Challenge #01911-E087: Uptick in Downsizing

Recently retired or otherwise unemployed mildly clueless accountant overhears diners at a nearby table discussing a business difficulty and offers advice.

They seek him out periodically for more. Eventually hiring him to handle their books and offer other periodic advice.

He doesn't realize that they are the mob. He also doesn't realize that he is moving quickly up the ranks because the irregularities he finds in the books lead to catching leaks, or people skimming off the top. Or that by pointing them out, he's actually arranging hits on the people in question. -- Bard2DBone

Ten years. Working her ass off. Running the numbers so hard that they sweated. And all she got out of it was making her offices so efficient that she was superfluous to requirements. Thanks for helping us save a billion dollars, Kathi. We're going to make it a billion plus... your wages. You're superfluous to requirements.

So now she had ten years of her shit in a cardboard box, no current way to pay her bills, and not many opportunities for accountants, because the firm who had just fired her was also the most popular accounting firm in the country. And seeking work wasn't as easy for her generation as it was for, say, her gram'pa who walked into his workplace at seventeen and had a job until retirement.

While Kathi waited for her pie and coffee, she searched for anyone looking for accountants. Anywhere. And that was how she heard the people in the next booth.

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