Just Another Job

Just Another Job

Copyright 2013 Casey Peterson

Published by Casey Peterson at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed
for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or
given away to other people. If you would like to share this book
with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each
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’
re reading this book
and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment
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hard work of this author.

Dedicated To

My big C and my two little Cs. Thank you.

Chapter
One

They leaned their heads
over the screen. The clip started again. A low shot of a standard
business building climbed up to reveal a massive skyscraper. Voices
near the camera competed against the noise of heavy traffic. A loud
woman beat out all the cacophony with a shout,
“
There he is
again!
”
The voices grew louder. The camera zoomed and
focused on the roof where the outline of a man could be
seen.
“
Suicide,
”
popped up from the crowd. The
minuscule figure stepped backwards along the edge and
paused.

“I
can
’
t watch this guy kill himself,
”
said
Chris.

Frank paused the video, annoyed.

“You
’
re going to get
caught again watching this crap. They
’
re always watching. I
mean, you helped design the system to track this
stuff,
”
continued Chris.

“Yeah, and the
backdoor program so I don
’
t get caught again.
Shut up and watch,
”
said Frank Janson leaning back now.
He glanced back and forth between his oldest
friend
’
s reaction and the video playing on the iPad set in
the center of the bench seat of his pickup.

The man on the
roof raced across the edge with his tiny arms and legs pumping
madly. At full stride he planted a foot at the end of the building
and leaped. The camera followed his arch across the open air and
onto the next rooftop where he disappeared for a moment. Then with
the onlookers silent, the jumping man walked to the edge of the new
skyscraper
’
s roof with arms raised. Distorted cheers rang
out from the iPad as the video ended.

“Cool. Is
there a new Superman movie coming out?
”
asked
Chris.

“What? No.
That was completely real.
”

“Sure.
It
’
s probably some viral marketing campaign. You could
tell it was a setup. Who has their camera or phone pointing up at
the roof of the building?
”
Chris paused. He
looked over the man across from him for an answer or reaction.
Frank swept his hand over his short red hair. Then his blue eyes
turned onto Chris, but they looked right through him making Chris
feel invisible.
“
And just so happens
to see a guy jumping across buildings?
”

“I
’
ve been on the internet all day looking it up.
It
’
s legit. There are no new copyrights for a Superman
movie and the IEP for the video originates to some residence in New
York.
”

“It
’
s a false trail.
Watch, tomorrow there
’
s going to be a new
trailer of some unknown actor dressed in a red cape and blue
tights.
” 

Frank
’
s eyes opened wide
and he struck the steering wheel with the back of a rough
hand.
“
I
’
m telling you
it
’
s fucking real.
”

“Special
effects.
”
Chris gave a small shrug.

“Get out of my
truck. Go finish your route.
”

“Thanks for
the movie update. Can't wait for the trailer,
”
said
Chris, opening the door to step out.

“Shut up,
dick.
”

“Wait, I wanna
change my guess to Ben Affleck.
”

“Get to
work.
”

“Or Matt Damon
with Affleck producing.
”

Frank started the engine and gunned his
pickup down the residential street. Chris took a moment to remember
where he left off on his route and then grabbed his own iPad to do
the thinking for him. The next house wasn't far and thankfully was
the last one of the day. He continued to gaze at the map before
deciding he needed to ask Frank how to get around the security bot
on his work iPad. Movie trailers played so much faster on it. But
maybe he shouldn't. His wife would rightfully pitch a fit if she
found out he was, in her eyes, wasting even more time online;
especially work time.

A small oak tree gave off just enough shade
for Chris to stop and check his phone next to his company truck. It
was pushing into the high eighties and although not hot, the warm
spring reminded him of the very warm summer and the hundreds of new
internet installations he would be doing. The internet on his phone
dragged and Chris stared without focus at the blank browser page.
It was time to move on.

Somehow, the
last house on a route always caused the most problems: rats chewed
through a cable, software updates on ten-year-old computers that
should
’
ve been recycled, or just an empty house.
It
’
s never the customers
’
fault that they
didn't call to update you that they have to run out to pick up the
kids from school or they just plain forgot. Always the last
house.

Chris pulled up to a single story home in a
cul-de-sac filled with ten more identical houses, except the one he
was in front of had no cars parked outside.

“Of
course,
”
said Chris to himself.

He checked the
iPad and Google Maps again to be sure. This was the house.
“
Shit,
”
slipped through his lips before they
turned into a polite smile. He made his way slowly to the door,
keeping his phone ready to call the contact number for what looked
to be a no-show. He knocked and received the answer he expected.
With his back now to the door, he typed in the number to his phone
but stopped after hearing applause from an open window.

“Amazing!
”
said a young voice through the same
window.

Pocketing his phone, he slowly turned back
to the door and knocked louder. Quick footsteps and a click near
the lock signaled Chris to ready his smile again. The door swung
open to a pretty woman in her mid-thirties. Two curious boys
wrapped themselves around her legs to peek out the door.

“Hi,
I
’
m Chris Byrne from X-Tech. Are you
Anne
…
Annie? You put in a service order for a new DSL
package.
”

“Yeah, come on
in. Did you knock earlier? I thought I heard
something.
”

She opened the door wider and scooted the
two boys to make room.

“Have you seen
the superhero guy jump yet?
”
asked the slightly
older boy.

“I
’
m sorry,
”
said Annie.
“
We were watching a video on my phone.
”

“Oh yeah, I
think I saw that one earlier. Those things travel
fast,
”
said Chris.

“He was
running and then
–
Boom!
–
he flew through the
air,
”
said the older boy.

“Boom!
”
repeated the younger boy.

“I always knew
they were real, right Sammie?
”
said the older
boy.

“Yeah, I knew
they were real too,
”
said Sammie.

“Oh my
goodness. Graham take your brother into the other room to play cars
or something,
”
said Annie.

“My son loves
superheroes. He
’
d love for them to be
real too,
”
said Chris.

Annie politely grinned and motioned Chris
into the house. Folded laundry teetered around the edge of a couch
that itself was surrounded by toys.

“Ah, the
leaning tower of laundry, you must know my wife,
”
said
Chris, and then picked up a Transformer.
“
Robots in
disguise.
”

“Sorry about
the mess. Busy, busy with those two running
around.
”

Chris put down
the toy,
“
Oh, I completely understand.
”

She gave a small smile with a nod.

Chris smiled back at the familiar cue and
quit talking. He sucked at small talk. She led him into the dining
room that doubled as a home office. Electronic components from
every era and outdated computer parts covered the table along with
a few chairs. Annie walked behind the table and crouched down.

“Here
’
s the phone line. How
long should it take you?
”

Chris scanned
for any problem areas.
“
Not long. Twenty
minutes should get you up and running.
”

Annie stood up
quickly to get out of Chris
’
s way. He saw her
eyeball the clutter on the table before looking back to him. His
eyes darted to the phone line as fast as possible to avoid another
awkward moment. He knew she saw him looking, but she turned out of
the room.
 

Chris closed his eyes and replayed their
greeting in his head. After a few seconds he opened his eyes and
reminded himself most customers put a wall up, especially women,
who were at home relatively alone, but Chris still tried to
decipher why against him. Too much personal information? Stranger
danger? Still, he never got the greeting part right. After a couple
of minutes staring into the plastic and metal void of bits and
pieces on the dining table with these thoughts, he turned to the
phone line.

Chris
connected the modem and router in five minutes. A steady flow of
data went back and forth between the house and the servers at
X-Tech. He glanced around for the computer. It was uncomfortable
asking for permission to use a customer
’
s computer. Many
times he wished he could set it up and walk out the door without
saying a word.

“Oh. That was
fast,
”
said Annie, as she walked in.

“Yup. Just
need to set up the router with your computer and
I
’
ll be out of your way.
”

“It
’
s in the bedroom. Is
that okay? It will reach the bedroom, right?
”

“Oh yeah,
X-Tech routers have the widest range wireless signals on the
market.
”

“Great.
It
’
s over here.
”

The two
boys
’
shouts echoed across the hallway as Annie took Chris
to the master bedroom. She peeked into the adjoining room, decided
she needed to intervene, and just pointed Chris to where the
computer sat. Chris
’
s eyes opened in
surprise to a clean, orderly room with a desk that had nothing on
it but a brand new Mac. Guess she had time to clean something,
Chris thought. Annie tried not to shout, but her scolding came in
clear through the open doors. Chris ignored it and gleefully jumped
onto the computer.