J. Gonzalez - The Corporation

“Was she… one of them ?”

There was a pause on the line. Then, softly, Alan said, “Yes. I found that out later. Five years into our relationship Susan started working with Corporate Financial on a huge project and was gone for months at a time with them. Once I started piecing things together on my own, I put two and two together. And… I realized it was mid-way through our time together that she began to… to turn… into one of them . And I… I didn’t even notice !”

Michelle felt the hairs along the back of her arm bristle. “You think she was trying to turn you at the time?”

“I don’t know,” Alan said quickly. “I really don’t think so… I met enough of those consultants at the time that I’m sure they tried to get to me but… I just don’t know.”

“So how long’s it been since you haven’t been with Susan?” Michelle asked.

“Six years,” Alan said, quietly.

“I’m sorry.”

“Thank you.” There was another short pause and then Alan said, “When I started finding out what’s going on, it just made me more determined to fight them. They took the love of my life, totally destroyed her, and they’ve done it to so many other people who don’t have a clue to what’s going on or what’s really happened to their loved ones. I’m going to stop them.”

Michelle understood where Alan was coming from. If she were in his shoes she’d feel the same way, but part of her was a little afraid of what was happening. Every time she stopped to think about the scope of this thing, it terrified her.

“So what are we doing today?” Michelle asked.

“Lay low and rest,” Alan said. “Try not to go out today if you can. Order room service. Punch up some movies on the TV. You can put it on your expense account.”

Michelle laughed.

“Aside from that, if Gary Lawrence or anybody at Corporate Financial tries to contact you today and get you to work, politely beg off. And tomorrow come prepared to step back into the role.”

“Do you know what’s planned for tomorrow?”

“No.” Alan sounded a little concerned about this. “I have my suspicions, though. I plan to be at this first meeting. In fact, I requested to Sam that I want to be on this project with you. There’s a good chance that tomorrow will simply be a preliminary meeting and they’ll send you home after that.”

“You think so?” Michelle didn’t want to get her hopes up.

“It’s possible. I can’t promise it, but…” There was that hesitation again. “I don’t know how to describe it. It’s just… I didn’t really see the need for them to call you out here so quickly for this particular client unless Sam and Gary had something specific in mind.”

“Like what?”

Alan sighed. “I don’t know. And I don’t want to speculate more without doing some more digging.”

Michelle couldn’t help but feel a twinge of unease at the sound of Alan’s voice. After promising to stay in her room and get as much rest as possible and limit her phone calls from the LAN line inside the room, they ended the conversation and Michelle finished dressing. By the time she finished it was well after one o’clock and she was ravenous. After a quick consultation with the room service menu, she ordered a roast beef sandwich, a chef salad with ranch dressing, and a bottle of Evian water, and relaxed on the bed with the news.

The lead news story grabbed her attention. In what was being described as the worst incident of workplace violence in the United States, Victor Adams, a distraught thirty-seven year old former employee of Free State Insurance Company, went on a rampage Friday morning at the corporate headquarters of his former employer, killing the entire executive staff and over a dozen other people, most of them described as upper-manager types. He’d arrived at the building armed with various semi-assault rifles, semi-automatic pistols, and several hundred rounds of ammunition. The rampage had caused pure pandemonium at the sprawling corporate headquarters of the insurance giant, which was located in Orange County, California. “I just hid under the desk of my cubicle,” a frightened-looking dark-haired woman told the news anchor during one of the news broadcasts. “He passed right by me. He actually walked down every aisle of my department like he was looking for specific people. He wasn’t just shooting everybody, he was targeting upper management.”

Michelle picked up her cellular phone and dialed Donald’s cell number, unable to completely turn her attention away from the coverage. When he answered she blurted out, “Did you hear about that guy who killed all those people in California?”

“Yes, I did,” Donald said. “Jay and I have been following it.”

“Free State is one of Corporate Financial Consultant’s clients,” Michelle said. Everything she had not wanted to believe was now crashing down heavily on her, weighing in with its stark reality.

“That’s what we figured,” Donald said. She heard Jay in the background and then Donald came back on the line. “Listen, Jay is going out to an electronics store for some stuff. Think you can sneak away for an hour or two later this evening?”

“If I can, I’d like to.” She’d do anything now to see Donald and hold him in her arms.

“Can you give me Alan’s cell number? I’d like to talk to him.”

“Sure.” Michelle retrieved the number from her daytimer and rattled it off to him. “He knows you’re here by the way. I told him this morning.”

“Good. Jay wants to talk to him, too.”

“I’m scared.” Michelle felt the first crumbles of fear start to tear into her.

“I know, honey. We’re going to do everything we can to find out what the hell’s going wrong.”

“I can just quit,” she said quickly. “I don’t need this job, I can get another job somewhere else. I won’t make as much money, but—”

“But it isn’t about the job anymore,” Donald said. “It goes a lot deeper than that now.”

The wall crumbled faster. Michelle drew in a breath and nodded, realizing he was right. “I’m just so scared. I never wanted any of this… never wanted to play a part in this… this… whatever this is ! I never even wanted a career in the corporate world! You know that! I just want to live quietly and not have any trouble and be happy and be with you and… and that’s it ! I just don’t want to deal with this!”

“I don’t want to deal with it either, but we have to,” Donald said, his voice soothing and calming. “They’re getting stronger. You feel that, don’t you?”

Michelle nodded. “Yes.”

“The things I’ve seen in Health Care, what you’ve seen throughout the business world, what we’re seeing happening throughout the country… this is big stuff, hon. It’s just the tip of the iceberg. Jay and I did a lot of talking last night and we did some research on the Internet this morning. Corporate Financial has worked in some capacity with almost every major corporation in the country. I looked into the corporate profits and CEO bonuses for all these companies and found out that all of the top executives nearly quadrupled their pay within the past decade while company profits remained stagnant. That’s pretty significant, don’t you think?”

“It is,” Michelle said. “Alan and Rachel told me some stuff last night that is just… mind boggling.”

“Who’s Rachel?”

“A woman who’s on our side.” Michelle gave Donald a quick recap of her conversation with Alan and Rachel late last night. Donald was silent as she spun the tale out, and when she got to the part about Hubert Marstein’s occult interests she thought he would scoff; he didn’t. “I know it sounds silly,” she said. “But… well, shit, Jay will admit it! Some of these people we were working with weren’t… alive ! I mean, they acted like they were alive but they were like… animated or something. Like they were being controlled . And I felt that way about Dennis Harrington and Alma Smith.”