Chapter Twelve: Inspect.

2014.

Vertical Technologies Ltd.

Inside the restricted area of the Information Department breathed a two-ton machine swarmed with hundreds of wires that were connected to monitors and work stations. Each work station had an operator and each operator was assigned to a particular web audience. Their job was to arrange and redirect the data provided by this monstrosity of a machine to the designated clients. There were however over fifty work stations and operators, it was a chaotic environment during operating hours.

The elevator dinged open, he stepped out, clad in a three-piece navy blue suit and a briefcase, walking briskly towards the main office. His office. Hours earlier he had received an error report from one of his assigned assistants about the monster machine not being able to perform tasks. Such an error can be brutal. Clients who pay dearly for their goods and wears to reach their desired audience demand that they get optimum impressions before their timeline ends and the subscription is exhausted.

"Give me the stats."

"Everyone's in a panic. There hasn't been any response from David for the past fifteen minutes." Said Kehinde, a short slightly overweight four-eyed man. He was the head of the System Analysis Department.

"Has anyone checked the Modification Module?"

Kehinde swiped on the tablet he cradled on his arm. "They are on their way to the CU as we speak."

"Good." Getting the system up and running again was his main priority. "Ensure that most of them are not panicking and give the impression that the systems are running. Get someone to check on each of our client's impressions since the last ten minutes and bring the report to me personally."

"All right, sir." The burly administrator left his office with stiffened intent.

Not long after Kehinde had gone, he brought his PC out of his briefcase, flipped it open, and powered it on. After it booted and the password was imputed, he opened his private server with the Admin Dashboard to check on the operations for the last twenty minutes. And he found a glitch between the ninth and eleventh minute.

And so he ran a Problem-oriented action which read each second of operation from the very millisecond the operation started that day to the second it was interrupted.

His computer beeped. The search was complete. There was one distortion. And a source was attached to it.

Since the time he built this system, there had been no error or lag of any kind that was internal. Only external glitches were caused by the insufficient amount of memory and or the processor capacity. Never had it been a Program Body Crack – as he called it.

But now, there was.

And so he clicked on his tracer to reveal the source of the glitch.

LOCATION FOUND.

He stared at his computer screen with the result gazing at him. With a lot of thoughts running through his mind;  what if this was an attack from one of those rookies who now knows about their Trojan horse?

He clicked it.

The search results found.

What he saw and what stared back at him made him arc his head in confusion.

Huh?

LOCATION: VERTICAL TECHNOLOGIES LTD.

Is this some form of joke? Who in this building has the power to breach the operations?

He punched his computer to sleep, walked out of his office, and headed for the main workstation room. The operators were in groups talking and laughing. The jolly time was overwhelmed by silence and comportment the very instant they saw him standing in front of them. His eyes scouted their heads, he studied their body language. Some were anxious, the younger female operators adjusted their blouses in a bid to guide his eyes to their push-ups. Since the systems were down, they had shut down each system. As it was the protocol.

After concluding that there was absolutely nothing threatening about the people here, he headed for the elevator. When he was gone, the operators heaved sighs of relief and resumed their jolly time. He got into the elevator that was going to the top floor.

To his boss' office.