Traffic Light

Chapter 7: Arrangements

Three steel giants pierced through the cold-misty night air. Monstrous creations, like colossal serpents risen up and ready to strike. Long metallic spines comprising glass paned windows and wide open balconies jutted out on each floor. Endless rows of sparkling lights scattered along the erected surfaces and glowing orbs placed on the very top that beat in throbs were observable either from a far distance or from the ground floor.

The official grand opening for the long awaited Goliath Residences would initiate in a couple of days. The clean-up team had already begun operations throughout the site, dusting off loose specks of cement from the shiny walkways and wiping down silver edges of the luxurious residential entrance.

I peered out from Lot three-five-five’s covered windows, peeling a corner of the newspaper stacks to look through the glass out into the open world. The three colossi stood off in the distance, barely visible past the mist, with a myriad of throbbing lights that beat in rhythm to each other. Almost like a pulsing heart, pushing its first few circulations of blood into its new body. Like something being born, or being resurrected from the dust. Something that we helped build from the ground up.

We hadn’t heard back from anyone up to this point. It had been months since my last meeting with Boss number two and it had been even longer than that since I had established communications with BlueSeed. Syed had turned from a nagging, pacing and expressive mess to a quiet and slow moving figure seen off the reflection from the window pane or my machine’s monitor unit. His eyes were a set of bulging jellies held together only by the equally bulging sacks under them. Our stubbles had grown thick and our skins had turned ashy pale from the lack of sunlight.

The app was complete. It had been complete for a couple of days now. We couldn’t prolong development any longer. It had come to a point where it was seemingly impossible. All system components had been checked and rechecked. Every line of code was where it should be, every interface feature was fine-tuned to the most optimum levels in accordance to the resources that we had.

On this night, that I kept peering out at the residences, for the first time in over a year we had nothing much to do. It didn’t help curb the sense of suspense we were feeling. I wasn’t sure if they were deliberately taking their time to get back to us on what the next move was or if they really were all that busy with the upcoming opening ceremony and what not. Either way, it formed a terrible ball of fire in the pits of our stomachs. The silence that echoed back to us from the four corners of these walls amplified our anxieties.

A loud banging on the door at three in the morning jolted me up from the slouched position I was in. I hadn’t planned on sleeping but worry is an exhausting past time. Syed, curled up in a fetal position in the other corner of the room, slowly flipped over to see what the ruckus was about. I stumbled to my feet and struggled to open the heavy, metallic door.

Standing in the poorly lit corridor was a large man that I slowly came to recognise as the young company jackal that accompanied me to my meeting with Boss number two. His brown tapered hair looking slightly neater than before, his body looking stockier than I remember. He stared at me with pale blue eyes and reached his arms out towards me to reveal a bag in his hand.

“One month sir, they told me to inform you that you’ll have one month.”

I glanced down towards the bag in a state of temporary confusion, then slowly grabbed it from him.

“One month? Didn’t I mention that I would need at least two?”

He nodded his head and pulled his hand back from where he had it outstretch.

“One month is what they’re offering sir. They told me that if you refused then I was to send you back to the compound and they would figure something else out on their end.”

I glanced at him with a frustrated look as he debriefed me on the current situation. Just as I was about to say something, he interrupted me with even more instructions.

“If you’re willing to resume based on these conditions, please be ready to leave by eight A.M tomorrow and please wear the attire provided to you in the bag.”

He gave a sharp nod and turned around, making his way back down the dark stairway before the corridor. I watched him climb those stairs back down, listening to the slow thumping of each step he took going lower until he finally exited the lot.

I slowly closed the door behind me and glanced over at Syed, who was now sitting up cross legged, staring with wide eyes at me. We then both shifted our attention to the bag. Syed crawled over on all fours to where the large carrier was neatly positioned in the center of the room and quickly began to unzip the opening that stretched from one side to the other.

Two sets of dark gray, heavy duty work men overalls were folded neatly in the main compartment of the large carrier. The same kind mechanics or engineers usually wear when on site. Except these seemed slightly less durable and slightly more disheveled. The left chest area of each suit had a Goliath Inc logo stitched on there, while the back was covered with large fonts that spelled the company’s full name out in large, bold, white characters.

They wanted us to wear this? What were we? Race cars? They probably just wanted it to seem like we were true representatives of the respectable Goliath Inc’s workforce here to lend a helping hand. I didn’t care too much about the shameless cover-up. To be honest, even if we weren’t able to squeeze out another two months of monkeying around, I was surprised they even agreed to anything at all let alone one more whole month for us to figure something out.

-

Wasn’t sure if I was ever going to see this place again. Large buildings entailing long white corridors with receptionists for every floor in every block, the Management offices of Goliath Inc was fixed somewhere between the newly built Residences and our humble abode; Lot three-five-five. We stood behind the extensive security procedures taking place before us at the entrance. We had done this once before, the only difference now was that instead of wearing shiny vests and holding yellow construction hats in our hands, we wore dark, brand new working mechanic overalls and held small cases and bags filled with training equipment.

They finally let us through and we trailed along from behind as our stocky young jackal friend showed us the way to where we were needed.

Here we were again, in the same large metallic elevator. Watching the glowing numbers on the screen switch with each passing floor. Nothing could be heard except the silent jazz tune oozing out of the ceiling speakers. This time though, we were calmer, this time more prepared to whatever was on the other side of the silver doors. The same ghost can’t scare you twice.

Finally, the large platform came to a jolting halt and the doors slid open in one smooth motion. This wasn’t the top Management floor. This was another floor, a lower floor, with a slightly narrower corridor and a slightly smaller reception desk. A lady sits behind it, she’s grumpier looking than the one a few levels above her. Our young jackal friend comes out of the elevator before us and we slowly emerge from the thing ourselves, watching it close shut. Young jackal is having a word with the receptionist lady as she points to the left without looking up at him.

He thanks her and gestures at us to follow him down the corridor, through the many rooms and closed doors with labels on them like ‘Conference room’, ‘Maintenance room’ and ‘Accounting dept’. The overall theme begins to change from white nylon lights and white walls to a gradual orange coloured hue and brown wooden tiles. Finally, he stopped in front of the door labelled ‘Briefing room’. He turned around to face us and spoke in a soft tone.

“At this point, they’d like me to remind you that the confidentiality terms are still in effect. Do your best not to speak in depth about your involvement with the company or with management. In any case, you are a team of privately hired contractors that specialise in your technical expertise. Nothing more, nothing less. Are we good?”

He stared at us, switching his gaze from me to Syed, waiting for a response. We looked at each other and nodded slowly. He nodded back at us and reached for the silver knob on the door, twisted it and swung it open for us to enter. As we walked into the room, we heard the increasingly clear voice of a woman standing at the front, in the midst of saying something about the integrity of the corporation and the importance of following protocol. She stopped to turn to us.

“Ah gentlemen, welcome. Please come in.”

We moved over towards her, awkwardly unstrapping the bags over our shoulders and placing them against a corner while everyone watched intently. The small audience of some twenty people, comprised a seemingly diverse range of skin colours, races, genders and sizes.

The young lady, dressed sharply in a formal blazer and donning thick spectacles, turned back to address the people in front of her.

“Now, I mentioned before that we will be incorporating a community app for the infrastructure and security system of Goliath Residences. It’s imperative that you all listen carefully to what these men here have to say as they teach you about how to manage the entire process. They will be with us for an entire month and will be overseeing the initial phases of setting up all necessary measurements before as well as after the opening ceremony.”

With a gleaming smile that revealed a set of perfectly white pearly teeth, she turned back to us.

“This is the team that you’ll be working with, they’re an assortment of experienced staff members and newcomers. For the most part, they’ll be in charge of initiating on-ground operations and will eventually be taking control of the community app. So I’ll leave you all to it then.”

She picked up her handbag from the table in front of her and began to make her way towards the door.

“Now if you have any questions, please direct it either to these gentleman or to me. You all have my contact, I’ll be checking in on you from time to time. Have fun and good luck.”

She waved to the small group seated among the assembly of chairs and desks, then walked out. The moment the door closed shut, the entire room shifted its focus back to us, eyes from every corner staring directly at the two overall wearing foreigners at the front.

Syed slowly began to back away towards the bags and started nervously unloading all the equipment we had brought with us, which included a couple of thumb drives and a set of hard drives, a couple of stationary items, the machines we had been using for the past year and more.

I stared at them for a moment of awkward silence, then decided it was best to begin speaking.

“Hello.”

My voice was too soft and shaky, so I cleared my throat and tried again.

“Hello. My name is Karkun, and that’s my associate Syed. We will be showing you how the community app works and how its various features apply to managing the residence.”

I paused for a moment to see if they understood me clearly.

“First off, I’ll be doing a quick evaluation on everyone’s basic understanding of how systems work. From there, we’ll go through the steps according to everyone’s level of comprehension. Does that sound fair?”

-

The concept behind the app was relatively simple to explain. As a point of centralization and communication for all the daily routines that would take place at the residence, from visitor records to safety precautions and updates for tenants, the job of the team was to ensure that the system was properly controlled and protocol was followed throughout each process.

If a visitor showed up at the guard house, security staff were to take down the details of the individuals like the vehicle number plate and name, then they would contact the tenant in question and reconfirm whether they were expecting a visitor at that point in time. If everything checks out, the visitor is let through. The system will automatically store all their details and track the time they spend within the vicinity for as long as they haven’t left.

Simple code structures and basic user interface design enabled this feature to exist.

Staff members would monitor system statuses and records through a physical terminal which will have to be installed into each guard station. Additionally, members of the residence and heads of management would be able to access the system through an app installed on their mobile devices. Each individual would have to create their own accounts, which upon verification from administration, will have access to whatever features are necessary according to their requirements.

Management members would also have the capability to post updates on the app’s designated news feed section, about maintenance schedules, facilities under repair, events happening in or around the residence as well as security warnings.

For four days a week, my associate and I spent a few hours in the brief room showing our trainees around the system configuration settings, teaching them about simple interface navigation and methods to enable the record keeping abilities built-into the app.

It was on a Thursday afternoon, when I stood in the corner of the briefing room. The lights were turned off and the projector was on, Syed clicked from slide to slide while I explained in detail about what each section entailed. About twenty minutes passed by when the door slowly creaked open and a dark figure stepped into the room. I squinted to try and identify who the person that just entered was, but the blaring light from the projector in front of me disrupted my vision. I saw the figure move slowly in a limping motion towards the back of the room. He seemed to be using a walking stick to support himself with each step.

I resumed my lesson.

“The security configuration settings can be found in this section and is laid out in a pretty straight forward manner. To establish the total number of visitors for each given day, simply click here”

I raise my pointer up to a specific portion of the screen, showing the trainees what I’m referring to. Meanwhile the man made his way to the back portion of the room and slowly leaned against it, observing me from a distance.

I carried on with the next slide.

“If you want to be more specific and establish what time each individual visitor had arrived or left the residence, just click on this button here. It will trigger a dropdown window which displays in detail every visitor that showed up on that date and for how long they stuck around.”

Syed clicked on the next slide and I moved on to the next section about terminal navigation. The figure, with one hand in his pocket and the other gripping his walking stick, continued to lean motionless at the far end of the room.

No more than five minutes later, when I had almost finished going through all of the slides for today, the figure took his hand out of his pocket and slowly limped his way back towards the door, leaving as abruptly as he came, just before Syed stood up to switch the lights back on and turn the projector off.

I glanced around the room, there was nobody at the far end anymore. No walking stick, no leaning figure. I walked over to Syed and asked if he saw who that was. He shrugged, saying that he noticed someone enter but it was too dark to tell.

I turned back to the trainees and began wrapping up our session for the day.

-

The opening ceremony began that Friday, in the evening. Syed and I watched from the peeled open hole in the window back at lot three-five-five, as soft echoes of far-away voices on booming microphones dissipated across the vast desert air, lights and flashes streaking across the mist that led high up to the top of the towering skyscrapers.

Gazing at the spectacular show, Syed slowly sipped on his warm mug of coffee and raised his eyebrows.

“Looks like fun.”

Now that the project was fully operational and open for business, it meant that we would start doing live tests on the field soon. As the trainees begun to graduate from their briefing room sessions, they moved on to manning the facilities at the actual residence.

The next couple of weeks was a bittersweet compilation of feeling rather excited to finally see the baby that we had worked on for almost three years integrate as the missing puzzle piece to an overwhelming attraction, yet at the same time sensing the clutches of the compound’s reach beckoning to us once again. Our time was running thin, yet we were somehow enjoying ourselves.

We’d move from one security station to the other, ensuring that the terminals were fully functional and the staff remembered their training. We watched as the emergency buttons in individual units lit up with every test run. We refined the interconnectivity between central software and segregated hardware throughout the three different blocks. We saw the thing we worked on come to life right before our eyes. It was a thrilling experience, but I suppose, all good things must come to an end.

-

The month flew by and our service was at an end. I remember it clearly, we had been up all night the day before and Syed sat with his head in his hands on the large wooden crate that our machines had been packed in so neatly. The surface we had worked on had been completely cleared of all items. Lot three-five-five had been wiped down clean and was ready to be erased from existence as a place that was once utilised for innovation. It would once again become a barren working quarters left to rot in the gutter.

We had been ordered to begin clearing out and packing up as we’d be leaving this place for good today, they never really clarified where we were off to next or what was in store for us. By now I guessed as much that they would be consistent in their suspenseful ways. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that we had outlived our usefulness here and it was time to go back to where we could be put to use once again. I sat cross legged on the floor in the center of our micro-sized office with my eyes closed.

Syed lifted his head up, face red and veins popping. He put his hands to the back of his neck, rubbing it while he sighed.

“Well. It was good while it lasted. I tell you one thing Karkun, nobody can ever said we didn’t try. Even if we went back to that shithole and died there, at least we had done something worthwhile with what is left of our miserable lives, right?”

I opened my eyes and nodded slowly.

“Maybe. Maybe it was worthwhile or maybe it was all in vain. Maybe we’re going back there, but it won’t be for long.”

Syed looked at me with eyes half closed from exhaustion.

“What do you mean, you plan on going somewhere?”

I stood up and walked towards the semi-open window, newspaper strips still dangling from the sill.

“If we go back to the compound, then I plan to end up right back here and start from scratch. With whatever time I manage to earn, I’ll find another way out.”

Syed’s scratched his head and stretched his arms up towards the ceiling, snickering softly.

“That’s the spirit bro, always look on the bright side of life that’s what I like to say.”

I peer through the glass, looking out at the outside world, its bright sun glaring over the barren valley.

“I’ve compromised our own system Syed. In about a month from now, they’ll have no choice but to summon us back.”

Syed turned back to face me, with bulging eyes wide open.

“What? Say that again? What do you mean compromise?”

I put a finger against the window to wipe a single line of dust from the pane.

“A while back, I set a trigger and buried it deep within the system’s core. Two days ago, before we began packing up, I planted a bomb so to speak. I set a timer that would initiate that trigger to implode. I set that timer to roughly a month from now to avoid too much suspicion. I have programmed our baby to begin cannibalising on its own specific components, components that are quite vital to the functionality of the software. Once they realise there’s an issue, they will try fixing it themselves. They will find out that it is nearly impossible because I have deployed a very sophisticated series of security countermeasures that will block any user from accessing the damaged sections. Countermeasures that only I can disable. Countermeasures that were originally meant for severe hacker attacks.”

Syed stood up and took a step towards me.

“Are you crazy? Have you finally lost your mind? We spent almost three years on finalising all that.”

I turned back to lock eyes with him.

“No I’m not crazy. I’m desperate and so are you my friend. You’ve just forgotten how desperate you really are. I haven’t. I will not take a step back after all we’ve been through. Once they call us for help, I will solve the issue and then I will pinpoint the mistake to one of our trainees. I have already identified who among them I will use as my scapegoat. He is the slowest of the herd. He will not be able to argue to save himself. I will make it look like he had accidentally tampered with the advanced configuration settings, after which he mistakenly activated security countermeasures for the settings he damaged.”

Syed stared at me for a moment, then looked down to the packed bags on the floor.

“You would use someone like that just to get ahead?”

I stepped forward with a deep frown forming on my face and a finger lifted in the air.

“That asshole isn’t just too lazy to apply himself to the job, but he is also privileged enough to be a local. He won’t be sent back to a concentration camp or never see his family again. He will get kicked out of the team and lose his job, a job that he can easily find somewhere else as long as he is in his own country.”

Syed sat back down, donning the posture of defeat.

I put my finger back down and glance towards the pile of bags littering the office floor.

“When threatened, the octopus sacrifices one of its tentacles to distract the predator so it can live to fight another day. In time, that arm will re-grow, stronger than ever. That’s exactly what this is. This is a self-defense mechanism in action my friend. We compromise one arm today, so we can re-grow it back tomorrow.”

Syed, still looking down at his feet, nodded slowly at my analogy. Suddenly, a loud bang disrupts our conversation and our attentions focus quickly towards the door. I look back at Syed, I need to know we’re both on the same page. He turned back to me, eyes wide and filled with anxiety. He nods once more and that’s all I need from him. I took a deep breath and headed towards the door, unlocking it and swinging it open. The young, stocky, brown haired company jackal stood before me, donning his usual leather jacket and dark shaded aviators.

“Please come with us gentlemen, and don’t forget to bring all the company equipment with you including the overalls. We need to return everything in one piece before the bosses go ape-shit.”