Earth – World of The Misplaced Dungeon

{Timeline: February 2019 – MD from Ch. 82}

It was getting to the point that Bubba was dreading going into work in the mornings. This week had started especially badly. He meandered into the kitchen turning his CV over in his mind. He had started to update it and he still was not happy with it. It just didn’t seem to sell itself, it seemed dull, if he received one like it, he would discard it out of hand.

Rubbing his just shaved chin he decided to ignore the rough patch under the corner of his jaw. He smiled at his wife, “Morning honey, the kids not up yet.”

Ellen served his breakfast as he poured out a cup of coffee. Ellen chuckled, “not yet, the bus won’t be here for another half hour yet so they should be down soon.”

* * *

Bubba parked his Ford outside the yard. Drew a deep breath, and headed into the office. The place looked half dead. He slumped slightly as he opened the front door and stepped into the airless building. He signed in resignation. The AC was still down, not a good sign, that dickhead Forster liked his comforts.

“Bubba! Get yourself in here now!”

“Yes boss, Mr Forster.” Replied Bubba as he turned and made his way to the manager’s office.

Forster was packing his things, Bubba could almost swear that new laptop that was being placed in the cardboard box on the desk belonged to the company and not Forster. Bubba could feel his spirits sink, something he would have thought impossible just five minutes ago. Well, it certainly looked like the end had come.

“I’m off, the Duvaliers have sold the yard and I’m leaving to head up another of their concerns. You’ll be in charge of the office until the new boss appoints someone.” Forster nodded to his out tray, “everything you need to know is in those letters. Good luck Bubba, you’ll need it.” And with that crack Forster picked up his cardboard box and left his office for the last time.

Bubba watched him go and rounding the desk collapsed into the comfortable chair. After staring blankly at the open door for several moments Bubba stirred and reached for the handful of documents in what he supposed was now his out tray.

Bubba skimmed the papers; then he went back and read them carefully. The Sunshine Boat Yard was no more. He now worked for the Silvestre Boat Yard and that belonged one hundred percent to Silvestre Enterprises. He had to set up the conference room for a remote conference with their new boss on Friday morning.

Bubba picked up his new phone and dialled. “Morning Harry, got some business for ya. You still got the details of all the signs from last time the yard changed name?”

“Sure do, figured you guys would be changing again soon.”

“Bit different this time. We’re the Silvestre Boat Yard now, and we belong wholly to Silvestre Enterprises. The Duvaliers are out as is Forster. Can you do a rush job so I can at least show the new boss something pretty on Friday?”

* * *

Later Bubba passed the documents to Lacy to scan and file on their system, and he passed the word regarding the new owners and the Friday meeting among the handful of office staff that remained on the books.

Then he went to find his friend Walt. He found him muttering darkly as he watched their reduced workforce working on one of the repair jobs. The other looked deserted.

“Hey Walt. I’ve got news, the Duvaliers sold the yard, we have a new boss and the yard belongs to a small investment company.”

Walt cast a jaundiced eye over the yard. “Do they know how run down we are, or how many debts the Sunshine,” he spat into the gulf, “Boat Yard has?”

“They know about the debts. In fact we’ve got one less so on that front the Silvestre Boat Yard isn’t that badly off.” Bubba looked round with despairing eyes, “Doubt they know how run down we are though.”

“Huh,” grunted Walt.

“Tell your guys there’s going to be a remote conference Friday morning to meet the new Boss and his team. And to learn about our future.”

* * *

All the windows were wide open in the office building in the mostly vain hope of catching a cooling breeze. Bubba wiped his brow and entered. He found his staff all two of them clustered around the best PC in the office.

Lacy looked up as he entered, “Bubba, what’s Magitech?”

Walt looked at the motherly looking middle aged woman as his brain searched for answers. “I don’t know Lacy, why do you want to know? And where’s Garcia?”

“Garcia? He went with Forster. He no longer works for us. You seen our the new website, according to that we specialise in Magitech, or we will staring on Monday.”

The rest of the day went past fast as they all worked to get all the paperwork up to date. All three wanted to make a good impression, and they were all heartened by the removal of Forster and Garcia.

Thursday saw the new signs go up. Unfortunately the nice shiny new signs just made the boat yard look more decrepit. Then Bubba had a long conversation with the representative of Feartech Security corp. Bubba was unable to reassure him and the best he was able to do was arrange a meeting on Monday.

Walt had managed to make some progress on both jobs that they currently had on the books. And Bubba had had to field a couple of enquiries regarding Magitech. Once again he’d had to punt them on to Monday after the official reopening.

* * *

Friday saw everyone including Jaycee the leader of the onsite security team crowd into their largest conference room while Bubba sweated and coaxed the cranky laptop that was the best he had available to connect to the web. He checked the projector and the screen and sat back with a sigh of relief.

Then at precisely nine thirty the far wall seemed to vanish to reveal five people seated at a table. They seemed almost to be present in the room with them. An enlarged room as the far wall appeared to have vanished.

Bubba looked down at the laptop he had managed to get to work with a mix of exasperation and relief that it would not be needed the conference call. He looked up at the five people that were currently examining them. In the centre a black haired teenager seemed to dominate the table. Her cold eyes seemed to be studying them carefully. She was flanked by a cat man and a leopard woman. At the ends of the table sat two formally dressed middle-aged men.

Bubba herd Walt exclaim softly, “Magic, oh wow that’s one hell a spell.”

The big solid looking girl’s lips twitched and she said. “First let me reassure you, I have no intention of closin’ down. Gonna need to rebuild a lot but you’ll be surprised how quickly that will happen. First we have to fulfil our current contracts, an’ that means some investin’ is gonna be needed. Walt Byers you’ll be in charge of boat buildin’ an’ repair. Bubba Jensen will be in charge of the office. Jerome Sanchez, sorry but you’re out, I’ll give you two months salary in lieu of notice.”

“Why you little bitch, who do you think you are?” snarled Jerome.

“Was your boss. Still boss of everyone else in this room unless any of ‘em wants to quit. Bubba, cut him a cheque and get him out of here.”

Bubba rose and nodded to Jaycee, “Escort Jerome to get his things please Jaycee, I will go write his check.”

Bubba left the conference room followed by Jaycee and one of his men escorting a furious Jerome.

Bubba quickly went through the motions that become usual over the past month as he prepared to terminate yet another employee. He watched with mixed feelings as Jerome stuffed his check into his pocket and stamped out of the office shadowed by the two security guys.

When he got back to the conference room everyone was looking at a looping tape of a sleek sports cruiser.

“Good, you’re back Bubba. Please see everyone gets one of these.” The cat man rose and tossed a bundled stack of envelopes through the window or whatever it was and grinned at the shocked silence in the room as the bundle landed with a thump on the table containing Bubba’s laptop.

Then the window vanished. Bubba carefully touched the envelopes. He grabbed them and stripped off the paper band holding them together and wordlessly started handing them round the room. He noted that several people treated the envelopes gingerly as if afraid they would vanish.

“Um, Walt why was that boat on the screen? Doesn’t look like anything we could make.”

Walt rubbed the envelope in his hand and used his penknife to open it, he looked at Bubba, “Apparently that was the Storm Dolphin and it belongs to Ms Silvestre, our new boss. And Bubba I am feeling a bit more hopeful. The g—young woman obviously has a thing for boats and she has access to magic. Hence magitech I guess.”

Walt looked down and eased an expensive looking card out of the envelope and froze. “Got to call the wife.” Walt produced his phone as he headed out of the room.

Curious Bubba opened his envelope. The card said:

You and your family are herby invited to the barbeque at the Silvestre Boat Yard, Florida on this coming Sunday at 5:00 pm. Fish and juice provided, anything else at our guests discretion.

Mary Silvestre

Bubba found himself on his phone. “Morning honey, are we doing anything important this Sunday?”

“Just you ball game dear. Does this mean things went well and your computer didn’t freeze up?”

“Didn’t need Ms Silvestre is some kind of magic user and employs others. We’ve been invited to a bbq by the boss, here let me read it.”

* * *

Not much got done for the rest of the day, as everyone was too interested in discussing the meeting and the BBQ.

Bubba for his part hit the web but he didn’t find much. Later he showed Walt the clip he had found of the Storm Dolphin entering Pearl with a naval escort.

In the afternoon they received a delivery from Fed Ex addressed to their new boss. Bubba placed it on his desk in his new office before locking it and leaving for the day.

* * *

The persistent ringing of Bubba’s phone woke his wife who resentfully answered it with a plaintive, “do you know what time it is?” After listening for a bit she shook her husband awake and shoved the phone into his hand with, “It’s Jaycee, someone’s been killed in the yard.”

Bubba came awake faster than was his custom and scrambled out of bed with a kiss for his wife, who, rather callously in his opinion, rolled over and went right back to sleep.