'Hi! You must be Pat?' He nodded, rather surprised that she knew his name, whilst she pointed to Angel's vehicle. 'Can you get in behind and follow us?' He walked back rather irritated at the girl's attitude and jumped in beside Angel.

'Hello!' He smiled and offered a hand across the seats as she entered and sat beside him. 'Hi! Suzanne! Fancy meeting you here!'

'You don't think that a party animal like me, would miss this fun for all the world.' She surreptitiously put a hand on his knee and squeezed. 'You never know, I might have to double or treble my fee and I couldn't ask you properly from Vegas!' She pointed for him to drive on. 'This way and then park by the new building at the back. You've got first choice on one of the two large rooms in there! Zyzzx will then have to have the other!'

Parking by the building, he tried to ask her one of the many questions he needed answers for. 'Can you ...'

She stopped him abruptly and got out of the car. 'Not now!' She leant back into the car and spoke quietly. 'Leave your door unlocked and I'll join you after midnight, when everyone's asleep. Just like old times.'

***

An hour later and the three men, with a little help from Suzanne and an unidentified twin, had unloaded the Rover and moved all their equipment into the chosen room. They added it to the five or six boxes of computers, printers and assorted cables, that Zyzzx thought they might like to use. There had also provided a couple of desks, well stocked with paper, pens and other office necessities. All they needed now was the largest Medusa to be delivered later in the afternoon and connected to them through a simple industry-standard network cable. Finally, they would be joined to Zyzzx in the still empty room next-door.

'I'm sorry, but we thought there was only to be two!' Suzanne was talking particularly and rather nervously of Angel. 'And anyway, I don't think we have a bed large enough for someone like you!' She humorously felt Angel's forearm. 'You are rather lovely aren't you!'

Angel blushed. 'I'm security, so I sleep in here.' He indicated a large enough space in the corner. 'My sleeping bag will fit well over there!'

'Oh! I didn't think that was going to be allowed! These rooms were to remain locked and sealed at night!' She shrugged and looked him up and down in an admiring way. 'I'm not going to argue with you. Although, I think I have a few tricks that even someone as large, strong and handsome as you might find hard to resist!' She reached up and tried to kiss him. 'Mmmm!'

***

He hadn't expected any problems in linking to the Medusa when it arrived soon after they had completed their installation and he didn't get any. But he had thought that the link to Zyzzx might be more difficult to get going. It wasn't.

By four that afternoon everything required for the extensive testing was complete and six computers, each of a different make, size and speed in the Zyzzx room, were fully operational. Each was running the new interface and linking through it to databases world-wide, both with and without the Medusa.

It was a superb demonstration of the quality, reliability, flexibility and above all power of both the interface and the Medusa.

***

Zyzzx had assembled a strong team, led by an amiable but extremely tough and thorough Californian called Greg, to test the software. He was in fact the only American, the other three men and four women, being drawn mainly from their European employees and customers. They included a stereotype blonde Dane, a gorgeous and very funny Italian from Venice, two regulation-obsessed, but not that dull Germans and a clutch of oddballs and misfits from the United Kingdom. In addition to Greg, the only non-European was a chubby and very academic Chinese software expert, who specialised in linguistics, from Singapore.

It was a typical Zyzzx approach, that had produced a team with expertise in all the requisite areas, with enough creativity, knowledge and the all-important friction to create the right sort of atmosphere and discussions. This would ensure that every facet of the software and its link was tested, tested and then tested again.

***

Zyzzx had also created an interesting environment in which to work.

As the two teams connected the computers and installed the software, and later as they tested it, Suzanne and the twins were at everybody's beck and call. If you needed a Coke, a smoked-salmon sandwich, a burger with all the special relishes, or anything else from a massage to a filet steak and all the trimmings, you just asked. Minutes later the request would arrive not in a plastic cup or on a paper plate, but in the best of glasses or on the finest of china. Massages and other personal requirements, would be delivered immediately.

Pat remarked that he worked in some strange places, but at least this was the most luxurious and relaxing of all. He hoped that there wasn't any ulterior motive.

***

The team hadn't waited for any formalities or instructions, they had just started their individual tasks as the various computers were linked to the Medusa. Half were working to a pre-arranged and well-thought out plan, whilst the others behaved as most computer users do. They just hit keys, used the mouse and read the on-line help to try to get what they wanted done. Pat circled amongst them offering advice and assistance when and wherever it was needed. Any of his interventions were noted.

They found and cheered the first bug at exactly four minutes past five and it was duly logged and written on an enormous whiteboard. It was not a matter of great apprehension for anybody, as it was just a missing test, which meant that any characters rather than just numbers could be typed in answer to a specific question by the interface. Within five minutes the problem had been identified, fixed, compiled and fully tested. The new program would be copied to the other computers before the beginning of the next testing session.

Only two other problems were found before they adjourned for supper just before eight.

The first was one that Greg spotted in the on-line help. He objected to a certain phraseology on the grounds that it was English English and would not be understood by those familiar with American English. Pat sorted this by changing Greg's computer from a United Kingdom configuration to an American one. All the words changed to Greg's taste. Greg's apology at his simple mistake was accepted, as he set the score at one-all.

The other problem appeared to be more serious.

Greg had brought Gladys with him from Las Vegas. She was one of the first powerful Personal Computers, a Hewlett-Packard Vectra RS-20, which he had bought himself for more than six thousand dollars in 1985. Bought now one of a similar power would cost no more than a few hundred. That is, if you could find anything as slow. If you did it certainly wouldn't be as reliable and as faithful. This venerable machine had been the cornerstone of all of Greg's software testing for over ten years.

Gretchen, the better looking of the two Germans, had at first objected to being assigned a machine almost half her age, but was mildly triumphant, when in the middle of a medium-sized analysis, it just stopped. The same analysis, when repeated on a modern Pentium, was performed successfully. Greg was adamant, that Gladys although running the previous version of the ubiquitous Windows operating system, was usually very reliable.

This would be one for later. Greg made the score two-one in Zyzzx's favour, although he did admit, that it might be a very simple performance problem.

***

Suffolk is a mainly agricultural county in England, that is only small in population, but large in area and independence. It is also noted as one of the last strong bastions against the onslaught of tasteless international lagers and the inevitable formula bars and public houses, that are needed to con drinkers into buying them. Because of the demand, the county still boasts several breweries that brew the unpasteurised Real Ale, using the best of traditional ingredients and methods.

So it was to a local pub, that served the best of the local brews, from barrels propped up at the back of the bar, that most of the team walked for their supper. The pub also boasted passable food, darts, cribbage and a well-maintained bar-billiards table, so it made an ideal place to unwind. They asked Angel along, but he initially declined, feeling that the rooms, the machines and the software should be watched at all times. But after the deepest of personal assurances from Greg, he decided, that a couple of hours getting to know everybody, would be just as valuable in ensuring his clients were not ripped off.

***

'I have to admit I'm impressed!' Greg and the two Englishmen had stayed behind in Zyzzx's room. 'Two bugs, one already fixed and the other one down to dear old Gladys. That's very low. I'd expected a lot more!'

'To be frank! So had I!' He paused, before raising his arm towards his friend. 'But Pat here has done a hell of a lot of testing! He gave me hell months ago. It's all paid off!'

'It's different though!' Greg turned to a computer and clicked open the interface with the mouse. 'This here is how the old version Pat brought over in March, connects itself up graphically to a database. All simple, nice and clever, but in some places it's rather dated.' The two Englishmen nodded their approval. 'But the new version is something else. It's faster, much slicker and it just feels so much more correct. I can't believe you've done all this improvement and tested it so fully in the last few weeks.'

'Of course, we haven't! Have we Pat?' His partner nodded, despite knowing that the new version had been created in no more than four weeks, after the incident with the Hungarians. 'The version you got in March, was actually the one I created in December.' Again, it was another lie. 'Safe in the bank vault, there's an even better version.' He thought that if you're going to make up stories, make up something, that really frightens the opposition. 'You get that when everything is signed, sealed and above all going well!' He hoped that they wouldn't want it now!

'Well! I'll say it again. I'm impressed!'

***

Greg was showing how he liked the interface and was demonstrating those features he felt were superb and those he did not like. They could respect this man, as here was someone who knew databases, interfaces and users and their requirements, like others knew the back of their hand. All of what he said was remembered and would be noted later.

As he finished, it was Pat who spoke. 'So what do you think of the Hungarian interface? The one they cloned.'

Greg was silent for almost a minute. 'It's crap!' He waited again. 'I shouldn't say this, as Russ will have my guts, but it's even worse than crap and it's one of the best ways of distributing viruses I've ever come across.' He waited for a second time, taking a large intake of breath before continuing. 'Look, I've told Russ, that if he uses that instead of your system, I'm leaving Zyzzx. And so would most of my staff. He'd well and truly fuck you, but he'd fuck Zyzzx up for good ...'

Pat broke in as the cynical queen. 'I don't think you like dear Mr. Gilbert.'

'Oh C'mon. Do you?' Greg suddenly realised he may have been indiscreet. 'Anyway how did you find out about the other program?'

The criticism and discussion stopped abruptly, as Suzanne returned, to collect them for dinner with Russ.

Copyright 1999 by Ewart Higgins