Neanderthal Seeks Human(31)

“You met with lawyers?” Fiona’s steady voice sounded from my right.

“I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement and a non-compete agreement.”

“A non-disclosure agreement?” Fiona frowned, her eyes met Marie’s for an instant then moved back to me, “Why did you need to sign that?”

“Well, basically, I’m not to disclose the nature of my work or who I work with.”

Fiona’s frown deepened, “You mean, their names? You’re not allowed to talk about your co-workers?”

I shook my head, finishing a thirsty sip of my wine, “No, no- I mean, I’m not allowed to discuss any of the clients I work with- their names, how much they pay us, that kind of thing- or what we do for them, what services we offer.”

I recalled my conversation with two lawyers from earlier in the day. They were both egg shaped men in their early thirties, reminding me of Tweedledee and Tweedledum in appearance. But, when they spoke, their French accents clouded my earlier impression.

Le Dee and Le Dum both made it extremely clear that I was not to disclose any details about the clients with which I was soon to interact. No names, no characteristics, no impressions, no nothing. I was also not allowed to discuss what I did at work, job description or duties, or what services Cypher Systems offered. I could, however, communicate my job title if asked.

It was Marie’s turn to order; I took the opportunity to glance at the menu but Fiona pressed me on the subject, “I guess it makes sense…?” her voice trailed off as though she expected me to fill in a blank.

I turned my attention to her and found her elfin eyes softened with concern; I gave her a comforting smile, “Oh- it does, it does make sense. It’s not really a top-secret-I’d-tell-you-but-I’d-have-to-kill-you thing, it’s more of a proprietary thing. Trade secrets and such.”

That answer seemed to pacify her because she returned my smile and let me go back to studying the menu.





CHAPTER 8




To my dueling chagrin and girlish-glee, I didn’t have to wait very long to talk to Quinn. It happened during my second week on the job.

Cypher Systems was an extremely efficient, well-oiled machine of a company and also very secretive. Almost immediately I learned the necessity of the non-disclosure agreement I signed on my second day and, at the end of the first week, I was beginning to feel confident in the general maintenance of my accounts, systems, and the structure of the business office.

I loved my new job.

I managed, what Steven called, all the “public accounts.” The public accounts were mostly moderately large businesses which used a subsidiary of Cypher Systems: Guard Security.

Guard Security provided security for various corporate properties, buildings, and personal details for CEO-types; I quickly discovered why Steven didn’t use column headings on his spreadsheets. Steven told me that Cypher’s firewall was under near constant attack; all data files and identities were coded so, for the first half of the coming month, during the bulk of my training, I wouldn’t know whose account I was working on except for by the code. After the first two weeks Steven said he would provide me with a code key on a flash drive and give me only one day to memorize which code belonged to which customer for each account.

Steven managed the “private accounts” which, from what I could infer based on his vague descriptions, were contracts with individuals, private citizens, or “families”; in addition to security, the contracts also often included investigative work. This subsection of the Cypher Systems was also a subsidiary and was referred to as Infinite Systems.

In addition to Guard Security and Infinite Systems, Cypher Systems had other holdings and was the parent company to a number of other businesses, but Steven and I were the only two accountants in the security division. In fact, Cypher Systems, if you didn’t count all the sub-companies, was actually quite small with only nineteen staff members in the office.

Even so, my company exclusively occupied the entire top floor and every office was a window office along the North perimeter of the building. According to Steven the offices and location were new; the company had moved into them just weeks prior.

There was no view of the lake from my window but, I noted, the north-eastern corner office likely had a respectable panorama. Regardless, part of me wanted to move into my office and live there; I found myself distracted by my amazing view of downtown and frequently pinched my arm to remind myself it was real. The rest of the space was mostly blocked off with only one heavy door as an entrance. In order to gain entry you needed to pass a five-finger and retina identity scan.