Chapter 7

Jacob decided to see just how far his new found budget would stretch. Armed with nothing but his university credentials, he stepped into the campus computer store and walked up to the most expensive laptop he could find. After a moment, one of the clerks joined him.

“Are you looking for a new laptop?”

“Not looking, I want this one. And a carry case.” Jacob noticed his congestion had eased a great deal since lunch.

The clerk brightened. “Sure, we have this model in stock. Let me get your information and I will have someone pull the equipment out from the back.”

“Okay.” Jacob followed her to a brightly light counter with a computer register.

“And how would you like to pay today? We have several payment options I can go over with you.”

“No need, just chargb against my budget.” Jacob lay his ID badge down on the counter as he fished a kleenex out of his pocket.

The clerk glanced at his ID and back up at him. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t recognize you. I’ll just key in the transaction.” She quickly typed in information and the printer behind her spit out a piece of paper. “If you don’t mind, I need you to sign this requisition order.”

Jacob signed the paper using the pen chained to the counter. “Anything else?”

“No, that will be all.”

“Austin should be right up with your computer. I’ll go grab a carry case for you and get it all set up.” With a bright smile the clerk scurried off.

Bored, Jacob wandered about the store, waiting for the clerk to come back and tell him his request had been rejected. Instead, she returned with a case and held it out to him. “Austin made sure it was all set to go and I added a few things to the carry case I thought you could use.”

Surprised, Jacob took the case. “Thanks.”

“Anytime you need anything, just stop by and see us!”

Bemused, Jacob headed through the student union and out onto the quad. He was beginning to rethink his earlier assessment of his new position. Sure, he would now have to handle personnel, but how hard could that be? With a lighter step, he crossed the grassy area to a group of picnic tables. It was a beautiful day and he couldn’t imagine anything lovelier than an afternoon working on a project. Even if that project was finding a way to stop the end of the world.

Sitting down, he fired up his new laptop, logged into the campus WiFi and began setting up his new equipment. His phone rang. He ignored it. Several moments later, it rang again. Once more he ignored it. It rang again.

Annoyed at having been interrupted, he answered. “Yes.”

“Dr. Ermegarde?”

Jacob pulled his phone away from his ear and looked at the caller ID. No one ever used his title. “Um, yes?”

“This is Conrad. I’m your new scheduler in the lab.”

“Okay.” He was quite unaware he had a new scheduler. The computer indicated his set up was nearly finished.

“Do you have the talking points for this afternoon’s meeting so I can make some copies?”

“Meeting?” Jacob tabbed through the welcome information and skipped all the helpful hint pop ups.

“Yes, the one scheduled for 3:30, I sent you an email.”

Hastily he opened his inbox and was greeted with several hundred emails. “Could you refresh my memory?”

“The university president and the college of deans are coming in for a tour and a talk on the new projects we are starting up. They want to get an idea of what new classes we can offer in the next semester.”

Jacob ran a quick search in his inbox for emails from Conrad. No emails pulled to meet his criteria. “I haven’t really created one. Didn’t realize I might need one. Good idea.” Jacob glanced at the time on the monitor. He had about an hour and a half before the meeting started. “Would you mind putting together a quick list of the new equipment and the new projects?”

“All of them?”

“No.” Jacob tried not to panic. “Just the top five. That was all I was going to cover. Don’t want to make the meeting too long or boring.”

“Oh, sure.” Conrad said brightly. “I’ll put together some packets.”

“Could you put one together for me, you know, to make sure I haven’t skipped one of the projects by accident.”

“No problem.”

“Oh, and, I would like a student working on each project to say a few words on their duties.” That should help fill out the meeting.

“Any students in particular?”

“Umm, no, just whoever is available.” Jacob tried to flip back to his inbox. The email count looked to have doubled.

“I’m sure they would love to help out.”

“Thanks again. See you in a little while.” Jacob ended the call and stared at his in box. It would probably take him a day and a half to go through emails, let alone get ready for the meeting in an hour and a half.

He figured that he ought to at least familiarize himself with the new equipment, so he typed in equipment into the email search criteria. Nearly two hundred emails filled out the result. Deciding to change tactics, he changed the search to New Projects. The results were equally as overwhelming. He had no idea how he was going to get ready for the meeting.

“Dr. Ermegarde?” A voice from behind him broke his thought process. Turning he could see a young woman approach.

“Ahh?”

She held out a hand. “I’m Jennifer Aldman, with the University News. We are featuring an article on the new manuscripts research lab and wondered if I could have a word with you.”

Jacob shook her hand. “You caught me at a bad time. I have a meeting.”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t sure. You didn’t respond to my email. Maybe we could set up a time to go over the questions I sent you?”

“Um, sure.” Jacob scratched his head.

“How about tomorrow morning?”

“Tomorrow morning?”

“The article is due by Friday, and I need about a day to put it together, and a day for the editor to approve it.” She looked at him hopefully. “The college president really is pushing us to get something in our next publication.”

Jacob didn’t want to deal with the wrath of the president. He was on pretty shaky ground as it was. “Okay.”

“Awesome. Let’s say 7:30? I have a 9am class and that should give us enough time to flush out the answers and for me to ask any ones I may have missed.”

Jacob tried not to groan. “Okay.”

“Great! I’ll see you then.” The reporter gave him a nod and bounced away.

Jacob returned his attention to his new computer. It now wanted to update. “Seriously?”

The computer chimed as he hit restart. “You have twenty two updates to be installed. Estimated time to update, three hours, forty five minutes.” the mechanical voice informed him.

“What?” Jacob tapped at the keys to try and cancel the update, but to no avail. “No, no, no!”

“Something wrong Dr. Ermegarde?” He lifted his head to see a student approach.

“No. No, everything is good.” Jacob desperately tried to remember the student’s name.

“Oh, okay. I stopped at the lab, but Rachal said you were working outside the office today.” The young man smiled at him as he took the seat next to him. Jacob wondered how the hell his research assistant could ping his location. “Looks like your computer is doing an update. We can use my laptop.”

Puzzled, Jacob watched the young man pull a heavily stickered laptop from his backpack and open it on the table. Several tabs were open on the screen and music blared out. The young man hit mute.

“Sorry about that, I had my headphones in earlier.” He clicked one of the tabs. “I appreciate you taking the time to look this over with me.”

Jacob had no memory of agreeing to a meeting with a student and he wondered how the student found him in the quad. He looked at the screen closely. It was an excerpt from one of his early publications. His thesis, if he wasn’t mistaken.

“So, I’m proposing the creation of a comprehensive search engine for finding lost or restored documents based on your recommendations in the paper on works within works.” The young man started earnestly. “I was hoping you could clarify the steps you used in obtaining the documentation and give me a little insight on your findings.”

#

Jacob barely had time to change his clothes, let alone take a shower. Leaving his computer on the kitchen table doing updates, he tossed on a light jacket and dashed out the door. It took several minutes just to cross the street as a result of the road improvement work to accommodate the increased tourist traffic. It made him grateful for the unseasonably warm weather that allowed him to cut across the quad to the research and antiquities building.

Here too there was construction. It looked as if the university was installing new HVAC units on the building. Taking a side door, he dashed up two flights of stairs to the lab. Inside the president and deans were all waiting.

“Sorry I’m a few minutes late. I promised to help a student with some research work and we ran a little over.” Jacob still didn’t know the name of the student.

The president smiled as he gripped Jacob’s hand in a bone-crushing shake. “No problem. Our motto is Students First.”

Technically the school motto was ‘Keeping up with tomorrow for Students Today,’ but Jacob wasn’t about to correct the man. “I see the building is getting new heating and air conditioning.”

“Nothing but the best.” The president gushed. “Can’t have our students and staff working in adverse conditions. Not to mention keeping our precious document safe.”

This from the man who didn’t see why books would care if they were hot or cold. “Uh, no.”

“Rach gave us each a copy of your outline. Nice presentation. I look forward to hearing it from you.”

The man’s smile didn’t leave his face, but it didn’t reach his eyes either. Jacob wondered if it was a veiled threat. “If you could excuse me, I need to see Racheal a moment before we get started.”

Racheal was engaged with an elderly man. She turned as he approached, the sweet smile she had pasted on her face artificially brightening. “Oh, I see you have arrived.”

“I was tied up.” Jacob said lamely. “Do you have a copy of the outline for my reference?”

Racheal frowned a little. “I think Conrad said there were a few extras. Let me go take a look. If you’ll excuse me, Dr. Offered.” She gave a quick smile to her companion.

He nodded and smiled his response. There was way too much smiling in the room for Jacob’s comfort. He felt as if he were about to address a room full of rabid hyenas, and not the stupid type from the Disney movie. Racheal returned carrying a glossy packet.

“Here you go. Conrad did a nice job, don’t you think?”

Jacob flipped open the shiny brochure cover page. “Yeah, it looks really good.” He spent several minutes scanning the outline.

“Are you ready to get started?” Racheal raised an eyebrow.

“Oh yeah, sure.”

Racheal rolled her eyes and stepped up to one of the shiny new lab tables holding specialized equipment. “If you could all kindly gather over here, Dr. Ermegarde is ready to get started.”

Jacob waited until the group gathered and quieted. “I want to thank you all for coming and I especially would like to thank President Dickson for his generous support to the literary antiquities department.” The president nodded at the polite applause. “I don’t really want to take up all your time, so I thought I would jump right in, starting with this baby.” He patted a round shaped piece of equipment that resembled a bowler hat. “This is one of three new imaging domes purchased by the university to scan documents. It utilizes a special algorithm called polynomial texture mapping which allows us to take detailed images of the document fabric. This imaging helps us identify what animal skins were used, giving us the ability to piece together the fragments.”

The smug look vanished from Racheal’s face as he expounded on the virtues of the equipment. He wanted to stick his tongue out at her, but satisfied himself with a fake smile of his own. He might not have ever actually used the equipment, but he knew its capabilities and what it would mean for their future work at the university.