Stacie wore the necklace and earrings to work today. She wore them whenever she knew she was going to have meetings with some of the higher-ups. Her roommates had absolutely died with jealousy when they saw them. Her coworkers had even commented on them enthusiastically. The cell phone call from Jeremy and her blushing had a few of them gathering around for gossip. The icing on the cake had to be when Kathryn walked by and asked what was going on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose cost a bundle,\u201d she said matter-of-factly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a man that absolutely loves me,\u201d she replied. A couple of the engaged girls looked longingly down at the little chip on their finger when they heard that response.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does he do?\u201d Kathryn asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not exactly certain,\u201d said Stacie. \u201cHe is moving to the Ukraine this week because his company is opening up a division there and he is going to run it. I\u2019m going to visit him on my next vacation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSounds like someone is going to be walking down an aisle soon,\u201d Kathryn responded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t looked that far ahead,\u201d Stacie blushed.<\/p>\n
The girls behind Kathryn all said, \u201cYeah right!\u201d in unison.<\/p>\n
Everyone laughed and Kathryn walked away.<\/p>\n
That was a close call,<\/i> thought Stacie. I need to email Jeremy tonight and come up with an agreed-upon cover story. I am <\/i>not good at this!<\/i><\/p>\n
Stacie turned back to her computer and did a Web search for Granite National Bank. A few clicks on the bank homepage brought up a page where they were priding themselves on their thirty-five-member IT staff to ensure their customers were always ahead of the curve when it came to new banking software. She printed that page out and continued on with her searches. After about half an hour she finally stumbled onto a site containing the FDIC watch list. She found the entry for Granite National Bank and printed that out as well. Going back to the bank homepage, she clicked on the link for locations and found they now had eighteen locations open with two more to open soon. Once again the printer was called into service.<\/p>\n
She put all of the printouts into a folder and walked to Kathryn\u2019s office. She didn\u2019t have a really good feeling about this given her earlier performance, but she had promised Jeremy to drop a hint, and this was the only way to cover where the hint came from.<\/p>\n
\u201cKathryn?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow\u2019s the blushing bride?\u201d chirped Kathryn.<\/p>\n
Blushing was exactly what Stacie was doing when she responded with, \u201cWe\u2019ve only been away a couple of weekends together, sheesh!\u201d<\/p>\n
Kathryn laughed, \u201cSometimes that is all it takes.\u201d \u201cAnyway! I came in to ask you if you are helping Pytho target other banks for sales?\u201d \u201cI could be, why?\u201d<\/p>\n
Stacie opened the folder and pulled out the pages she had printed on Granite National Bank. First she showed the FDIC watch list, then the page with thirty-five IT workers, and finally the page showing all of their locations.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did you come up with this?\u201d \u201cI heard you commenting that they needed to make some U.S. Sales to get their operation going better. Who better to pitch to than a bank already on a watch list which could save a lot of money by dumping their IT staff?\u201d Kathryn was gaining more respect for Stacie every time she talked with her. This was definitely worth putting together a pitch. Even if Pytho didn\u2019t make the sale there would be consulting dollars in it for Big Four. If they did make the sale, there would probably be even more consulting dollars in helping train the users.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll make some calls and see where this goes,\u201d she told Stacie. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely worth looking into. Have you come up with any others?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot yet, but I can keep digging if you want.\u201d \u201cPlease do. We might as well try to leverage your training.\u201d With that, Stacie walked out the door and back to her desk. Thankfully she had bookmarked the FDIC watch list because she was now going to have to go through every bank on that list and check the size of their IT staffs.<\/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