Frank Abruzzi looked around the conference room, his eyes narrow slits.
"Can anyone tell me why," he asked the assembled people, "When we are supposed to be mid-way through phase two of the security upgrades, we are still only about three quarters through phase one?"
No one answered. Many of the gathered men and women all of a sudden discovered their coffee in their paper cups needed further stirring.
Frank put down the PowerPoint clicker.
"All right," he went on. "No one knows? Is that what you are telling me?"
Looking around the room, his eyes narrowed on one member of the IT department.
"How about you- John, is it? What's your last name again, John?"
"Claire."
"Claire. OK. So, John Claire, maybe you can tell us why your department hasn't done all of the phase one metrics that we had laid out. Can you tell us that, John?"
John took a sip of his coffee, buying a moment to think.
"Well," he said hesitantly.
"Well?"
"So, some of the upgrades caused problems with our clients and our vendors. You had us install that new firewall- we did- and it left the online portal unsteady, remember? So we had to roll back to the old one and -"
"God fucking
damn
it!" Frank yelled, startling the room. He leaned over the front desk, on his knuckles. His nostrils were flared, and he looked like nothing more than an angry silverback gorilla focusing his caffeine reddened eyes on John.
"Fuck," Frank yelled some more. "The fucking
firewall
made it hard for you, is that right, John?"
"No, I didn't say -"
"Where are you from again, John? Kansas? Is that right?"
"No sir, from Nebraska -"
"Nebraska," Frank muttered, standing up to his full height. He was a large man, slightly taller than average, with a thick neck squatting on top a broad and powerful torso.
"Nebraska," he went on. "Maybe things move a little slower in Nebraska. Maybe in Nebraska when the Chief Information Security Officer sets out a roadmap to install new security, maybe it gets done, maybe it doesn't. Is that how things work in Nebraska, John?"
"Look, Frank, I've been in the City since college- I've been at Maxon for almost ten years now -"
"Yeah, that's right. Almost ten years now. And what happened last year? What happened last year that made me get hired here as the first CISO Maxon International has ever had?"
John didn't say anything.
"Go on, Claire, tell us," Frank hissed. "Tell us what happened."
"You know what happened, Frank. So does everyone else."
"But I want you to
say
it, John. I want you to say out loud, in case anyone fucking forgot, exactly why the fuck Frank Abruzzi works for Maxon International trying to get fucking
phase two
of what should be a relatively simple security upgrade off the ground."
"We were hacked."
"That's right, you were hacked. You were in the big City running fucking
Nebraska
level security around here, and your database was hacked, and you lost tens of thousands of private customers' data. You were fined over a million dollars. Your stock price dropped in half."
"I'm not part of the security department."
"It doesn't seem like anyone was!"
"Frank, look, we're all working hard, maybe I can get some approval for some overtime hours, we can work some weekends or something -"
Frank held up his hand, silencing the other man.
"That's enough, John. I don't want to hear any more fucking excuses. If you want to keep being part of the Maxon International team, you'll get phase one done by the end of this month. That's all I'm going to say about it. Get out- all of you. Fuck."
John drank the rest of his lukewarm coffee from his paper cup and shuffled out with the rest.
*****
Frank made his way back to his office. He dimmed the lights and looked over the City from what was a pretty nice view. It was a cloudy day, autumn. A light rain was falling outside, the drops misting lightly on his windows.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket.
Come to my office,
he texted.
He put his phone back in his pocket.
The phone on his desk rang.
Shit, he thought. Here we fucking go.
"Hello," Frank barked into the phone.
"You were a little rough in the meeting, I'm hearing," the man on the other end said.
"I'm just trying to shake some of the Nebraska loose, Jack."
The other man hesitated.
"That's fine, Frank," he said finally. "But look, you've got me in a spot here. A rock and a hard place. If I go to the board and can't tell them that the very expensive security upgrades are in place, then I'm not CEO any more. But if I go there and tell them that everyone quit because of the new Chief Information Security Officer yelling at everyone, then I'm out a CEO job that way also. You know?"
Frank looked up as a young woman knocked almost silently at his door. She was smiling as she leaned over, pressing her face into the little window next to his office door.
Irritated, he waved her in. She came in his office and stood in front of his desk.
"I'm just lighting a little fire under their asses, Jack," Frank said. "Once they get on track, I'll be all sweetness and cotton candy. I'm not riding them any harder than they can take, and you know that some of them aren't going to make it. That son of a bitch I yelled at today? I'll probably have to let him go. But you knew we were going to have to crack some eggs for this omelet. The board will understand also."
Frank looked up in surprise. She was still standing there, her hands folded in front of herself.
