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keyboard and pick up where he left off.
    “I need to talk to you about the
feature descriptions for the marketing white papers,” I say, as though I
haven’t already sent him a handful of emails on the subject.
    “What about them?” he asks,
lowering his hands, realizing he can’t dismiss me quickly.
    “Well, I read the specifications
you wrote, looking for more details on the software features Rob wanted me to
include. And either I couldn’t find any information on the features or the
information I found was only partially what I needed. Do you have more specs
you haven’t posted yet?” I ask hopefully.
    His forehead creases. “What
features are you referring to?”
    I point toward his monitor. “I put
the features in an email. Did you see it?”
    He swivels back now, his hands
racing over the keys, accessing his email. Peering over his shoulder, I spot my
name in his Inbox on the most recent email I sent, and I point it out to him.
Karthik opens the email and scans it. Meanwhile, I take a step back, careful
not touch or brush up against a pile of paper or a soda can.
    Karthik spends a fare amount of
time reading the short email. Finally, he turns back to me with a strained look
on his face. “Rob gave you these features?” he asks.
    I nod.
    “Is he in his office now?”
    “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him
yet today.” So far, this is not a good response to my initial question.
    “We’d better go and talk to him.”
Karthik unfolds himself from the chair, and with determination he leads the way
back downstairs. I follow him. Karthik stops just outside and knocks on the
open door. Rob is apparently in there.
    I follow Karthik into the
windowless office. Based on Karthik’s tight expression, there’s something going
on here. It isn’t good and it isn’t my fault. The rising anticipation I feel is
mainly due to the reluctant spectator status to which I am about to be subjected.
Karthik is one of the most reasonable people I have ever dealt with, but Rob
generally has a hard time making coherent conversation with anyone who doesn’t
watch at least one reality television show a night.
    “What can I do for you?” Rob asks,
leaning back in his chair as we enter.
    “Andrea sent me a list of features
you gave her for the next release. I have to say, I was surprised to see that
it was the original list you presented last year. The wish list you created
before we culled it down.”
    “It’s the list we all agreed to,”
Rob says calmly.
    Karthik runs his hand over the back
of his neck. “No Rob, I have the email trail. I’ll send you the shortened list.
Those are the only features we’re working on.”
    Rob sits up straighter now. “You
can send me whatever you like, but I have an email trail, too. It ends with the
list I gave Andrea. The list everyone signed off on.”
    “I never signed off on the list you
gave Andrea.”
    Rob stares at Karthik and then at
me. I have no idea why. I have nothing to offer here. Next he opens a drawer,
searches around for a bit, and comes up with a piece of paper. He hands it to
Karthik. “You’re telling me you’re not working on the items on this list?”
    Karthik studies the paper. He takes
a pen from his pocket, sits down in one of the two chairs facing Rob’s desk,
and begins putting checks next to items on the list. I take the other chair and
watch. Rob is leaning over the expanse of his desk following Karthik’s pen.
Karthik makes the last checkmark, efficiently returns the pen to his pocket,
and turns the paper around toward Rob. “These are the features in your
release.” From my upside-down view, I can see that roughly half of the items
have checkmarks beside them.
    Rob looks at the paper and frowns.
“Well,” he says, leaning back again, “This is a problem. We’ve already told
customers that everything on this list is in the next release.”
    “Well, you’ll have to tell them
that’s not the case. Or you can tell them that the release is