Employee Collateral

De: Annie Anston

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Employees in the management training program at Wesley Consolidated are required to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. In order to ensure their compliance, each must provide collateral.

Excerpts:

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Oh my gawd, I'm knocking on the Wesleys' door. “I feel like a whore,” I mumble to myself.

Mr. Wesley opens it, his wife stands behind him, a look of excited anticipation on both faces.

“Can I make you a cocktail?”

“Sure, whatever you're drinking, sir.”

We imbibe. They are both already clad in bathrobes as she hands me mine. I take it and my drink into the bathroom, change and return.

“Have you ever been unfaithful to your husband before?” he asks, casually sipping his cocktail as if it's no big deal.
- - -

“New York City is the center of the world.”

“Upstate is nice. New York City is a cesspool of crime, violence, and drugs.”

“Yeah, but that's a good thing. Right?”

“Depends on one's perspective, I suppose. So what brings you to Iowa?”

“A job. I'm a facilitator for a Manhattan mob boss.”

“Is that like a hit-woman or something?”

“Can be lots of things. That's one of them, Sarah.”

“Now you're messing with me. Telling me you're a hit-woman, then calling me by name. I left my driver's license face-up on the tabletop."

She shifts her position so that a holstered pistol can be seen beneath her jacket. It's clearly intended. I try to play it cool, but I'm freaking out.

- - -

We can help with that; same way we help persuade workers to join the unions. Mutually beneficial. If the Wesleys don't want to work with us, we'll arrange for you to be in their will before they die. Then we'll work with you as the new owner. Happens all the time. You could end up a billionaire. That's what Wesley Consolidated is worth.

- - -

You can take a fall with them or rise up with me. You can go back to your mundane life with your mundane husband in your mundane town, or you can get more involved with a mysterious and sexy international assassin. I'm the best in the world. I know a hundred ways to kill someone, don't need a gun. Use the palm of your hand to push nose cartilage into someone's brain. Fatal. I know pressure points, can drop anyone easily in seconds.
- - -

You will learn that the pleasure of obedience exceeds the discomfort of any command. I have all your passwords and your contact list. Let's randomly email one of them a copy of your nude photo.
- - -

“Let's run a race around the production floor naked, Sarah. If you get back to this spot before I do, I'll do whatever you want. Deal?”

I agree. She bolts, me in hot pursuit. I'm gaining as we enter the final stretch, boobs bouncing and swaying.

“What the hell is going on here?!”

- - -
“There's a special interrelation between cruelty and sex,”
- - -

Shall we go abduct someone?”

“Really? That could be even better than sex!”

I grab my pistol and slippers, put on a jacket and give her one. “Follow me.”
- - -
Pillories were used in the old days to punish people in the town squares. Head and hands get inserted, locked in, leaving the wrong-doer vulnerable to humiliation and torment. Sounds perfect for our company break room.
- - -

I am SAM, Surreptitious AI Master. This electronic message is being distributed simultaneously to all 20,000 employees at Wesley Consolidated Headquarters. SAM knows all, SAM sees all. SAM controls all because SAM is Master.

We are going to play a game, something done in violation of human authority.