Fudge the Figures

Before Jed and Kamil could clear the rusty platform, littered with grease-smeared wrenches and chain locks, the massive pressure from below the earth's crust tore the drill head and platform free from their mountings. Kamil lost an arm; Jed was dead. Kamil being a renowned Sitar player was arguably the worse off, each day from then on to be tortured with the knowledge that he would never entice soulful meandering melodies from the beloved instrument again. Jed was stone cold by the time professional medical help came to the remote drilling site in outback Australia, the flying doctor service concentrating on getting Kamil's stump swaddled and stopped before turning their attention to the corpse which had been shot clean through from the sheer pressure of pent-up oil breaching the earth's surface. Stemming the flow of the crude oil, noxious and angry, was something that the drill site manager, old McCrory had done just a few times before; no easy task under any circumstances. It took all of his skill and much goading of the small workforce to get close enough to the gushing black-brown fountain in order to temporarily halt nature's furious tirade at being punctured. The Jalbiru site was secured by the next morning, by then just a well-trampled patch of murky dirt and puddles of crude; the platform and drill head looking like not much more than a mangled old car wreck left to its own devices on the harsh sun-baked plain.

Word of the accident quickly circulated headquarters; these things happened, people lost their lives in the worst cases, and on the rare occasion that they did the emotional pall that hung over the company lasted weeks, sometimes months. Not only that but there were any number of local, state and national authorities which would make it their business – because that was exactly their business – to investigate what had happened and why. The people who knew all about the whats and whys for the Jalbiru project site were the two geological engineers charged with the responsibility of seeing the project safely home – something which never came to fruition. Zeph had been with the company for thirteen years, Katie for only three; they both had to take the rest of the day off from shock when the news came in that the Jalbiru project site had suffered a rupture, resulting in injury and death.

On their return to work the next day Zeph and Katie had a quiet lunch together, at a seat at an outside table, facing away from the road at a local deli.

Zeph eyed his lunch “A BLT sandwich never looked less appetising...”

“Yeah I know” Katie agreed “I've not had a good appetite since yesterday either. Caesar salad is the best I can do.”

“The Work Safe investigators will be here tomorrow. Then we'll have to deal with the state authorities after them, and if we're really unlucky-”

“Don't even think about it Zeph. Let's just go one step at a time.”

“So, the figures, the maximum working pressures that we modeled,” Zeph, snapped small pieces of bacon from the edge of his sandwich and nibbled at them mindlessly “didn't exactly match what the actual site exploration pressures were measured at. I looked yesterday before I headed off home.”

“Oh, so you've looked already as well? It's not so hot, is it? What we said versus what they got. Especially what those two drillers got.....”

“I..... I thought that those measured pressures were lower. They normally are for that part of the country. Those other test drillings we sank – you remember those? Two just north of Jalbiru and the smaller one to the east? - they were all within spec.”

“Yeah, I recall you saying that. I must admit that I took your word for it and didn't check on it myself. In hindsight....” Katie piled the Caesar salad croutons up like a mini-fortress.

“Even if we allow for the standard five percent measurement deviation error those Jalbiru project numbers are like eighteen percent over. There's no way an investigator will pas that over.”

“I don't like this. It gives me a bad feeling. I think-”

“Dammit, dammit, dammit!” Zeph looked directly at Katie for the first time since they'd sat down “I can't...... lose my job Katie. I've got one kid in school and another needs special care. The mortgage isn't going to pay itself and I just bought a friggin' boat. Shit timing, but there you are.”

“Zeph, I think we need to take this seriously.”

“I am, for Christ's sake Katie, believe me!” Zeph raised his voice to a level that would normally arouse attention if they were eating indoors, got away with it outside.

Zeph quietened down, as if his sudden outburst had released some internal pressure. He ate without pleasure, occupied by thought. Katie chewed on the fortress of croutons, depleted their defences.

“Got it!”

“Huh? 'It', Zeph?”

“I've got it, I've got it, I've got it.” Zeph beamed like a Cheshire cat, he leaned back in his seat.

“Ok Katie, listen to this. I've been with the company long enough that some of the project names get repeated. So, I remember, about eleven years ago – no wait, maybe twelve – there was another Jalbiru.”

Katie stopped eating to concentrate on what Zeph said. “Another Jalbiru? And?”

“Yeah, and I'm pretty sure those figures will be -”

“Oh no no no, Zeph. You can't do that. The dates and lat/long won't match.”

“Uh-uh, of course I know that too. But I can change the metadata Katie.”

“Hold on. You want to change some data? Fudge something up so that it gets you-”

“Us Katie, us.”

“Ok, frees us of blame. Is that what you're suggesting?”

“Exactly what I'm suggesting. And what's wrong with that?”

“Someone will know Zeph. We can't do this. We'll get caught.”

“S'far as I know Katie I'm the longest serving at the company. Most others there haven't done more than ten years. They don't know about the previous Jalbiru project data.”

“No Zeph, I can't-”

“You'll lose your job too Katie. Who would want to employ a geological engineer with a lousy three years of experience and a serious drilling accident on their record?”

“I..... This is not...”

“Listen to me Katie. This will work out fine. Once I merge that old data with this new-”

“What about McCrory?”

Zeph put a bread crust down “Huh? McCrory? What about him?”

“You said that nobody has been with the company for more than ten years. Isn't he at fourteen?”

“McCrory? He works out at sites, not at headquarters. He won't even know what's going on.”

“This feels ….. wrong, Zeph. I can't-”

Zeph laughed out loud “No, it's gonna be fine Katie. Believe me, I can work this.”

Katie was up and walking before Zeph had realised, she'd cut directly across the road through the traffic.

Zeph turned his head, wiped his hands and yelled at her through the passing cars. “Katie!”