Episode 31
“Thank you for coming to my keynote,” Sharp said with a smirk.
“Oh, get on with it already…” Syd’s acidic voice came over the intercom along with other grumbles from his team.
“Sharp, could you mirror this on my monitor as well?” Isabelle asked sweetly.
Oh, yeah. She’ll be pouring through the logs later to see how I’m doing this. I’m confident I can bypass any new security protocols they add, but maybe I should just ask Darity for clearance. That’d be easier, I bet.
“Sure. Here you go.”
The room separated into two groups, with the more supportive and enthusiastic employees gathering around Isabelle’s work station, and Syd’s group forming a sour patch around him. Sharp jacked into her station and broadcast there as well. When he tried to access the camera network to photograph the groups for later analysis, he found that the network was still down.
“Add ‘Fix camera network’ to my task list. Prioritize it over anything related to the wormbox,” he said to himself under his breath.
Cattleya watched on with a puzzled expression as Sharp interfaced with his virtua screen with hand gestures and voice commands while the lab workers jockeyed for position in front of the monitors. Sharp gave her a weak smile, then focused back on the observation lab.
“First of all, I want to acknowledge all of your efforts to keep things running during these strenuous events. We’re all trapped in here together at this point. We need to work together to get out. I want to personally thank Isabelle and Kyle for their professionalism. And a special “thank you” to Syd for his moral support.”
Syd shouted several unpleasantries that earned laughter from his crew and reprimands from Isabelle’s.
“Fine! Fine! I’m sorry. I’ll watch my mouth. But this guy is ticking me off. He’s not a boss. He’s a freakin’ IT guy!” This time Syd’s outburst wasn’t met with reprimands, but Sharp had expected this.
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“No no, he’s right. I am the IT guy. But I’m also a boss. I gave myself a promotion.”
“Mr. Hikoboshi, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that this entire lab is under my supervision.”
“You’re correct. Absolutely. But out that door…” Sharp pointed towards the portal which showed a deep blue sky over mountains in the distance. “I’m the boss. You have no jurisdiction there. And Cattleya doesn’t work for you, either. So…” Sharp smiled like a shark. “We need to work together to get the data you need to get me fired from this new management position of mine. But in the meantime, I’ll be wearing two hats until upper management takes away the IT hat so that I can manage this problem full time.”
The room exploded with voices clamoring over each other. Self-appointing himself into middle management was a bold choice. Sharp knew that Darity would want to skin him alive for pulling this stunt, but Novell would likely laugh, then make it official. Wudgepuck would go beet red with rage. His hair might even ignite. Sharp couldn’t wait to see his face on Monday.
“Two hats?” Isabelle stood up from her desk and walked towards the window.
“Yeah, two of ‘em. I’ve been assigned to fix your IT problems. Darity is my boss as far as that’s concerned, but you lucked out. I’m trapped in here with you. Even worse, actually. And I can’t free myself without helping your department.” Sharp noted the conflicted look on her face. She had been the one constant he could count on since entering the lab on Friday. He didn’t want to lose an ally. However, he couldn’t survive if his decisions had to pass through a committee.
“But we’ll never make it through the weekend if we have to clear everything through you. I need autonomy to survive. Somebody locked me in here and fired up the wormhole generator. Did they want me dead? They certainly couldn’t have planned on the portal, but we have no idea what that wormhole did to me while I was in here with it.”
Sharp let that statement hang in the air. The looks on many of their faces let him know that nobody had considered that aspect of the accident yet. ”Let’s work together as equals, Isabelle, at least until things are more official. You call the shots up there. I’ll call the shots down here, but I won’t step on your toes or undermine you. I just need to be free to make calls regarding this portal. Our life is on the line.”
Isabelle had been deferring to him all weekend. This power play didn’t truly change anything as far as her lab was concerned. Sharp could see her relaxing. She must have come to the same conclusion.
“Mr. Wudgepuck will never approve of this.”
“What’s he gonna do? Fire me?”
Phoebe and the Korean girl had joined Isabelle at the window, as well as Kyle. Sharp almost laughed as they all shook their heads in wonder at his cheek.
But this is how I win.
“Let’s get this show on the road, shall we? I’m sure you all want to see the items in this box that I discovered.”
Isabelle’s mouth opened in shock. Sharp’s power play wasn’t limited to decision making in the WMD lab. He was laying claim to everything that he found on the other side of the portal, and there was nothing anybody could do to stop him.