Macklin was nervous as he walked into the corporate board meeting. He thought he had been hired to pretend to be a businessperson in an effort to get information about a company. In fact, Duke and Jenkins, the two men who had hired him, wanted him to get insider trading info.
Duke and Jenkins thought Macklin was a criminal mastermind. Little did they know that Macklin was actually a terrible stage actor. His best skill was his ability to get fired from community theater productions of Brigadoon.
Macklin had worked on this assignment for a few weeks and was now ready to secretly record his first meeting. Duke and Jenkins were miles away, listening in on the conversation. They would act on the information from the presentation as soon as they heard it so they could make the most money.
“The sound quality isn’t very good,” Jenkins said, as they sat in his office listening.
“Macklin must have hidden the tape recorder pretty well,” Duke said. They had no video, so they could only listen to the events unfold.
There was suddenly a lot of feedback over the recorder. Both Duke and Jenkins covered their ears.
“What are you doing, Macklin?” they heard over the recording.
Macklin responded. “I’ve misplaced my tape recorder.”
Jenkins and Duke froze. Were they about to go to jail on Macklin’s first assignment? The audio continued.
“Why do you need a tape recorder?”
“Oh, so my bosses can hear the conversation,” Macklin said. “I mean, you want everyone to be up to speed, right?”
Duke was in a panic in the office miles away. “What is he doing? This is insane.”
“Wait a minute,” Jenkins said, over the rustling of the recording. “This may be brilliant. Now he’s let everyone know that he’s recording. So it’s not a crime. Let’s see how it plays out.”
Macklin’s voice continued on the recording. “Here it is.”
Someone else said, “Good thinking, Macklin. I’m glad you’re looking out for all of us.”
In the other office, Jenkins smiled, and Duke looked stunned.
“We have stumbled on the greatest business espionage person imaginable,” Duke shouted, and the two men high-fived.