CHAPTER FOUR

Jess Parker and Hilary Becker entered the large auditorium with Becker carrying several large cases and Jess making notes on her tablet as they walked. Becker was wearing his "I'm here because you broke something" T-shirt and the dark rimmed glasses.

"Tell me one more time how I'm going to pull this off…..Are you sure this friend of yours can guide me through the technology setup? What does he know about what we're doing here," said Becker as he pushed the large crate on a wheeled cart across the floor.

Jess stopped walking and sighed as she looked up. "I told you, his name is Logan. He's American. We went to Uni together at Cambridge and he's already agreed to help you with the initial setup. I told him you were in the middle of a career change and our boss wanted you to work at the tech convention before you were really ready. Logan is the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet and as a favor to me he's going to walk you through the process."

She looked across the room and waved happily and a man working on several computers at once. The man in his early twenties was dressed in a white short sleeved dress shirt and tie and some kind of utility belt around his waist that carried tiny pliers and wrenches obviously used to work on the delicate motherboards he had laid out in front of him. His bright red hair was pushed behind his ears and he was looking at a computer thoughtfully while stroking his his goatee. The man looked up and motioned Jess over to his company's display. A sign hanging over the designated area said "Lazertech" in bright blue letters. Jess told Becker to leave the equipment for a moment and walked over to the display.

"Jess Parker! How the hell have you been? So great to see you!" he said as he gave her a quick hug and quickly kissed her cheek. Becker's eyes narrowed slightly but he covered his expression by leaning down and picking up some paperwork that had fallen on the floor. He noticed the man's nametag said "G. Logan, Lazertech" and mentally made a note to find out more about him later.

"So wonderful to see you again, Logan! This was the job you were interviewing for last time we talked. I'm so glad you got it! You sounded really excited to get an interview," Jess said conversationally.

Logan grimaced. "Well, as is usually true, reality did not live up to what my perception of what this job was. When I interviewed, the company was being run by its founder, Gordon Smith, but soon after I was hired, his son was brought in and he's pretty much…..what do you say here in the UK…. 'a stupid git'." Logan rolled his eyes and sighed loudly. "Anyway, enough about me, how are you Ms. Parker? I heard you were working for Arc Technologies. What are doing there?"

Jess smiled warmly. "Oh, just the usual tech stuff, you know…Oh, I wanted to introduce you to my friend I was telling you about." She turned expectantly toward Becker. "Logan, I'd like you to meet Becker. We work together and as I mentioned, he's a bit new to the field and our boss really needed a technology guy so…" Becker stood awkwardly, not knowing if Jess' friend would be helpful or completely condescending. After all, he'd worked with some of the ARC staff, including his own soldiers, long enough to know when new staff were hired on there was a certain…..'breaking in' period."

Logan smiled warmly and stuck out a hand to shake Becker's. "No problem….I know how it is being the 'new guy.' Jess tells me you have some military experience so that should be helpful since you've worked with some of this tech before. I can walk you through the basic install. You said your name's Becker. Is that your first or last name?" Logan asked. Becker hesitated.

"Actually, it's my last name but it's what I generally go by," Becker said quickly.

"I can relate to that," Logan said with a slight grimace. "Notice the G. in front of my last name? Logan is what I preferred to be addressed as since my parents gave me the first name of Gimli…"

"Oh….is that some kind of family name," Becker asked conversationally. Logan looked confused as Jess quickly jumped in.

"Becker, remember we were just talking about LOTR last week!" she prompted him. Becker looked at her blankly.

"L….O….T….R…..Oh, yeah….that movie….," he finished lamely. "Ohhhh….ummm….yeah….Lord of the Rings…Gimli is….," he continued, his eyes silently begging Jess for help.

Jess laughed and put her hand on Becker's arm as she looked at Logan. "As I said, Becker's new to lots of things in our techy world," she looked up at him as he relaxed and smiled back at her. They gazed silently at each other for a minute as Logan looked on with a sly smile on his face. Jess was the first to shake herself and step back. "Well," she cleared her throat, "anyway, Becker, Logan will take good care of you. I'd better go save that poor administrator from Lester. Seems he didn't make some of the changes Lester requested and now he's going up the ladder demanding to talk to the prime minister or something. She pulled a face and with a wave goodbye to both men she started toward the group of men Lester was furiously lecturing.

Logan smiled at Becker and gestured toward the table full of hardware. "….and for future reference, Gimli was one of the dwarves in Lord of the Rings. My parents loved that book. Unfortunately, they didn't quite anticipate my classmates reaction to my rather odd name." He grimaced. "I found it made my life much easier to just change it to Logan."

Becker immediately felt comfortable with the young technology expert the more they talked. Logan was very knowledgeable in the field, yet was very patient in explaining some of the basic skills to needed to set up most of the technology used at the convention. Though companies were making different presentations throughout the venue, most of the computer tech had a similar setup and Becker found his experiences with the technology at the ARC gave him familiarity with the equipment. Logan's instruction was clear, concise, and methodical which Becker's military mind found easier to process. They conversed easily, he was sure, because the computer tech's introverted demeanor and manner was similar to Becker's equally reserved personality.

"Well, I will tell you that the reason I go by my last name is my parents' decided to pass on a family name. As Jess said, I was previously with the military and with a first name like Hilary there was bound to be some aggravation from my fellow soldiers," Becker said.

Logan nodded. "Yeah, I had a bit of that at Cambridge. I was new to this country, a little younger than my peers, and not exactly the most outgoing personality. After the first month, I was ready to pack up and go home. You know who saved me?...Jess…." Becker looked up from the sandwich he was eating with a surprised look on his face.

"Several of the tech guys were giving me a difficult time when all of the sudden this little redheaded technician strides over to our group and tells them to knock it off or she'd make sure their software presentations that we were giving later in the week would have so many viruses MI-6 couldn't glean any information from them. I don't know if they were sure she could do it, but they'd seen her work and weren't taking any chances that she could," Logan smiled at the memory. "We became best friends after that. She's really one of the most brilliant technologists I've ever worked with. But I'm guessing you already know that, right?"

Becker stared at Logan who was looking at him with a knowing half smile on his face. He cleared his throat. "Yeah, she's…." he gazed across the room as Jess chatted amiablywith the group of administrators Lester had previously been admonishing and who were now nodding and smiling as they scurried to fulfill Jess' requests from Lester as she smoothed over the executives'ruffled feathers.

"…..she's just….amazing…and smart…and …." His eyes glazed over for a second before he coughed and finished his thoughts. "….and yeah, she pretty much did something similar for me once," he said, though he doubted that in Logan's case, she had risked her own life to disarm a fairly lethal bomb.

Logan grinned and directed Becker's attention back to the motherboard he was holding in his hand.

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The lone man slipped into the men's restroom and pulled a device out of his pocket. No one was in the vicinity so he moved a sign that said "restroom closed for cleaning that was sitting in the lavatory corner and put it outside the door. Pulling out the hard drive from a briefcase he had carried in the with him, he activated the handheld unit as a bright light illuminated the green tiled walls and a soft high pitched tone echoed around the room.