Ch 01: “Thou shalt not make foes of …”

The door of his small office swung without the person entering bothering to knock, and Noah sighed as he saw his least favorite person walk over to his desk. With her long blonde hair, green eyes, and shapely figure, Talia was an eye candy. But it didn't take long for her to reveal her sadistic and lazy nature to those she saw as below her.

"I need you to do the PowerPoint for tomorrow's meeting." Said Talia as she looked down her nose at him.

"Hello, Talia, nice to see you, too." replied Noah. "I will remind you that preparing for the presentation is supposed to be your job, and I have my own work to do. And that you may be my superior, but I am not your errand boy."

"Are you talking back to me? I'm the CEO's daughter, and if I say it's your job, then it's your job. You're just a wage-slave. Do you want me to get you fired?"

"You think you can blackmail me? It wouldn't be too hard for me to find another job." replied Noah as he glared at her.

Talia froze for an instant, as if she couldn't believe her usual threats would fail this time, then she suddenly got an inspiration, and she smirked.

"Is that so? You want to play that game? Then how about this? I'll report to HR that you put a hand on my butt and tried to kiss me. Who do you think they will believe, with dad breathing down their neck? And I'll make sure rumors follow you to whatever company hires you. They'll drop you like a hot potato."

"I never even touched you, but you're willing to try to ruin my life with false allegations, just for a freaking PowerPoint?"

Talia laughed.

"So what? I'm an elite! I'm already the Accounting Director, and I'm only twenty. My dad is the CEO of a large company, while you are a wage-slave in all but name. You're my bitch, and I can do whatever I want with you. Now get started on that damn PowerPoint. And do a good job about it. The meeting starts tomorrow's morning, and if you embarrass me before dad and the directors, I'll make your life Hell."

Noah glared at her a few more seconds, before he deflated visibly and sighed.

"You'll have your presentation. I'll have to do overtime, so if you want it today, you'll have to stay late."

"No way! I'm out of here. Give it to me tomorrow when you come in. And you better not be late. Just make sure it's perfect, or there will be consequences."

With her victory secured and her dominance asserted, Talia left his office, not even bothering to close the door behind her.

Noah didn't move for a while, as he focused on breathing deeply and keeping his anger in check. He saw Talia walk down the hallway towards the elevator, her brand coat and Gucci bag in hand. She was leaving the office, at 3 PM. How typical of her.

He walked to the door, closed it, sat back on his chair and picked up the smartphone he had left on his desk. He stopped the recording. For weeks now, he had secretly recorded everything that happened in his office. He wanted to have a pile of evidence of Talia's wrongdoings, for the inevitable wrongful termination lawsuit. He congratulated himself on his foresight, as today's recording would also protect him from any claim of sexual harassment.

With a nod to himself, he started working on that presentation. She wanted one? She would get one. It took him a few hours to complete it, but he was quite motivated.

Talia, that arrogant bi… woman, had been hired as head of the accounting department almost as soon as she got out of college. She was woefully unqualified for the position, and her hiring looked like a blatant case of nepotism, but the employees kept their head down, as the CEO was known for firing people simply for arguing against his decisions.

But Noah knew there was a darker motive behind the facade of nepotism. He had found… irregularities… in the company's accounts. Money was transferred to a bunch of suppliers who were… suspicious, to say the least. Noah had checked a few of them at home, and he had a hard time believing that a half-dozen companies delivering various things, from food to cleaning supplies, would all have an account in the same bank in the Bahamas. And those companies just happened to be registered within a few weeks of each other. He was almost certain that someone at the top was quietly siphoning money off the company using those bogus suppliers.

He had, very quietly, contacted a friend who worked in the IT department. That friend had, equally quietly, checked on a few logs, and found out that the CEO's account was linked to those money transfers. Noah and his friend both made copies of those logs and stashed them safely away.

On top of this, there were some… dubious numbers, which might just show that the company was underreporting its profits to the government, and paid less than it should have in taxes, to the tune of several tens of millions over the last five years.

Noah was pretty sure that Talia had been put in her position to keep an eye on the accountants, and make sure no one found out about it.

But that had been a miscalculation. Her father had discounted Talia's sheer arrogance or disdain for work, and as a fresh graduate, she had yet to learn one of the most important tenets of Corporate America.

"Thou shalt not make foes of the Custodians of the money, of the technological wizardry, nor of the purity of thy rooms; lest with their unholy powers a mockery of thy lyfe they shall produce."

She was going to learn about this unspoken law.

It was late in the evening when Noah completed his presentation and finished gathering all the evidence he needed. The presentation looked like what Talia asked him for at a glance, but there was a little innocuous message in the eighteenth slide that was sure to catch attention.

Noah felt almost giddy as he left the building, an USB drive in his pocket, and returned to his small apartment. He changed into his casual clothes, took a can of his favorite brand of carbonated poison from the fridge, fired up his computer, and got to work.

The IRS maintained a phone line at all times of the day for anonymous whistleblowing, but Noah didn't bother trying to hide his identity. He wanted Talia that bi… that woman to know just who was responsible for the changes that were about to happen in her life. Because he was petty like that.

The lady who received his call was very polite and professional, and he could feel the interest in her voice when he mentioned the estimated size of the suspected fraud, and that he had evidence to send them. She was also very helpful in providing him with a few more phone numbers.

After sending everything he had to the mail address she had provided him, Noah proceeded to call the Department of Labor, to report of the company's refusal to pay its employees for overtime, providing more evidence. Next was the FBI, to report on the embezzlement, and again on the tax fraud. And lastly the local police, to report Talia's threat, and to tell them he wanted to press charges for extorsion. The cop told him he would have to go to the police station the next day to do it, but that was fine with Noah. He wasn't sure the charge would stick, as she hadn't demanded actual money, but maybe the judge would equate work time with money. He'd have to consult a lawyer about it.

And since he wasn't stopping at half-measures, he made sure to find every social account Talia used. Soon, all of her friends and relatives would read his truthful account of what had happened today, and the recording to prove it.

Tomorrow would be… memorable, for a lot of people.

…

On the next day, Noah deliberately came to work a little later than usual. He barely had time to reach his desk before he was ambushed.

"Noah! You better have my PowerPoint ready! The meeting is about to start!" Talia demanded as soon as she entered his office.

"Yeah, a good day to you, too, Talia." He sighed, trying hard to hide his amusement. "The presentation is ready. Do you want it by mail?"

"No, put it on this drive. Chop chop!" She extended a USB drive to him. He transferred the file, and when he gave it back to her, she turned and left without even a thank you. She didn't see the sudden grin on his face.

…

"… As for our budget projections for next year…" Said Talia with as much confidence as she could project, as her father, the other department directors, and the representatives of the four biggest shareholders were looking at the large screen, and displayed the next slide. "…The saving policies we have put in place… have…"

Her voice trailed off as her eyes caught her name in the bottom half of the slide, next to the words lazy, incompetent. She started paling, and hurriedly displayed the next slide.

"I'm sorry, there's been a little mistake in the previous slide I forgot to correct. I'll give you the numbers right after the meeting." She hurriedly apologized.

"No, please display that slide again, what I saw didn't look like a mistake." Said one of the representatives. The other three nodded.

In a panic, Talia glanced at her father, who looked back coldly. He didn't want to embarrass his daughter, but he couldn't afford to be rude to the representatives.

"Show us that slide." He ordered.

"Please, this is just a little mistake…" Talia pleaded to her father.

"Display that slide now, Talia, or I'll do it myself." His voice was stern, and Talia knew she could not dissuade him. With a trembling finger, she clicked on the button, and the previous slide was displayed.

"Talia is a lazy, incompetent employee who forced her work on a coworker by threatening to falsely accuse him of sexual harassment, and so stupid she didn't even bother to check this document before the meeting. And she just convinced said coworker to go nuclear. You'll hear about it soon."

The whole room was silent, for a full thirty seconds. Talia read and reread Noah's message several times, and the shame started to get to her. Her eyes got teary, as she felt her world starting to collapse.

"Talk about embarrassing." commented one of the shareholder's representatives as he chuckled, looking at her in disbelief. "Did you really threaten someone to do this presentation, and then you didn't even bother to check?"

"That… I was overworked, and I didn't have time to do the presentation… And I received the file only minutes before the meeting…" She started in a squeaky voice.

"Stop." Her father interrupted her. "We'll speak about this incident later, in private. Right now, I want to know who wrote this, and what he meant by going nuclear. We may have someone trying to sabotage the company as we speak."

"…It's Noah Enfield. I don't know what he means by that." She quickly answered.

"Noah?" One of the directors exclaimed. "I know the guy. I don't see him as the malicious kind."

The CEO turned to the IT director.

"Gary, I want him out of our systems, right now. Revoke his access to everything."

"On it." Gary nodded, and started typing on the laptop he always brought with him in any meeting. After a few seconds, he started to frown. As everyone was looking at him, he tried a few things, and his frown deepened. He lifted his eyes to look at the CEO.

"It's strange, I can't connect to the network. Let me call my team."

He took his phone and called the most senior of his subordinates.

"David, I can't connect to the Active Directory. Is something going on?" The others heard him say.

In seconds, Gary’s expression turned ugly.

"…What? And who the hell gave you permission to change my password? That's a career-ending mistake right now! ...What? …Do as they say, for now. I'll come down soon."

As the executives and shareholders' representatives stared in confusion, Gary ended the call, and leaned back against his chair with a sigh, as he looked at the CEO and Talia in speculation.

"…It's not just mine. All of our passwords have just been changed. There are agents of the FBI and the IRS in the lower floors, and they aren't allowing anyone to access any computer or touch any paper document for now. Apparently, they received evidence of tax fraud and embezzlement within the company."

His words had the effect of a bomb. Talia and her father blanched, while the representatives suddenly took their phones and started an impromptu race to see who among them would be the fastest in telling their client to dump their stocks before their value plunged.

"I'm sorry, everyone, but we'll have to adjourn this meeting to answer those false allegations." The CEO tried to save face when he heard a knock at the door. Before he could answer, the door opened, and six FBI agents entered.

"Good morning, everyone.” said the one leading them. “I am agent Falker, FBI. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but we're going to interview a few people. And please refrain from touching any computer for now. We have a few questions…" He smiled pleasantly, but his eyes were those of a predator who had a particularly juicy prey in front of him.

…

Noah's own interview lasted several hours, and he did his best to present the facts without bias. The investigators were quite satisfied, apparently having already found a few more things Noah wasn't aware of, but they didn't give him any detail. He did have the satisfaction of seeing a crying Talia and her stone-faced father both escorted out of the building, in cuffs. As if some instinct had been triggered, Talia lifted her face to look at his window, and he waved at her with a shit-eating grin.

Without a doubt, the Board would choose a new CEO, and they both would be ousted as soon as possible.

When some of his colleagues came to talk to Noah, wondering why his own interview was so much longer than theirs, he didn't bother trying to hide that the whole raid was his doing. He even played back the recording of Talia threatening him to a few of them. Since Talia wasn’t exactly well liked, as Noah wasn't the only employee she had messed with, many of them treated him to coffee, laughing at her misfortune, and happy that their tyrant of a CEO was finally gone. They also looked forward to pressing their claim for overtime pay. They all had kept logs of their hours, just in case, and they were going to cash out.

Noah was probably going to be fired by the new CEO, as executives in general had a poor opinion of people who dared to alert the authorities, even if actual criminal activity was going on. Having to pay the employees for their overtime was enough reason by itself for the higher ups to want him gone. But he was fine with that. He knew this would be the result before he decided to go nuclear with Talia.

And speaking of her, he still had a few posts to make on social medias, to complete her ruin. Noah decided to leave early and headed toward his car. In order to delay his arrival a moment longer this morning, he had parked himself in the farthest corner of the underground garage, in a spot no one ever used, usually.

And as he was about to reach his car, something, happened.

One moment, he was alone in the garage, walking toward his car. And the next instant, he was still alone, but he wasn't in the garage anymore. He was standing inside a vast… room? But there were walls and large openings in places that didn't make any practical or aesthetic sense. It was as if the space around him had been created using a badly configured piece of software. He couldn't tell where one room ended and the next one started.

The floor was covered by a pale-yellow carpet, and the walls covered by old-fashioned yellow wallpaper. The slight buzz of overworked fluorescent lights filled the air.

Terror gripped his heart, as Noah recognized what this place was.

The Backrooms.