Gambling Debts 8/?
Chapter 8
Nobody seemed to notice Derek so he stood just there in the door for a moment, taking in the scene in front of him. Over the yelling from the guy on the phone he heard a female voice on the other end and it took him a second to place it. This was the first time he heard it from this end.
However, the guy didn't do what Erica was telling him. If he just didn't listen to her, possible, he was more busy with yelling at her than anything else, or if he didn't understand what she wanted him to do, in the end it didn't help to solve the problem.
Derek could hear Erica getting angrier by the second, her voice strained in forced politeness, and he could clearly tell that this wasn't going anywhere.
Without even thinking, Derek strode over and ripped the phone out of the guy's hand.
"Sir, please. If you just ..."
"The moron is gone." Derek informed her before she could give the instruction again she had repeated at least three times over since he had entered the room. "Just give me a second to see what we're up to here."
Next to him the moron was gaping at him and out of the corner of his eye he saw Isaac followed by Stiles coming over but he tuned them out and focused on the task at hand. The stunned silence at the other end of the line gave him enough time to have a quick look around.
"Derek?" Erica asked in clear disbelief.
"Yeah, it's me."
"Where the hell have you been?" She said, her voice way too loud in his ear. "Finstock is about to pop an aneurysm. He's offering his remaining testicle to anyone telling him where you're hiding."
Derek glanced at Stiles who was holding back Isaac.
Derek was pretty sure that he was breaking every rule there was to break around here but for now Stiles had apparently decided to let him take over. Why, Derek had no idea.
Derek wasn't sure what had come over him, this was not in the job description. At least not in this job's description and since he hadn't come around to quit his job at Casino Solutions ...
"Long story." He focused back on Erica. "Let's just get this running again."
There was another pause, the questions hanging heavy in the air, but then she agreed and they went back to business.
"Okay, I'm seeing it now." Derek poked around the system in search for the most common problems. "Can you run a ..."
"Already running." She cut him off. "Would you have a look ..."
"It's down." He knew what she wanted him to have a look at and he was already looking.
They worked their way through the trouble shooting like this and Derek had to admit, doing this with somebody who knew what she were doing and actually did what had to be done felt good.
"I thought they fixed that with a patch a few months back." Erica said when they had found and fixed the problem. It was a well known problem which shouldn't be a problem any longer.
"This system hasn't been updated in a while." Derek checked the status information. "It's still running the 3.10 version."
"The what?"
Derek didn't bother to comment that, her outrage mirrored his. No casino should still be running under this version, the security risk ... it was a miracle that they hadn't been shut down just for the hell of it.
"Speaking of running." Since the obvious problem was solved, Derek had a closer look.
For now Stiles seemed to have come to the conclusion that Derek could do whatever he wanted for as long as he wanted so everybody kept their distance and let him work. The yelling moron had shut up a while ago and Derek wasn't even sure if he was still in the room. At the moment he was too busy trying to find his way through the chaos in front of him.
"I've no idea how this system is still running." He told Erica with a delay. "And I'm not touching any of this to find out."
"That's your problem." She informed him way too cheerfully. "I did what I can do from this end."
Normally they would end the call now, they didn't get paid for small talk, but both of them hesitated to actually end it.
"So, long story." She said. "Call me some time and tell me?"
"Sure." He said, not sure if he would call her. Probably not. And she didn't have his number. They had most likely called his work phone a million times but he had only taken his private one with him and he doubted that Peter would bother with answering his phone. If he was even at home.
"Don't sure me." She called him out on it immediately. "Call me or I will bother everybody at the Red until I get your number."
He wouldn't put it past her to actually do that so he promised to call her soon and then disconnected the call. When he finally dared to turn around, everybody was staring at him.
"It should be running for now." He said and fought the urge to back off until he hit the desk behind him.
"That's good." Stiles was the first to speak. "That's really good. Isn't it?" He turned to Isaac for the last part.
"Who the fuck is this guy?" The moron demanded to know, already reaching for the keyboard, most likely to find out what kind of damage Derek had caused. To Derek's surprise Isaac caught his wrist before he could press a key.
"Before you go back to work I have a few questions I'd like to ask you, Andrew." Isaac said with steel in his voice.
"What the fuck?" He wrenched his wrist out of Isaac's grip. "This guy just waltzes in and tempers around with the system and not only did you not stop him but now you have questions for me?"
"Andrew." Issac said in a reasoning tone but it was clear that he wanted to just punch someone. "Just take a break for now, okay?"
"You have any idea what kind of security breach this is?" Andrew turned to Stiles for backup while Derek just wanted to melt into the background. He had just wanted to help.
"At the moment I'm taking my chances with the guy who actually works for Casino Solutions." Isaac shut him up and Stiles did nothing to intervene.
Still fuming Andrew left but Derek had the feeling that he had just made an enemy. That made two in only a few hours, that had to be some kind of record.
The other people in the room reluctantly went back to work which left Derek, Stiles and Isaac awkwardly standing around.
"My office is the closest." Isaac said with a sigh and headed towards the door. Stiles and Derek followed.
He was probably about to get fired, Derek mused. He had helped out, sure, but he had also crossed quite some lines. Isaac and Stiles both did not look happy at all. At least Isaac smelled like he was about to explode.
The door of Isaac's office closed with a final thud behind them, cutting them off from prying eyes and ears.
"I'm sorry." Derek started as soon as they were alone. "I know, I shouldn't have …"
"Stop it right there." Stiles cut him off. "You just saved us a lot of trouble, money and headache. I don't think I have to tell you how essential the computers are in a casino. So, thanks for solving that problem so quickly. Andrew seemed to be in a little over his head."
"That's one way to put it." Isaac huffed.
A little more at ease Derek took the offered chair in front of Isaac's desk with Stiles sitting next to him.
"You said that this problem should have been fixed with a patch months ago." Isaac addressed him.
"And that we're running on an outdated version." Stiles added. "You also seemed to be put off when you had a closer look."
"I only had a short look." Derek shifted in his seat. "But your system is not set up as it should be. It looks fine at first but you don't have to dig deep to notice something is off. I'm not sure if that causes problems or not."
Stiles and Isaac shared a glance, some silent conversation going on between them.
"Can you update the system to the latest version?" Isaac asked and Derek gave him a nod. That was the easy part.
"But." Derek said. "I'm not sure if that will do you any good. Like I said, I don't know what else is going on with your system so I can't tell how it will deal with a newer version."
He had his suspicion that Andrew had held off with the updates for a reason. After thinking about that for a second he told Stiles and Isaac as much, they needed to know.
"I told you I don't like Andrew." Stiles said to Isaac.
"He's been working here longer than we have." Isaac shot back in the resigned tone of an old argument.
"I don't care how good the executive board thinks he is, if it turns out that he fucked up on purpose or that he's just a moron in general, he's fired." Stiles slumped back in his chair, fingers drumming impatiently on the arm rest.
"Agreed." Isaac said darkly but when his turned towards Derek the shadow over his face was gone. "I think we need somebody with fresh eyes to clean up this mess."
It was clear who he had in mind and Derek had to say that he liked the idea. Working with computers had always been his thing. It was like solving a puzzle.
"I can have a look." He said as vaguely as possible. "But I can already tell you that it will take a while."
"How long?" Stiles asked.
"We can't shut down the casino for a day or two so I have to work on a running system." A system he wasn't familiar with, which made it more difficult. "At least a week."
He expected them to argue, to demand quicker results, but they both nodded to that.
"Start as soon as you can." Stiles told him. "Isaac will set you up with everything you need."
"I can start now, if you want." Derek offered. The only things left on their schedule for today was dinner, which they had already skipped, and hitting the floor. He would rather work on the system if he was honest.
"First I want to have a word with Andrew." Stiles said. "And I want to have you with me."
Half an hour later all three of them sat in one of the conference rooms and waited for Andrew to join them.
When the man finally entered the room, his arrogant step faltered when the saw Stiles sitting there flanked by Derek and Isaac. He'd probably thought that he would deal with the head of security alone and not with the big boss directly. It was sometimes hard to believe but Stiles was the big boss around here and at the moment he sold it.
Derek didn't enter the conversation but he listened to Andrew's heart-beat while the man explained everything away and came up with good reasons why he hadn't updated the system.
Andrew pointed out that he had been a loyal employee for over five years now and that he'd always delivered good work. If there was something really wrong now, it was an honest mistake and he would work hard to keep something like this from happening again.
In the end Stiles didn't fire him on the spot but he was suspended until Derek had a chance to have a real look at the system. Then they would see.
Andrew thanked them and left.
They all sat back in their chairs, busy with their own thoughts.
Into the silence of the room Derek finally said: "You do know that he's lying, don't you?"
Chapter 9
Masterpost