“We need more reason than that to trust you,” Patrick said.
“Manda, wouldn’t you say I liked the slaves—I mean missionary people?”
“He was so fascinated by them. It infuriated the other managers,” Manda said in support of David’s claims.
“And I particularly liked Tara and Domin and some of the others. They have a way about them that I respect. And I want to help. I’ve nothing to lose. At least I get to live a crazy adventure, just like in the stories I love. I can live a story with both eyes open.”
“Not good enough, boy,” Patrick said. “Don’t trust him, Dad.”
“Well, if you don’t believe I want to help, believe that I want to hurt those who betrayed me. Believe that I want to go to Orns and hurt Grandpa Greg. I know he’s there.” The hatred in his voice prevailed.
Patrick and Paul nodded. Not that they had much of a choice.
David explained, “I have an idea to buy us some time to break into Orns.” He looked at Captain Jonathan. He waved his CEO armband. “I’m going to broadcast to all of Xchange that your grandfather made this entire mess possible by betraying the Corporate States and giving me the armband. Before, I thought it was just CEO Saul who would be upset. I didn’t know about the connection between you and the odd old man. Now I do.” He turned the picture on the small screen over in his hand. “You still care about your grandfather. I know it. Human-doings will hurt him if you don’t go along with this and help us.”
“CEO Sarah of Thrive will tear him apart piece by piece on a news event.” Manda fed the idea.
David was finally getting through to the captain. He could see it in the man’s eyes. He decided to give him a positive along with the negative. “Also, Orns has hurt Nnect, and you’ll be helping Nnect if we take these prisoners out of Orns. You can get us in there, I bet. Help us. Work with us, and save your life and your grandfather’s and Nnect’s reputation.”
The stocky and stalwart QC captain looked around the room and finally nodded. “Thirty-six hours I heard you say as I awoke. I’ll help in exchange for your silence. But I’ll personally torture you and terminate you myself if this leaks out.” He stood up. “Let’s get out of here. The distress signal I sent brings in the backup units. Once the signal is sent, it cannot be revoked.” He waved at the others to follow him. “I know a place we can hide. I need an arm patch, so let’s swing by the Nnect human repair wing. We need to get some outfits for all of you as well.” He pointed at what they were wearing. “Let’s go!” The man was all energy once he picked a course of action.
When Doc Gus tapped David on the shoulder and gave him a quizzical look, David just gave a shrug that said, “Why not?” They all followed the motivated captain.
Chapter 36
Dating Danger
“Hurry and get it over with.” Jonathan’s gruff official voice chilled David to the bone. It was hard to get accustomed to—so much for mutual respect and team effort. The tall, muscled officer with his gray-streaked shadow of a goatee, wide, thick side chops, short-cropped hair, and crooked nose was intimidating. Keeping this man on a three-day leash was an imprudent idea. David gulped uneasily as the captain continued, “You’d better pray to your advocates in HR that blackmail benefits Nnect, or”—he slashed a finger across his neck—“one more useless product to personally pitch out the corporate window, grandfather rumors or not. Heave you so far that no one’ll hear your slander.” He tugged at the leash around his neck, unaware that he was checking its bondage every couple of minutes.
David gulped and closed his eyes, trying to center himself. He breathed deeply of the scent of woods, palm oil, and sand that surrounded them. Tall tan-and-gray-ringed palm tree trunks stood waving above them. The soft swaying branches and the scattered coconut shells on the ground created a soothing jungle atmosphere within the temporary isolation and safety of the park. Clock Park. This was the date location. David was required to be there for one hour. One hour and then the team would attempt to sneak into Orns to save the slaves.
Odd and unexpected, this date.
“Why’d we have to wait for this woman?” Paul asked inquisitively, still trying to wrap his mind around their inconvenient pit stop.
“Who the hell would date you?” Patrick mumbled.
“It’s PPRE.” David tried to explain the dating program for a fourth time, but the Tri-Coalitionaries remained baffled.
“How does going on a date help us get on with our mission? We have one hour less with this brute.” Patrick motioned at the officer, who looked at him askance. “Oh, excuse me, Mr. Ticking Time Bomb.”
David shrugged his agreement that they shouldn’t be deviating from their mission, partially because he was uneasy with Captain Jonathan. “Not much of a choice.”
Patrick said with a friendlier tone, “Never stand a girl up. I can get behind that. At least.” They shared a brief respectful glance.
Glancing down at his portable communicator, he noted the clock on the PPRE app. “Only minutes left; I’m confused as well, so just go along with it.” For the sake of the others, he kept them up to date on the app notifications. Truthfully, he was a bit mystified as to why Gayle would call this unexpected meeting. He looked around the park for a sign of her. His next date had been scheduled for later in the week. But PPRE had instituted a one-mandatory-date rule, and now, this was it. Since they had a couple minutes to kill, he explained once again, “Dates can be initiated by either party, and Gayle hasn’t used any of her date requests.”
“Until now, you mean. Ironic.” The captain chuckled to himself.
“This could be a breakthrough, David.” The golden-robed monk encouraged him from his cross-legged position in the sand.
David said, “Enough. Enough. It’s one hour in the park is all,” as the PPRE mandatory invite titled it; it was unexpected. She had dragged her feet for the last two weeks each time he set up a date, awkward affairs to say the least. But with the two of them being the public face of PPRE, she’d made a good show of it, if only to save her job at Thrive. Two cameramen had followed them around. Once the marketing frenzy had passed, she had let him know her feelings. She wasn’t pleased in the least. So why now? Why was she initiating?
“We are just lucky that this delay…date was set up too hastily for a film crew to respond. The last thing we need for our illegal band is media scum,” the captain said.
“No media is fine with me,” David agreed.
Their odd band, consisting of Manda, Doc Gus, Captain Jonathan, Paul, and Patrick had urged him to skip the date and start the infiltration of Orns immediately. But David knew better. He knew intimately how viral a PPRE violation could get. So the option to ignore her request hadn’t been realistic because of the clause of requirement—ironic. All sorts of legal flags would have gone up, along with customary visits from QC. This was not the best time to have Quality Control officers around him. He heard the group grating their feet in the sand, reminding him to hurry this along.
“Time to go.” Glancing back one more time at the group hidden in the trees to make sure they were adequately cloaked, David hustled out to the sunny, sandy pathways. He waited awkwardly by the old clock tower. Time clicked away slowly above him. Time and choice coincided in his mind in the moment of forced stillness. He looked nervously around at the group in the trees and waved a friendly hand up at no one, signaling to his team that he was in the predetermined place and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The five left the hiding spot and sauntered casually down the road, each wearing their new outfits. As a precaution, they didn’t want to be nearby in case any media had followed Gayle to the date. Who knew what was possible these days?
Jonathan had found uniforms to properly disguise the two human beings. The clothes they had come in were completely unsuitable and out of style, with zero brand names. Unbranded clothes were something beggars wore just before they got cleaned up or sent to manual labor camps. David had met Waldar, Irish and Jonathan’s grandfather—all of which h
ad unbranded clothes—but they were anomalies. That sort of thing attracted attention you did not want.
For now, he waited. The breeze rustled the branches above him, then whipped his shoulder-length blond hair into a frenzy. Out of habit, he looked at his watch. One hour. One hour finished, and she was late. The one-hour clause didn’t require that he stay longer than the reserved hour, even if his partner was late. How human of Nnect for making that distinction.
From off in the distance, David spotted a figure running frantically parallel to the path and between some trees. The person materialized into his girlfriend, Gayle. She was gleaming with perspiration, and her long flaxen hair was damp and pressed against her forehead. She was not wearing her casual Ssential clothes or her personal fitness gear from Thrive.
By way of greeting, he said, “Odd. I must have missed a trend? Jogging in office clothes, are we? She was wearing her sleeveless green Thrive teaching blouse and a short work skirt. “Or are you plotting a new trend? Game changer Gayle.” She looked like she had sprinted straight from her office. Breathing heavily, she leaned over, catching her breath before trying to speak. The green Thrive brand was dull and faded on her arm. Odd. Is it smeared? What shitty workmanship by Thrive.
He skipped the normal pleasantries and said worriedly, “Your brand, Gayle—what’s happened to it? And why are you in your work uniform when you are doing self-improvement exercises?” The best clothes were saved for work. Looking your best was part of corporate culture.
“Urghh. Whhhhooo.” She gulped for more air, closing her eyes to regain her balance. She was dizzy.
Taking advantage of her gasping, he continued with an annoyed tone, “What in the human stock are you doing calling a date now? I thought you detested me.” She gave him a look of hopeless disgust. He froze and realized he was only continuing to piss off the individual that he was attracted to.
At that moment, he remembered something that Tara had said about relationships. Retrain yourself to think about the other person. What do they want and need, and where are they coming from? Stop pushing yourself, your motives, your objectives, and your worldview on the other person. Of course David had laughed at Tara for her ignorance; there was only one worldview, and it was performance based. All the statistics categorized Gayle and him as a perfect career move. But then again, David was beginning to flip-flop in how he viewed life. His experience of the relationship from the inside out was miserable even if from the outside in it was perfect. He’d never admit it to Tara, but he attempted in this moment to try something new.
He reached out kindly with an electrolyte water pouch that was in the utility pack strung across his back, ready for their expedition. “Gayle, I’m sorry I sounded rude. My week has been a conundrum filled with horrific corporate betrayals.”
“You worried about your perfect job?” Gayle said.
“No joke. I might have just lost the chance at buying myself back and even buying you—argggh.” He coughed to avoid spilling too much information about his dreams, realizing he’d never shared his dream of being in a real long-term relationship contract with Gayle. Outright rejection would not be the way to start this conversation. He turned bright red, his freckles twitching on his nose as he glanced at her to see if she’d noted his subconscious verbal slip.
Thank the brand, he thought. Gayle was gulping the electrolyte energy booster, like a drowning intern after her pool competency tests, and hadn’t heard him. She turned to face him. “What are you muttering about?” She flicked her long hair over her bare left shoulder and faded green brand.
David spoke again to cover up his slip. “Gayle, I know you don’t like me, but the point is, I will try to listen even though I have other important things going on…” Too far. Daggers stared at him. “Look, something must be wrong, or you wouldn’t be calling me. I’m not completely inept. How can I help?”
She coughed. “My, my…the corporate attitude himself offering to listen. By the Xchange, a first, you heartless little man.” She smiled as she said it, so he didn’t take offense. Maybe she thought it was ironic that the man she’d tried to speak to weeks ago was now finally listening after all his mistakes. Her smile faded into seriousness.
I wonder what is going on? He was genuinely curious now.
Her red lips, they looked so soft, and twitched as she glanced nervously over her shoulder across the park, searching for an enemy hidden among the palms. “Review. I’m up for a reevaluation, David.”
“I stalked you, Gayle. Selfie told me that you were two years away from your next review,” David said, knowing how bad an unplanned review was.
Steadying herself, she said, “But today something went wrong. Manager got outright irate at me, and to spite me, she force applied me for a reevaluation. She wants me amputated from her work team.”
“Amputation, no!” He gasped at the cruelty and consequences.
“Said I’m worthless, which is OK, since I could care less about her approach. The bitch.” She calmed herself with a deep breath. “But then she accused me of contaminating the trainees.”
David tried to ask a logical question. “Well, are you contaminating the trainees?”
“Don’t ask.”
“Not good. Not good.” David gulped and looked at her anxiously. A review was a serious thing. You either got promoted, demoted, or fired. Reviews were huge career-shifting points in a Productzen’s path to freedom. “Your manager must have it out for you if she isn’t allowing you the typical time to polish up your portfolio and self-image—the meeting could be disastrous.”
“David, I know. An unscheduled, manager-forced review could very well mean the end of the line.”
He almost launched into a condemning, lecturing tirade but stopped, clamping his jaw shut with a click. Think like her, he warned himself, still ashamed that he was taking Tara’s advice even though it seemed to be having better results. What would encourage her? “Gayle, you’re in perfect shape, you look wonderful, and you’re intelligent. Gosh, you are contributing to society by your mere marketable presence, let alone your work ethic.” He wasn’t sure about her work ethic since she hardly talked about her career, but she seemed really intelligent. Uncomfortable, he continued his rant. “You’re sexy and smart, and you’re a billboard phenomenon after our PPRE videos. You’re a marketing company’s dream girl. Slayer himself told me.” He felt angry as he thought of the betrayers.
“Slayer?”
“Steven Slayer is the manager at Nnect who orchestrated our PPRE marketing, but forget about that stockstard.”
“Part of your troubles?” She noticed the tension in his voice. She was perceptive indeed.
David changed the focus back to her. “Your manager is having talent envy. That’s got to be it. We convinced your CEO that you were going clean and that you were not anti-Xchange. Didn’t we, Gayle? You kept up the act, right?”
She didn’t nod quickly enough, making him super nervous, so he reached out his right hand to touch her branded arm to steady her. He knelt in front of her as she put her hands over her worried face. And then he noticed it. His hand had rubbed off some of her brand. “Is this ink fake?” He couldn’t believe it. What was this? Brands were in your skin and DNA, and they did not rub off. He looked in horror at Gayle, accusing her. “Orns take me, what is this, Gayle? To your mark?”
“I tried to tell you.”
Confused, fighting the truth he refused to accept, he stared at her with horrified eyes. A monster revealed. “Who are you, Gayle?” He glared at the green sparkle paint that was now on his hand and wiped it off before he was infected with whatever parasitic disease was eating her brand. “You betray us all!”
“Oh, that. Well, that’s the reason I’m fleeing the office!” She casually rubbed her arm clean. “My supplier has had trouble coming by the high-quality stuff, and I didn’t have sufficient time this morning to allow the false brand to solidify like I normally do.”
“Ewh.” He waved his fingers to remove the gre
en stain.
“The truth is, David, that I’ve been reducing my brand dependency by putting this fake one on every morning.”
The damn green paint clung to his fingers like an evil acid. “Arhhgg.”
Calmly she held his shoulder. “Do you remember the day I gave you that note in the self-improvement center?”
Of course I remember. Sometimes he regretted tossing it away. That note had changed his life forever. “The day you handwrote me a note? Yes, I remember. Whada…”
“Outreach practice.” He had no idea what that meant, but she continued anyway, “Well, I thought you were reaching out to me at the improvement facility because you were at a ‘personal crisis point,’ as my secret group calls it. I thought you might be willing to join us and secretly begin to remove your brand dependency. It takes years. My original Thrive brand is still here, just so faded it is almost impossible to see.”
“How dare…?” He tried to interject.
“But, David, the beauty is that I can think clearly now, and my addicted dependency is almost entirely gone.” The sunlight gleamed off her hair as she continued, “I create my own habits now. I choose vice or virtue. The greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“Greatest…what?”
“I feel as if the shackles of Thrive are removed from my life.” She paused and closed her eyes. “I feel free.”
“Don’t you dare. That’s not freedom, Gayle, but treason.” He caught himself before he started to lecture, composing himself and regaining a semblance of calm.
“Yes, it’s freedom. It’s what we are all after. Don’t you want freedom?”
His brain whirled. Treason. She’s going to involve me in this. There are others. “Corporate policy protect me. He prayed, touching his tattoo for a scrap of sanity before he rubbed her arm again and noted a faded thrive in green lettering. Such an outdated brand—maybe from her first branding ever! “How, how, how did you avoid rebranding? It happens every cycle and sometimes twice a year if the company is doing well and can afford it.”
A Tale Of Doings Page 49