead became reminiscent of a cascade after a night of heavy rain.

Roland didn't move, save his hands, which were slowly flipping through the document.

"Hmm."

The first sound to have come out of Roland, Louis didn't know whether he should take that as a good or bad sign.

"Hmm."

Again, no indication of whether Roland was pleased or angry.

'I hope he wasn't serious with his threat yesterday. It's a shame we couldn't figure out when the parasitic software entered the system since the records don't go that far back.

'Damn it, we don't even know what the spyware does exactly. It takes the security feed and sends it somewhere, but that alone isn't enough to put such a strain on the system; there must be something we've missed.

'Sigh, I really hope his threat wasn't serious.'

At that point, his thoughts were interrupted.

"Louis."

"Sir."

"Is this everything, or did you condense your findings?"

"That's everything."

"I see. Who else worked on this?"

Louis paused for a moment to think about it. If Roland thought this was good work, he ought to take the credit. If he thought it was poor, then it would be best for Louis to say it was a team effort.

After a few seconds' pause, Louis answered, "It was a team effort, sir. We all worked hard putting—"

"I see."

Roland went back to the document in front of him.

"Louis."

"Sir." The nervousness in his voice was unmistakable.

"Return to the tech department—"

"Oh, thank you for your mercy, Roland, I won't family yo—"

Irritation surfaced on Roland's usually calm face. "Return to the tech department and send me all the raw data. Then pack up the department; I want every one of you out."

"But—"

"Leave, or I'll call security."

In the face of Roland's ultimatum, Louis started to back out of the room, but he continued to argue against Roland's decision all the while.

Roland paid no heed to Louis' protests and spoke into the intercom. "Barov, send out a recruitment posting for out tech department."

"One replacement is it?"

"No. All of them."