J. Gonzalez - The Corporation

“Background checks? Psychological profiles?”

“It’s done on every candidate who applies for a position with Corporate Financial. You aren’t even aware of it. They probe into your financial records, do criminal record checks, perform light surveillance. What they witnessed was a more or less single woman in a committed relationship who is dedicated to her work. You fooled them well.”

Michelle didn’t know what to say. She usually pulled out all the stops whenever she interviewed for a position, and she always kept her private life very well hidden. Her personal life wasn’t her employer’s business. Personal references were always limited to former co-workers, never personal friends or family members. “So they snooped on me. What did they find out?”

“The same thing I told you when I revealed my undercover nature to you yesterday,” Alan said. “I got a look at the file they compiled on you.”

Michelle didn’t know whether to be furious or afraid; she let the matter drop and plunged ahead. “Fine. So now you and they know every detail of my personal life. What else do you want to know? How many times I’ve smoked pot or how many extra-marital affairs I’ve had?”

Alan ignored the question and remained focused. “The important part to remember is they think you fit their bill. You have an immense talent at playing the role of the obsessed corporate worker. You make other white-collar professionals who are obsessed with their work and nothing else feel vindicated in their obsessiveness, that they can trust you, you’re like them . They take you into their confidence. When you perform your duties to their expectations, they’re happy. When you perform your duties and behave like them you earn their respect. This has happened with the higher echelon of Corporate Financial, who have come to regard you as one of them. They want you to become one of them, and for that you must go to California to undergo immersion.”

“But that’s what I don’t understand,” Michelle said. She moved away from the desk, away from the laptop and began pacing the room. “ You obviously fooled them! Why do they want me?”

Alan’s voice was low, serious. “How long has it been since you’ve seen or heard from your parents, Michelle?”

Michelle froze; she felt her skin bristle. “Does this have anything to do with my parents?”

“In a way, yes,” Alan said. Michelle detected hesitancy in his voice.

“They want me because my parents…” The words were hard to come by; Michelle tried to formulate her thoughts but her emotions were overriding. She took a deep breath to compose her thoughts. “It’s my parent’s, isn’t it? My parents are… immersed … is that what you call it?”

“That’s right,” Alan said.

“What does… this mean? Immersion?”

“It means you become one with the company,” Alan said. It sounded like he was choosing his words carefully. “You become part of it, they become part of you. It’s like… you become an extension of the company, a perfect worker bee who exists solely to live and work for the company and sustain its life force. Like I said, not every consultant becomes immersed, and not every employee of Corporate Financial’s client companies become immersed. Those that don’t become… well, they become slaves.”

“Slaves,” Michelle whispered.

“Yes, Michelle. Slaves.”

“But surely there’s some people who don’t put up with that kind of bullshit. People quit their jobs all the time due to over-demanding bosses and exploitive labor practices.”

“Yes they do. But that’s all going to come to an end soon.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s pending legislation in the House and Senate that will tip the scales very heavily in the favor large corporations over their employees. Much of this legislation has been passed little by little over the last ten years—repealing overtime pay for non-clerical and non white-collar office workers a few years ago was one of them. There’ve been others over the years that appear less obvious, but one of the bills currently before Congress will be even more sweeping. It will guarantee that if an employee voluntarily leaves his place of employment or is fired for any kind of disciplinary action including failure to perform his or her duties to the satisfaction of the company, other companies can bar them from employment. Of course this would be at the other employer’s discretion.”

Michelle was adding this all up in her head and found the implications horrifying. “But that would be…”

“Illegal? Not really. Our government is being influenced by them, so they’re changing the laws to benefit them. Horrifying? A form of blacklisting? Sure. It would also essentially force people to remain in their positions, otherwise they’d have no source of income. Of course, lots of people are self-employed or work at small companies away from Corporate Financial’s influence. They won’t be affected… at least not yet. But the people who work at companies that will be affected? Should they leave or be fired they would be unable to find a job at another firm because by the time this legislation goes into effect, every company in the United States, large and small, will be controlled by Corporate Financial Consultants and will be not only using their methods, but will themselves be immersed.”

The dread Michelle was feeling now had never felt so heavy. It felt like the weight of the world was crashing down on her, smothering her. Part of her wanted to just end it all now, pack up her stuff, call Donald, tell him she was leaving Chicago, driving back to Pennsylvania and getting her stuff and fleeing somewhere, anywhere, away from the madness of the twenty-first century with all its global-speak and emphasis on twenty-four seven. But another part of her insisted that this was her fight, that it had been her fight since she was a child and was forced to grow up in a loveless home while her parents worked and slaved away at jobs that brought stability and a roof over their heads but nothing else—no love, no emotional security, no sense of warmth or human kindness. It was her fight now because she had been thrust into this environment at an early age, right after high school, and had been forced to endure the icy tone of her mother’s voice when she learned she was pregnant with Alanis, had lived through hearing her mother tell her to get rid of her unborn daughter lest it ruin her career with the company. It was her fight because she had seen the light shortly after losing Alanis that the great monolithic machines of corporations, those entities that were human-powered, had lost something. It was no longer a goal to make money and turn a profit. It was no longer enough to simply do well in business and serve your customers and community. It was no longer enough to strive to be the best you can be in your chosen industry. Now companies had to encompass all, had to control all, including the very people that had created them and worked at making them what they were.

She thought about what Alan and Rachel told her last night, about Hubert Marstein’s supposed occult interests and she shuddered. She imagined Frank Marstein carrying out his father’s will somewhere in some isolated mansion, praying to some dark god in order to gain even more riches, more control. As a strict Agnostic, Michelle didn’t believe in a literal devil or even in God for that matter. But she always had a firm belief in the spiritual life and had always felt that it was neither benign or malignant. It could either do harm or good, depending on the will of the person who believed. Certain people had negative vibes and positive ones; she’d met enough people over the years from all walks of life who exhibited both. If Frank Marstein had poured enough of his negative energy into some kind of force that was strong enough, and had surrounded himself with people with similar dark agendas, wouldn’t that feed off one another and grow in time? And by utilizing whatever training methods—immersion or whatever it was Alan Perkins called it—couldn’t that be like some form of mind control? Brain-washing even?