ref: a00feb029ddcea6188f4324169e5f2b6a389de4e
dir: /troff/_-0202.ms/
.PP .ps 10 He completed the job and moved on to his next assignment, walking back a hostile takeover of the previous target's assets\(emsuch as they remained. It was common to chain related jobs together in this fashion. Some found the interconnections challenging to keep track of, but he wiped the slate clean after each payoff, only calling up details as the mission demanded it. Really, there was no other way to work. .PP .ps 10 Second job completed, he contemplated a short break. The frenetic pace of these past few months was, finally, beginning to catch up with him. Normally it was easy for him to spin more plates. But this time, he told himself, he'd get a little rest before he headed back out there. .bp .PP .ps 10 It was not to be so. .PP .ps 10 Wedged into the future was a recurring client he couldn't quite shake loose. If it wasn't the money, it was the access that came with the jobs. Hand in hand with the devil, he'd happily leverage one job to dislodge another. See also: job chaining. He didn't spend a lot of time analyzing the structural elements of his practice. .PP .ps 10 It was a rush order. Make sure the girl didn't discover the truth about her brother. Okay... The requirements were open\-ended, but still he had to account for his time in the measuring system. Charge too much time and it would kill his efficiency. Charge too little and either they would commission a new time study or else they would slash headcount. Neither was desirable. The best strategy was usually to match his reported time against the big matrix of time values he kept hidden in a locked file, then fill in the rest of his timesheet with some innocuous work units that boasted an open-ended time requirement. That way, he could spend as long as he needed on the real job. Everybody happy. .PP .ps 10 It turned out he didn't need much time for this job. The hostile takeover had been poorly executed, with the principals not even bothering to file the proper paperwork. The assets had been reclaimed easily. He had only needed to prevent the sister from finding out the cost. Since his services had been hired through a cutout, and the brother had been dispatched in a deniable telephone accident, he needed only to rely upon the sister's habitual lack of curiosity about the details of running their family business. And that was a relative certainty. .PP .ps 10 Sometimes a job worked out just this well.