The Genesis Code

by Lisa von Biela

  Trembling and anxious to get out of the house, Josh swiftly headed downstairs to the front door. He stripped off his gloves and dumped them in his bag after he pulled the door open enough to get out. He didn’t want Victor to wonder why he was still wearing his gloves after completing an exam.

  As he closed the door behind him, Victor got out of his car and came up to him. “Everything go OK?”

  “Yes, fine. Is there something you need to do to the door?”

  “Yeah, need to reactivate the security system.” He used the electronic device, then pocketed it.

  “All right. Thanks for letting me in.”

  As Victor drove away, Josh put his bag in the trunk and got into his car. He took a deep breath, reviewed his steps in his mind and realized he might have left prints on the outside knob of the front door and the doorbell button. He made sure Victor’s car was out of sight, then returned to the door and quickly wiped the knob and the button with the sleeve of his shirt.

  As he headed back to his car, he decided he’d report to Reyes when he got back to the office. He didn’t want to spend another surreptitious minute at Simmons’ house. Besides, he needed some time to collect himself, and decide just how much to tell Reyes. Even if Simmons’ death was due to the device, he didn’t want to alarm him and endanger the rest of the program needlessly.

  CHAPTER 35

  “I wanted to tell you privately, before we make the official company announcement.” Reyes avoided eye contact with Mark as he fidgeted with a pencil.

  Mark waited for him to get to the point. Reyes had called him into his office for an impromptu meeting, with no indication of the topic. Mark guessed it had something to do with Terry, and Reyes’ uncharacteristic hesitance worried him.

  “Terry resigned today.” Reyes studied his desktop as he delivered the news, then glanced up briefly. “Since you were his partner, I wanted you to be the first to know.”

  Stunned, Mark wrestled with which question to ask first. Though he wasn’t close to Terry outside of work, he felt sure Terry would have confided in him, had he been considering resignation. “What happened?” was all he could manage.

  Reyes looked up again, his lips thin and pale. “I’m not at liberty to discuss that. His reasons are confidential. I’m sure you understand.”

  Mark shook his head. “I’m really surprised by this. I had no idea…”

  “Yes, I was surprised, too. He must have weighed this for some time, but kept it to himself quite well.” Reyes cleared his throat. “At any rate, we do need to discuss the fallout.”

  “Fallout?” Mark thought it an odd word to choose.

  “Yes. I hate to do this to you, but until we’re able to get a replacement—and train that resource—I need to rely on you to keep things going.”

  Mark began to grasp what was coming next. Just when he was getting caught up on his own work…

  Reyes shuffled some papers and spoke in a rushed cadence, as if he’d rehearsed his words and just wanted to get them said. “I need you to take over Terry’s projects for the foreseeable future. I know you’ve just turned the corner on the Venezuela project, and that has to come first in the near term. I can try to work some slack into some of Terry’s deadlines until you complete that one, but I don’t have a lot of slack to give.” He paused and waited for Mark’s reaction.

  Mark felt like he’d been hit in the stomach. Despite the progress he’d made, plenty of work remained on the Venezuela project. He was still just going to make the deadline without room to spare. The idea of more work was unfathomable.

  Reyes stared down at his desk again. “And Mark…I’m sorry, but this also means that I have to deny your vacation request. There is just no one else to cover right now.”

  That son of a bitch. Mark clamped his mouth shut to avoid saying something he’d regret. He’d promised Sheila—and himself—that time off. He didn’t want to think about having to tell her this, not while he was still in Reyes’ office, anyway. He was so furious, he could barely trust himself to speak.

  Reyes leaned back in his chair, looking relieved now that he’d delivered all his news. “If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know. Set up some time with me later today or tomorrow, so I can brief you on Terry’s projects.”

  “Certainly,” said Mark through clenched teeth.

  Mark quickly excused himself from Reyes’ office. He wanted to get back to his cube and think through this new development in private, away from Reyes’ scrutiny.

  Hands trembling in fury, Mark flopped down into his chair, leaned his elbows on his desk, and tried to absorb what he’d just been told. He glanced at the work he’d left in progress when Reyes called him into his office. He couldn’t even begin to concentrate, not after what Reyes had said. He swept the papers aside and stared at his cube wall.

  Now that he thought about it, Terry’s moods had been erratic lately. He could have been considering resignation, and just wanted to keep it to himself. Or maybe he’d said the wrong thing to Reyes, and he’d really been terminated—that wouldn’t surprise him, given the OneMarket culture. But why would he quit? Maybe he’d set aside enough money that he didn’t need to put up with this kind of stress anymore. Maybe he’d just had enough, and the money was no longer worth the price.

  Terry’s motives made no difference in the end. He was gone, and Mark was the one who was screwed. The cancelled vacation was the last straw. One lousy week away from this place after more than six months of non-stop work—snatched away.

  Maybe he should quit. It wasn’t going to get any better here, despite his recent breakthroughs. They’d just work him to death, sooner or later. And they wouldn’t give a shit. No. Like Terry, he was just someone to plow through the piles of commitments they made to clients and make things happen at whatever cost.

  Mark glanced around his cube. It was a monument to a work ethic on steroids. Mounds of papers. Stacks of manuals to be read. The latest computer and other electronic gadgetry designed to enable more and swifter work. He’d been so busy, he’d never even brought in any personal effects, no pictures of Sheila. It was all so clear now when he viewed it in the cold light of reality.

  Fuck this. The money didn’t matter. It just wasn’t worth the sacrifices. He’d talk to Sheila tonight about quitting.

  CHAPTER 36

  Sheila poked her head into the kitchen. Her face was paper-white, her eyes wide.

  “Don’t look so shocked, it’s just me,” said Mark as he took off his jacket.

  “You’re never home this early. I thought someone had gotten in.” She pressed her hand over her heart and took a few deep breaths. “It’s early for you, but it is still after dark.”

  Mark glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. Just past 7:30 PM. He felt like he’d sneaked out early and played hooky, getting home at that hour. “It’s been an…interesting…day.”

  “Oh?” Sheila dropped into a chair at the kitchen table. “What does that mean?”

  Mark pulled out a chair and sat facing Sheila. On his way home, he’d tried to think through what he would say to her—and how he would say it—but he still wasn’t sure how best to word it. He decided to just start at the beginning and wing it. “Terry didn’t show up today, didn’t call in, didn’t answer my emails or calls. Reyes says he quit.”

  Sheila raised an eyebrow. “Quit? And you had no idea? As much time as you spend working with him, he gave you no hints?”

  “None. He’d been a little edgy off and on lately, but that’s it. Nothing that—even when I think back now—really signaled anything. I think Reyes was caught off guard, too.”

  “Well, if Terry was smart, Reyes would be the last to know.”

  Mark scowled as he recalled Reyes’ initial reaction to Terry’s absence. “No, it’s not that. It’s weird how it all happened, now that I think about it. This morning when I told Reyes I hadn’t heard from Terry, he seemed as surprised as I was. If Terry really quit, Reyes’ reaction implies that he quit after he
decided to not bother coming in. That doesn’t seem like Terry at all. I wonder if Reyes fired him for some reason, and is just putting a corporate face on it.”

  Sheila gave a short, derisive laugh. “That wouldn’t surprise me, from what you’ve told me of that place. So, where does this leave you?”

  Mark sighed and looked down at the table. “Reyes is giving me all of Terry’s work—in addition to mine—until they replace him.”

  “What a shock. You mean there’s no backup for him at all? You’re it?” Sheila shook her head. “I should know better than to be surprised. When does he think they can find a replacement?”

  “He didn’t really say. Didn’t seem to want to commit himself to any sort of timeframe on that.”

  “Are they going to loosen any deadlines to help you juggle two people’s jobs?” Sheila’s eyes hardened. “Oh, excuse me. You were already doing the work of several people. Just double your output, right?” She snapped her fingers.

  “He didn’t commit to much on that front, either. In one breath he said he’d do what he could, and in the next breath he said he couldn’t do much. So I expect there won’t be much slack.” Mark paused, then delivered the last bit of news. “And he’s cancelled my time off. Indefinitely.”

  Sheila stood up so fast she nearly knocked over her chair. “That bastard! You’re nothing but a goddamned slave there.” She paced the kitchen in tight, angry steps. “It’s not enough to take over your entire fucking life! They dangle a week of vacation in front of you, then—boom! They just take it away as they see fit.” Her whole body trembled with rage.

  Mark waited for her to pause long enough to hear him out, then continued in a soft voice. “I know. I think it’s time for Plan B. Time to resign. This has gone too far.”

  Sheila stopped pacing and stared at him. “Are you serious?”

  “We agreed to see if my hours became more manageable after our vacation. Well at this point, I don’t know when I’ll get the time off, and I already know my workload just doubled—indefinitely. I’d say the choice is clear.”

  Sheila sat back down and looked Mark in the eye. “You’ve never quit before. Are you sure you’re OK with this?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I think I am. If Terry hadn’t left, it’d be different. But this is so far beyond what they should even dare to ask of a single person…It’s not quitting, it’s self-preservation.”

  Sheila rushed over, put her arms around him, and held him tight. “If you’re sure you’re OK with quitting. I know you’ve never given up before.” She gave him a squeeze. “I’m looking forward to having our lives back. I love you.”

  As he held her and kissed her, Mark experienced a brief flashback to his tryst with Toni. Sheila was real, the same inside and out. Toni was a schizophrenic melding of fire and ice—an unhealthy combination. He pushed Toni from his mind and found a sense of peace he hadn’t had in months. It was like his heart was pumping blood with oxygen in it again, instead of just water and adrenaline. He’d talk to Reyes tomorrow, end this nightmare, and take back their lives.

  Josh sat in his office, hunched over his computer screen. Weston’s brain waves marched across the display. In the past couple of hours that he’d been watching, they’d transformed. They’d gone from an agitated pattern of extreme stress to measured rhythms of calm.

  When he returned to the office earlier in the day and told Reyes about Simmons, Reyes immediately called an emergency meeting with Harris. When they got to his office, the only other person there was that lawyer, Maria Jenkins. They’d spent nearly two hours haggling over the implications before finally agreeing on a story for public consumption. Simmons suddenly resigned for personal reasons that would be kept private, and that was that. The official announcement would go out tomorrow in the company email newsletter used to announce new hires, resignations, and other OneMarket business.

  Reyes said he would tell Weston ahead of the announcement, since he was most directly affected. Josh wondered how he took it, and if he bought the story. Weston’s brain waves clearly indicated that he’d been extremely upset about something, likely this development. But what changed to calm him down?

  Josh cursed himself for not yet having the brain monitor enhanced to report discrete thoughts. What was Weston thinking? Was he going to try to contact Simmons, or had he accepted the story? Josh itched to know the answers. If Weston didn’t accept the story, what would he try to do about it? Simply quit, or would he try to nose around what happened to Simmons?

  CHAPTER 37

  “I’ve done some thinking since our conversation yesterday.” Mark waited for a reaction from Reyes, but received only an impassive stare in return. The distance between them across Reyes’ desk felt like a vast gulf this morning. Aware he was being manipulated into making the first move, Mark chose to break the suspense. He cleared his throat and continued. “I’ve decided to resign.” There, I said it. Let’s get this over with. Simply uttering the words lifted some of the tension from his shoulders.

  Reyes steepled his fingers and pursed his lips before answering. He looked at Mark as if he thought he had incorrectly stated a well-known fact. “May I ask why?”

  Mark had anticipated the question and had his answer ready. “I need to spend more time with my family. And with Terry leaving, my workload won’t permit that.”

  Reyes narrowed his eyes. “The increase in your workload is only temporary. As soon as we have a replacement for Terry, it’ll be back to normal.”

  “But you don’t know how long temporary is.” Mark relished how the decision to quit had freed him. Just yesterday he wouldn’t have dared to make a comment like that to Reyes.

  “As short as possible, I assure you. It’s not the ideal situation for you—or for OneMarket. I realize how hard you’ve both been working, so I’ve been planning to increase staffing by one or two resources.” He smiled, but it looked practiced, mechanical. “Business has been expanding robustly, and now it justifies a greater headcount than when you hired on.”

  “So, one or two additional people, plus replacing Terry? Is that what you’re saying?” Mark wondered if Reyes was making this up on the spur of the moment. He wouldn’t put it past him.

  “Yes. I hadn’t had a chance to mention it, and this development with Terry’s resignation makes the case complete. I’m sure Harris will approve the request.”

  “So it’s not yet approved.”

  “It’s as good as approved. That’s all you need to know.” Reyes leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. “So. You still want to quit and give up all you’ve worked so hard toward?”

  Mark hadn’t expected Reyes to counter with the promise of more help; he wasn’t so sure he believed it. “This could change the situation considerably.” If Reyes wasn’t just bluffing him, the additional staffing would make enough of a difference that he might reconsider his decision. But he didn’t want to let on too much.

  “So you’ll reconsider.” Reyes sat forward, elbows on desk, as if he smelled victory.

  “I’d need to see tangible progress in the staffing—and soon. The workload before Terry left was already affecting my personal life. Now, it’s untenable. While I don’t want to be short-sighted in my decision, I can’t continue this way—and deliver quality results—indefinitely.”

  Reyes shook his head, and took on a condescending tone that irritated Mark. “Mark, you have so much to lose if you leave now. You’re just over the six-month point. You’re well on your way to your one-year promotion, if you keep up your performance. It would be a shame to throw all that away over a temporary glitch.”

  Mark was irritated, but not surprised, that Reyes had blithely ignored one of his key points. The last six months of long hours, day after day, was no temporary glitch. Terry’s departure was the last straw to an already impossible situation.

  Mark decided to demand his optimal terms as if he were in the position of power. He had nothing to lose at this point, and Reyes had plenty at stake if he wal
ked.

  He sat forward in his chair to emphasize his points. “All right. I’ll stay on until I complete the Venezuela project—I’m only a few weeks away from that now. Then I will take the week of vacation I had scheduled. When I get back, we look at where the staffing is. If Terry has been replaced and strong candidates have been identified for at least one of the new positions, then I’ll consider staying. If not, then I will resign.” He paused. “And in the meantime, I’ll expect my salary to be bumped to Terry’s level.”

  Reyes’ mouth tightened into a flat line. He paused for a moment to think. “I can likely work the salary angle, but it’ll take a lot of negotiating to change deadlines so you can have that week off.”

  Mark stood firm. “Terry’s leaving was not my doing. I don’t feel I should be punished for it. I need—and I deserve—that time off. I’d requested it before Terry left.”

  Reyes seemed unaware that his hands had balled into fists on his desk. “All right. We don’t want to lose someone with your talents, Mark.” Reyes smiled thinly. “I have recruiting to attend to, if you’ll excuse me.”

  Mark left Reyes’ office with only a brief good-bye. He replayed the meeting in his mind as he walked down the hall to his cube. The tension of the exchange had exhausted him, but he believed he’d negotiated the best possible arrangement. If Reyes didn’t deliver, he’d be no worse off than when he walked into his office to resign. And if he did add staff, then he’d be able to stay and reap his rewards, yet still get back his life with Sheila.

  He wondered which way it would play out.

  As soon as Weston shut the door behind him, Jeff grabbed the phone and called Tyler.

  “Reyes here. Weston tried to resign today. Can you do something about that?” As much as he loathed the implications of what he was asking, he could well imagine the repercussions if Weston walked out, implanted. Harris would explode—and he couldn’t blame him.