Group Efforts 21

Group Efforts
The Diary of a Workgroup Manager

Episode 69 (2000)

(Part 4 of August 2000's five-night summer special)

Thursday
The Board has made its decision, and it's bad news. Apparently Chapman was unconvinced by Llewellyn's performance, but Costello was swayed, and took Stringer and the others with him. Chapman bowed to the majority view, and as a result the Desktop 2000 Programme will go ahead. Characteristically, Llewellyn is wasting no time in imposing his will, and the first upgrade will take place tomorrow morning. The lucky department will, naturally enough, be Purchasing, with Cathy no doubt on hand to trill the benefits of Windows 2K.
        We now have to decide whether to accept our fate, or activate Deep Upgrade's mission. It's a terrible responsibility; the lad - sorry, agent - will lose everything if he's caught, and even if he succeeds in making the first installation crash, there's no guarantee that it will prevent the D2K programme from continuing (as Dave Tyson points out, it took them five attempts to get Windows 95 working in Solvents Stores, and they still infested the entire company with it afterwards).
        After due deliberation, the All Stars War Council decides to activate Deep Upgrade, but I ask for a few hours' grace. I'm worried about the way Llewellyn has seemed able to stay one step ahead of us, and suspect that he may have his own mole in our midst. Cathy's too obvious (and excommunicated anyway), so it has to be someone else. I decide to canvass Matt's opinion, and return to the Ranch, only to find that he's gone off to Broadleys HQ. It's his third mysterious disappearance this week, and, warning bells ringing, I call Llewellyn's extension, to find that he's gone to HQ too, as has - surprise, surprise - Cathy.
        Suddenly it all fits - Matt is Llewellyn's mole, and he's been giving him progress reports on our every move. Realising that Deep Upgrade's best chance of sabotaging the installation kits is while Llewellyn and his band of traitors are away, I rush over to Contracts and tell Andy to send the activation message to the mailbox newsgroup. Andy clicks on the computer magazine's news server, but it's slow to respond. Just as it connects, Matt rushes in and, before I can start denouncing him, says that the word from HQ is that Llewellyn's onto Deep Upgrade, and tomorrow's Purchasing installation is a trap.
        Thanking goodness that we've found out in time (and slightly embarrassed at having doubted Matt's loyalty), I tell Andy not to send the message, but instead of responding he just points at his screen. Filling the newsreader window is message after message with the same title - "Where's my bl**dy subscription copy got to?" We haven't activated Deep Upgrade, but it seems that 38 disgruntled magazine subscribers have.

Can Bernard warn the lad - sorry, agent - in time? Does Cathy really understand Windows 2000, or is she just repeating the marketing handouts parrot-fashion? And where have all those subscription copies got to? Find out as our week-long Group Efforts Special reaches its climax in Episode 70!