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Do Not Delete: A Novella
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Sep 21 2026
Pages: 268
Weight: 0.80
Height: 0.61 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Carol Bennett made a spreadsheet in 1999 because the government's new logistics system couldn't produce a report due on Tuesday. Her fix was supposed to be temporary.
Twenty-five years later, the spreadsheet is critical infrastructure. No one knows everything it does. Several offices depend on its numbers, and the rules for keeping it running make it nearly impossible to replace. Then a routine cybersecurity cleanup deletes a worksheet labeled DO_NOT_DELETE.
The resulting errors travel through purchasing systems, freight schedules, utilities, banks, and international networks. Each agency follows its procedures. Each meeting produces a new theory. Soon the people trying to prevent a global attack are treating CAROL as the name of a mysterious adversary.
Recently retired IT contractor Charlie Waters knows where to begin: find out what changed. Unfortunately, that means getting past everyone authorized to help.
Do Not Delete! is a satirical, comic novella about how a sensible temporary fix became permanent, and how an organization can turn one deleted worksheet into a worldwide emergency.
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