Lesson Plan for Pe free essay sample

Specific objectives: By the end of the lesson, student should be able to: a) Throw and dodge the ball effectively b) Attained flexibility through the game c) Achieve good teamwork with friends Teaching aids: 1) Video – Introduction on how the game is played Moral Values: Students are able to learn how to cooperate with teammates and build a good teamwork. Procedures: Stage| Contents| Activities amp; Rationales| Set Induction (10 minutes)| Video of How Dodge ball is Played| * Teacher shows the students a short video about How Dodge ball is Played. While watching the video, teacher can explain what should the students take note during the game. Rationale:To gain students’ interest towards Dodge ball and knowledge about Dodge ball. | Practise (30 minutes)| Skills and Techniques| * Teacher explains the rules about the game and what shouldn’t be done during the game. * Teachers can teach the students skills and techniques on how to dodge and throw the ball effectively . We will write a custom essay sample on Lesson Plan for Pe or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page * Teacher lets students warm up and practise throwing and dodging in pairs. Rationale:To gain students’ knowledge and let students understand rules on dodge ball. The Match(35 minutes)| A game of Doge Ball | * Teacher divides the class into 2 teams. * Each team starts out by throwing from the half court line. * When a player gets hit or someone catches the ball he has thrown, he is OUT! * Have a designated area on the side that the players go to, because they are OUT until a new game begins. * Then the teacher blows the whistle and calls the threepoint line. * When there are only a few players left in the game the teacher then calls another line that is closer than the three point line. If the teams start out uneven, then the teacher can let the weaker team go to the three point line and keep the other team at the half court line until the numbers even up. Rationale:To let students experience how Dodge ball is being played. | Closure (5 minutes)| A review of thelesson| * Teacher let the students cool down by relaxing. * Teachers can discuss about the match played just now and point out what did the students did wrong during the match. * Teachers can also asks students feedback and opinion regarding the game played. |

Leadership in organizations

Leadership in organizations Leadership is the ability of a person in charge to influence the mannerisms of his/her juniors in ranking, in a positive manner to compel them to follow his/her directions. Effective leadership is essential in any organization for success to be a habit. Good leadership is like a black smith’s fire.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership in organizations specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It transforms potential into reality with little compromise, and this is a necessity in any organization that is to survive for the foreseeable future. Leadership relies on evolution, to bring new strategies suitable to the ever changing organization environment. The environment has a push effect if the response to the stimuli is inadequate. Organizations tend to stumble if not fail as a whole (Northouse, 4). A good leader is charismatic. In all situations, good leaders make others feel good about them by bringing out the be st. Commitment is also an indispensable trait. This is because excellence is not in a performance but the building of a habit of pure success. Communication is vital to a leader because it allows all organs of an organization to perform at optimal levels and troubleshoot quickly in case of underachievement. All levels in an organization need to interact effectively to achieve success. Information flow should not be hampered by rank imposed barriers for this tends to break water down the improvements communication brings. Competence is also vital. An efficient leader achieves this by planning, following through to the latter, and achieving without compromise his set of goals. A good leader is a good listener. The ability to set good goals comes from the ability to receive input whether good or bad from the effectors. Positive response is essential to this stimulus for a leader to be excellent (Bose, 164). Management techniques have helped develop leadership theories for organizations . Several theories are benefactors to this fact. Trait theory is one of the leadership theories that were commonly in use, in the past. This theory has a superman trait describing the leader. The leader has traits comparable to none within the organization. The flaw of this theory is in stating that leaders are a product of inheritance but not of the environment. The second common theory is the behavioral theory. This states that leaders are a product of the environment and not product of inheritance. This acknowledges the environment as a shaping factor of an individual’s traits. It also accepts that good leaders learn and perfect what they learn.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Participative theory is the third common theory. This theory involves everybody in the organization. Decisions are a product of consensus of all people within the organization. Its pillar is that active participation increases output levels above board. This theory also tames competition as it fosters group work within the elements of the organization. Several refinements of this theory are available, but the greatest drawback is that decision making is extremely slow. The fourth common theory is situational leadership. This states that the best decisions are factors of current conditions. It defines an effective leader as one un-bound by common procedure, but one able to toggle between many decisions dependent on the unique situation. Situational leadership is sensitive to the leader and organizational members (Winkler, 75). All these are constituents of an effective and responsive leader in an organization. Thus, they underpin good leadership and achievement of organizational goals. Bose, D C. Principles of Management and Administration. New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India, 2002. Print. Northouse, Peter G. Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2010. Print. Winkler, Ingo. Contemporary Leadership Theories: Enhancing the Understanding of the  Complexity, Subjectivity and Dynamic of Leadership. Berlin: Physica-Verlag, 2010. Print.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership in organizations specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More

Argos Donaldson Case International Management

The key players or main actors of this case are: The CEO and chairman of this holdings company, Bill Loun; Bert Donaldson, who was a rising corporate star in Detroit who was supposed to be perfect person to help facilitate communication between recently acquired divisions in Europe; Frank Waterhouse, the CEO of Argos Diesel Europe ; Ursula Lindt , Waterhouse’s executive assistant and Bettina Schweri, Ursula Lindt’s childhood friend, and responsible for organizing Donaldson’s programs. The CEO of Argos, Bill Loun believed that he had found someone in Detroit (Bert Donaldson) that would be the perfect person to help facilitate communication between recently acquired divisions in Europe. Bert Donaldson’s resume was impressive. He was a professor of American Studies in Cairo, Egypt for 5 years and while in the United States, Bert made major improvements to the organizational structure by implementing cross-functional teams, achieved considerable cost reductions, and much more. In addition, Bert was charismatic, a hard worker, and very sharp, a proven leader within the U.  S. organization. Loun recognized that they really needed someone just like Donaldson in Zurich. At the same time, Frank Waterhouse really believed that with Donaldson’s arrival in Europe, both of them could climb the corporate ladder and achieve all the goals that Waterhouse had worked so hard to acquire The problem started when just the opposite occurred, with Bert Donaldson’s arrival, the corporate environment became tense and dysfunctional, and there was obvious friction between Bert, the expatriate, and the local, European divisional leadership. Bert recognized the problem, but didn’t have an immediate solution. Many people from the European staff members attempted to inform Waterhouse about Donaldson’s cross-cultural unawareness like Ursula Lindt who tried to inform Waterhouse of the large number of complaints she had received regarding Donaldson’s inability to adapt or recognize the need to adapt to local culture. Although direct attempts to converse with Waterhouse failed, Waterhouse did finally recognize Donaldson’s failure to culturally adapt. Waterhouse sent a letter back to CEO Bill Loun in the United States questioning Donaldson’s ability to successfully adapt and manage, but Loun simply replied by saying him that he just couldn’t send him back and that it was his bottom line responsibility. On the other side, Schweri, who spoke five different languages and was extremely familiar with local culture was not taking in real account by Donaldson who just saw her like a â€Å"secretary† instead of taking advantage of her knowledge.  We consider that Donaldson failed to recognize the need for cultural adaptation, training, and awareness and the importance of utilizing local resources to assist with cultural issues. We consider that here are 3 major issues at the heart of the problems of the company. These are culture, communication and leadership and motivation, but first of all we could say that one of the main mistakes in the case is that the CEO of Argos International, Loun assigned Donaldson as the guy that Europe needed ,without any formal cross-cultural training on the assumption that his Cairo experience was â€Å"international†. The cultural issues began since the arrival of Donaldson who has struggled to come to terms with European culture. He is unable to adjust and as such he has not been as successful in transforming the European subsidiary like he had in Detroit. It is clear that Donaldson has a lack of cultural understanding and sensitivity , for us this means, he is unaware â€Å"of the cultural variables that can affect management decisions and he is not realizing how much he is affecting Waterhouse projects, the company itself, other individual culture and his leadership is also tainted and a number of sub-issues become evident. At the same time Donaldson never remember or realized that in every culture ( in this case the European) there are different sub- cultures and each one has different morals, goals, traditions, beliefs as well as different ways of doing business and its expectations and they just conform only in varying degrees the national culture. The communication problems caused for the context of the communication were also very important, because the European staff from Argos was formed by people from different European countries and in some of them it is considered to have the lowest ranking communication context, closely followed by other European countries, this means that nothing is implied from the message, as everything will be clearly detailed. So the higher up the context ranking you go the more information becomes implicit and if Donaldson would have consider that the multiple-choice survey wouldn’t have been inappropriate and Donaldson could have all the required info. Communication is also an issue because it is clear that there is a lack of it between the Detroit head office and the European office, so the communication problems are projected at many levels which show the severity of the problem. We can assume that Bill Loun would like the Zurich office to be as efficient and effective as the office in the United States, if they would have a more frequent communication with the parent company, communication the more likely it is that affiliate executives will be influenced by the parent’s practices Another one is that Donaldson does not have the ability to speak to write in any European language, yet his Personal Assistant does. Leadership and motivation is the final issue because we feel that Donaldson was an effective leader in the US where his reform was successful. However his approach has been far from successful in Europe and he has not been able to motivate the European workers at all. The company really failed to realise the effect of a major relocation for Donaldson’s family, because he never adjust to the culture and even his family was suffering the consequences which also disturb Donaldson’s job performance Furthermore we also consider that the fat that the company’s International staffing policies are Ethnocentric, is the â€Å"ethnocentrism† a key sensitivity problem for Donaldson. By adopting an ethnocentric approach to management, Donaldson assumes the way he has been taught to perform a task is the best way of performing that task and is averse to listening to other ways of achieving results. It is important to say that Donaldson was not the only one who was failing in the company because if we ask ourselves who was supposed to keep an eye on him, we would say that it was Waterhouse but instead he was also adding troubles to the company. Why we think this? Because he was behaving in such an individualistic way (maybe because he came from a highly individualistic country USA, where people typically look out for themselves), and he was just being selfish by just concerning in how Donaldson could help him to reach the top or how Donaldson’s problems would reflect on him and his career. Finally it’s clear that Bill Loun also made a mistake, and Donaldson is not the only reason of troubles. We think that Bill Loun, entered the global marketplace with a misunderstanding of what it means to be international due to the fact that selected a manager (Donaldson) with extensive successes in the United States and only superficial international experience. Argos Donaldson Case International Management The key players or main actors of this case are: The CEO and chairman of this holdings company, Bill Loun; Bert Donaldson, who was a rising corporate star in Detroit who was supposed to be perfect person to help facilitate communication between recently acquired divisions in Europe; Frank Waterhouse, the CEO of Argos Diesel Europe ; Ursula Lindt , Waterhouse’s executive assistant and Bettina Schweri, Ursula Lindt’s childhood friend, and responsible for organizing Donaldson’s programs. The CEO of Argos, Bill Loun believed that he had found someone in Detroit (Bert Donaldson) that would be the perfect person to help facilitate communication between recently acquired divisions in Europe. Bert Donaldson’s resume was impressive. He was a professor of American Studies in Cairo, Egypt for 5 years and while in the United States, Bert made major improvements to the organizational structure by implementing cross-functional teams, achieved considerable cost reductions, and much more. In addition, Bert was charismatic, a hard worker, and very sharp, a proven leader within the U.  S. organization. Loun recognized that they really needed someone just like Donaldson in Zurich. At the same time, Frank Waterhouse really believed that with Donaldson’s arrival in Europe, both of them could climb the corporate ladder and achieve all the goals that Waterhouse had worked so hard to acquire The problem started when just the opposite occurred, with Bert Donaldson’s arrival, the corporate environment became tense and dysfunctional, and there was obvious friction between Bert, the expatriate, and the local, European divisional leadership. Bert recognized the problem, but didn’t have an immediate solution. Many people from the European staff members attempted to inform Waterhouse about Donaldson’s cross-cultural unawareness like Ursula Lindt who tried to inform Waterhouse of the large number of complaints she had received regarding Donaldson’s inability to adapt or recognize the need to adapt to local culture. Although direct attempts to converse with Waterhouse failed, Waterhouse did finally recognize Donaldson’s failure to culturally adapt. Waterhouse sent a letter back to CEO Bill Loun in the United States questioning Donaldson’s ability to successfully adapt and manage, but Loun simply replied by saying him that he just couldn’t send him back and that it was his bottom line responsibility. On the other side, Schweri, who spoke five different languages and was extremely familiar with local culture was not taking in real account by Donaldson who just saw her like a â€Å"secretary† instead of taking advantage of her knowledge.  We consider that Donaldson failed to recognize the need for cultural adaptation, training, and awareness and the importance of utilizing local resources to assist with cultural issues. We consider that here are 3 major issues at the heart of the problems of the company. These are culture, communication and leadership and motivation, but first of all we could say that one of the main mistakes in the case is that the CEO of Argos International, Loun assigned Donaldson as the guy that Europe needed ,without any formal cross-cultural training on the assumption that his Cairo experience was â€Å"international†. The cultural issues began since the arrival of Donaldson who has struggled to come to terms with European culture. He is unable to adjust and as such he has not been as successful in transforming the European subsidiary like he had in Detroit. It is clear that Donaldson has a lack of cultural understanding and sensitivity , for us this means, he is unaware â€Å"of the cultural variables that can affect management decisions and he is not realizing how much he is affecting Waterhouse projects, the company itself, other individual culture and his leadership is also tainted and a number of sub-issues become evident. At the same time Donaldson never remember or realized that in every culture ( in this case the European) there are different sub- cultures and each one has different morals, goals, traditions, beliefs as well as different ways of doing business and its expectations and they just conform only in varying degrees the national culture. The communication problems caused for the context of the communication were also very important, because the European staff from Argos was formed by people from different European countries and in some of them it is considered to have the lowest ranking communication context, closely followed by other European countries, this means that nothing is implied from the message, as everything will be clearly detailed. So the higher up the context ranking you go the more information becomes implicit and if Donaldson would have consider that the multiple-choice survey wouldn’t have been inappropriate and Donaldson could have all the required info. Communication is also an issue because it is clear that there is a lack of it between the Detroit head office and the European office, so the communication problems are projected at many levels which show the severity of the problem. We can assume that Bill Loun would like the Zurich office to be as efficient and effective as the office in the United States, if they would have a more frequent communication with the parent company, communication the more likely it is that affiliate executives will be influenced by the parent’s practices Another one is that Donaldson does not have the ability to speak to write in any European language, yet his Personal Assistant does. Leadership and motivation is the final issue because we feel that Donaldson was an effective leader in the US where his reform was successful. However his approach has been far from successful in Europe and he has not been able to motivate the European workers at all. The company really failed to realise the effect of a major relocation for Donaldson’s family, because he never adjust to the culture and even his family was suffering the consequences which also disturb Donaldson’s job performance Furthermore we also consider that the fat that the company’s International staffing policies are Ethnocentric, is the â€Å"ethnocentrism† a key sensitivity problem for Donaldson. By adopting an ethnocentric approach to management, Donaldson assumes the way he has been taught to perform a task is the best way of performing that task and is averse to listening to other ways of achieving results. It is important to say that Donaldson was not the only one who was failing in the company because if we ask ourselves who was supposed to keep an eye on him, we would say that it was Waterhouse but instead he was also adding troubles to the company. Why we think this? Because he was behaving in such an individualistic way (maybe because he came from a highly individualistic country USA, where people typically look out for themselves), and he was just being selfish by just concerning in how Donaldson could help him to reach the top or how Donaldson’s problems would reflect on him and his career. Finally it’s clear that Bill Loun also made a mistake, and Donaldson is not the only reason of troubles. We think that Bill Loun, entered the global marketplace with a misunderstanding of what it means to be international due to the fact that selected a manager (Donaldson) with extensive successes in the United States and only superficial international experience.

Initial Public Offering (IPO) Research Proposal

Initial Public Offering (IPO) - Research Proposal Example The present research study is a detailed examination of the under pricing and long term performance of 20 IPOs in Indian market listed on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) or National Stock Exchange (NSE)or both. The paper attempts to investigate both under pricing and under performance of IPOs in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) for a period of one year. Initial Public Offering under pricing and long run poor performance of common stock has been an unresolved puzzle in the financial literature for many years. Researchers and practitioners have attempted many times to explore a theoretical base to explain the behaviour of IPO market in the history of capital market. But, after each study the findings seem to be totally different from that of the previous ones. No single study could explore all the issues connected with IPOs. The present study is an attempt to investigate into the under pricing phenomenon and the long-run performance of IPOs in Indian capital market during the period beginning from August 1st 2007 to August 11th 2008. The study takes only those IPOs which have been priced using book building procedure and listed on Bombay Stock Exchange or National Stock Exchange or both. This paper developed by Randolph P. Beatty & Jay R. Ritter involves two propositions. ... ng and the uncertainty of investors regarding its value are monotonously related and investment bankers enforce the resulting under pricing equilibrium. The empirical evidence support that when the investors lose on account of non receipt of initial return (no under pricing) and issuers will lose when there is too much of under pricing and thus forfeit the value of its reputation capital. Anatomy of Initial Public Offerings of Common Stock- Tinic, Seha M In this paper, Tinic and Seha M demonstrate the anatomy of IPOs. The paper revolves around the hypothesis that under pricing serves as a form of insurance against legal liability and the associated damages to the reputations of investment bankers. The authors, after their empirical study reveal observe that there are implicit support after t he Securities Act of 1933, for the implicit insurance hypothesis. They have located a relationship between gross under pricing and market segmentation among prestigious and fringe investment bankers in the post-1933 period. The Under pricing of Initial Public Offerings and the Partial Adjustment Phenomenon- Kathleen Weiss Hanley In this research paper, the authors demonstrate the relationship between the final offer price disclosed in the preliminary prospectus and the range of anticipated offer prices. They observe that these prices are a good predictor of initial returns. The authors conclude that "issues that have final offer prices which exceed the limits of the offer range have greater under pricing than all other initial public offerings, and are also more likely to increase the number of shares issued" (Hanley, 1993). The Opening Price Performance of Initial Public Offerings of Common Stock, by Christopher B. Barry and Robert H. Jennings In this article, the authors

Financial Analysis Wonderful Home Plc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Financial Analysis Wonderful Home Plc - Essay Example The organization headquartered in Wales operates with 30 branches in Scotland and Wales.  The organizations related to the home and office furniture retail industry deals with the number of factors. The management of the home and office furniture retail firms deal with two types of environments i.e. external environment and internal environment. The slight change of these two types of the environment may affect the company’s profitability and wealth creation. The project report mainly deals with the financial position as well as the performance of the home and office furniture retail industry. Financial performance analysis mostly interrelated with the ratio analysis. The key fundamental of the ratio analysis is the annual report of the concerned company. There are different ratios that indicate the financial performance of different sectors of the specific organization.  Here the research report is totally based on the financial performance of Wonderful Home Plc. (WH). Th erefore, the study will significantly analyze the different key ratios which indicate the financial position of the company. The ratio analysis is the mechanism that highlights the financial and operational performance of the chosen company. The primary objective of this report is to ensure the stability of the home and office furniture retail industry and developing new export markets in order to promote national economic development significantly.  It is feasible that Wonderful Home Plc. (WH) is approaching one of the leading European banks in order to take loans for business. Moreover, the reason for approaching the bank is to avail the market research data points. It will help the organization to invest in two different projects in order to attain high return. The first projects which the organization is aiming for is to establish a factory of home furniture.

Comparing The House of Mirth and Daisy Miller :: Henry James, Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton’s â€Å"The House of Mirth† mainly describes the need of a woman to be married to a wealthy man and how she attempts to find the most appropriate suitor. â€Å"The House of Mirth† also observes the tedious physical and mental decline of a young woman who, because of her own weakness and indecisiveness, falls from social distinction into poverty and griminess. The story presents a cruel measure of reality and ends quite sadly. Instead of marrying and living happily, Lily weakens slowly and commits suicide, possibly unintentionally, as a way of evading a lower-class humanity in which her upper-class needs cannot survive. Lily's life is the exact opposite of dignity or beauty; she had many chances to live the kind of life she dreamed of, but lost it all. Similarly, Henry James’ â€Å"Daisy Miller,† is a rich, young, American girl from New York, traveling around Europe with her mother and younger brother. Daisy is a complex combination of traits. She is feisty, independent, and well intentioned, yet she is also petty, ignorant, and unsophisticated. Daisy is also an irritating flirt. She has no public elegance or informal gifts, such as appeal, humor, and a talent for banter. Also she is primarily interested only in influencing men and making herself the hub of interest. Throughout the story, Winterbourne, the love interest of Daisy, is fixated over the issue of whether Daisy is naive, but her behavior by no means reveals whether she is or isn’t. Winterbourne accepts that Daisy is crude but wonders whether she is innocent. Frequently, Daisy seems less than innocent since Winterbourne did catch her with another man late at night at the Coliseum, which results in her death from malaria. Overall, it is the way in whic h Daisy embodies all the different forms of innocence that results in her demise. While the telling of the story is quite similar, â€Å"The House of Mirth† is different in the sense that all that character’s form of thinking is revealed to the reader. Henry James primarily portrays the story of Winterbourne and the affect that Daisy has on him. He does describe Daisy in great detail yet he fails to give any indication of why she acts the way she does. One can only ponder over ideas of how she thinks and her reasoning behind what she does in certain events. It is obvious that Daisy is ignorant to her inappropriate behavior but it is unclear if this is an act or if she is really unaware that she is acting incorrectly.

Digital Fortress Chapter 50-54

Chapter 50 Only yards from TRANSLTR's hull, Phil Chartrukian stood over a patch of white lettering on the Crypto floor. CRYPTO SUBLEVELS AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY He knew he was definitely not authorized personnel. He shot a quick glance up at Strathmore's office. The curtains were still pulled. Chartrukian had seen Susan Fletcher go into the bathrooms, so he knew she wasn't a problem. The only other question was Hale. He glanced toward Node 3, wondering if the cryptographer were watching. â€Å"Fuck it,† he grumbled. Below his feet the outline of a recessed trapdoor was barely visible in the floor. Chartrukian palmed the key he'd just taken from the Sys-Sec lab. He knelt down, inserted the key in the floor, and turned. The bolt beneath clicked. Then he unscrewed the large external butterfly latch and freed the door. Checking once again over his shoulder, he squatted down and pulled. The panel was small, only three feet by three feet, but it was heavy. When it finally opened, the Sys-Sec stumbled back. A blast of hot air hit him in the face. It carried with it the sharp bite of freon gas. Billows of steam swirled out of the opening, illuminated by the red utility lighting below. The distant hum of the generators became a rumble. Chartrukian stood up and peered into the opening. It looked more like the gateway to hell than a service entrance for a computer. A narrow ladder led to a platform under the floor. Beyond that, there were stairs, but all he could see was swirling red mist. Greg Hale stood behind the one-way glass of Node 3. He watched as Phil Chartrukian eased himself down the ladder toward the sublevels. From where Hale was standing, the Sys-Sec's head appeared to have been severed from his body and left out on the Crypto floor. Then, slowly, it sank into the swirling mist. â€Å"Gutsy move,† Hale muttered. He knew where Chartrukian was headed. An emergency manual abort of TRANSLTR was a logical action if he thought the computer had a virus. Unfortunately, it was also a sure way to have Crypto crawling with Sys-Secs in about ten minutes. Emergency actions raised alert flags at the main switchboard. A Sys-Sec investigation of Crypto was something Hale could not afford. Hale left Node 3 and headed for the trapdoor. Chartrukian had to be stopped. Chapter 51 Jabba resembled a giant tadpole. Like the cinematic creature for whom he was nicknamed, the man was a hairless spheroid. As resident guardian angel of all NSA computer systems, Jabba marched from department to department, tweaking, soldering, and reaffirming his credo that prevention was the best medicine. No NSA computer had ever been infected under Jabba's reign; he intended to keep it that way. Jabba's home base was a raised workstation overlooking the NSA's underground, ultra-secret databank. It was there that a virus would do the most damage and there that he spent the majority of his time. At the moment, however, Jabba was taking a break and enjoying pepperoni calzones in the NSA's all-night commissary. He was about to dig into his third when his cellular phone rang. â€Å"Go,† he said, coughing as he swallowed a mouthful. â€Å"Jabba,† a woman's voice cooed. â€Å"It's Midge.† â€Å"Data Queen!† the huge man gushed. He'd always had a soft spot for Midge Milken. She was sharp, and she was also the only woman Jabba had ever met who flirted with him. â€Å"How the hell are you?† â€Å"No complaints.† Jabba wiped his mouth. â€Å"You on site?† â€Å"Yup.† â€Å"Care to join me for a calzone?† â€Å"Love to Jabba, but I'm watching these hips.† â€Å"Really?† He snickered. â€Å"Mind if I join you?† â€Å"You're bad.† â€Å"You have no idea†¦.† â€Å"Glad I caught you in,† she said. â€Å"I need some advice.† He took a long swallow of Dr Pepper. â€Å"Shoot.† â€Å"It might be nothing,† Midge said, â€Å"but my Crypto stats turned up something odd. I was hoping you could shed some light.† â€Å"What ya got?† He took another sip. â€Å"I've got a report saying TRANSLTR's been running the same file for eighteen hours and hasn't cracked it.† Jabba sprayed Dr Pepper all over his calzone. â€Å"You what?† â€Å"Any ideas?† He dabbed at his calzone with a napkin. â€Å"What report is this?† â€Å"Production report. Basic cost analysis stuff.† Midge quickly explained what she and Brinkerhoff had found. â€Å"Have you called Strathmore?† â€Å"Yes. He said everything's fine in Crypto. Said TRANSLTR's running full speed ahead. Said our data's wrong.† Jabba furrowed his bulbous forehead. â€Å"So what's the problem? Your report glitched.† Midge did not respond. Jabba caught her drift. He frowned. â€Å"You don't think your report glitched?† â€Å"Correct.† â€Å"So you think Strathmore's lying?† â€Å"It's not that,† Midge said diplomatically, knowing she was on fragile ground. â€Å"It's just that my stats have never been wrong in the past. I thought I'd get a second opinion.† â€Å"Well,† Jabba said, â€Å"I hate to be the one to break it to you, but your data's fried.† â€Å"You think so?† â€Å"I'd bet my job on it.† Jabba took a big bite of soggy calzone and spoke with his mouth full. â€Å"Longest a file has ever lasted inside TRANSLTR is three hours. That includes diagnostics, boundary probes, everything. Only thing that could lock it down for eighteen hours would have to be viral. Nothing else could do it.† â€Å"Viral?† â€Å"Yeah, some kind of redundant cycle. Something that got into the processors, created a loop, and basically gummed up the works.† â€Å"Well,† she ventured, â€Å"Strathmore's been in Crypto for about thirty-six hours straight. Any chance he's fighting a virus?† Jabba laughed. â€Å"Strathmore's been in there for thirty-six hours? Poor bastard. His wife probably said he can't come home. I hear she's bagging his ass.† Midge thought a moment. She'd heard that too. She wondered if maybe she was being paranoid. â€Å"Midge.† Jabba wheezed and took another long drink. â€Å"If Strathmore's toy had a virus, he would have called me. Strathmore's sharp, but he doesn't know shit about viruses. TRANSLTR's all he's got. First sign of trouble, he would have pressed the panic button-and around here, that means me.† Jabba sucked in a long strand of mozzarella. â€Å"Besides, there's no way in hell TRANSLTR has a virus. Gauntlet's the best set of package filters I've ever written. Nothing gets through.† After a long silence, Midge sighed. â€Å"Any other thoughts?† â€Å"Yup. Your data's fried.† â€Å"You already said that.† â€Å"Exactly.† She frowned. â€Å"You haven't caught wind of anything? Anything at all?† Jabba laughed harshly. â€Å"Midge†¦ listen up. Skipjack sucked. Strathmore blew it. But move on-it's over.† There was a long silence on the line, and Jabba realized he'd gone too far. â€Å"Sorry, Midge. I know you took heat over that whole mess. Strathmore was wrong. I know how you feel about him.† â€Å"This has nothing to do with Skipjack,† she said firmly. Yeah, sure, Jabba thought. â€Å"Listen, Midge, I don't have feelings for Strathmore one way or another. I mean, the guy's a cryptographer. They're basically all self-centered assholes. They need their data yesterday. Every damn file is the one that could save the world.† â€Å"So what are you saying?† Jabba sighed. â€Å"I'm saying Strathmore's a psycho like the rest of them. But I'm also saying he loves TRANSLTR more than his own goddamn wife. If there were a problem, he would have called me.† Midge was quiet a long time. Finally she let out a reluctant sigh. â€Å"So you're saying my data's fried?† Jabba chuckled. â€Å"Is there an echo in here?† She laughed. â€Å"Look, Midge. Drop me a work order. I'll be up on Monday to double-check your machine. In the meantime, get the hell out of here. It's Saturday night. Go get yourself laid or something.† She sighed. â€Å"I'm trying, Jabba. Believe me, I'm trying.† Chapter 52 Club Embrujo-â€Å"Warlock† in English-was situated in the suburbs at the end of the number 27 bus line. Looking more like a fortification than a dance club, it was surrounded on all sides by high stucco walls into which were embedded shards of shattered beer bottles-a crude security system preventing anyone from entering illegally without leaving behind a good portion of flesh. During the ride, Becker had resolved himself to the fact that he'd failed. It was time to call Strathmore with the bad news-the search was hopeless. He had done the best he could; now it was time to go home. But now, gazing out at the mob of patrons pushing their way through the club's entrance, Becker was not so sure his conscience would allow him to give up the search. He was staring at the biggest crowd of punks he'd ever seen; there were coiffures of red, white, and blue everywhere. Becker sighed, weighing his options. He scanned the crowd and shrugged. Where else would she be on a Saturday night? Cursing his good fortune, Becker climbed off the bus. The access to Club Embrujo was a narrow stone corridor. As Becker entered he immediately felt himself caught up in the inward surge of eager patrons. â€Å"Outta my way, faggot!† A human pincushion pawed past him, giving Becker an elbow in the side. â€Å"Nice tie.† Someone gave Becker's necktie a hard yank. â€Å"Wanna fuck?† A teenage girl stared up at him looking like something out of Dawn of the Dead. The darkness of the corridor spilled out into a huge cement chamber that reeked of alcohol and body odor. The scene was surreal-a deep mountain grotto in which hundreds of bodies moved as one. They surged up and down, hands pressed firmly to their sides, heads bobbing like lifeless bulbs on top of rigid spines. Crazed souls took running dives off a stage and landed on a sea of human limbs. Bodies were passed back and forth like human beach balls. Overhead, the pulsating strobes gave the whole thing the look of an old, silent movie. On the far wall, speakers the size of minivans shook so deeply that not even the most dedicated dancers could get closer than thirty feet from the pounding woofers. Becker plugged his ears and searched the crowd. Everywhere he looked was another red, white, and blue head. The bodies were packed so closely together that he couldn't see what they were wearing. He saw no hint of a British flag anywhere. It was obvious he'd never be able to enter the crowd without getting trampled. Someone nearby started vomiting. Lovely. Becker groaned. He moved off down a spray-painted hallway. The hall turned into a narrow mirrored tunnel, which opened to an outdoor patio scattered with tables and chairs. The patio was crowded with punk rockers, but to Becker it was like the gateway to Shangri-La-the summer sky opened up above him and the music faded away. Ignoring the curious stares, Becker walked out into the crowd. He loosened his tie and collapsed into a chair at the nearest unoccupied table. It seemed like a lifetime since Strathmore's early-morning call. After clearing the empty beer bottles from his table, Becker laid his head in his hands. Just for a few minutes, he thought. Five miles away, the man in wire-rim glasses sat in the back of a Fiat taxi as it raced headlong down a country road. â€Å"Embrujo,† he grunted, reminding the driver of their destination. The driver nodded, eyeing his curious new fare in the rearview mirror. â€Å"Embrujo,† he grumbled to himself. â€Å"Weirder crowd every night.† Chapter 53 Tokugen Numataka lay naked on the massage table in his penthouse office. His personal masseuse worked out the kinks in his neck. She ground her palms into the fleshy pockets surrounding his shoulder blades, slowly working her way down to the towel covering his backside. Her hands slipped lower†¦ beneath his towel. Numataka barely noticed. His mind was elsewhere. He had been waiting for his private line to ring. It had not. There was a knock at the door. â€Å"Enter,† Numataka grunted. The masseuse quickly pulled her hands from beneath the towel. The switchboard operator entered and bowed. â€Å"Honored chairman?† â€Å"Speak.† The operator bowed a second time. â€Å"I spoke to the phone exchange. The call originated from country code 1-the United States.† Numataka nodded. This was good news. The call came from the States. He smiled. It was genuine. â€Å"Where in the U.S.?† he demanded. â€Å"They're working on it, sir.† â€Å"Very well. Tell me when you have more.† The operator bowed again and left. Numataka felt his muscles relax. Country code 1. Good news indeed. Chapter 54 Susan Fletcher paced impatiently in the Crypto bathroom and counted slowly to fifty. Her head was throbbing. Just a little longer, she told herself. Hale is North Dakota! Susan wondered what Hale's plans were. Would he announce the pass-key? Would he be greedy and try to sell the algorithm? Susan couldn't bear to wait any longer. It was time. She had to get to Strathmore. Cautiously she cracked the door and peered out at the reflective wall on the far side of Crypto. There was no way to know if Hale was still watching. She'd have to move quickly to Strathmore's office. Not too quickly, of course-she could not let Hale suspect she was on to him. She reached for the door and was about to pull it open when she heard something. Voices. Men's voices. The voices were coming through the ventilation shaft near the floor. She released the door and moved toward the vent. The words were muffled by the dull hum of the generators below. The conversation sounded like it was coming up from the sublevel catwalks. One voice was shrill, angry. It sounded like Phil Chartrukian. â€Å"You don't believe me?† The sound of more arguing rose. â€Å"We have a virus!† Then the sound of harsh yelling. â€Å"We need to call Jabba!† Then there were sounds of a struggle. â€Å"Let me go!† The noise that followed was barely human. It was a long wailing cry of horror, like a tortured animal about to die. Susan froze beside the vent. The noise ended as abruptly as it had begun. Then there was a silence. An instant later, as if choreographed for some cheap horror matinee, the lights in the bathroom slowly dimmed. Then they flickered and went out. Susan Fletcher found herself standing in total blackness.