Chapter 9: Love always Hopes.

  “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” Jude read and closed his bible app, “Father, how are faith, hope and love even connected? Teach me why Love is the greatest” he prayed not realising the gravity of his request. “The love lesson is not an easy lesson, El Shaddai”, Jesus said to God as they watched smoke of the prayer message fade away. “Yes. But Jude is a good candidate. I have confidence in this one. You gave him much Faith.” God said sternly. “What test is there?” replied Glen, who had been summoned to receive instruction. “Glen, thank you for coming. We won’t keep you long” said Michael, “The message to Jude is to Love”. “Yes, Love.” echoed Glen before leaving to return to Jude.

  Jude was preparing for bed, “things have been okay so far with George. I’ve learnt a lot from him in these last two weeks.” Jude thought as he pulled back his bedsheets and got into bed. “Father, be with Cynthia. It can’t be easy having to wait for this outcome” he prayed before falling asleep.

  It’s done.

  Jude was already in George’s office when the email came through, PING. George glanced to his screen, “Oh, it’s HR”. He clicked the message and read it, “Dear George, We are pleased to inform you that you have been successful acting in your position. Please find attached the job offer for the Strategy Manager post. Let me know if you have any queries”. “Congratulations, I guess” said Jude with confusion, “Does this mean that Cynthia has been terminated?” “No it doesn’t. Hi George, congratulations.” said Cynthia snarkily. Both George and Jude were shocked to see her, “Cynthia!” They both got up to say hi, “I’ve missed you” said George. Cynthia brushed past Jude and ignored George’s comment. She sat down on the chair opposite them. “Please sit”, said George sarcastically pointing to the chair she was already seated in.

  Cynthia was different. Cool. Calm. “She seems zen”, George thought to himself, as he contemplated what fallout might there be from this. “I want to thank you both”, the silence broke, Cynthia’s voice sharp and pointed. “These past two weeks have been an eye opener for me. I have had time to self-reflect and review my behaviour. Jude, I am sorry for ignoring you. This was wrong of me and bad leadership. I’ve been reading up and watching leadership videos and I am working on becoming a better leader and manager.” she turned to face George, “Well played George..." she said with disdain in her voice. "So clever leaving me to believe that everything was fine all the while you and Micah were feeding information to Jim. I am glad the investigation exonerated me. Congratulations on your promotion. I will work in my old position again under you moving forward.” both George and Jude were stunned, “Thanks Cynthia” stammered Jude. George didn’t know what to say. “May I leave, SIR?" she snarked, "I need to get my security clearance and things back from IT. Have you created a desk space for me?” she snapped. Her words cracked like a whip through the silence in the room. It felt like the air parted to create a pocket for them to linger.

  Before George could answer, she got up and left. Jude and George watched her walk out. She walked to Jude’s desk and dumped her things on top of it and then worked towards the elevator. Jude turned to George, “what just happened?”. “Trouble Jude. Trouble just happened.” replied George.

  Micah.

  “Cynthi..”, “Don’t irritate me Micah with your falseness. I know that you were in on everything.” interrupted Cynthia as she stormed into the IT department. “Where is my stuff. I was told you had prepared it for me already.” she quipped. “Whoa! Yes, here is your stuff.” said Micah defensively, “And?!? Did you find anything? Did you find the holy grail? Did you find all the juicy email correspondence proving that I plotted against this company? That I was a traitor?” she raged, “Tell me Micah, how much head did he promise you for my head?” she stared with rage screaming from her face. “Did he tell you that he’d finally date you? Send you a pic or video of himself? What was it Micah? What was the price of my betrayal?”. Cynthia did not wait for Micah to reply. She didn’t actually care. She needed to get the rage out. She had been stewing in it for two weeks and was barred from any contact. She took her things and stormed out the IT department.

  Micah had still not found anything on the laptop and there had been no other incidents that he could identify. His attention turned to his own thoughts as he swivelled in his office chair, “I’ve scraped the companies entire IT system looking for where this breach came from and how it might have gotten in… I’ve asked my classmates from MIT to stress test our system and see if they could find where the breech happened… But still there is nothing? I’m beginning to wonder if there was anything at all”. “It’s been nearly 6 months now. Maybe I should just ask Jude flat-out – did you hack us?” he chuckled, “no… that would be silly...”

  Good food, and good conversation?

  It was noon and Micah could feel he was getting hungry. He decided to take lunch. He pressed level 2 in the elevator and noticed the light for level 6 was also on. He made his way to the back on the elevator to give space for whoever would get on from level 6. PING. The elevator stopped and the door opened, “Hey Micah, it’s been a while, how’ve you been?” The voice caused a cold shiver down Micah’s spine. He knew it instantly, “Hi Jude. Yes it has been, you going down?” “Yes, oh good – level 2’s already pressed” said Jude. “Do I ask if he’s also going for lunch? He’s so nice you can’t help but talk and share more than you want to? What if I say something?” he thought to himself. It didn’t matter though, “Are you also going for lunch? Would you like to join me?” asked Jude. Not wanting to be rude, “yeah, sure, that sounds nice.” Micah replied.

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  Micah was an ethnicity that Jude could not quite place. He had thick golden brown curly hair, a light olive skin, and deep almond coloured eyes. He worked hard to hide his accent. He was quite tall and a bit skinny, Jude guessed 6 ft 6, maybe 165 pounds… He smelt musky, his perfume mixed with a body musk – Jude didn’t quite know if he liked the smell or not? He had a dark stubble even though he was cleanly shaven, it was like the hair stubbornly refused to not be seen. They both got off at the canteen level and went inside. Jude went for his usual, anything pasta. Sitting down at the table, “that is the healthiest selection of food I’ve seen Micah. Its no wonder there is no fat on you” teased Jude, “Oh yeah, I try to be as healthy as possible – I don’t really care for gym, but I don’t want to be fat so I watch what I eat…”

  Jude and Micah spent their lunch chatting and learning more about each other’s background. “Oh sheeze! It’s already 13:15” said Jude, “I need to hop, this was great Micah – lets do it again tomorrow if you want?” Micah was confused, he really enjoyed lunch but just didn’t know if he could yet trust Jude, “Let’s see Jude, I don’t always eat at work.” “No stress… have a great day further” Jude said, and took his tray and empty dishes to the drop off area. He cleaned everything and left the empty items where they needed to be with the rest of the crockery and cutlery. Then he turned and waved bye to Micah. Micah raised his hand politely back and continued finishing his lunch.

  “George is not enough for you slut?” He heard a sharply critical voice, “you have to flirt with every gay in the office?” said Cynthia. “Bitch, fuck off. I am your senior and will have you terminated for harassment and discrimination.” Micah sternness caused Cynthia to back down immediately. “Sorry Micah, I don’t know what came over me.” she said cowardly. “I didn’t do anything to you Cynthia. I did my job. I followed protocol. I do not report to you – my duty was to report what I found to Jim. If you failed in your duty to report what happened, that’s on you. I do not appreciate the way you spoke to me today at all. In future I will expect professionalism from you. Do it again and I will report you to HR.” The power-dynamic was obvious to anybody watching - Micah had power, Cynthia had none. She knew she had overstepped. Micah got up from the table just as Cynthia began to sit down. He left her there and discarded his empty lunch tray and trash, then headed back. “Actually, let me go to Jim”, Micah thought, leaning towards the elevator button to press 6, “I need to discuss my thoughts about Jude and the hack. It just doesn’t make sense and we need to get it figured out…”

  The Big Boss.

  KNOCK KNOCK. “Micah! What a lovely surprise? Do we have a meeting that I forgot about?” the big boss asked, “Hi Jim, no we don’t, I just wanted to pop in on my way back to my office after lunch… I wanted to run something by you if that’s okay?”. “Sure, let me just finish sending this email, please sit.” said Jim gesturing to the arm chair in front of his desk. Micah sat down and then another knock of the door. Both Jim and Micah turned to look, “George!” said Micah, “What luck – please can you join us, I was just about to run something by Jim about the whole Jude-hack thing…” “Oh, sure.” said George, walking in and closing the door behind him as he came to sit down opposite Micah.

  “There we go, sent!” said Jim, as he swivelled his chair forward to face Micah and George, “So, what’s on your mind Micah?” said Jim. “I am just not convinced that there was a hack anymore. It’s been half a year now and there has been no further evidence of a breach or any other incidents that we have been able to detect. Jude’s behaviour is also not very suggestive that he’s hiding something? I could not find anything on his computers either? Perhaps it was just an anomaly…” explained Micah. Jim leaned back into his chair and began stroking his beard. Both Micah and George knew that Micah’s revelation had hit him hard – this was his pondering position. He only did this when he was deep in thought. Both men knew to leave him to have his thought. As they were preparing to get up, Jim motioned for them to sit back down again. “I’m just thinking... We need to have a conclusion to this matter today.” said Jim. “Micah, remind me, did you find anything on Cynthia’s laptop?” Jim asked, “No. I also didn’t find anything overt on George’s laptop. All I found was what seemed like symptoms of a hack but I still have not found physical proof that anything actually happened – that there was any penetration into the computers system. Even colleagues of mine that I studied with at MIT told me that if they had received the devices with no additional information, they would have evaluated it as being clean.” Micah continued.

  George nodded his head, “So then can we conclude that this was simply a misunderstanding and that after a thorough investigation we found that there was nothing wrong?” he asked. “That is what I feel is the recommended course of action” replied Micah. “Okay, then it’s settled. Micah, write up your report and collate all the evidence and send it to me so that we can finalise and close this chapter.” instructed Jim while turning to George, “what are you going to do about Cynthia?”. “What do you mean?” asked George, “She was suspended because there was suspicion that she was colluding with Jude and then got demoted because you are doing a substantially better job than she was. There may be fallout?” explained Jim.

  “Well actually, there has already been fallout” Micah said, “this morning she came into the IT department and lost her shit. Then again in the canteen during lunch… But I shut her down and she immediately apologised to me saying that she didn’t know what got into her and that it wouldn’t happen again…” “Yeah, actually, the same thing with me and Jude today.” George added, “Sir, I don’t think we should do anything now. I think that she has been under a lot of stress and perhaps things will simmer down now. She won’t have the stress of the leadership and administration associated with the manager position, so perhaps she’ll be able to just relax.” George continued, “Okay, then let’s leave it for now and let things settle. Both of you keep me informed if anything further develops. Micah, send me the report – no need to include anybody else. We will keep the report confidential. I’ll also sort everything out with HR that the investigation has been concluded and that no further action is needed. Let’s get everything back to normal and focus on growing this company again! Great job everybody. George, good work! Continue leading well”.

  “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)

  ??? Author’s Note ??

  Nothing random. Every action reveals the system. Keep discerning! “For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans? ?8?:?28?-?30?)

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