In useIn use: 2.14am…
The alarm
High-level alarm in the basement sump. One pump hasn't started, and the service yard is filling with rain. Lou, on night security, looks for the procedure.
Stage 7 · Use it · Stop 1 of 3
The first night shift
The back alley's bill so far: 156 weeks · See the bill
The information · The night-time procedure
2.14am. The builders have gone, but I should still be here, where the night guard can reach me. This is what I was for.
The wrong way
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Somewhere
The procedure is in the 2,000 files on a portal nobody's logged into since handover. The password is in somebody's old inbox.
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Dave
Lou rings Dave, the site manager. Dave is in his pyjamas. Dave builds shopping centres. He doesn't run them.
Dave: Have you tried turning it off and on again?
In useIn use: Later that night…
The old hand
Stan, the maintenance engineer, drives in from home, reads the sign he wrote at the old Precinct and brought across, and kicks the pump gently.
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The flood
By then the service yard has flooded into the loading bays. The first delivery lorry arrives at a paddling pool. A sheep at the fence watches with interest.
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The morning
In the morning: an incident report to write, forty shops opening late, and Dave, still awake, making everyone tea.
A brand-new centre, two thousand files, and the procedure that mattered at 2.14am was in none of the places anyone could reach.
+2 weeks on the back alley's bill: Procedures nobody could reach at night: a flooded service yard, an incident report, and Dave awake at 2am.