The Soldier

To someone casually walking past her cubicle, Caitlin was diligently working on the manual for Lancaster Software’s newest entry in its highly popular line of routers. One screen displayed a page of documentation, another the user interface and a third several windows of code. Only someone intimately familiar with the product would have been able to tell that the code displayed on Caitlin’s monitor was not the current release version of the software.

Caitlin would have preferred to be in the programming division, but she lacked two essential requirements -- a programming degree and a Y chromosome in her genetic makeup. Despite nearly hundreds of years of supposed equality, there hadn’t yet been a woman in the Lancaster Software programming pool.

So while working on instructional and marketing materials, she amused herself by coming up with at least two different solutions to problems already solved by the programmers, finding ways to provide the same functionality with less code. She saw her solutions as more elegant, using finesse to reach a solution rather than a sledgehammer.

As she sat there puzzling over a particularly recalcitrant subroutine, Bob Thomson walked up.

“Can you spare a minute?” he asked.

“Always, Bob,” Caitlin said as she deftly hit a function key. A macro quickly saved the programming environment and shut down all windows that contained her side project.

“How are those new router docs coming?”

Caitlin made a show of going through her notes and checking the file displayed on her computer.

“I’ll probably need another week to get it right.”

Bob looked uncomfortable.

“Caitlin, I know your potential, you know our product inside and out . . .”

She looked at him evenly. Bob never did like having difficult conversations with employees and Caitlin took a small amount of pleasure in watching him sweat.

“But I’m being pressured to let you go and find someone who can turn out the documentation at a faster clip,” he said.

Caitlin snorted.

“Why not let me do what I really do best?”

Bob sighed. “You know the answer to that. I know you can program rings around most of the blokes we have on staff, but Lancaster would never have it. You want to file a sexual discrimination suit? Go right ahead. He has enough barristers to keep you tied up until you retire.”

“I just might do that, just to tweak him a bit,” Caitlin said, eliciting a slight smile from Bob.

“I’m on your side, Caitlin, really I am, but you can’t fight Lancaster. We both know that.”

“Well, there are always alternatives,” Caitlin said thinking back to her conversation with Logan.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, nothing, Bob, when do you absolutely need to have this?”

“The end of the week,” Bob said, standing to leave. “And if I don’t, you may not have a job here after that.”

“Understood,” Caitlin said as she turned to her computer. “You’ll have it by then.”

“I hope so, I truly do,” Bob said. “You are an asset here Caitlin, don’t ever doubt that. Even if not as a programmer.”

Caitlin did not respond, waiting several minutes after Bob left her cubicle to stop her work to consider her options.

“Well,” Caitlin said to herself, “I’ll bet Bob and old Lancaster think they’ve got me over the proverbial barrel.”

Noting that it was 5 p.m., she proceeded to shut down her computer and grabbed her purse. She almost hoped Bob saw her leave.

She wasn’t the least bit worried about her job, as she knew that she really had only about a half-day’s concentrated work left to finish the required documentation. She just wanted to make it seem like she was behind. This particular assignment had been a piece of cake.

Willie, David and Logan sat under a white umbrella in a small open-air café. Logan and Willie had brown ales while David nursed a glass of red wine. Logan sat so he could see the bustling street, looking for the world as if he he were just casually watching the world go by rather than awaiting someone in particular.

“She’s blown us off,” Logan said as he checked his watch for the fourth time in 15 minutes.

“She’ll show,” Willie said.

“She’d better,” David said between sips of wine. “We certainly don’t have a lot of other options, now, do we?”

Before Willie could respond, he spotted Caitlin across the street. He stood to greet her, buttoning his jacket.

“Told you she’d show,” he said softly to his companions as Caitlin walked up. He then pulled out a chair for her and gently brushed his lips against her cheek as she sat down.

“Glad you could make it, love.”

The other two men eyed him curiously as he sat back down. Logan made a mental note to ask him about it later.

Caitlin made herself comfortable as a waiter came up.

“Something for you, miss?”

She glanced at drinks on the table.

“Bring me what they are drinking,” she said with a nod towards the ale in front of Logan and Willie.

She looked across the table. Although she had known the men for only a short time, she was beginning to have a feeling of camaraderie with them, especially Logan. She intuitively trusted the man, which made telling him what she had decided to tell him all the more difficult. But as her mother once taught her, the only way to deliver bad news is to screw your courage to the sticking place and get on with it. Macbeth, if Caitlin remembered correctly.

“Mr. Logan . . .”

“Please, just Logan,” he interrupted. “It’s what my friends call me, and I always think it appropriate to be less formal with someone who is capable of laying me out so effectively.”

“Right,” Caitlin said, a small smile crossing her face as she recalled their earlier encounter in Logan’s flat. “Logan it is, then. But regardless, as interesting and challenging as your adventure sounds, I’m afraid I must decline your invitation.”

Caitlin watched Logan’s face for a reaction, but could see no appreciable change in his facial expression. The fact that Logan could mask what she hoped was disappointment at her refusal only served to increase her opinion of him.

“Might I ask why?”

“You deserve an explanation,” Caitlin said, “And frankly, it boils down to money. The piper must be paid, as the saying goes. While I suppose I can remain at my current position until we depart, what happens when we get back?”

Logan paused as if in thought. “Honestly, Caitlin, I hadn’t thought that far ahead - another indication of why we need you with us. David and Willie have often told me I can’t see beyond the nose on my face.”

“That we have, miss,” David said.

Caitlin smiled at David then turned to Logan. “I suppose you’re going to tell me next that I needn’t worry, and that you will somehow see to my needs after we return from America with chip in hand.”

“Something like that.”

“I want to believe you Logan, believe that you can take care of things like that,” she said. “But I don’t, and I’m not going.”

Caitlin sat quietly waiting for Logan’s response. She got it when he stood up, followed almost immediately by the other members of the team.

“Well, if that’s your final answer,” he said, putting some money and a business card on the table. “That should cover the tab and the card will get you in touch with me if you should change your mind.

“We need your help, Ms. Anderson, and even though the police don’t believe it, the security of all England is at stake.”

Caitlin picked up the card and looked at it. All that was on it was an e-mail address.

“Very noble and patriotic speech, Logan,” she said. “But I suspect this is mostly a personal vendetta.”

Logan fixed her with an ice-cold gaze.

“You can think what you want,” he said. “Yes, a small part of this is personal. But I truly do have England’s interests at heart and will do all I can to protect her.”

Without another word, Logan turned and walked off. David followed immediately but Willie held back a moment.

“All right, Caitlin, what’s your game this time?”

“No game, Willie, I don’t think I want to get involved in this.”

“Who do you think you’re kidding? You and I both know you can’t resist this, the chance to try and hack the Americans.”

“And what makes you think I haven’t already tried to do that – and failed,” Caitlin said coldly. “If you really want me to help you on this fool’s errand, there has to be more of a reason than just God and Country.”

“There is, at least for me,” Willie said. “It’s for him.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning, I owe him my life several times over, David and the rest of our squad as well. That man is singularly responsible for the fact that I’m standing here talking to you.”

Willie paused and sighed deeply.

“And the bottom line, love, is you owe me a favor, and I’m calling it in. I need you to do this, for me.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“You do that, think real hard.”

Willie leaned in and kissed Caitlin gently on the cheek, then turned and walked off. Caitlin turned, pulled up the collar on her jacket and started the long walk home.