Agent Johnson

Today is agent Samuel Johnson’s birthday but frankly, he doesn’t even give a shit. He’s been working undercover at TecCo Industries for two years now, desperately trying to uncover and expose what the people there were really up to. Today was the day where all of his hard work would finally pay off. He needed this. He needed it like a starving anorexic squirl needed a nut. It was he who sold his higher ups on the notion that the people at TecCo were up to no good. After studying their activity for years, he was convinced that what they were really doing was developing ransomware products and selling them to terrorist. No one believed him at first, but after he laid out his evidence showing years and years of suspicious activity, they all agreed that they should send someone in. Naturally he insisted that it would be him. It was a hard sell being that he was only twenty-five years old and as green as a leprechaun’s hat on a bright sunny day. Yet, Somehow, he was able to pull it off. That was over two years ago and since he was planted, he has not presented the agency with a single shred of actual evidence. It was that God damn firewall! As soon as he began to make some ground on it, it would reconfigure itself leaving him with no choice but to start from scratch. That’s all over now. Through his unyielding focus and dedication, he figured out a way to defeat it.

As he entered the building at 0900 hours, which he had done hundreds of times before, he tried to make sure he looked like he belonged. It should’ve been easy, but this time was different. This time he knew that he was about to nail the bastards. Walking by the reception desk, he looks over, smiles, and waves.

“How you doing today Sarah?”

She smiles back.

“Good morning Tom!” She replies using his alias.

‘That bitch is probably in on it too’ he thinks as he makes his way towards his cubicle. He has to walk past the manager offices on his way. There are three managers that usually work his area. They are primarily responsible for him failing to bring the company down sooner. They constantly walk the floors making sure no one steps outside of their bounds. There were no managers working today though. There was an executive retreat taking place in Vegas and they all decided to go. That’s what made it the perfect time to get the evidence he needed. He had free rein to move about throughout the company’s systems, breach the firewall, locate it, and send it over to the agency via electronic transfer.

“Jim, Parker, Bethany.” He nods as he greets all three of the people that work in cubicles near him before sitting down in his chair. He immediately begins to take in much needed air not even realizing that he had been holding his breath for so long. He puts his hands on his forehead and immediately removes it. His hands are soaked. He had been sweating profusely. ‘Get yourself together man’ he thinks to himself as he nervously looks around the office to see if he had given himself away. No one is looking his way. He takes another deep breath as he hits the space bar. His screen immediately illuminates his entire area.

“Time to get this show on the road” he whispers to himself as he extends his arms with his fingers crossing each other and cracks his knuckles. The onslaught begins as he very skillfully taps key after key on his keyboard. Screen after screen reveals itself one on top of the other as he makes his way through the company’s firewall system. His stern focused face seems to light up as he blocks out everything that is going on around him. In this moment all that he knows is what is happening on his computer screen.

It is now 0930 hours and he is still focused on the task at hand. He knows that he is a mere ten to fifteen minutes away from breaching the system. As he continues to work, he begins to think about what he will find. He wonders what the scope will be. Will he discover their plot just in time to stop them or will he find that sales and deliveries have already been made? As he gets closer and closer to getting in, he begins to get nervous all over again. Only this time it’s worse. Realizing that he is once again no longer taking in any air he stops for a moment to breathe. He puts up his head and looks around the room to his left. Nothing to worry about there. He looks over to his right. Just then one of the company’s mail employees places a package on his desk. He swallows hard as he looks up at the employee.

“What’s this?”

“I don’t know man, I’m just the messenger.” The employee says dismissively as he casually walks away.

He looks down at the package and centers it directly in front of him. It is a box unskillfully wrapped in what looks like brown grocery bag material. It has sloppy bright red writing on it which looks like it was done with lipstick or something.

“Tom Michaels!!! Stop what you are doing right now!!! Open this package!!!”

His eyes are miles wide. He attempts to swallow but has no spit in his mouth to do so. A drop of sweat from his soaking wet face drops down on the package. He quickly pushes it back off to the side. He looks back at the writing. ‘The color of blood’ he thinks. He begins to look around. Jim is staring right at him. He quickly looks away only to be confronted by Bethany’s big brown eyes which are focused directly on him. He immediately looks down.

“What the fuck!?” he whispers loudly. He puts his hands in front of him to put them on his head. He stops and holds them out. They are shaking uncontrollably. He makes a fist in both hands to stop the shaking. He quickly looks up and over to his left. Parker is staring right at him too. He immediately looks away and back at his computer screen. He knows that he is only minutes away from getting past the firewall. He takes a deep breath and refocuses. ‘I didn’t come this far for nothing’ he thinks to himself as he releases his fists and starts back typing away at his keyboard. He begins to come to terms with his inevitable demise. People have been dealt with for far fewer infractions. Here we are talking about a corrupt major corporation dealing in the tens of millions of dollars. He was all but certain that he would be killed, but he was determined to break through the firewall and send his agency the damning evidence before they got him. Just a minute or so away now. He glances back up. Now everyone in the room is looking at him. There are no smiles. ‘They are all guilty’ he thinks before hurrying back to his screen. ‘Got to break through! Just 30 more seconds!’ He looks up again, everyone is now walking towards him. He focuses back on his computer typing as fast as he can.

“Almost got it!” He confesses out loud in a desperately anxious voice.

He notices a shadow directly beside him. He does not stop.

“Stop Tom. Open the package.”

It is Bethony’s voice. He doesn’t even acknowledge her as he continues.

“Stop!” Her voice is now much sterner.

The others begin to chatter amongst themselves as they all arrive and surround him at his cubicle.

He breaches the firewall. He was right. All the evidence is there. He has no time to read over it. He has to send it to the agency. Just as he starts to, his shoulders are grabbed by someone from behind.

“Tom, what the fuck are you doing!?” a voice proclaims.

He pulls away violently.

“No!” He yells as he hurries in his efforts to send the files.

“That’s it!” Bethony spurts out as she reaches over and begins to open the package.

Several other people suddenly grab hold of him. He continues to aggressively pull away from them. They get even more aggressive with him as they all yell over and over again for him to stop. ‘I just need to hit send’ he thinks as they pull him away from his computer.

“Arrrrrggggghhhhhhh!” he grunts as he uses all the power he has in his body to pull away from them. He hits the send button.

“I did it you fuckers! You’ve been busted! Fuck off! Fuck off! Fuck off!” He yells as he starts to fight.

He punches Jim hard in the face with a haymaker! He immediately turns and punches Parker in the face as well. He aggressively football tackles Bethony to the ground. There is a loud poof sound. He begins to punch her in the face over and over and over again. He desperately resists as people attempt to pull him off of her. Suddenly, he stops. There are a sea of colorful confetti strips floating through the air. It is all over Bethony’s body. He notices that he is covered with the stuff as well. He begins to look around. Everyone that is near him has it on them too. He looks around more. There are balloons and signs everywhere. They say Happy Birthday. He looks over at the package that was on his desk. It has imploded and is in the center of the enormous amount of confetti strips that are floating and laying about. Everyone is quiet and glaring at him as if he had just smothered a kitten. Bethony, who now has a bloody face comes to her feet.

“What the fuck is wrong with you asshole!”

She quickly makes her way towards the bathroom. Some of the other women, shake their heads at him before running after her. One of them approaches him.

“She’s been planning this for weeks you fuck face!”

She slaps him in the face and follows behind the other women. Everyone else is left standing together at a scene that has all the fixings to be nothing other than a great time, in an awkward state of silence and disbelief.

Turns out the CEO of TecCo Industries was working with a different agency to infiltrate the market and bring justice to those who sought to use technology to extort money from unsuspecting firms. Of course, Agent Johnson lost his job at the firm. Which was fine because he ended up getting a huge promotion at his agency for his keen eye, hard work, and the dedication he displayed while he was in the field. He and Bethany would go on to fall in love, get married, and have three wonderful kids together. Most importantly, Considering the events that transpired at the conclusion of his two-year assignment at the tech firm, Agent Samuel Johnson made it a point to never ever waver from giving no less than a huge shit about every single one of his remaining birthdays.