The Consultant (11 page)

Herding him out into the corridor, she closed and locked the door behind him before once again assisting the doctor with the patient’s hemorrhoid treatment.  

Pam had specifically said that they were to ignore the consultant and allow him to observe their practices and procedures, so Angie half-expected to be called into the manager’s office and chewed out, but that didn’t happen, and she continued to work nonstop until there was a slight lull and she was allowed to take her lunch shortly after two. Not having packed anything, she planned to walk across the street to Subway, and when she saw Sharon in the break room, pouring a cup of coffee, Angie asked if she wanted anything. Sharon hadn’t taken a lunch yet either, but said she was fine.  

“What’s up with that consultant?” Sharon asked. “
He’s
supposed to tell us how to run the Urgent care? I get creeped out everytime he even looks at me. You know, he came in to watch us examine this woman, and I think he was checking her out. Very unprofessional. I mean, if this is the best they could find…”  

“I know what you mean,” Angie confided. “We had a woman with a hemorrhoid, and he wasn’t just checking her out, he had an erection.”  

“Oh my God.”  

“Yeah.” She looked at her watch. “Anyway, I’ve got to get going. I only have a half-hour. You sure you don’t want anything?”  

“I’m good.”  

“Okay.” Angie walked out the door, turned left—  

And ran into the consultant.  

His face was red, and he immediately looked down at the floor, mumbled an apology and hurried around her. He’d heard them talking! She wasn’t sure whether he’d been spying on them or had accidentally overheard their conversation, but either way, he was obviously embarrassed, and she felt bad that they had hurt his feelings.
She
felt embarrassed, and she was grateful that after she returned from lunch and for the rest of the busy afternoon, she did not see him.  

At home, Craig and Dylan surprised her with a pizza for dinner. The treat was more for them than her, but she was tired and not in the mood to cook, and she appreciated the gesture. She would have appreciated it even more if they had tried to make something themselves, but Craig was not one of those spouses who was into cooking, and his
very
occasional culinary efforts were always unqualified disasters.  

Pizza was fine.  

She talked about the consultant as they ate but left out the details in front of Dylan, only telling Craig what had happened after their son had left the room. He chuckled. “Well, it looks like we got both ends of the spectrum when it comes to consultants, didn’t we?”  

“I’m not worried about my job or anything,” Angie said. “I have seniority and I’m an RN. But I do worry that they’re going to reduce staffing, which will definitely affect my workload. And I do feel bad for that guy. He’s all shy and nervous. Kind of a Barney Fife character. This is probably his first job, and now I’ve made it uncomfortable for him…”  

“He was being inappropriate.”  

“Yeah, but he’s probably, like, an accountant, who doesn’t see things like that everyday.”  

Craig grinned. “Her ass was that good, huh?”  

She slapped him playfully, but she could tell from his train of thought that he wanted sex tonight. She did, too, and after putting Dylan to bed and catching up on a couple of TiVoed shows from earlier in the week, they both decided to retire early.  

She fooled him, pretending she wasn’t in the mood, but once they were under the covers and next to each other on the bed, she pulled down his underwear, reaching for him. Her hands were cold, which made him shrink, but she liked that. She preferred to start when he was small. She enjoyed feeling it grow in her mouth, and, as always, she experienced a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction as he hardened under her oral ministrations. When he was ready, she pulled away, lying back and spreading her legs, and he entered her roughly, grabbing her buttocks and thrusting with increasing intensity until they both came simultaneously, moaning into each other’s open mouths as they kissed.  

****  

The consultant was supposed to be at the Urgent Care on Sunday as well, but he wasn’t, and Angie wondered if he had chickened out after overhearing their conversation yesterday. She definitely resented the presence of a consultant in their midst, but she still felt sorry for him after what had happened, and she was determined to treat him fairly and decently despite her prejudices.  

Things weren’t quite as hectic as they had been on Saturday, but the Urgent Care was still pretty crowded, and Angie was kept busy. There was a small rush at midmorning, the waiting room full to standing, and Elise at the admissions counter asked her to check if any of the exam rooms were open so they could get a few more patients in. One through four were in use, as were six and eight, but room seven was clear. The door to exam room five, weirdly, was not only closed but locked. There was no chart in the slot, and she asked Cindy when she walked by whether anyone was in the room.  

Cindy frowned. “Not that I know of.”  

The door opened, and the consultant came out.  

Had he been hiding in there all morning?  

Had he been masturbating in there?
 

That was mean, and she was ashamed of herself for even thinking it. Her antipathy to the entire idea of consultants was making her pick on this pathetic guy who was only doing his job, and she felt guilty about treating him so badly. Red-faced and mumbling, he tried to skirt around them, but Angie stepped in his way, stopping him.  

“Listen,” she said, apologizing. “I’m sorry if any of us have been rude to you while you’ve been here. Part of it, as I’m sure you can see, is that we’re so busy we don’t really have much time to socialize. But part of it, I admit, is because we don’t like the fact that they’ve hired a consultant to spy on us and then make recommendations about changing the Urgent Care.”  

“Observing,” he said quietly. “I’m observing, not spying.”  

She smiled. “I know. But it’s just that… Well, we don’t need anyone to tell us what’s wrong with our operation here. We know. We know better than anyone. And we resent the fact that they’ve hired someone else to find out instead of just asking us.” She shrugged. “At least, that’s how I feel. But it’s not your fault, and we shouldn’t take it out on you, and I’m sorry if we were…mean.”  

It was his turn to smile. “That’s okay. I understand.”  

“No hard feelings?” she asked, holding out her hand.  

He shook. “None at all.”  

“All right, then.” She pulled away without making it too obvious. His grip was limp and sweaty, and while she wanted to wipe her palms on her uniform, she restrained herself—though the minute he was out of sight she was going to rub on some hand sanitizer.  

“Thanks,” he told her. “I need to see Dr. Bashir.” He was still smiling as he walked toward exam room eight, but it was a sad kind of smile, and Angie couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.  

She hurried back up to the admissions counter. “Five and seven are both open,” she told Elise.  

TEN  

It was the middle of the morning and lupe, back from break, knocked once on the doorjamb before walking into Craig’s office. “I have something for you. A message. Special delivery.”  

He saw that she had in her hand a blue sheet of paper. She handed it to him across the desk. “It’s from Austin Matthews himself, and it’s not just an email but an official memo. You don’t see those much anymore.”  

Craig read it over. It was addressed to all department and division heads.

In an effort to assist BFG Associates’ comprehensive study of CompWare’s staffing, practices, processes and procedures, each employee is hereby required to provide BFG with work-related email addresses, computer IDs and passwords so that consultants can access all of the information they need to construct a complete picture of our operation. It is the responsibility of each division head to record and collect these addresses, IDs and passwords, and pass them on to the appropriate department head, who will be responsible for providing them to a BFG consultant upon request.  

He looked up. “Did you read this?” he asked Lupe. She nodded. Glancing behind her to make sure they were alone, she lowered her voice. “Is it even legal?”  

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I assume so, because anything this all-encompassing would have to get a pass from the company’s lawyers.”  

“I don’t like this.”  

“I don’t like it either. I don’t want those consultants to have access to my personal information. Not that I use this computer for anything personal,” he added. “I’m too paranoid for that. Everything on here’s strictly business. But…” He let the thought trail off.  

“I know,” Lupe said. She lowered her voice even further. “Besides, I still don’t like Mr. Patoff.”

Craig smiled. “Join the club.”

She shifted uncomfortably on her feet. “So do we have to do it?”

“I don’t know. Probably. But, hey, who needs privacy, right? It’s overrated anyway.”

“As long as I can keep my guns. That’s the only right I need.”

He looked at her, surprised. “You have guns?”

“It’s a joke,” she told him.

“Oh. Anyway, don’t do anything about this yet. Not until I call around and make sure what’s what. I know a couple of people who’ll make waves and definitely won’t take this lying down.”

“Mr. Allen?”  

Craig chuckled. “Yeah, Phil would be one of them. So let’s make sure it
is
legal before we start goose-stepping. And don’t tell any of the programmers about this yet, either.” He thought for a moment, reconsidering. “I take that back.
Do
tell them. Just in case they need to…”  

She smiled. “Erase some evidence?”  

“Well, I wouldn’t put it that way.”  

“You’re a good boss, Boss.”  

“I try.” Craig read the memo again as she walked out to her desk. He was tempted to call Phil right now, but he really
was
feeling paranoid and wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Patoff had had all of their phones bugged. He and Phil were already meeting for lunch, however—away from CompWare at what was quickly becoming their weekly Chipotle strategy session—and he decided to talk over the memo with his friend at that time.  

Meanwhile, there was work to be done, and he quickly read through today’s accumulated emails. Once again, his inbox was filled with subject lines like “Learn the Secrets to Good Anal Sex” and “Download Real Snuff Videos Free!” and he was glad he’d stopped having Lupe sort through his messages after that first trap the consultants had set. He answered his few legitimate emails, then accessed the latest updates to OfficeManager. While Tyler’s death had been terrible and shocking, this was big business and the cogs still had to turn, so Craig had handed over control of the OfficeManager updates to Huell, senior programmer on the project. Obviously seeing this as his chance to grab the brass ring, Huell had been adding changes almost daily, surpassing even Tyler’s impressive output. Today, two buttons and a page were gone, making three separate functions more intuitive and easier to use, and Craig thought they were pretty close to being able to show Scott where they were at. They were at least a week ahead of schedule, and in this environment, that would be a big feather in the department head’s cap.  

And in his own.  

He started to write an approving email, then decided instead to go down to the programmers and tell Huell in person, but before he could even get up from his seat, Lupe was back in his office. “You’re wanted in the first floor conference room.”  

“What for?”  

“Mr. Matthews has called a meeting of senior staff.”  

“Another meeting? Jesus Christ. That’s all I seem to do now is go to meetings.”  

She smiled at him, but there was worry in it. “Let me know what happens.”  

“I don’t think it’s going to be—”  

“Let me know what happens.”  

She was more worried than she’d been letting on, and he said, “Of course I will.”  

They hadn’t talked in detail about BFG and the future of CompWare, he realized, other than the occasional oblique reference and some laughing-in-the-face-of-danger jokes, and he wondered what the scuttlebutt was amongst the secretaries. Theirs was a network of information-sharing far more broad and accurate than the circumspect conversations he had with other members of management, and it was long past time that he sit down with Lupe and find out what rumors were being spread. When he returned from this meeting, he was going to tell her everything that went on, and they were going to have a real discussion about what was happening at CompWare. It was condescending of him to tell her only the information that would reassure her or that he thought she should know. They were in this together, and he was going to make sure that he was more open and honest from now on.  

At least half of the supervisors, managers, division heads and department heads were already in the conference room when he arrived. Matthews stood in front of the room, next to the podium. Beside him stood Regus Patoff. On the other side of the consultant was a bearded man Craig had never seen before.  

“Do you have any idea what this is about?” Craig whispered, sitting next to Phil.  

“No clue.”  

Elaine Hayman sat down on the other side of him. “Kind of weird that he called it at the last minute, isn’t it?”  

“Again,” Craig said.  

Phil shrugged. “I think this might be the new normal.”  

Matthews started talking. There was no preamble; he didn’t wait until the room had quieted down. Craig wasn’t even sure everyone had arrived. The CEO simply began speaking: “I started CompWare twenty-three years ago with a small group of friends and colleagues. It has since grown far beyond my wildest imaginings. But something was lost in that…” He grasped for the right word. “…
diffusion
. What was lost? Camaraderie. We’re a business now rather than a family, which I guess is the way it’s supposed to be, but…” He trailed off, didn’t resume immediately, and people began looking around at each other.