Page 19 of Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World
Finally, Ms.Crenshaw observed, “These employees were from Human Resources, were they not?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Did you know them?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And do they deserve to be flayed alive for the next hundred millennia, do you think?” she asked with idle curiosity.
For the first time, I looked her straight in the eye. “Yes, ma’am.”
She held my gaze for a long time while I sweated under my cardigan. “Well then,” she said at last, “I suppose we’ll need to notify Ms.Kettering that her department now has two vacancies.”
Swaying a little, I said hoarsely, “I’ll let her know.”
“Good.” She paused. “How did it feel?”
I blinked at her. “Ma’am?”
“You told me recently that there were people who needed to pay,” Ms.Crenshaw said quietly. “How did it feel?”
The Stygites had been a nightmare to manage. We’d spent anexhausting couple of hours repeatedly telling them to keep their oozing, taloned hands to themselves and foiling several attempted abductions of unwitting employees. Actually, I’d done most of the foiling. The folks from HR had mainly cowered and whimpered after one of the Stygites took a chunk out of Beverly’s lank hair and smelled it while staring at her. Another had seemed to take a perverse pleasure in caressing the curved, smoking knives hanging from what was almost certainly a belt of human skin while making guttural noises at Gerald. By the time we’d escorted the delegates back to Transportation and the gateway waiting there, all three of my former colleagues looked to be on the brink of nervous collapse.
I hadn’t planned what happened next. All I’d wanted was to make them squirm while driving home the point that I was a Class 4-A Executive Assistant (Probationary). As I stood in Transportation, though, watching the Stygites proceed through the gateway and back to their horrifying domain, something dark and wild had risen inside me. I didn’t hesitate or question it—I’d simply placed one hand on Andrea’s back, the other on Gerald’s, and shoved them through that gateway right before it snapped shut.
They hadn’t even had time to scream.
I replayed those events a couple of times as I considered Ms.Crenshaw’s question. Then I smiled. “It felt good.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” She watched me steadily. “Exercising power in pursuit of personal goals certainly aligns with this company’s ethos, Colin, but be careful. Culling too many Class 5s might put our quarterly targets at risk, and if that happens, I’m afraid we’ll have to revisit the terms of your employment.”
“I promise to keep my culling to a minimum,” I assured her hastily.
“Very well.” She turned her attention to her computer screen,remarking as she did so, “You’re off to a strong start here. Let’s keep up the momentum.”
Half an hour later, Iwas on the subway, lost in thought. I kept expecting to feel bad about what I’d done to Andrea and Gerald, but I didn’t. Not even a little bit. This struck me as somewhat worrying. Didn’t that mean I was a psychopath? Brow furrowed, I stared out the window and considered the possibility that I was some kind of amoral monster. I certainly didn’tfeellike a psychopath. Instead, I felt…righteous. Strong. I’d turned the tables on my tormenters, and now they would suffer an eternity of unimaginable pain and terror. Unfortunately, Beverly had run screaming after the others disappeared, but that was okay. Maybe I’d start dropping by HR every few days, just to see her face when she found me standing there.
The train shuddered to a halt at Cathedral Parkway and I watched normal people mill around the platform, hurrying this way and that in the midst of their mundane lives. I’d catapulted myself onto the thirteenth floor out of desperation, following the vague promise of something better than what I had. Today, though, had been an unveiling of possibilities. Barney Samuels had enjoyed whole centuries of privilege and power, and now he snapped his fingers and had whatever he wanted. All it took was spilling a little blood, making a sacrifice or two. And as for me—how had Ms.Crenshaw put it? I’dexercised power. I’d used my new position to achieve something I’d dreamed of for a long, long time.
This is just the beginning, I thought, my whole body tingling with excitement. I just hoped the world lasted long enough for me to enjoy it.
Ten
I slept poorly that night.When I wasn’t tossing and turning, my dreams were vivid expeditions into the darkest corners of my imagination. Over and over again, I watched as thin white fingers pulled Amira into a yawning expanse of shadows while she screamed my name, and beneath this repeated horror were peals of low, hollow laughter that echoed and re-echoed until it was all I could hear.
When I finally jerked awake for the last time, sweaty and gasping, I groaned when I saw what time it was. I had to get ready for work. Shuffling past Amira’s bedroom on my way to take a shower, I hesitated in front of her closed door. I wanted to barge in there, make sure she was okay, give her a hug, and confess everything. But I couldn’t. Instead, before I left the apartment, I opened a drawer in my crappy IKEA desk and pawed through several layers of junk until I found the silvery disc I’d taken from the floor of the elevator after freeing the Thing. My skin crawled as I touched its bloody surface. I was certain it held answers, if only I could figure them out.Maybe then I could fix what I’d done before anyone found out, and put my nightmares to rest.
It took real effort to close my hand around the disc. Then I shoved it into my pocket and hurried from the apartment.
Once again, someone kept staring at me on the subway, though it wasn’t that tall man with the steel-rimmed glasses. This time it was a nondescript white woman with blond hair in a braid coiled tightly on the back of her head. She kept shifting so that I was always in her line of sight, and didn’t take her eyes off me for my entire commute. It was unnerving, but I didn’t see her follow me off the train, so I managed to put it out of my mind by the time I reached Dark Enterprises.
The morning was fairly slow. Ms.Crenshaw took a meeting with a well-known US senator who left her office with the haunted expression often worn by first-time clients. I escorted him back to the elevators and waited awkwardly for one to arrive while he sobbed quietly next to me. When I returned to my desk, the imposing Chief of Security was standing in Ms.Crenshaw’s office, hands clasped behind her back. “—not sure what’s happening,” she was saying, “but local authorities are growing concerned.”
“How many people are missing?” my boss asked.
“Fifty-four, all within the last few days. Even for New York, that’s unusual.”
A shiver went through me as I listened.
