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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 116: Takano 120
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Cooper 37
Her clothing was suitable for a walk about town in the day, but barely so for a job interview. She had taken five seconds to wash her face to get off that chemical smell from the purple bands used by Sewer Savage, but she really still could have used that bath. Oh, well, she would just have to make do.
The car was nice, and very powerful. The driver was athletic, and rather easy on the eyes, and also married, if the solid heavy gold band on his finger was telling the truth. Thankfully, the driver did not smoke because her room had been a bit of a pain that way even if she was used to the campfire smoke. Lightly sliding about the back seat as the car took its turns through Downtown just below skidding, she looked out, sightseeing. Past Downtown, they moved into an industrial district, and soon enough were pulling up to a gate with a chainlink fence.
The guard recognized Mister Keller, and welcomed them all in to ‘Berkeley Business Systems’. He also mentioned something in a low tone of voice about a ‘wheelchair’ which made little sense to Tommy who could not hear clearly from the back seat. They took one of the premier spots near the front door of the twelve story building. Hopping out, Mister Keller had her door open before she expected it, and the whole manners thing was a bit startling, but she smiled and thanked him the same. Still, as he walked with ‘Uncle’ Brian to the front door, she thought she saw some skepticism in his eyes. Given the way he seemed to respect Brian, she did not think it was racial, so that left her sex, or her youth. Whatever the case was, she was confident in her skills. The local indigs did not even have tabletop personal computers, let alone laptops, or tablets, or cell phones.
A secretary fluttered, and had to be calmed down so that the trio could go on to the head of hiring. Just down the first hall and on the left they entered a room. It was walnut panelled and decorated with a number of pictures of Impressionist art. The man was dictating to a secretary, but when they entered his face clouded, and then cleared.
“Mister Keller, what brings you here?”
“Mister Randall, I have two individuals who I believe will offer unique advantages to our business, in the Research Department.”
“Well, excellent.”
“I don’t want to force you.”
“Of course not.”
Mister Keller told them he would be at the car waiting for them. As soon as he left, the hiring director pasted a false smile to his face. He assured them that it was wonderful to have them join the Research Department, and welcome to the company. Some details were clarified as to expected times of work, salaries, and other paperwork cleared up. It took but twenty minutes. He told them they would start tomorrow at nine sharp, and issued temporary company identification cards that were printed on cardboard with their names handwritten in ink and the initials of the director in one corner.
An impassive Barrelmaster said goodbye, and Tommy, a bit confused as they were walking out in the hallway, spoke.
“That was the easiest job interview I’ve ever heard of.”
“That is because it was not an interview. It was a foregone conclusion. Thing is, I do not think Mister Keller expected that either.”
“What does that mean?” Tommy could see what he meant, but he clearly had more experience with the adult corporate world than she did, even if he had it from a side angle view as an academic.
“Two things. One, everyone is going to think we’re useless. Friends of the boss who cannot do the work, or even want to work.”
Tommy drew in her breath. “Well, we will have to show them by working hard then.”
“Right. Also, it makes me wonder if this has happened before, perhaps with other board members. If so, it's not a good thing because timewasting drones drag a business down.”
From the left, a door opened and out came an austere looking man in a wheelchair. But while his oversized head, nearly twice as large as normal, or his thin legs under a blanket drew attention, as did the two fawning upper executives behind him who hurried to agree with him, what really caught the eye were his cold, gray, intent eyes that scanned them, cataloguing her and ‘Uncle’ Brian with astonishing speed.
“Your names?” He did not ask. He demanded.
“Brian Barrelmaster, sir.”
“Tomiko Takano, sir; call me Tommy,” and feeling greatly daring, she asked back, “Yours?”
His mouth twitched. It was not a smile. She was not sure what it was.
“Doctor Janus Cutter. Lead investor in this company with 27% of the stock, and a place on the board.” Behind him, the two executives looked gray and appalled.
“Very impressive, sir,” and not sure why, but perhaps because of her Japanese family courtesy, she added a “Sorry, sir.” He rolled his chair forward, and they had to jump back.
“I hope you will do better on your first full day here, Miss Takano,” he said over his shoulder as he impatiently waited for one of the executives to go forward and open the outer door for him. Once he left, she slumped into the wall.
“I feel like I just totally messed up,” she confessed to Brian who was looking very impassive and still.
“No, miss, um, Miss Tacky”, one of the other men said. “Doctor Cutter is extremely brilliant, but he’s keen to make you feel like you failed, so as to motivate you to work harder. I took me three years to figure out his methods, and while they work, they are brutal. I still have nightmares about some of the times he ripped into me for something I had supposedly failed at.”
One of the executives who had been fawning on Doctor Cutter was a baby-faced man in his sixties with less hair than Brian. He smiled down at her commiseratingly. She looked over at Brian, and he nodded.
“We had an assistant dean at my college who tried that, too. It did not take long for the college president to fire him.” The three older men shared a companionably weary smile which faintly annoyed Tommy, not realizing she had done much the same thing with her age and sex cohort just a couple hours ago at the Tub O’Suds with Kelly Anne.
Relieved, Tommy corrected the man’s mistake of her name, and found out he was George Williams, Vice President of Production. With a welcoming handshake, he left them to ‘go unscramble some problem on the factory floor’ as he said. The other men waved and went another way. The two went back out to the Caddy, and Keller took them back to The Paris. On the way they mentioned the encounter, and Keller grunted.
“He’s brilliant, really. Has at least four doctorates I know of. But we lost a top-flight researcher last year because the man said ‘I can survive on half the pay and none of the abuse better than on all the pay and all the abuse’. Still, I own fourteen percent, so if he causes too much trouble, call me.”
Feeling better, she went back to her cabin, and took the delayed bath. More food followed, and precision training with her kawanaga as she shifted her holds on the weapon in her hand behind the cabin in the twilight. It was more mentally challenging than physically. This dexterity exercise was followed by watching a Western movie.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
