A Corporation of Angels

It was the start of a typical workday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The sunrise was beginning to poke through the buildings downtown. It was a cool spring morning; people were getting off buses and scurrying separate ways to their workplaces. Horns were echoing from impatient drivers. Some people were delaying the inevitable, taking their time as they were in no hurry to start the workday. A few people stood outside of the Dunkin Donuts sipping a morning coffee, across from the Steel Building located at 600 Grant Street, claimed as the tallest building in Pittsburgh, standing at sixty-four stories high and housing numerous companies.

Directly behind the Steel Building was a building which very few people knew about. The sign on the outside of the building read C.O.A. Inc. Under the company name was the address, One His Way. The building was in the shape of a cross. The composition was mainly glass with gold and brilliant colored stone that shone like a rainbow from the sunlight. The building had a beautiful view of the city, especially at the top, since it was one hundred stories high. I know you are thinking, Wait a minute, I thought the Steel Building was the highest building in Pittsburgh? Hold that thought, we will come back to it. Unlike the Steel Building, C.O.A. Inc. had only one employer occupying the structure, and everyone loved their job.

The employees at C.O.A. looked like anyone else bustling through the city. Some were dressed in a suit or casual dress, while others were fully clad as maintenance workers or in security uniforms. There was nothing out of the ordinary that would call attention to them. The offices looked like any other office, complete with cubicles. Each cube had its own desk, chair, phone, computer, along with other normal office equipment. There was a conference room on each floor, with an auditorium near the top of the building that was used for all employee meetings. The 98th floor was a command center that was used to communicate with workers in the field. C.O.A. was a twenty-four hour operation, contrasting most other offices. Working at C.O.A. would be considered more of a hands-on atmosphere. It involved more than sitting in an office, with your face buried in a computer. Much of the work took place on the streets among people. One day you could be in the office, collecting information on the computer, and then the very same evening you would be in New York City, keeping an eye on a client. One thing was for sure, it was never boring.

At eight o’clock every morning there was a meeting held in the conference rooms on each floor to discuss the business of the day. Everyone was expected to be at the meeting unless they were working in the field at that time. C.O.A. had team leaders for specific projects at different times, but none permanently. All employees were colleagues, except for the C.E.O., who oversaw the whole operation. Duties were handed out daily to the staff. Each floor in the building made up a group. Depending on the size the job, it could encompass the whole set or only a few of the group. They always worked in pairs of two or more, never alone. All C.O.A. employees carried a smart phone, so they could keep in constant contact with their colleagues while in the field.

It was 7:50 a.m. and the employees had started trickling into their assigned conference rooms for the morning update. As the workers filed into the room, they pulled up a seat and chatted quietly while waiting for the project leader to take his or her place at the podium situated in the front of the room. Promptly at 8:00 a.m. the project leaders approached the podium on 98 of the 100 floors in the building. The auditorium on the 99th floor shared a small section of office space with A.R., which we will get to shortly. It was the widest part of the building and gave it the look of a cross. The 100th floor was reserved as the Penthouse office for the C.E.O.

On the 2nd floor, the team leader was a balding man who looked to be in his early forties. He wore a blue bow tie with a white shirt and navy colored pants and sport coat. He tapped the microphone to get everyone’s attention. “Good morning,” he announced. “Good morning,” everyone responded cheerfully. “I am Michael, for those who don’t know me, I will be your project leader this morning. To my right, is my partner, Mary.” He motioned to the woman sitting beside him. She nodded to the crowd and smiled. She was dressed accordingly, matching Michael’s attire. “Now that introductions have been made, let’s get to the business of the day. We have a small problem on the Allegheny River, near the 16th Street Bridge. We will need four of you to leave now to handle the situation.” Two sets of partners volunteered, took a slip of paper from Michael and left the meeting hurriedly. “There is a mechanical problem at the convention center, which will require eight additional workers.” Michael lifted his head to see four sets of partners dressed in maintenance uniforms walking toward the podium. He handed them paperwork, then thanked them as they headed to the exit. Michael continued to hand out assignments that called for work around the city for the day, most of which needed two or four workers to complete the task. When he had finished, he asked the remaining employees to return to their offices to resume data collection. Depending on the day’s events, they could be needed for field work at a later time. Michael reminded everyone to call 811 if something urgent came up. The call would go directly to his phone. Everyone adjourned from the meeting and returned to their cubes.