FATE Inc - Chapter Eleven - Contingency Planning

“What do you mean she doesn't have an origin file?”

It was the second time in as many days that Tim Watkins was having to sit in front of Mr Drewer and explain something that simply shouldn't be possible, let alone have happened. There was something in Mr Drewer's tone that more than suggested he wasn't liking hearing it either. While Mr Drewer never seemed to lose his temper you could just tell when his patience was going to be in short supply, this was one of those occasions. For his part Tim Watkins was wishing he could be somewhere else other than in that meeting room with the three senior managers. Anywhere else would do at this juncture ,he wouldn't really have cared. Anywhere that wasn't where he was right now could only be an improvement on the situation.

Everyone that slipped through a time-line and into the limbo state generated quite a bit of paperwork. First the fact that they had been disconnected from the time line would be detected by a seer, who would then file the first stage of that person's origin report. An analyst would then examine the various time-lines and compile a personality profile for that person, which would then be added to that origin file. Then a security staffer would check for any potential problems and also attach their findings to the origin report. The full report would then be sent to the processing department who would file it and produce the operational report for that person. The instructions for picking the person up and integrating them into the company. At least that was how it was supposed to work.

As it turned out the one true time-line coming to an apparent end was not their only problem. It appeared as if the new recruit, this Helen girl, had managed to appear without triggering half the process. They had all decided it was almost certainly not a co-incidence that two completely unpredicted events could happen at the same time in a situation that is usually virtually a hundred percent predictable.

A nights sleep didn't seemed to have calmed Mr Jenkins down about any of it at all, and the other two were just plain creepy at the best of times, albeit for totally different reasons. There was not any reason that Tim Watkins could conceive that would make him want to be in a room with Mr Nixon and Mr Drewer for any extended period. So far it had just been the latter who had being doing the talking. Mr Nixon was just standing in the corner observing for the most part, occasionally raising an eyebrow when Mr Jenkins muttered something particularly stupid. It wasn't helping that none of them understood how something like this could happen.

“Exactly what I said,” Tim Watkins repeated dejectedly, “I know it doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but there doesn't appear to be an origin file for her. None of the seers noticed her appear, none of the analysts received the notification or prepared an origin file. As far as I can tell she just seems to have appeared from nowhere.”

“That seems unlikely,” Mr Drewer said calmly, “you are suggesting that she just appeared at a certain point in our process, and all the correct paperwork just materialised on the desks of the relevant people? How can she have had an operational report and not have an origin report?”

Tim Watkins sighed and shrugged, “we can't figure it out either Mr Drewer. I mean it shouldn't be possible. There might be multiple time-lines but there is only one of us right? We go to great lengths to ensure that the things we do not slip out of this time-line, let alone something actually slipping in.”

“The operational report was perfectly genuine, it arrived on my desk as you would expect it to, apart of course from it being unexpected. That aside it appeared to be exactly what I would have expected an operational report on a new recruit to be,” Mr Drewer elaborated, “If it had been an expected arrival I wouldn't even have double checked it, and I pride myself on an eye for such things.”

“You would catch a comma out of place,” Mr Jenkins muttered as he started pacing again, “I think you would notice a fake document.”

“It isn't a fake,” Mr Nixon agreed, “I have had my people go over it with every test we know, and a few that we had to invent this morning just to be sure. Neither though does it appear like anyone managed to get inside and place it here. I have reviewed all the security logs, if someone from the other side had infiltrated this complex I would know about it.”

“Things like this can't just appear!” Jenkins snorted.

“There certainly wouldn't be any precedent for that, I have to agree there.” Mr Drewer conceded, “If we have been the victim of deliberate manipulation by the opposition it is a method we have never encountered before and is the type of thing our security systems are supposed to prevent.”

“They do prevent them,” Mr Nixon insisted, “this wasn't a manipulation or an insertion, even if they found a new way to circumvent our advance warning, we would have immediately detected it afterwards. You all know that manipulation leaves behind traces that no-one can possibly hide. So this was not a sabotage of any kind.”

“So what could it be then?” Jenkins demanded.

“Any other ideas from the analytic reports so far Watkins?” Mr Drewer asked.

Tim Watkins could only shake his head, “Not yet sir, but I have the next batch of reports being sent up right now. I brought in all four shifts last night, only the high security clearance people of course, and I tried to have them work remotely or from the satellite offices as much as possible. I fear that a lot of people are getting very curious, but I have tried to spread things out so people don't get too suspicious, but you know, people gossip, I think many are starting to know that something is going on.”

“I do hate it when they do that.” Mr Drewer said, sighing deeply, “gossiping is the refuge of the idle mind.” Mr Drewer definitely didn't understand how people in their profession could be curious either when they could simply look up or get a prediction for most everything that happened around them. He did understand that people were capable of being curious, and that included his employees, he just didn't get it. If something didn't direct effect him he really didn't see why he would be curious about it. It would be irrelevant, and he really couldn't grasp the concept of anyone caring for that which was irrelevant to them.

“A wise man once said that 'Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people'.” Mr Jenkins added

“Actually, that quote was from a wise woman,” Mr Drewer corrected him, “Eleanor Roosevelt to be precise, I was there when she said it for the first time. I always liked that woman. She could almost have been one of us.”

“Still, it doesn't matter who said it, point is we can't stop them from gossiping, or from being curious, even if they are our people, we just have to mitigate it as much as we can.”

“Now there I agree with you Mr Jenkins,” Mr Drewer nodded, “Watkins has done as much as he can there. You should be commended for that young man.”

“Thank you sir. I just hope the next batch shows something up that might be of use to us. There were some leads that I had the pattern analysts do a more detailed report on.”

“What kind of leads?”

“Well, a pattern possibly, some anomalies in the reading of the time-lines that suggested a possible causality link. It was a long shot, but under the circumstances I am asking them to follow up on anything that seems even slightly out of place, even if it means we go down a few dead ends before we find something meaningful. The teams have been briefed to do a detailed breakdown on any anomaly or potential pattern, no matter how insignificant it might seem.”

“Good,” Mr Drewer nodded, “We cannot be too thorough under the circumstances. Thank you Mr Watkins. You may leave us now, bring the new reports to us as soon as they arrive.”

“I will do,” Tim Watkins seemed very relieved to be getting to escape from the room for a while, although he feared it wouldn't be for long, “they should be here shortly, I'll bring them right in as soon as they arrive.” He disappeared out of the meeting room to make a beeline for the coffee machine. He was going to enjoy any moments he didn't have to spend with the senior managers today as much as he could.

Mr Drewer turned to the other two and leant back in his chair slightly, “This is a most unusual situation.” Mr Drewer was beginning to think that this situation was not at all what it first seemed. Rather it was worse than he had imagined. He wasn't quite certain yet tough whether he wanted to panic Mr Jenkins any further, the man was already starting to irritate him slightly more than he normally did. No, he would have to choose his words carefully, “I am beginning to think that this might be some new phenomenon, something we haven't experienced before. We can't rule out one of the independents doing some stupid experiment either.”

“I have considered that option,” Mr Nixon nodded, “there would only be two real candidates for that, you both know who they are, but neither of them seem to have been up to anything. I try and keep tabs on them as best as I can. Neither of them appear to even be attempting to hide anything, or experiment with anything, or generally do anything other than idly let life pass them by.”

“They earned that right,” Mr Drewer reminded them, “still, maybe it is worth giving them a call just to check. I might do that later, with your permission of course Mr Nixon.”

“As you wish. I understand that you haven't done your interview with this woman yet. Don't you usually do them after the orientation on the first day?”

“Usually I do,” Mr Drewer admitted, “obviously we were quite busy yesterday were we not? I postponed it until this evening or tomorrow, had her go out with Mr Gordon on a trial assignment run. If I had known what we know now I wouldn't have done so. It makes me a little nervous having her out there with these questions unanswered.”

“Unlike you to be nervous Drewer. Shouldn't we recall them straight away?” Jenkins asked, “Find out what she knows.”

“I doubt that would serve our purposes very well. Think about it for a minute. You should both remember well what it is like your first few days. No, I don't want her to suddenly feel like a prisoner or under some kind of pressure. I have no doubt that she is important to this in some way, but until we figure out in what way then we need to be cautious. I do not want to startle her or have her run for the hills. Under the circumstances it is all the more important that she comes to trust us. I very much doubt she will be able to answer any of these outstanding questions herself.”

Mr Drewer had been forced to admit to himself that none of this was making any sense to him. He had after all been around a long time, and it was rare that anything new came up. This was decidedly something new. He had to admit that it was unnerving him slightly to be dealing with something that was clearly unprecedented. The rules, protocols and procedures that he had so meticulously cultivated down the years simply didn't cover this. He had learnt to account for the opposition interfering, to mitigate the effects of his own people's occasional incompetence, but he was unsure which procedures would be appropriate if the universe really was trying to go out in a blaze of glory, completely of its own accord. This was getting close to moving beyond his pay grade. Technically he ran things now, but they all knew they might one day have to call on the boss. None of them however would be volunteering to be the one to have go and tell the boss that he would have to come out of retirement. Even Mr Drewer drew a slight breath just at the thought of it. No, he was going to avoid that conversation as long as he possibly could. It was the one thing none of them were going to mention until they absolutely had to. The last time they had to pull the boss out of retirement they spent almost fifty years convincing him they could manage on their own again. Thinking of the boss made Mr Drewer consider the bosses counterpart on the other side again, what part were they going to play in all this he wondered.

“Do you have any updates on the status of their big man?” he asked Mr Nixon.

“Just that he arrived at Heathrow early this morning. I have a unit trying to keep him in observation range but it's tricky. We think he is staying at the Landmark on Baker Street. We know it's one of his favourites.”

“You think?”Jenkins sighed sarcastically, “don't we pay you to actually know things rather than just think them?”

If Mr Nixon was insulted he didn't show it. “The opposition also have resources of their own Mr Jenkins, resources that are dedicated to trying to make my department and I only think rather than know. They try and take extra precautions when the big man himself is involved. So it's possible they have managed to sidetrack us with a decoy or such. Unlikely, but possible. Hence I say we think he is in the Landmark.”

“We certainly don't need to bicker amongst ourselves gentleman,” Mr Drewer reminded them, “we have a responsibility to resolve this situation. It is unlikely we will do that if we start finding fault in each others areas.”

“Fine, fine,” Jenkins muttered, “it's just a coping mechanism you know. You two might like to repress any sign of your frustrations, and be all calm and collected and shit, but I like to get it out of my system. I find the solutions you need me to find when I am stressed and under pressure.”

“None of the solutions presented so far are very practical alas,” Mr Drewer sighed, flicking through some of the paperwork on the table in front of him, “from what I can see here the shortest estimate we have here for resolving this disruption runs to some fourteen months with more operatives than we actually have.”

“Yes, yes, and given the damn world is now due to end in a little under eight months it doesn't really help us much does it now? Since we don't know exactly what we are trying to fix yet, this is a little like trying to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. Maybe we get lucky and something we do early on resolves all this, maybe it doesn't, maybe any further manipulation just accelerates things.”

“We would want to be avoiding that my friend.”

“I know, but when we don't actually know the cause yet it is a risk.” Jenkins stopped pacing and sat himself down beside Mr Drewer at the table, “take a look at these reports, none of them can actually show us what caused this shift. My experience would tell me there was some pivotal point we are missing, we just haven't found it yet.”

“You really think there could be one pivotal event behind all this?”

“It would stand to reason. We haven't seen anything even remotely close to this that wasn't caused by one major event or crossroads. In my experience there will be a central point to this, that one pivotal moment that suddenly makes significant changes cascade out. Of course we have never seen anything exactly this before, so who knows, this is just my gut feeling.”

“You have the most experience in that regard Mr Jenkins,” Mr Drewer said, “I trust in your instincts. It just seems very drastic. Even I struggle with the concept that there might be one single event that could cause this kind of a reaction.”

“Look at this way Drewer, if I am wrong we are screwed. We actually want this to be a single event, or at the very least a pivotal point from which everything has cascaded, because if it isn't...well, you can see from yourself from those assessments,” Jenkins explained pointing towards the reports on the desk in front of them, “if it is some kind of vast chaotic change that requires extensive manipulation to correct then we simply won't have time.” He wiped his brow again and slumped back in his chair, “we need this to manageable.”

“Let's hope then the next set of reports identify it and that Mr Watkins returns soon.”

“and let's hope he comes with some good news and we get lucky.”

Mr Drewer didn't really believe in luck. He never had, lucky people were usually just those that paid attention and worked hard and knew when to grab an opportunity when they saw one. Right about now though he could do with an opportunity presenting itself, luckily or otherwise.

As if on cue Tim Watkins came bounding into the meeting room without knocking. He was clutching a single sheet of paper and was clearly more panicked than when he left. He had a look on his face that told the three managers that this wasn't going to be good news.

“You have to look at this sir,” Watkins stammered, “I think we have found it. I don't think it's good news though I'm afraid.”

Mr Drewer took the page from him and carefully read the contents. It was indeed bad news, just about as bad as he could imagine. It was a cause though, a real cause, they knew what was happening. He could only hope that the opposition hadn't figured it out yet. Once you knew what was wrong you did at least have a chance of fixing it.

“Someone get Tobias Gordon on the phone, make sure the next part of the assignment brings them back to the office. We need that young lady back here, and quickly, before either of them suspect anything.”