"Morale is not good right now," Sarah said as she sat in the hospital's makeshift war room. Around the table were the heads of all the major departments and Drew, who looked like he hadn't eaten in a week.
"Across the board, from custodial to nurses and doctors up through administration, everyone is on edge figuring out how to operate this place without our computer systems. Everyone is doing their own thing to get through the day, patient care is inconsistent across the board, and we are having to invent new ways of doing things or, in some cases, reverting back to how things were done before computers." Sarah breathed, looking around at her colleagues. She hadn't felt this stressed in a long time. She wished she could just pause time and escape to Chicago for a break from it all.
She shifted in her seat, thinking about laying under Dan while they made love. Getting lost in his touch, feeling him between her. Knowing she was being watched through the hole in the wall.
"That's the problem," one of her colleagues chimed in, "We have a lot of millennials and Gen Z on staff who've never had to do their jobs, let alone do anything in their lives without a computer. Now we are telling them to operate like we used to in the 80s and 90s, and their little brains just can't handle it. I've got pathologists using tape recorders for dictation, for god's sake. Then, someone will need to transcribe those! We used to get biopsies done in a single day, but now we are backed up at least six weeks. It's ludicrous!
Sarah noticed the mood shift in the room. Everyone looked frustrated, which she knew fell back on her to solve. She had to figure out a way out of this situation and unify everyone. Something Drew should be doing but was proving incapable of.
"Everyone is going to be even more pissed this week," the head of finance chimed in.
Drew looked up from his phone, "What do you mean?"
"We're locked out of all our systems. We can't do payroll. We can't pay our people. We pay them every two weeks, which should be this week."
"Jesus fucking Christ," Drew said, putting his hands to his face.
Sarah quickly did the math in her head. She needed to get paid this week. Usually, she got paid on Thursdays, the same as Dan. That helped cover the mortgage payment that came out on Friday. Without that payment, she'd have to dip further into their already depleted savings.
"Can't," she heard herself saying before her brain registered she was speaking, "Can't we just go to our bank and get cash or checks and issue those to staff?"
She realized she was saying this more as an employee who desperately needed to get paid, not as the hospital administrator she was.
"Do you know how long it would take to get checks printed and write them all out manually? Do the calculations on who had vacation time and who didn't show up for shifts? We have hundreds of employees. It's impossible," the man sat back, huffing.
"It's a pain in the ass, but it's not impossible. Sure mistakes will be made, but it's better than having our staff walk out on us," another person chimed in.
Drew still sat in the back, covering his eyes.
"Drew," the CTO said loudly, trying to quell the upset voices in the room, "What did the board say?"
Drew sighed as he lowered his hands and stared at the table in front of him, "They didn't approve of us paying the ransom. They said we can't pay it. We'll have to rebuild all our systems from scratch."
The room erupted in a series of groans.
Sarah turned to the CTO, "There's really nothing we can do here?"
Someone stood up and started berating Drew. The CTO, Jerry, turned to Sarah. She had to lean forward to hear him over the rest of the devolving discourse, "Every consultant or firm we have reached out to has told us that everyone either pays or rebuilds. Bad Rabbit is just too hard to crack. And if they could crack it and fix this for us, it might take months and that's something we don't have. The scammers gave us a deadline to pay or they will wipe the systems anyway. We're fucked."
Sarah sat back in her seat, stunned. Her colleagues continued their outbursts but Sarah couldn't engage. All she could think of now was her upcoming mortgage payment and what she needed to do to make sure it went through. She'd have to get the head of finance to take action and issue physical checks, but she also needed to find a way to solve this problem.
She gulped. She hadn't told anyone at work about Lester yet. He claimed to be able to help. She just wondered what it would cost.
***
"Come on," Dan mumbled as he looked through the cabinets in the kitchen. "Just one clean mug. All I need is one clean mug. Would it kill him to ever clean up after himself?"
Dan had left his Yeti tumbler at work and was trying to make a coffee before starting his day. He heard a shuffling sound from the other room. His eyes flicked to his watch. It was just past seven am. His interview wasn't until this afternoon.
The toast popped out of the toaster, but Dan ignored it. He took a few steps to glance into the living room. Lester was sitting on a chair, struggling against his gut as he put on his boots. After watching him for over a minute, Lester finally got both boots on. His face was flushed beet red as he stood up and seemed out of breath.
"You're up," Dan couldn't remember the last time he had seen Lester get out of bed before noon, "Where are you going?"
Lester smirked at him as he opened the door, "To go see your wife."
The door shut behind Lester, and Dan rolled his eyes, "What a fuckface."
Dan returned to the kitchen, spread peanut butter on his toast, and started eating. He took bites as he continued to look around the cabinets for a clean mug but eventually gave up.
I'll hit Starbucks on the way in.
As Dan sat on the bus to work, he ultimately decided to skip Starbucks and just make a coffee in the office. That was at least free. His mind turned to thoughts of Sarah and the issues she was experiencing at work. It sounded like her workplace was in quite a tight spot. Someone had clicked the wrong link, and now the entire hospital was locked out of their systems.
He knew it was a stressful situation but he still didn't like that Sarah had called Lester for his opinion. It didn't sit right with him. The only things Lester was an expert on were eating Cheetos and playing video games.
And fucking your wife.
Dan shook his head. Self-defeating thoughts had been creeping up more often lately. He tried to keep a positive outlook but his situation was beginning to turn on him. It was frustrating. He wanted to take action, to do something to improve their situation but there was nothing for him to do. He couldn't work hard at a job that didn't exist. He could grab a lifeline that wasn't being thrown to him.
The only thing he could do right now was toil away at his current job while hoping to find a better one. He needed to stop spiraling, especially today. He needed to focus on his interview.
As the elevator doors opened on Dan's office floor, he couldn't help but be taken aback by how quiet it was. When he'd first started, the office would be bustling by now. As he walked towards the kitchen, he nodded to his glum-looking coworkers. It wasn't lost on him how many cubicles and offices now sat empty. He got the distinct feeling he was on a sinking ship.
He rounded the corner into the kitchen and saw one person in front of him, making their coffee. His boss, Walt.
"Morning Walt," Dan said as he grabbed his Yeti tumbler off the drying rack, "How goes the battle?"
Walt turned to Dan and smiled. Dan hadn't remembered Walt ever looking so old.
"Good Dan, good," Walt said, "I think we are finally on the right track, we're turning a corner. By this time next year this will all be a painful memory. But say, Johnson just put in his two weeks and I was hoping you could take on his workload. He has some projects on the go, so nothing too much."
"Yeah, no problem," Dan said. He didn't bother asking about compensation for the additional responsibilities. He knew what the answer would be.
"Thanks, Dan. I think this place would fall apart without you," Walt said, patting him on the back as he headed towards his office with his fresh brewed coffee.
Dan stepped up to the coffee machine and pressed the button. Dan watched his tumbler slowly begin to fill as the delicious scent of coffee hit his nose. He heard the rhythmic beat of his cell phone. A text message.
He reached into his jacket pocket and retrieved it. It was from Sarah.
> Hey baby. I'm at work safe and sound. Another emergency meeting. They are saying we can't pay the ransom and have to rebuild everything from scratch.
Dan read her message and watched as three dots appeared. His coffee finished brewing but he stood there waiting for the dots to disappear. Eventually, a message replaced them.
> Lester thinks he can fix this. I'm not so sure but I asked him to come in and see what he can do. I know, I know, it's Lester, right. But he has a website and everything, he actually looks kind of legit.
Dan felt his stomach drop. Lester had been serious this morning when he said he was leaving to see Sarah. Could he have stopped him then, before he left? Dan felt like he let another opportunity slip through his fingers. But this time that opportunity had designs on his wife.
He balled his hand into a fist. He was cornered at work and felt like the rest of his life was slipping out of his grasp. Once again he had underestimated Lester and it had cost him. Lester had been truthful with him and presented an opportunity to counter but he had missed it.
Another message came in, sharing a URL. Dan clicked it and it looked very professional and gave an air of expertise and competence. Still, something about it seemed almost too perfect. Dan couldn't quite put his finger on why it bothered him.
It was probably his bias that Lester was heading to Middleton, his hometown. To come in and be the knight in shining armor to his wife. He gritted his teeth as he put the lid on his tumbler and headed for his office. He would toil away at these projects for Walt to what end? None of it would get him closer to his goals and none of it would get him closer to being back with Sarah and the kids.
As he closed his office door behind him he exhaled and took a deep breath.
Focus. You have the interview this afternoon. That could be a game-changer.
"Screw this," Dan said as he sat down. Work would have to wait. It was time to prep for his interview.
