you to. Could you please give me the next proposals going out?"
Anne nodded abruptly and left the office.
Matt steeled his facial expression. The glass walls between his office and the rest of the people working here had seemed a good way to provide soundproofing for business talks in his office while maintaining a sense of unity in the firm. Right now, Matt wished he had real walls to hide behind.
Anne came in, put a number of portfolios on his desk, and left again, never saying a word. Matt sighed again and bent over his work.
***
On his way to the nearby parking lot after work, Matt met a guy who worked in the same building. They had had lunch together a couple of times, and the man was gushing when he saw Matt.
"I can't believe that you're back! It's really good to see you. I guess the rumors were wrong, then?" Steve looked inquiringly at Matt.
"Well, I don't know what the rumors were." Matt could imagine, though.
"That you had been harvested. God, I'm so glad you weren't subjected to that. The poor bastards who come back aren't human anymore."
"I was taken." Matt knew he sounded brusque. "They let me go again."
"Really?" Steve looked vaguely confused. "Well, I guess we have to celebrate. Let's have lunch one of these days."
Matt tried to smile. "Sure." There was always the chance that Steve didn't talk to any of Matt's employees.
***
The weeks went by, and Matt started realizing how his new life was going to be. The big eye-opener was Shaun's sabotage.
Perhaps against his better judgment, he had hoped that his employees had just been surprised or scared when they found out what had happened to Matt. Maybe it would clear up when they got back to normal and everybody found out that Matt was still just Matt.
So Matt kept coming into the office with a polite smile on his face, saying good morning to everybody he met. He never got an answer, though.
Then, one morning he checked a proposal one last time before sending it out, mostly looking for any misspellings. He had done almost all of the design work on this before he was harvested, and he had just had time to find the drawings and ask Shaun to do the technical specifications in order to make the deadline. It was a great project, and he thought he had a very good chance of winning it.
But not with these numbers in it. The specifications were wrong. At first, he thought it was just a typo. Then he found another, and then another. They weren't innocent, either; they made his proposal appear fifty percent more expensive than it really was. It was enough to get it turned down by the number crunchers before it even got to the architectural committee.
Matt groaned and hit his head in his hands. This was not only his junior architect being hostile toward him. This was deliberate sabotage.
He called Shaun into his office; he still felt he owed his employee a chance to explain what the man had done. Deep down, he still hoped it had been a mistake on Shaun's side.
Shaun just shrugged. "It's not a big deal. Just a couple of wrong numbers."
"It was a couple of wrong numbers that would cost us a potentially big assignment. And they weren't a mistake. You're far too good for that." Matt tried to be patient, to reason with him.
Shaun looked at Matt with cold eyes. "Then you'll just have to build houses for your alien friends instead, won't you?"
Matt slumped. "Shaun, does it really have to be like this? We were friends!" He knew he was close to begging, but he couldn't help it.
The humiliation got all the worse when Shaun just shrugged. "I guess it does. I'm not about to help someone who associates with those creeps."
There wasn't much else to do after that except to fire the junior architect. Matt couldn't risk one of his employees sabotaging any other jobs. If they got any assignments at all -- Matt had encountered a distinct hostility when he had called the mayor's office to confirm some details about a job they'd already won. They had signed the
Anne nodded abruptly and left the office.
Matt steeled his facial expression. The glass walls between his office and the rest of the people working here had seemed a good way to provide soundproofing for business talks in his office while maintaining a sense of unity in the firm. Right now, Matt wished he had real walls to hide behind.
Anne came in, put a number of portfolios on his desk, and left again, never saying a word. Matt sighed again and bent over his work.
***
On his way to the nearby parking lot after work, Matt met a guy who worked in the same building. They had had lunch together a couple of times, and the man was gushing when he saw Matt.
"I can't believe that you're back! It's really good to see you. I guess the rumors were wrong, then?" Steve looked inquiringly at Matt.
"Well, I don't know what the rumors were." Matt could imagine, though.
"That you had been harvested. God, I'm so glad you weren't subjected to that. The poor bastards who come back aren't human anymore."
"I was taken." Matt knew he sounded brusque. "They let me go again."
"Really?" Steve looked vaguely confused. "Well, I guess we have to celebrate. Let's have lunch one of these days."
Matt tried to smile. "Sure." There was always the chance that Steve didn't talk to any of Matt's employees.
***
The weeks went by, and Matt started realizing how his new life was going to be. The big eye-opener was Shaun's sabotage.
Perhaps against his better judgment, he had hoped that his employees had just been surprised or scared when they found out what had happened to Matt. Maybe it would clear up when they got back to normal and everybody found out that Matt was still just Matt.
So Matt kept coming into the office with a polite smile on his face, saying good morning to everybody he met. He never got an answer, though.
Then, one morning he checked a proposal one last time before sending it out, mostly looking for any misspellings. He had done almost all of the design work on this before he was harvested, and he had just had time to find the drawings and ask Shaun to do the technical specifications in order to make the deadline. It was a great project, and he thought he had a very good chance of winning it.
But not with these numbers in it. The specifications were wrong. At first, he thought it was just a typo. Then he found another, and then another. They weren't innocent, either; they made his proposal appear fifty percent more expensive than it really was. It was enough to get it turned down by the number crunchers before it even got to the architectural committee.
Matt groaned and hit his head in his hands. This was not only his junior architect being hostile toward him. This was deliberate sabotage.
He called Shaun into his office; he still felt he owed his employee a chance to explain what the man had done. Deep down, he still hoped it had been a mistake on Shaun's side.
Shaun just shrugged. "It's not a big deal. Just a couple of wrong numbers."
"It was a couple of wrong numbers that would cost us a potentially big assignment. And they weren't a mistake. You're far too good for that." Matt tried to be patient, to reason with him.
Shaun looked at Matt with cold eyes. "Then you'll just have to build houses for your alien friends instead, won't you?"
Matt slumped. "Shaun, does it really have to be like this? We were friends!" He knew he was close to begging, but he couldn't help it.
The humiliation got all the worse when Shaun just shrugged. "I guess it does. I'm not about to help someone who associates with those creeps."
There wasn't much else to do after that except to fire the junior architect. Matt couldn't risk one of his employees sabotaging any other jobs. If they got any assignments at all -- Matt had encountered a distinct hostility when he had called the mayor's office to confirm some details about a job they'd already won. They had signed the
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