Margret was somewhat surprised to come out of the demonstration and find there was a meeting request from Carol waiting for her. They rarely had any meetings unless some big contract was going down. If the girl was going to become clingy in the office, Margret would have to nip it in the bud. Still, she accepted the meeting and half an hour later Carol arrived in her office closing the door behind her.<\/p>\n
Before Margret could get control of the situation Carol said, \u201cI did some more research and we need to get some letters on file with notary stamps and dates on them. The letter or letters need to inform Kent of the pending regulation change requiring all data center employees to be U.S. Citizens for U.S. Banks and have passed all of the new background checks prior to being hired.\u201d<\/p>\n
Margret was not expecting this. She thought they were going to keep it a secret. Carol read the confusion in her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe regulation change has just been opened for public comment and will be put to a vote some time next quarter. There is no keeping it quiet now. Given how far along the offshoring of the data centers has gotten, there is most likely no way to pull it back without incurring massive financial loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Margret nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen, I need to forward you the email announcing the public comment period. You need to forward it to Kent, then schedule a meeting for the three of us and Judy, the girl who does notary for us. Just a fifteen-minute meeting to tell him this is open for comment and may be something he bumps into. Bring a printout of the email to the meeting. When the meeting is over, we will have Judy put a notary stamp on it and hand-write the meeting time, date, etc., on it, then sign it. Copies will be put in your hands, my hands, and the legal department\u2019s document archival service. When this landslide tumbles down the mountain it will be Kent who hangs.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing about Carol,<\/i> Margret thought, that lawyer side of her is vicious!<\/i> \u201cOK. I\u2019ll schedule the meeting later today as soon as I get your email,\u201d responded Margret.<\/p>\n
Carol noticed the look on Margret\u2019s face. She looked at her and asked \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you put in such a generic meeting subject I figured this was you getting clingy and I was wondering how I could shut it down before anything got out. I wasn\u2019t expecting this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo worries on that front. My hubby would divorce me in a second. I have to keep this more hidden than you. That doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m not going to help you cover your ass, though. If this becomes a regulation, the bank is going to have to re-hire some of the operators they are about to fire and get them to live in India. There will be a limited window for compliance and then the hammer will fall.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll have to pay a fine,\u201d Margret said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to read the email I will forward you. Loss of insurance is the first penalty, fines second and third is a recommendation of criminal prosecution under the Patriot Act. They are playing hardball with this one. Only the content of the regulation is up for comment, not the penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Margret\u2019s eyes widened at that. \u201cSend me the email now.\u201d In less than three minutes Margret had received the email, forwarded it to Kent and scheduled a meeting with him. He really shouldn\u2019t have left a fifteen-minute opening just prior to 4:00 PM. All of the ladies met in Kent\u2019s office and told him he could bump into this regulation with his current project once the regulation is voted in. When Kent asked how likely it was, Carol responded nobody knew which way the vote would go since none of the voting members communicated openly about their intent. The bank was supposed to have someone communicating with the FDIC on this, but Carol had no idea who. Carol said her only duty in the matter was to inform both Kent and Margret via both email and a meeting on the matter. What Kent did with the information was up to him.<\/p>\n
Just like that, the meeting ended. The three women went back to Margret\u2019s office, they wrote down the meeting time, attendees, etc., signed the document and then Judy put the notary seal on it. They thanked Judy for her time and she left.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you think the bastard has any idea he is about to walk over an open manhole?\u201d asked Margret.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably not,\u201d Carol responded. \u201cI simply wanted to get this done within forty-eight hours of receiving the information so my ass would be in the clear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carol leaned closer to Margret and whispered, \u201cThen I had to protect your sweet ass.\u201d With a smirk she walked away to find a functioning copy machine. A few minutes later she returned with a few copies for Margret and herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother day almost over,\u201d Margret piped up when she returned.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t believe it,\u201d responded Carol. \u201cI thought I was going to have to work late tonight because of the presentation going on earlier today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their eyes met and broadcast desire to each other. \u201cMy place,\u201d mouthed Margret. \u201cHalf hour,\u201d mouthed Carol. Margret quickly wrote down her address on a yellow sticky and included her cell phone number. Nothing was said when the sticky exchanged hands. It even looked business like when Carol stuck it on the front of the pages in her hands. Nobody questioned it or suspected anything. She returned to her desk, completed filing the copies and put the original in a document mailer for the archive service. With the yellow sticky tucked into her suit coat pocket she logged out and told everyone she was going home.<\/p>\n
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You are reading a special promotional version of \u201cInfinite Exposure\u201d containing only the first 18 chapters. This is the first book of the “Earth That Was” trilogy. You can obtain the entire trilogy in EPUB form from here:<\/p>\n