Due to the rise of the machines, new jobs will emerge, especially in the areas of healthcare, big data and the green economy.
Weekly news. Discover our news about IT: the rise of the machines, Bitcoin goes mainstream and Robin Hood strikes back
The rise of the machines
New report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) has forecasted that as much as half of all work tasks could be handled by machines by the year 2025. The rise of machines.
The think tank’s research, which spanned 300 of the world’s
biggest companies, estimates that the so-called “robot revolution” will
create 97 million jobs around the globe but destroy almost as many. 43% of
respondents felt they were likely to cut jobs due to technological
transformation in the near future.
Yet new jobs will emerge as a result, especially in the areas of healthcare, big data and the green economy. However, the Forum is calling for a conscious effort to ensure that no sectors of society are left behind.
PayPal has announced
that it will start allowing transactions in Bitcoin. The firm will also provide
support for other cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and Litecoin.
The new features, which will debut in the U.S. shortly and
worldwide next year, mark an important milestone in the normalisation of
cryptocurrencies.
The company sees the economy’s shift to digital currencies as inevitable, and it is committed to helping make them easier to use by the broader public.
The ransomware-as-a-business group DarkSide introduced itself to
the world earlier this year, issuing a press release where they detailed how
they picked their victims and pledged to leave non-profits, healthcare and
governments alone.
Well – these cybercriminals with a strong moral code are now
taking it to a whole new level: they are donating their profits to charities.
Two US-based organisations received equal payments of 0.88 bitcoin (or $10,000) in mid-October, money they say they will return as soon as possible. The authorities are warning NGOs around the globe to not accept donations from these cyber schemes, as that would make them legally liable for profiting from crime.
The Salesforce consultant is on the IT side of customer relations and specialises in the Salesforce ecosystem. Exlpore the role...
Use our template to create a compelling and comprehensive Salesforce Consultant job description to attract top talent.
Salesforce is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform that allows companies to streamline and optimise their interactions with their customers. The Salesforce consultant is on the IT side of customer relations and specialises in the Salesforce ecosystem. Their role involves advising companies on the implementation strategy and carrying out studies to address all customer requirements.
Above all, the first task of the Salesforce Consultant is to collect the company´s needs and offer a set of Salesforce tools that address what the team is trying to achieve. Once the information has been collected, the consultant must write the specification describing the project´s needs and the proposed solutions.
Managing the development of the Salesforce ecosystem
Once the needs and specifications are established, the consultant is in charge of setting up the various tools and managing their development. They often keep assisting the team throughout the project´s life, helping optimise the system and the customer relationship strategy.
User training
Another key mission of the consultant is user training. Once the tools are deployed, the consultant must help teach users how to take advantage of them and help them get a good grip on the platform in general.
Required skills of the Salesforce Consultant
Mastery of the Salesforce CRM tool
The expert must, of course, have perfect knowledge of the Salesforce platform. And have a good understanding of the various tools available within it.
Analytical spirit and rigour
Also, a Salesforce Consultant must have a good analytical mind and good organisational skills. They should be able to process databases and extract relevant analyses to improve the customer relationship strategy in place.
Knowledge of marketing and sales
In addition, to be able to understand the needs of the team; it is useful for the consultant to know and master the essentials of client and prospect relationships. It also pays to have a 360° view of business processes and the specifics of the market in which the company operates.
Within the industry
A Salesforce Consultant can work in a wide variety of organisations; consulting firms specializing in IS, or companies that use this solution, all sectors combined.
Salary of the Salesforce Consultant
The average daily rate fluctuates between €300 and €800.
Training of the Salesforce Consultant
In conclusion, to access this role, it is recommended to have a university degree from a business or engineering school. It is also possible to access this profession by having completed a professional master’s degree specialising in Customer Relations and Marketing. Or in Management Sciences. To specialise in Salesforce CRM, the consultant should later take specific training provided by Salesforce or any third-party training organization.
The Salesforce Consultant can evolve into the manager of a team of consultants or an in-house Salesforce. They can also transition to another customer relationship management solution.
What are the best free software tools to organise you activity as an IT Pro? Better time management will allow you to increase your productivity...
What are the best free software tools to organise you activity as an IT Pro? We all have our own method to organise our daily and weekly tasks, but that doesn´t mean we shouldn´t be keep trying new things to see what we can improve. Better time management will allow you to increase your productivity, develop stronger relationships with your team and clients and even have some extra time to work on your career development strategy.
To make that easier, we have put together a list of free software tools in the hopes you discover at least one you are not yet using. If that’s not the case, you can take this list as validation of how good a job you are already doing. Wink. Wink.
Some of these tools are completely free, while others also offer several subscription tiers. Whether you are an independent contractor or part of a company’s IT department, they will help you build better and more robust projects, more effectively and in less time.
Does this one
really need an introduction? Well, maybe. Especially since Google recently went
and rebranded G in a move that surely confused many of us out there. Now known
as Google Workspace, the productivity suite is a whole world in and of itself. From
storage, to document collaboration, you will find in it everything you need to
carry out all your basic everyday tasks.
Even more
so since the rebrand, Gmail serves as the platform’s backbone, making it easy
to create an efficient workflow between your email, calendar and files.
Workspace also comes in handy when you need to share and work on documents with
clients or people external to your organisation. Google Sheets is great for
easily storing and sharing data sets.
Evernote is pretty much the only notebook you will ever need, and it’s free unless you want to use it in more than two devices at once.
It’s very intuitive and quick to use, and it allows you to share individual notebooks and notes with other people, anytime, anywhere. In addition, Evernote can integrate perfectly with other tools like Google Workspace and Slack, making it an ideal solution for collaboration.
You can include almost anything you want in your notes, from images and videos to PDF documents. Furthermore, the Evernote web clipper tool makes it possible to capture screenshots and ideas directly from the web. This information is saved in a note which includes a link to the original page. All your searches are saved in one place for easy access. You can also scan physical documents directly on the app.
To transfer your emails to Evernote, you only need to forward them to your
unique Evernote email address.
This
easy-to-use project management tool will inevitably improve your daily life. Juggling
between a thousand tasks is not, well — an easy task. No one enjoys forgetting
a deadline or wasting their time.
Trello allows you to create and manage to-do lists and set up reminders, so you don’t miss anything. What makes it particularly compelling is how simple and intuitive it is to use, letting you organise your activity without adding more work to your already packed workflow.
It’s advisable to use Trello in combination with another very practical and free tool: Toggl. This time-tracking tool allows you to have a precise idea of the time you spend on each task on a daily basis. The goal is not to waste too much time on tasks that require a disproportionate time investment and to manage your time better to improve your productivity.
Asana is a free tool that was originally created at Facebook to organise internal workflows. Compared to Trello, this project management tool loses the simplicity but offers endless customisation and deeper integration with existing workflows. It is particularly useful for collaborative projects.
You can assign and delegate tasks to collaborators and set the deadlines to meet. The whole team can easily see all pending and completed tasks in a single place. Everyone is then able to plan their time to their taste to meet the specified deadlines.
Calendly works
with your Outlook, Google, iCloud and Office 365 calendars, allowing you to
consolidate all your schedules into a single one for optimal management of your
time. It also allows you to precisely define “break” periods between several
meetings or projects, to create secret events, and to avoid certain meetings or
last-minute appointments.
But perhaps
the best thing about Calendly is its automated scheduling feature, which saves
you the time-consuming hassle of having to send back-and-forth emails to agree
to a time that works for both parties.
The tool is
perfect if you need to collaborate with people from other countries since it
automatically detects the time zone of your contacts for even smarter time
management.
Need advice on how to start or develop your freelance consulting business in tech or IT? Need to start a new permanent or freelance assignment? Join Mindquest and get support from our team of experts.
Robot Farmers, Microsoft jobs, Ada Lovelace Day: discover our weekly news about IT & Tech.
Robot Farmers, Microsoft jobs, Ada Lovelace Day: discover our weekly news about IT & Tech.
Robot Farmers
Google‘s parent company, Alphabet, has presented a prototype for a new line of farming robots to help farmers monitor the health of crops and multiply crop yields.
Consequently, project Mineral consists of swarms of “robot buggies” that go up and down the fields inspecting every plant. They do so on upright pillars, coasting on top of the plants much like harbour container cranes do.
Meanwhile Alphabet’s goal is to accumulate large amounts of data about how crops grow to help the agricultural industry tackle the world’s increasing need for food and the sustainability of growing it.
In addition, Microsoft has made a pledge to create 1.5 million tech jobs in the UK over the next 5 years, with and additional 300,000 depending directly on them.
Called Get Go 2021, the campaign targets people currently in
education, those looking into pursuing a career in tech, and those already in
tech and wanting to change careers. The initiative is also meant to help those
whose jobs have been affected by the Covid-19 crisis and bridge the IT talent
gap. It will be based on education and training programs.
The company will also leverage LinkedIn data to anticipate the need for more than 3 million skilled IT workers.
Born in early
19th-century England, Ada Lovelace was a pioneering mathematician and writer
chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s “Analytical Engine,” a
steam-powered calculating machine now regarded as the first fully-automatic
mechanical computer.
Although she wrote the first-ever algorithm, Lovelace’s true
genius lied in her ability to envision the computer’s potential beyond mere
arithmetic calculations. She is hence considered to be the first computer
programmer, a “prophet” of the computer age.
This week we celebrated Ada Lovelace Day, reflecting on women’s countless contributions to science, technology engineering and math (STEM) — something we should honestly do every day.
Let this day serve as a reminder of how much work is left to do to ensure equal representation of women in tech.
Standing out from the crowd as an IT professional isn't always easy. Here are a few quick pointers that will help you get to become an all-terrain IT Pro.
Nowadays, it is not enough to become an IT consultant, you need to stand out from the crowd to succeed in your career.
Here are a few quick pointers that will help succeed in your career path as an IT consultant.
Become an All-Terrain IT Pro
1#Reach a good level of experience
Cultivating a solid
background at the end of your studies will allow you to differentiate yourself
from candidates who are either too junior or too senior and therefore too
expensive. Five to ten years of experience is usually the sweet spot in terms
of employability.
2# Forget hyperspecialisation
Locking yourself into a skill and mastering it from start to finish may seem like the right way to go in order to differentiate yourself from overly generalist profiles. And in fact, there is nothing wrong with specialisation. It can be a solid career strategy. However, in the world IT —and especially if you are an independent contractor— it pays to adopt a multi-specialization approach. You don’t have to confine yourself to a single language or skill. You should not be satisfied with simple expertise either. Aim for “mastery”. Recruiters will move on quickly if mastery is not conveyed through your CV and profile.
3#Certify yourself
Having the right certification for the right position is a good approach. Certifications worth pursuing include Microsoft certifications, Ninja, Dev Star, and Code Crazy.
4# Soft Skills
Mastering the technical part of a position is not everything. Your personality will also weigh in the balance. Recruiters are looking for candidates who can be at the same time pleasant, knowledgable, committed, brilliant, altruistic, punctual, cunning, eloquent, humble, methodical, polite… Whether it is negotiation or communication, you need to master your soft skills as well. These are the essential soft skills every IT professional should have.
5# Compensation
Sensitive topic, but be realistic with your salary expectations and be ready to lower them a bit is the market calls for it. Especially considering the economic uncertainty brought about by the o pandemic.
How the Covid-19 Pandemic is Accelerating the hybridisation of Careers in Tech & IT
The numbers are clear: women are under-represented in most IT roles. Yet, ironically, companies are increasingly looking for women’s talent and their unique skills to fill technical and leadership positions. So how can we ensure that women get the place they deserve in IT? How can we collectively be better at speaking to their dreams and ambitions? How can we encourage them to pursue a career in technology?
By Manuela Delfort-Garampon, co-founder of Mindquest.
It can often be difficult to find a single woman in the IT department of a large company, even across entire office floors. As we celebrate Ada Lovelace Day in honour of this champion of women in STEM; we should take a deep look at how much progress we have made towards equal gender representation in technology. Spoiler alert: not enough.
According to various recent studies on the subject, the proportion of women in IT professions varies between 10 and 30%. Gartner estimates this proportion to be at 31% globally in 2018.
What is more, the higher up in the hierarchy, the fewer women there are. Only 13% of women occupy the position of CIO according to the 2018 Gartner CIO Survey.
But most alarmingly, the gap appears to be widening if we consider the decline in the number of women enrolled in IT-related schools.
IT needs women more than ever
IT functions are affected by a terrible talent shortage. The number of unfilled positions in digital professions is exploding. To the point that the main threat to start-ups and large IT departments has become how difficult it is to find the right person for the job.
But, as it stands, the IT world is virtually depriving itself of half of its talent pool. Attracting more women would certainly go a long way in solving the problem.
On the other hand, IT professions would have everything to gain from welcoming more women for one simple reason. Gender diversity increases team performance. Numerous studies show the positive impact of gender diversity on employee engagement and confidence, customer satisfaction and the company’s brand image.
According to McKinsey, which has been publishing the “Women Matter” study series for ten years now, companies with 3 women or more within their management bodies; or 30% of a classic boardroom; obtained performance scores up to 7 points higher than more male-dominated companies.
The challenge of attracting interest
So, there is no lack of good arguments to move towards greater gender parity, but how can we push for it? Several axes should be tackled at once. The often-proposed principle of quotas could be a solution. But it is not a very good strategy from a talent quality point of view. Above all, it would be necessary to change social perceptions around women in tech. Rather than imposing, we should facilitate and streamline women’s access to IT professions and encourage them to choose these careers.
In the era of digital transformation, IT jobs have gained in atractiveness. But many functions are still widely associated with men. Systems architect, network engineer, project manager, data scientist, software developer … are all professions from which women tend to stay away. It is important that we give more visibility to the women already working in these sectors in order to attract future candidates.
Campaings like #WomenInTech or #WhomenWhoCode are good examples of how the IT community is working towards this goal.
To break the glass ceiling, we must also make women aware of their abilities, of their value and what they have to bring to IT teams.
Today, great figures from political circles and the show business are encouraging women to get out of their comfort zone, to be vocal about their goals and fully unleash their potential and break down all these social barriers.
We should apply this global push to the world of IT so that women can stop devaluing themselves and settle for lower salaries. Finally gaining access to more strategic and technical positions.
Here again, education and communication are key. So are role models.
Women are undeniably welcome in IT, they just need to be more daring.
Discover why you should try to spend at least some time in the office each week. These are the advantages of working on-site.
What are the advantages of working on-site in times of Covid-19? Even with COVID-19 pushing companies to adopt higher levels of telework, as an IT professional you can really benefit from the closer contact that comes with physically joining your team at the company’s premises.
Although it might not
be your choice to make depending on your company’s policies, you should try to
spend at least some time in the office each week whether it is for meetings or
to work on your daily activities. These are the advantages of working on-site.
First of advantages of working at the office: a teamwork booster
Many companies prefer having their employees working from the office rather than remotely. The reasons behind this choice are numerous and tend to vary depending on the type of industry, the country’s regulations and company culture. It also depends on whether or not the company is able to facilitate a COVID-free space for employees to work safely.
The biggest advantage of working on site is that it makes it easier to interact
and bond with the rest of the team, promoting integration and speeding up
progress on your projects.
You can also take
advantage of all the company’s amenities: the printer, the Internet network,
the cafeteria, gym, etc. Small advantages which can contribute a great deal to your
general well-being and job satisfaction.
A remedy for
isolation
Remote workers often complain
about the feeling of loneliness and isolation that comes with working only from
home. Recent global lockdowns made us all quite aware of this problematic.
It can be difficult to be alone in front of your computer all day long. Going
to work at the office allows you to share your day with colleagues and set a stable
rhythm for both life and work.
It can be easy for home workers to become demotivated and procrastinate. Having to go into the office at fixed times and being able to leave once the job is finished allows for better time management while guaranteeing a real break between the private and professional worlds.
Working on-site gives
you greater access to all the key interlocutors involved in the
project and helps you not get stuck in case of doubt or lack of direction.
But, most importantly, being physically present lets you develop stronger links
with your colleagues and superiors and improves transparency.
A surprising number of things can happen in a minute. Especially when it comes to cyber threats and their consequences. Quick overview. The state of cybersecurity in 2020
A surprising number of things can happen in a minute, especially when it comes to cyber threats and their consequences. Quick overview. The state of cybersecurity in 2020
Firstly, every 60 seconds, 375 attacks are unleashed upon the global community, costing the world economy $2.9 million. In other words, every single computer with an internet connection is targeted by malicious agents about 1.5 times per minute. A whooping 16,172 records are compromised.[1] Certainly not a promising picture if you are a business leader or oversee a company’s cybersecurity for a living.
As we celebrate cybersecurity awareness month to promote greater security and cyber hygiene, we would do well to keep in mind that every day should be cybersecurity awareness month. Therefore, we can all benefit from a deeper understanding of today’s most common threats and what we can do to protect our business systems from them.
Cybersecurity in 2020: the impact of the pandemic
The already complex world of enterprise security got further intricate with the advent of COVID-19. Also, the sudden shift to remote work has pushed company networks to the limit, opening a myriad of new potential points of entry for attackers to exploit. Additionally, the ensuing fear and confusion have given more leverage to attackers looking to deceive individual employees as a means to gain company-wide access. As they say: you are as strong as your weakest link. And hackers love that.
Social engineering, the act of tricking someone by using their natural tendencies and emotional reactions, has acquired a whole new dimension of sophistication and finesse. Phishing emails disguised as governmental safety announcements, fake HR memos encouraging you to get acquainted with the office’s new cafeteria policy. And that is just the start two per cent of all COVID-related websites created in recent months contain malicious code. A seemingly small number until you realise there are billions of COVID-19 pages out there.[2]
Remote work is here to stay, and so are the advanced techniques that cybercriminals use. In fact, they will only get more refined in the months to come.
A growing variety of cyber threats – Cybersecurity in 2020
In addition to the rising complexity of attacks, the sheer variety of techniques hackers use is a top concern for companies and cybersec professionals who are struggling to catch up with an ever-growing catalogue of threats. New forms of mobile malware alone, for instance, have grown 12% compared to last year. PowerShell-based malware, which leverages the Microsoft task automation and configuration management framework to carry out attacks without leaving any traces, grew by 1,902% over the same time period.[3]
Cloud has become the backbone of the modern enterprise, and hackers are targeting it accordingly. The rise in attacks is being particularly felt in those industries which depend the most on the cloud for productivity. For example, threats aimed at the transportation and logistics sector increased by 1,350% in the first quarter of the year. Education experienced a 1,114% rise in attacks, with governmental organisations, manufacturing and financial services following behind.[4]
Most attacks are opportunistic in nature and involve the “spraying” of cloud accounts with stolen access credentials. The majority of access attempts came from either China, Iran or Russia. [5]
Ransomware-as-a-service
While phishing and trojans are still behind most cyber attacks, ransomware continues to surge and is perhaps the most feared malware of them all. Its capacity to cripple an entire company’s operations in a matter of minutes, together with how difficult it can be to prevent these attacks in the first place, surely keeps many security specialists and IT managers awake at night. Also, threat actors are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
What started as attacks
by individual hackers or small rogue groups has now evolved into full-fledged
criminal organisations that operate under a ransomware-as-a-service approach.
Some even have “customer service” helplines to guide victims through the
process of paying the ransom.
These hacker groups have greatly benefited from COVID-19, taking advantage of the increase in cloud usage and telework. Half of the world’s organisations were hit by ransomware last year, with most successful ransomware attacks involving public cloud data. Data was successfully encrypted in 73% of attacks.[6]
Additionally, attackers
are finding more and more weaknesses to exploit as remote workers and IT
engineers increasingly use Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to access internal
resources. The higher use of personal devices has also complicated the problem
of shadow IT, multiplying the potential points of access and making it more
challenging for security professionals to safeguard company networks.
Discover 3 IT lastest news. Windows made with Linux. Linux the new Windows? - AI: behind the screens - The pandemic and S/4HANA implementation
Is Linux the new Windows?
The renowned
open-source champion Eric Raymond has always been a huge Linux believer.
Raymond has long argued that the OS is destined to rule the
desktop market. Now he’s gone a step further by saying that it won’t be long
before Windows 10 becomes a simple emulation layer on top the Linux
kernel.
According to Raymond, Microsoft’s latest investments in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) reveal that the Redmond, Virginia company might be quite aware of this impending shift. The company also has recently unveiled a Linux version of Edge for IT pros to test websites.
But there’s more: the Windows emulation might ultimately disappear altogether, leaving us with a Microsoft shell that is basically all built on Linux.
Despite the media buzz around AI, it can be
difficult for someone who is not immersed in the technology to precisely tell
you how and where it is being applied.
Well, this
week we got a behind-the-screens look at what developers are doing in both the
public and the private sector.
The city of Amsterdam debuted the Algorithm Register, a portal where everyone can learn more about the various AI initiatives being implemented across the city.
Also, Alexa developers unveiled how they get Amazon’s smart home assistant to interpret what users mean rather than what they say. Here’s more.
The pandemic and S/4HANA implementation
S4HANA implementation was ramping up before COVID-19 hit the global business community. Now, as uncertainty piles up, some organisations might consider postponing their migration to SAP’s next-gen ERP until things settle down a bit.
But should
they?
In an interview with TechTarget, S/4 experts recommend taking advantage of the current disruption. The slowdown in activity offers a great opportunity for IT departments to undergo a more thorough examination of their legacy ERP and come up with a better ecosystem that delivers greater business value.
The biggest challenge they face: convincing business leaders their S/4 project should move ahead.
“You know, it’s not the
first time I deal with the likes of you. Nor it will be the last, for that
matter.”
The woman had a
distinctive voice. Coarse, yet sharp as a whistle. A slight lisp and the way she
pronounced the ‘r’ betrayed her as a non-native English speaker. Eastern
Europe, maybe? Hard to tell.
“Scoundrels. Corporate
leeches who would rather put their energy to nefarious use than do their actual
job. Tell me: what was it, how did they get to you? Money? It’s usually money. Perhaps
the promise of a shiny new job?”
Nadia tried to keep a steady
face despite the woman’s determined scrutiny. A plain metallic table separated the
two of them in the middle of an otherwise empty room. Exactly how one would
imagine an interrogation room to look like.
“Excuse me, where exactly are we?” It had been a relatively short ride to whatever that place was, but the back of the van they had put her in had no windows. In any case, they couldn’t have gotten further than a few blocks. Somehow, the secrecy of it all made Nadia think it had less to do with the actual police and more with someone else’s particular idea of justice. Ugh, so stupid. If only she had made it for the elevator a couple of seconds earlier, the policeman’s hand wouldn’t have been able to stop the doors from closing. Guess no one is naturally prepared to run from the police at a moment’s notice.
“Ah, she speaks!”
“I do!” said Nadia with a
mocking smile. “And I can tell you right away that I don’t have the foggiest
idea of what you are talking about.”
“Funny, because your
friend said quite the opposite.”
“My friend?”
The woman pulled up some
information on her bracelet’s screen.
“Mr… Tom Schultz. Ah, chatty
fella.” Wait, how was Tom involved in any of this? “We know you stole the
RayStar duplos, so let’s go straight to the point, please.”
“What?” It was impossible
to hide her surprise this time around. “I did not do such… Wait. Are you even police?”
Definitely not. This has RayStar written all over it.
“Who is paying you?” The
woman was clearly starting to lose her temper.
The door opened and a man
in a suit walked in. He leaned on to whisper something in the interrogator’s
ear.
“We’re not done here,”
said the woman as she reluctantly stood up and followed the man out of the
room. The door locked with a beep.
Nadia finally let her guard
down and allowed her body to show how nervous she really was, her right foot going
up and down in an endless loop. She wished they hadn’t taken her earpiece. She
could’ve used Ziza’s help with going through the events of these recent days. The
duplos. But EVE had not gotten even remotely close to that data. She couldn’t
have the way the system was designed. Especially not with that useless hidden attachment
strategy. Plus, EVE’s target had always been the proprietary security
algorithms of Nadia’s company. Or at least Nadia had assumed so, given her
interest in getting close to the quantum encryption core systems. No, they must
have made a mistake. Nadia hadn’t messed around with the duplo dataflows at
all. Someone else had to be behind all this. Or had she missed something? She
would just tell them about EVE, the attachments, the kidnapping of her sister…
The door opened again. It was…
“Tom?! What on Earth…”
“Nadia, listen. There is
no time.” He was all sweaty and dishevelled, his eyes full of fear behind the
colourful glasses. “They know everything, they figured it all out. I’m so
sorry. They had Hao’s file, and they said they would…”
“Tom!” Nadia grabbed him by
the shirt and tried to shake him into making some sense. “What is going on?
What are you doing here, and what did you do?”
“I… There is no time! They will be back any
second.” He took her by the arm and the two ushered into a dimly lit hallway
with concrete walls. “You need to get out of the city. Didn’t you have a friend
up in Coventry? “
“I do. But my sister…”
They were now running through a maze of corridors across what seemed like the
basement of a large building.
“Your sister is fine,
don’t worry.”
“Wait, how do you…”
“She’s fine Nadia! You
need to worry about yourself right now.” Voices and steps could be heard some
distance behind them. The guards were in pursuit. And getting close.
“Where is my sister?”
They reached a fire escape door and Tom cracked it open, prompting the alarm to
go off. The light of day filtered in, momentarily blinding Nadia.
“Remember the party the
other day? Wait until nightfall and head there. You will understand everything
once I’ve also left you an untraceable paycard. You shouldn’t use any of your
accounts until I contact you. Not until we clear our name.”
“Tom – where is my
sister!”
“Where she has been all
this time. At her place.”
“What!”
“Trust me Nadia, I’ve got a plan.” He reached inside his shirt’s chest pocket and took out Nadia’s earpiece. He handed it to her and pushed her towards the door. “Now go! I’ll keep them for as long as I can.”
Flooded with questions, Nadia rushed out into a quiet back alley and started running without looking back. A shot could be heard in the distance.
