A Day In The Life

I thought maybe I'd go through a typical day at work, so you could see how close it is to your own office job. I don't think they are so very different.

I usually stroll in around 9 am, sometimes later. There's no "face time" or standard clockpunching time, but we're expected to be professional and show up when summoned, subject to your ability to provide an adequate excuse for disappearing. For example, if you were at a graduation ceremony and got a call, you wouldn't leave immediately. You'd slip away from the afterparty in search of ice, or napkins, or whatever, then lament about be unavoidably detained when you returned six hours later, and be called irresponsible by your aunt's friends.

The office itself is pretty vanilla. I can't describe it in detail, but it's out in the open, albeit in a low traffic area. From what I understand, the government owns a good deal of surrounding property, and manages it under a real estate front company. Anyway, we've got our logo right there on the side of the building, and if you walked in, you'd be greeted by an enthusiastic tour operator who could drop your ass on a moment's notice if things went South. Those of us who work there barely get a second look unless our attempts to access the inner sanctum fail. The inner sanctum is where the cloak-and-dagger stuff goes down.

As you may be able to guess, the inner sanctum doesn't have any windows, but there's plenty of light. Offices are spread out around the outer ring, cubicles the inner ring, and the datacenter and main conference room in the middle. Corner offices are reserved for meetings as well. The setup is actually really nice.

The first thing I usually do when I get in is sit down and go through e-mail. Chapter SOP states that any e-mail with an Important flag must be read first, so naturally every e-mail that anyone ever sends is flagged as Important. There's also a few folks who don't consider the Important flag enough, so they show up in my office seconds after sending the e-mail, inquire as to whether I've read it or not, and then proceed to read it to me aloud over my shoulder. Yes, e-mail is a wonderful time-saving communication vehicle.

Around the time I'm reading e-mail, MacDougal usually comes by and chats me up for a short period of time, moreso if I've just returned from someplace. He has too much pride to admit it, but I think he misses being in the field. So that'll take anywhere from ten minutes to half an hour, depending on how loquacious the dude is, and how many people pop in to ask if I've read their e-mail. Around ten is when the real work starts getting done.

From ten until closing, I'll work on mission briefs, finish paperwork, help out with intel analysis, and sit in on any number of meetings... occasionally with other field agents, usually with office intel. We've got translators, audio/video processors, communications guys, gadget guys, satellite operators, you name it. These are typically short, just status updates, new revelations, things like that. Mission planning meetings are longer, made up of a cross-functional group of people, usually headed by Jennings or Wallace.

Once or twice a week I like to sit in with the tech guys to see what they're working on, because it's usually something really cool, and when it's not, at least they've got a PS2 in the lab. There's an optional two o'clock every day to go over the general state of everything. It's pretty dry; most people skip it in favor of the Big Board on the back wall of the datacenter. The Big Board lists every country or region that we track and the relative level of activity. Think of it like a mini-DefCon, or maybe the color system they use over at DHS. It's a quick way to assess how active the world is. It's also good for giving people conversational topics... "So, things are pretty busy in Africa today, huh?"

Aside from the tedium of work, there's plenty of "corporate culture" to keep the place stimulated. We're close enough to a couple of golf courses such that we spend a lot of time on the links. "Field work," we call it jokingly. We've got a shooting range on the lower level that's a good source of amuse-- er, training for the field agents, and recently the tech guys have been drooling over a new simulation and modeling package they'd been waiting for, which "completely blows out of the water anything you can buy commercially". But by far the most fun comes when someone visits the front office. It happens only once or twice a month, someone just comes strolling in from nowhere to inquire about travel services. It's funny because we don't advertise... people just see the company logo and are bored or curious or whatever so they stop in. Of course, the whole place looks just like a touring operation should, and Patrice or Andy is more than happy to go over brochures with them, or sit with them while they look through our photo albums. The best part, though, is when they inevitably get down to the price of a tour, and our dedicated service representatives recommend to them in hushed tones the name of a real tour company... "Look, I could get fired for this... but this tour is a ripoff. You should check out Big Expeditions. I'll give you the number." It's hysterical every single time... we all hover around the surveillance monitor waiting for it.

And that's about it. Clearly, the missions are much more exciting... when they're actually planned correctly. Matty wants to head out to the High Dive in Fremont tonight to see a guy named Matt Shaw. I don't know what he sounds like... Matty compared him to The Postal Service, and I don't have a clue who they are, but Matty knows his music. If he says the dude is good, the dude is good... and BBQ at the High Dive kicks ass. So cross your fingers and hope that my night isn't horribly interrupted.