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CvsN 24 - Spanish Treasure

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Fun with the boss in Spain. And questing above my station.

NOTE: All characters in this story are fictitious. Any names that might be similar to real names are purely accidental. Just wanted to make that clear.

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The trip over had been quite the experience, but arriving in Madrid we were all business. A quick cab ride had us at the hotel we were staying at by a little after 11:00. We had adjoining rooms this time, and neither was ready, but they offered to hold our bags for us and transfer them to the room when they were available.

It was still around 5:00am at home. I wanted to give the girls a call and let them know I'd made it, but it was a bit too early. They'd have to wait until the evening. Like me.

Chris and I cleaned up to the best of our ability in the restrooms, and had to turn and leave almost immediately to meet our clients. Things started off well enough, until the initial training session was to start, and they showed up with twice the people we'd agreed to. I let Chris deal with the business end of it, while I prepared for the lecture. There was a shortage of all materials, and I was surprised to see that several of the people present weren't in uniform. It turned out they were Spanish contractors, working on the same program as us, and they did most of the local programming.

I didn't like the sound of that. They'd have a vested interest in tearing us down, and trying to build themselves up. A definite surprise for us, and not a good one.

There was only one face I recalled from our previous trip, Captain Perez, who had been my main technical counterpart the first time around.

If it had been any other trainer, things might have gotten ugly. In this case, I knew the software and the entire system for that matter, better than anyone else alive. When a few questions from the peanut gallery were thrown my way, with no purpose other than to question our capability, I turned the tables nicely and shot down the asker. Good questions were handled gracefully, and any questions by the military were handled carefully. We were short on materials, and everyone had to share. That brought up another snide comment from the contractors, this time in Spanish. It got a few giggles until I responded.

"So I'm not prepared? And your name is?"

The guy looked surprised at my excellent Spanish, my 7 years in South America preparing me well.

"Miguel Arguello-Cortez," he responded arrogantly.

"Well Señor Cortez, it appears you're not on my official roster of trainees. Did the project team make a mistake? Did our host forget to include you? My latest roster was confirmed Friday. Twelve trainees. Perhaps you could count the number at this session for me?"

He looked irritated, but looked around and announced, "Twenty two."

"I see." I switched the display on the overhead, and showed the signed roster sheet.

"There IS a shortage of materials. For a group this size. For fairness sake, perhaps everyone on my official list should have one set of materials per person, and all the 'unofficial' trainees can share the extra three sets I brought along, just in case."

The table was looking around, confused. "Please, go ahead and move around if necessary, we can wait a few more minutes," I insisted. "We can just go by this list."

The woman beside me, a civilian, and quiet to that point, stood and stepped beside me. "You've made your point Señor Jack, the last minute change in plans is certainly not your fault," she spoke very softly, excellent English with a slight lisp. "They'll be no more trouble. We can continue."

I looked at her for a few long seconds, standing my ground. She stood quietly, very self assured, waiting patiently. I could belabor the issue, stop the training until I had confirmation for the additional trainees. I could just continue the training ignoring the civilians, and let them fend for themselves.

Or I could do as she asked, ignore the few bumps in the road so far, and do my best to keep our real client happy. I finally relented. "As you wish, Miss..."

"Ana Isabel," she said with what might have passed for a disarming smile, on somebody less steely-eyed.

"You are right of course. We all have the same goal at heart: to provide the best possible solution to our hosts, creating as little interference or distraction as possible. Let's continue."

She was right. There was no more trouble after that, and to be honest, several of her people were very good, asking pertinent probing questions. By the end of the session I felt pretty good about what we'd accomplished, and was glad to shut things down.

I was holding an impromptu Q