The Corporation

EPILOGUE

JESSICA WILLIAMS COULDN’T wait to tell Diana Early about her date with Micah Walters Monday morning.

Jessica stepped into Diana’s office quietly and closed the door. Diana looked up from the spreadsheet she was working on and grinned. “Well, how was it?”

“You won’t believe it,” Jessica sat down in one of the two chairs in front of Diana’s desk. She was a temporary employee Handy Supplies had hired to perform some general clerical work over the summer while she was on summer break from University. Diana was the company payroll administrator. Jessica had accepted a date with Micah Walters, who had been with the company as an Assistant Operations Manager for six months.

“So, what happened?” Diana asked, gushing to hear the news.

When Jessica told her Diana’s smile faded.

They’d gone to dinner and the only topic of conversation Micah seemed to want to talk about was work. How he’d saved the company x number of dollars by launching his new initiative; how his supervisor had recommended he be on the new committee for the redesign of the data warehouse; how he was working weekends and nights to facilitate his operation reorganization plans. Diana couldn’t believe it. “All he talked about was work?”

Jessica nodded. Her pretty features bore a look of disappointment. Last week when she told Diana that Micah had asked her out she was excited. She thought Micah was handsome and she was very attracted to him. Now that enthusiasm was zapped. “It wasn’t what I would call a romantic weekend at all,” she said.

“So what happened after dinner?”

Jessica gave her the rundown. Micah seemed uninterested in her sexually and every time Jessica tried to interest him in another topic—what school he’d gone to, his family, favorite movies or music or something—Micah steered the conversation back to his work with Handy. At one point, Jessica said, he even asked her why she didn’t consider her job so important. “Why would he say that?” Diana asked.

“Because I wasn’t talking about it,” Jessica said. She leaned forward. “And get this. He… well, it ended badly. He made me walk home from the restaurant and—”

“He made you walk home?” Diana’s eyebrows raised in shock.

“—he said he was going to have a talk with Mary about me,” Jessica said. Now she looked nervous. “He said I should be a more devoted employee; that I should be concerned about our position in the marketplace and be a team player and—”

“What a bunch of bullshit!” Diana said; she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“And he said he was going to have a talk with Mary about me first thing Monday,” Jessica said.

Now Diana knew why Jessica looked so nervous, and she tried to calm the girl’s fears. Mary was the Accounting Manager. “What he says to Mary isn’t going to do anything,” she said. “I mean, you’re a temp! Everybody knows you’re only here for the summer and when the Fall Semester starts, you’re back to school. Besides, we all like your work. There’s no way Mary will—”

“He said he was going to recommend to Mary that I either quit school and come on board as a full-time employee, or be fired,” Jessica said.

Diana was getting angry. She’d had no opinion of Micah when he first came on board, but now she felt a supreme hatred for him. She knew he’d been hired six months ago, that he used to be a consultant from that firm that was in the news a year ago, the one that got blown up. He’d worked out of their Detroit office and left voluntarily before it was eventually shut down. “If Mary says anything to you, come to me,” Diana said. “I’ll vouch for you. Don’t worry; nothing will happen. Mary will just humor him and then—”

Suddenly the door to Diana’s office flew open and there was Mary Fulmer and Micah Walters.

Diana was startled by the sudden intrusion. Jessica glanced up, a look of guilt on her face. Don’t look guilty, Diana thought. You haven’t done anything wrong, for God’s sakes.

Mary took a step inside the office. “Jessica, Micah told me about your dinner engagement Saturday evening and I must say I am most disappointed.”

Jessica opened her mouth to say something. Mary continued. “Micah recommends we dismiss you from the company unless you are willing to quit school and come on board full-time.”

“What?” Diana practically yelled.

“Umm…” Jessica said, nervous and squirming uncomfortably in her seat.

Mary ignored Diana’s outburst. “What will it be, Jessica.”

“You can’t make her quit school! Are you out of your mind?” Diana was practically shouting now.

Mary looked at Diana. “You’re fired. Get out!”

Diana gasped. The expression on Mary’s face was one of emptiness; it was like she was talking to a robot.

Mary turned back to Jessica. “I’d like an answer.”

“I can’t quit now,” Jessica said. “I still have two more years.”

“Then you can leave,” Mary said. “Handy is no longer in need of your services.”

Diana Early and Jessica Williams left Handy Supplies together that day and went to a bar on State Street. They spent most of the morning and afternoon drinking and venting their anger and frustration over what happened to them at work.

Back at Handy, Mary Fulmer and Micah Williams outlined the presentation they planned to present at the emergency employee staff meeting. They’d been planning this the past two days now, ever since Micah had infiltrated the company. Already he’d sunk his hooks into all of the executive staff; Mary was the first member of management to be influenced by him. She was working on the Manager of Engineering now and hoped to have him under control shortly. She was sure employees would start questioning the sudden dismissal of Diana and Jessica but that was par for the course. Trimming dead wood early would be beneficial for the company. The plan she and Micah were to present to the staff that afternoon was even more crucial. Mary had a feeling that it would be met by protest, but if they didn’t like it they could go elsewhere. After all, if they intended to remain employed by Handy they would need to be dedicated employees, not only when they were on duty from eight to five, but twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The Human Resource manager had already sent two associates to the homes of several Handy employees to confiscate various items—televisions, stereos, books, games. Engaging in the consumption of any media unrelated to Handy business was now officially prohibited even when it was conducted on the employee’s own property (another initiative was currently being carried out in stealth mode—the takeover of all mortgages and property deeds held by Handy employees; if employees were paying mortgages from funds made while employed by Handy, then the property was really owned by the company). One must eat, drink, and sleep Handy business.

It was the only way to stay competitive in the global marketplace.

While elsewhere in the world, business continued on as usual.