The Director looked at the six men around him. None of them could explain the anomaly that flickered through every computer monitor in the building. He knew one of them knew the answer. Someone had to know.
"Boys," The director's booming voice echoed through the conference room loudly. "Someone better give me an idea before I become angry." The men all took glances around at each other, a special look of fear on each one of their faces.
"Sir, I believe it was a simple malfunction in the system." Mr. Tyler, a man who was recently hired after the unfortunate termination of his predecessor, dared a response at the very end of the table. At the farthest seat away from the Director, he seemed to be the safest man to speak.
"So nothing to worry about then?" Mr. Director asked with a half-hearted chuckle. "Mr. Tyler, do you know how long this system has been running?" folding his large hands in front of him, Mr. Tyler began to squirm in his seat.
"1982." Mr. Stephens spoke up across the table from Mr. Tyler.
"incorrect, Sir." The Director said quickly, "Long before 1982."
"Impossible." Mr. Stevens protested bravely.
"Why is it impossible?" The director asked, another dark chuckle surprising his employees. There was a quiet moment as the men all glanced to Mr. Stevens, wondering if he had the nerve to continue.
"The technology simply wasn't available!" Mr. Tyler piped up again. He seemed confused and the director wondered if it was such a good idea to hire him in the first place. Neither he nor Mr. Stevens seemed very bright.
"What makes you think the Technology wasn't available?" The Director was actually enjoying these questions, though he was only proving more and more how idiotic his employees actually were. There was a long moment of silence in which neither of the men in conversation dared a response. "If I must remind you all, that this corporation has been in business for longer than any of us have been on this Earth. We keep the secrets, and in keeping them, we usually have the technology before the rest of the world."
The silence stretched over the room again and every man had his gaze on the table in front of him. The Director let the silence continue until it was on the verge of being uncomfortable. He watched as each man shifted in their seat down the table before he spoke again.
"This system has been running for a hundred years without a single glitch or problem, so I'm sure you can clearly see that it absolutely was not a malfunction in the system." His dark eyes moved over the men in front of him, stopping on Mr. Tyler at the very end of the table. "So, I suggest someone tell me what happened or else I will have to remind you just how replaceable each one of you really is."
"We may have had a breach in security." Mr. Jenkins said firmly. He was someone Mr. Director quite liked and trusted. His seat was closest to the Director, the most dangerous seat. "At 2:45 pm, yesterday, we got a strange signal from the United States. The only explanation I can fathom is someone was looking for something, and in hacking into our server, I believe they found exactly what they were looking for."
A deep sigh escaped the Director, as Mr. Jenkins waited for an order. "Find out who it is, where they are, and bring them here." He said seriously, "I might have a few words for whoever wants to know what we do here."
The men had their orders, and all six of them filed one by one out of the conference room, leaving the Director alone at the long table.
