The Misplaced Man: Who is in charge of his destiny?

by Nick James

I gave a chuckle. ‘It’s a hell of a view out there,’ I said with a winning grin, but he just hummed while twirling a business card in his fingers.

  ‘Anyway, I'll take you out to your team in a minute to meet your team leader and his staff,’ Mike said calmly before walking over to his window and staring at the view while humming again.

  This bloke’s off his meds, I thought. While he wasn’t looking, I had a cheeky look at the business card on his desk that he had been playing with.

  Mai Lee, Fixer

  Flying Dragon Traders Inc.

  Hong Kong – United Kingdom

  Thank you for a wonderful night. See you soon,

  Mai xx

  Once again, Mike seemed to snap out of his trance. ‘Right, Sam, the day is cracking on.’ He then promptly clapped his hands together and walked out of his office.

  I followed him, taking everything in. It wasn’t like the usual offices I had worked in. Each team had their own smaller office with one team leader and five other staff members. The one thing that stuck out was the grey; everything was the same soul-destroying grey.

  My heart cracked knowing that I had signed up to working here. Bunny had better be wearing a thong, I thought as Mike stopped outside room D.

  ‘Here we are, Sam, your new home,’ he said with a maniac’s grin.

  Dick, I thought and watched the door creak open like all good horror movies. If Michael Myers is behind this door, fuck Bunny’s deal. I’m bailing.

  ‘Richard,’ Mike called out, making a little guy with glasses stand up. ‘This is your new team member, Sam Blades.’ He smiled as the little man scuttled around, who was no taller than Bunny, had a potbelly and grey, thinning hair.

  ‘Nice to meet you, sir,’ I said shaking his hand.

  ‘None of that “sir” stuff around here, son. Just call me Richard,’ he said happily.

  ‘Well, Richard, I’ll leave him in your capable…’ Mike then just wandered off humming without even finishing the sentence.

  Richard shrugged and turned back to me. ‘Like I said, I’m Richard Dreyfuss and this is my team.’

  My mind screamed, what the fuck did he just say? No, no, no, no, can’t be. It’s not fair.

  We walked around the office where there were three men and one woman.

  ‘Okay, we have Emily Stewart, Mark Wayward, Simon Edwards and Dwayne Hicks,’ Richard introduced.

  After some quick greetings, he steered me to a desk next to his and the Wayward bloke, who strangely winked at me.

  I was placed in between Hooper aka Dreyfuss and ‘Mr Winky’ and opposite Hicks. Sorry, Bunny, I can think it, just can’t say it.

  ‘Right, we have set up your email account. You can email for non-business, but—’ Richard leant in ‘—never open an attachment without scanning it first. And internal security do their sweep weekly sometimes, so nothing is private. Just remember this is the company’s machine; you work for them.’ He gave me a fragile smile.

  ‘No problem. Any private emails will most probably just be my girlfriend, Mum, when she’s not on holiday, and my mate Karl, wherever he is,’ I said with a chuckle.

  ‘Mr Well, This Is Not a Boat Accident’ explained that I was allowed some personal items on the desk, but it must look tidy and professional. ‘Okay, Sam, just pop on those headphones and work through the training portals we have given you,’ said Richard standing over me as my soul was sucked out into a big building via a room of grey.

  I worked through the training material. It was all quite easy stuff, really. Everybody who had our software on their phones were to download their dreams, and they must have it protected by our security software for their benefit and ours. That’s what made it expensive.

  Our job involved pinging customers’ phones and we try to break in. If we can, their security needs an update. We then wipe the software and leave a message telling them to contact sales for the update patch. It meant costing them more money, but it was all in the contract they signed when joining. But, I must stress, we didn’t look through anything else on their phones, and never downloaded any material…ever.

  I looked at the clock, it was four o’clock. One hour until the fight to get home started, and that’s when Wayward leant over.

  ‘Fancy a quick pint after work? Let the tube quieten down?’ Mark asked with a smirk.

  Bunny didn’t finish work until six anyway. ‘Yeah, sure, sounds fun,’ I agreed.

  At that, I received nods and smiles from all on the team except Richard, our team leader, who had to run home to his wife. I heard later that she kept his bollocks on the mantelpiece until the weekend.

  The five of us walked out together. I couldn’t help but look at Emily tottering in her four-inch heels. She had a mass of curly black hair, full red lips, a kind face, huge chest cannons, which happily danced as she walked, and a bit of a tummy, but don’t we all. Then, from the waist down, she turned into a petite woman with a skinny arse and legs. She looked like she had been squeezed like a toothpaste tube. She was nice enough, though, and had a filthy laugh coupled with a smutty sense of humour.

  They took me to their local, The Slop Bucket, which if I’m honest looked like it was condemned when the Germans bombed the docks, but inside was nice enough. I bought the first round from the very nice nipple ring, I mean barmaid, and settled down in a booth.

  ‘So, young man, tell us about yourself,’ Emily said with a saucy wink.

  I noticed the wedding ring on her finger. Phew, I didn’t want to be chased at work. ‘Well, I’m twenty-six, my girlfriend is called Bunny—’ I instantly held up my hand to stop the laughs and questions. ‘It’s her real name, and if you ever meet her don’t take this piss. Trust me, you want her to like you.’ They saw my visible shudder as I thought back to past incidents.

  ‘And what family do you have, luv?’ asked the slightly weird Mark Wayward.

  I gave him the ‘I don’t swing that way’ look. ‘My brother passed away years ago. My mother, Anne, has her base in Brighton in between holidays,’ I explained, and then wondered where Mum was. Egypt or America? I should listen more, I thought while sipping my ice-cold cider.

  We had a few more drinks and chatted about our lives. Emily was married to a guy called Edward, but really they were just like housemates as the spark died years ago, but it was better than being alone. She was in her late forties and reminded me of Barbara Windsor.

  Hicks was obviously ex-army, and it lit a fire in my heart when he said that he was a corporal in the marines, one step away from Colonial Marines. He was in the regimental band, though, which just wouldn’t cut it against a Xenomorph. He was single and most probably had PTSD from a broken reed on his flute, but there was definitely something going on by the way Emily kept touching his arm. Their ages matched, so who could blame them?

  Now, the blond pretty boy Mark Wayward, average height with some extra padding, but don’t we all, said he had a girlfriend. Her name was Kate and she worked as a model. That’s when the bullshit fairy comes and sprinkles her bullshit dust. Even his long-time workmates gave him the ‘yeah, right’ look.

  Finally, we all moved towards the tube station. Emily was hanging off Hicks’s arm and whispering in his ear.

  ‘What’s with McAllister? What’s his story?’ I asked the very close Mark.

  ‘Well, he’s okay, just very stressed. He’s the youngest department head in the company, so he’s always trying to prove himself to everybody,’ replied Mark as we all strode into the station. ‘He’s okay, really. He gives us space and leaves you be if you do your job.’

  We bid farewell to each other and headed home to our own lives. At last, I was going home to my Bunny. I was happily singing in our lift as Blondie was belting out ‘The Tide is High’, which was correct because it smelt like a horse had pissed in there.

  And then I was home, and there she stood smiling showing off her pearly whites. ‘Hey, luv, good day?’ I asked.

  She nodded. ‘Still have a job tomorrow, round eye?’ Bunny th
rew back, with a smirk.

  I walked towards her. ‘Of course, you doubt me?’

  ‘Nope, but your brain has its own theme tune, dear.’ She gave my cheek a kiss, then a sniff before raising a quizzical eyebrow. ‘Perfume?’

  Shit… ‘Emily from work gave me kiss goodbye. Five of us went for a pint after work,’ I answered. We locked eyes as she read my soul.

  Bunny gave me a wink and took my hand. We headed to our bedroom and hopefully a night of fun.

  As the door closed, she just stood there ready for my treat to start. I was in heaven as I peeled off her layers. Thong…awesome, I thought.

  Chapter 5

  Friday, 27 September 2019

  Shimmering Dreams Headquarters

  Michael McAllister

  I finally made it into the fucking office. God bless speed, I thought and started the tasks for the day. I had an email from Mai, which was nice, but there was a hidden warning written in her message. Also, Tony had sent me a video and picture, so that was instantly sent to my home account. ‘No fucking way, Tiger, you sick mother,’ I muttered.

  Reading the daily memos was boring. Dreyfuss was happy with the new hire. From what I could see by snooping at his training, he would make a fine patsy.

  ‘Fuckers,’ I spat when I saw that internal security had carried out yet another sweep of my files. Things were getting dicey, so I couldn’t use Blades just yet.

  I popped in to see each of my team leaders and tried not to bore myself to death, but I did have to avoid the PA on level twelve. For some reason, a hand job in a stationery cupboard was classed as a relationship nowadays. I did do a real Monica Lewinsky on her, but she got a new dress out of it. I wasn’t sure what was she bitching about.

  The meet and greets went okay. I showed my face, asked about weekend plans and made sure we had cover. Normally we had separate staff over the weekends, but we always needed more money, so some of the drones worked overtime. Bless the money-grabbing morons.

  By the time I got back to my desk with a coffee it was midday, and there on my screen was an email from the director of internal security.

  Michael,

  Please can you just pop up for a friendly chat.

  John.

  ‘Ah, shit.’ I drank the remnants of my coffee, made my way to the lift and headed up towards my fate. As I walked towards the office, I checked through the glass to see if he had company. Nope, no sticky and pissed off-looking personal assistant in there, I thought and knocked on the door.

  ‘Come in.’

  The man gave me a cold smile as I walked in. He looked just like Donald Trump.

  ‘You wanted to see me, Director Jones?’

  The shitehawk waved me in. ‘Thanks for coming up, Mike, I know you’re a busy man,’ he said and pointed to the empty chair. ‘So, why did you steal this Blades kid from customer services?’

  I smiled internally; they were already suspicious. ‘Well, I needed him for room D as they were one person short, and he seemed to be a good fit,’ I replied honestly, my halo glowing.

  The man in his fifties nodded. ‘Did you do the normal security checks?’ he asked, picking up a file and scanning it.

  ‘Didn’t HR do the checks? I did some, and he seemed clean,’ I added, and then looked out of his window. You could see the sun from here.

  ‘Oh yes, the kid is fine,’ he said continuing to flick through his files. ‘It’s his partner and her family. That’s where it becomes a bit shady.’

  I raised an eyebrow. ‘How shady? Do you want to bin him?’

  ‘They just don’t seem to have much of a past – but no, not for now,’ he replied, staring at me. ‘They have links to a department in the Hong Kong police, but I have people looking into that. Also, they have a few links to our old government.’

  Now that did surprise me. This company didn’t like anything to do with the government past or present. ‘I’ll keep an eye on him,’ I said earnestly.

  He shook his head. ‘No, Mike, you have enough to do. I have sent a man to interview the girlfriend today, so we’ll see how that goes.’

  I decided to take the bull by the horns since he was alone and ask him about the security checks. ‘While I’m here, John, may I ask why your section has been scanning my files on a regular basis?’ I said coldly.

  He showed me a faint smile and shrugged. ‘It’s their job, and we know where you like to spend your time outside of work and with who,’ he said, waving it away. ‘Nothing personal, Mike, but a word of advice…’ He leant forwards across his desk. ‘You want to advance in this company? You have to stop shagging women in alleyways,’ he said and sneered at me.

  ‘I understand, sir,’ I said, agreeing with him. It was way too cold outside now anyway. A chapped arse does not make for a happy Michael! ‘Anything else, sir?’ I said, hoping to close the conversation.

  John smiled. ‘No, have a good weekend. We’ll meet up on Monday to talk about Blades again,’ he stated and picked up his phone, which was my cue to walk.

  Prick, I thought, but I was happy that eyes were already on the patsy. If I could just get them to keep him on the payroll to watch him, it would free me up to fulfil my order for the lovely Mai.

  Chapter 6

  Shimmering Dreams Eastern Global Finance Head Office

  Stuart Goddard, Security Investigator

  2:00 p.m.

  ‘Fantastic, buskers,’ I said happily as I danced my way past the one-man band in full flow. It cheered me up despite the feelings about the task ahead. Jesus knows why I was picked for this job. Maybe it was my blocking the toilet at Christmas? Who knows? I headed into the tall glass building, just like the Dreams one, but with darkened glass that oozed money.

  I walked into the marble-floored reception and marvelled at it. The reception desk sat squarely in the middle surrounded by plants and a waterfall, and you could see all the way up to the roof through a shield of glass.

  ‘How may I help you, sir?’ called out a pretty receptionist whose smile didn’t seem false, unlike those girls back at base.

  ‘Hello, may I speak to Bunny Li,’ I said with a slight smirk. What a funny name, I thought as I noticed the receptionist’s smile disappear.

  The girl nodded. ‘Miss Li is up on the fifteenth floor and then straight ahead, but a word to the wise, Mr…?’ the receptionist asked.

  ‘Goddard… Stuart Goddard,’ I replied with a smile.

  ‘Well, Mr Goddard, unless you want to skydive back down here, I wouldn’t laugh at Miss Li’s name,’ she stated and went on with her work.

  I stalked off and considered her words. By the way she reacted, somebody had laughed a bit too hard before and it had not ended well. I hummed quietly to the lift music and found it relaxing. To be honest, the whole place seemed relaxing. Finally, the doors parted.

  The walls and floors were all black marble with a white ceiling, which seemed to have an ethereal glow to it. I headed straight down and saw a very pretty oriental woman with long jet-black hair, small but curvy and with piercing dark eyes. She was behind a large black desk, but I could see her lower legs and high heels through a gap. What a little hottie, I thought and smiled brightly at her, which she returned.

  ‘Good afternoon, sir, how may I help you?’ asked Miss Li.

  I smiled back. ‘And a good afternoon to you, Miss Li. I work at Shimmering Dreams where your friend works,’ I said smoothly, hoping the file was wrong and this Blades guy was just a friend.

  Her face dropped and turned to stone. ‘Either your files are incorrect, or you are. Sam is my boyfriend. Is he okay?’

  Damn. ‘Yes, he’s fine. May I call you Bunny?’

  ‘No, you may not,’ she replied curtly. ‘What do you want?’

  I shivered as I noticed that her eyes had turned as cold as her manner. ‘I’m just doing a security check for his job, and we don’t have much information about you or your family,’ I replied, trying to placate her.

  She narrowed her eyes. ‘Sam didn’t mention that yo
u would come around to my place of work.’

  ‘Er…we didn’t tell him,’ I said, realising I had made a few very big mistakes, ‘but I’m here now,’ and gave her the best smile in my arsenal.

  She clicked the top of her pen angrily. ‘This is a professional place of work. If one of our employees visits a customer or, to be frank, anyone to do with our company’s business, we make an appointment,’ she said slowly.

  I took a breath in readiness to reply when I heard several doors click shut. Not only that, people actually rushed past us with worried looks on their faces, men and women alike.

  ‘Okay, I get it,’ I said quietly while looking around. ‘But if I could just ask you some questions?’

  She stood up slowly. ‘Clearly, you don’t get it. You should not just turn up without an appointment. I have duties and, unlike you, I do my job professionally. Also, I consider that my family and Sam’s job have nothing to do with each other,’ Miss Li said very coldly with daggers in her eyes. ‘Now leave. I have work to do.’ She then just sat back in her chair with her head down scanning her files and started to work again.

  I stood there unnerved and not sure what to do. That’s when I noticed that her typing had stopped.

  She looked up at me twirling a miniature sword letter opener in her fingers and mouthed, ‘Fuck off.’

  I again registered the glinting blade in her dainty fingers. I moved as quickly as I could to the elevator and past the smirking girls at the reception desk.

  ‘Bye, Mr Goddard,’ they called out.

  Bitches, I thought as I spun around in their revolving front door. Looking back at the building, I felt it was one big joke on me, that the building was now mocking me. Just as I turned back to flip the bird to the building my phone beeped, so I read the text.

  Wtf, get back here…now! J. Jones.

  ‘Oh shit, what now?’ I sighed and headed back to the office while trying not to punch the smirking busker bastard.

  When I made it back to the office, I was immediately ushered into Director Jones’s office.

  ‘Well, Stuart, what went on with Blades’ girlfriend?’ Jones asked brusquely.