The Sword
0730, a mere 30 minutes before I was due to be in the CEO's office. I had yet to see Motorcycle IT Guy (MITG) but his office door was open, so he was at least in the building. The espresso machine offered me no condolences, as it seemed to be out of order. Why did I have to worry? Head of HR (HoHR) was the one that forced off the server, if anyone should be concerned it should be her. I sighed heavily, and went to go stand up when I saw MITG standing in front of my desk with two building security guards. He held out his hand and dropped a flash drive onto my desk and gave me a smirk.
"Sodium Pentothal." Was all he said. The guards escorted him to his office, and a few minutes later, out of the building. I was stunned, and also about to be late to the CEO's office. I put the drive in my pocket and walked down the hall. Did MITG quit, or was he fired? Things looked bleak, especially since I was now the sole IT staff in the company. I had no backup, no second pair of eyes, and if I didn't play my cards right I wouldn't have a job to worry about.
"rstrt, sit down." CEO motioned me to a chair. I stole a glance towards HoHR, who looked excessively smug. "MITG just gave me his resignation. This is very inconvenient given your transgressions with HoHR here. Why don't you go ahead and explain that to me?"
I explained the situation the best I could, making sure not to leave out any details of the last couple of days. HoHR piped in a couple times, but CEO wasn't having it. When I told CEO that HoHR had forcibly shut down the Exchange server, his face turned bright red.
"Is this true, HoHR?"
"It's embellished, to say the least. I would never forcibly shut down a mission-critical system like Exchange. The software installation that I wanted to do would need to be thoroughly tested and vetted by IT staff, why would I go in and try to install it without them? Especially given the injustice of my lack of domain credentials." HoHR was, without a shadow of a doubt, coached. The conversation lasted another twenty minutes, which felt more like a decade, before CEO dismissed HoHR out of his office.
"I hope you know I don't believe her. I'd fire her given better circumstances. However right now we need to discuss your future here at $Company."
I walked out of CEO's office, only to be met with HoHR standing at his assistant's station.
"rstrt, I hope you know that I'm not going to stand for your continued employment." She spit her words out like a snake, which is probably quite apt. It didn't matter though, CEO wanted me to replace MITG as director. HoHR would get nothing but a slap on the wrists, but I was allowed to change the server room locks. I found my way back to the IT department dregs, and slumped down into my chair.
This would be an excellent time to consider other employment. Maybe MITG had the right idea. What was with him anyways? Cryptically handing off that flash drive. I had completely forgotten about the drive. I reached into my pocket and plugged it into my system. It contained only a single file; Sword.tc