The Backfill

THE BACKFILL Copyright © 2023 Michael McKain. Written by Michael McKain. This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Print ISBN: 978-1-66789-946-6eBook ISBN: 978-1-66789-947-3 To my family. For all those evenings you let me disappear and write, I’m forever grateful. Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 - Epilogue About the Author Chapter 1 From: Resolute OnboardingTo: Jake SerranoCC: Robert BiancoSubject: Welcome to Resolute! Jake, Welcome to Resolute! We are thrilled to have you on board and look forward to helping you ramp quickly from Resonoob to an expert Resolutian! Your orientation will take place on Monday, March 2, beginning at 8:00 a.m. at the Epsilon building on Westlake Ave. Check-in is from 7:30—8:00 a.m. The first part of orientation will last until noon, and in this session, we’ll cover the basics of starting your employment and print you a shiny new badge. After that, we’ll be exploring Resolute’s epic journey from scrappy computer accessories startup to the global leader in cutting-edge technological innovation. You’ll hear stories from experienced Resolutians on how to adapt to our culture, what makes Resolute special, and practical advice for a resounding Resolute success, finishing with a working lunch featuring our two-hour interactive training on ‘Finding the Last Why’. After that, you’ll be free to head to your office in the Hoplite Building to explore your work area and meet your colleagues. Your manager, Robert Bianco, has been cc’d on this email. Please work directly with Robert to arrange the rest of your first day. Thanks, and once again, we can’t wait to meet you on Monday! Best Regards,New Hire Onboarding. Jake’s walk from his condo in Belltown to the Epsilon building in South Lake Union took just shy of fifteen minutes. A few years ago, this part of Seattle had been a grimy checkerboard of crumbling asphalt, rust-streaked warehouses, and rickety, moss-addled homes parceled up into tiny low-rent apartments. It was one of those areas in which bored-looking wizened cops spent their evenings parked on quiet back streets, watching or waiting for the inevitable mischief to present itself, or a squawk from the radio announcing trouble nearby, just out of sight or earshot. Only scraps of that place now remained, lurking in the odd corner or alley. Five years of cash, optimism, wrecking balls, and towering cross-hatched steel cranes had razed and replaced a century’s worth of steady mediocrity. Now everywhere there were big, bright, shiny buildings. Some tall, though not quite skyscrapers, with hard steel and clean, expansive glass. Others shorter and wide, with faux brick and neatly painted trim in blacks and reds. These buildings gripped the streets and sidewalks, and where once there’d been a sagging chain-link fence surrounding a dirt patch dotted with weeds here, or a seedy windowless strip club there, now there was a building. Along with the new buildings came the deluge of new people, the buildings inhaling and exhaling them with constant, incessant, unstoppable regularity. These were bright, shiny people with equally bright, shiny badges swinging from their hips or on thick lanyards around their necks, some talking incessantly while others trudged silently, heads bowed, headphones in, nylon raincoats zipped up tight against the relentless mist and cold. People everywhere, and all of them moving. Everyone had a building to go to. Epsilon consisted of eight broad stories of clean, plumb grayish-yellow brick and glass—pleasant enough without being anything special. There was no sign in front, but through the windows at the entrance, Jake spotted a large, reassuring ‘Resolute’ mural dominating the back wall. He pushed open a heavy glass door to enter the lobby festooned in Resolute’s colors of light gray and midnight blue. The effect was cold but clean, much like an operating room. In front of him, an enormous reception desk made of polished concrete reflected a rare March morning sun beaming in through a gap in the clouds, the resulting glare so bright that Jake had to shade his eyes with his hand as he walked forward. To the left of the desk stood a chest-high sandwich board on which ‘Welcome, New Resolutians!’ had been written in bright, friendly letters, flanked on either side by minimalist drawings of stout, stylized Greco-Roman pillars—the tech giant’s logo now instantly recognizable by most of humanity. Folding tables with crisp, white tablecloths stood nearby, three cheerful young people sitting behind them smiling, busy registering all the newcomers who had formed three neat lines. Jake waited in one of these lines for a few minutes until it was his turn. A massive, broad-shouldered young guy with messy blond hair and an unkempt Amish beard greeted him with a huge, open-mouthed grin. The enthusiasm on the guy’s face was excessive and somewhat frightening. Jake feared being swept up into a bone-crushing man hug. Jake thought the man-boy looked barely out of high school despite his colossal frame, still pimply with metal braces twinkling in the light. He was so wide that he’d completely swallowed his chair, only the emergent legs visible, appearing too spindly to support the seated weight. For a moment, Jake imagined him squashing it into a neat, flat sheet of metal and vinyl, like the car crusher in a junkyard. Fortunately, this did not happen. Or at least, it did not happen while he was watching. “Hi there! Good morning and welcome to Resolute! My name