We have reached Friday everyone. Good Job. Shall we see what the final prompt of the week brings? Deep breath now and let’s dive in.
I would definitely have to figure out what it is this factory does, but I do think there is a mystery involving Mr. Daniels that Hank is about to stumble onto.
Friday, January 23rd: He checked the dial.
He checked the dial. The needle hadn’t moved. He tapped the glass knowing it was pointless but unable to stop himself. As expected, the tap did nothing. ‘What did I think would happen?’ he asked himself. ‘That it would magically come unstuck and start working?’
He took a deep breath and looked at the other dials and gauges. They were working properly and all the readings were within expected parameters. It was just this one that was not functioning properly.
He swore under his breath. He would have to talk to Mr. Daniels. ‘That’s not going to be pleasant.’
Mr. Daniels, his supervisor, believed that everything should run smoothly without his intervention. He sat in his office and did not like to be disturbed. There were rumors about what he did in his office all day, each one wilder than the last.
They knew whatever it was had nothing to do with work. All of his paperwork was done by his assistant. His assistant also dealt with the phone calls and any other activity Mr. Daniels could reasonably be expected to have fall under his job description. Mr. Daniels arrived in the morning, told Dennis, his assistant that he would be in his office and focused on a project and that Dennis should deal with all the daily trivialities as usual.
Mr. Daniels would then walk into his office, close the door and do whatever it was he did behind the darkly tinted windows of his office. Then at the official end of the work day he would open his door, inform Dennis that he was leaving and then he left.
He looked back to the unmoving dial. It still wasn’t moving. He would have to go see Dennis. He knew what would have to be done and it would require someone go down into the bowels of the building to fix. He didn’t especially mind going, but someone would need to watch his station.
He reached for the phone and pressed the button marked office. Dennis picked up on the third ring.
“This is Hank Lawrence on Station Eight. Pressure Gauge 643 is malfunctioning and I will need to check the machinery to identify the problem.”
Dennis’ sigh was audible. “We’re short staffed as it is. Can the problem be repaired after hours?”
“The dial isn’t responding,” Hank said. “I have no idea what the problem is. It could be a simple fix or it could require a full shut down. I won’t know until I check.”
“Right,” Dennis said. “I’ll see who I can send. Monitor it and let me know if there is any change.” Dennis hung up before there could be any comment. Hank hung the phone back on the wall. He didn’t blame Dennis and had in fact been expecting the answer. The problem was that if there was any change, he suspected it would be a disastrous one. With the lack of pressure being noted in the dial then he had three options. Something wasn’t working and there was no pressure being produced which meant something somewhere wasn’t going to work. Option two was the pressure was being diverted elsewhere and someone else was dealing with an excess of pressure. Or option three. There was a blockage, things were building up and there was a potential for an explosion when the pressure grew too great. He nervously watched the dial wondering which one it was going to be.
Ten til Midnight 