A Book - Alexie (nonfiction book recommendations txt) 📗

and the entry switch to allow the door to open. Mr. Greeg stood patiently in the door way. “I'm Mr. Stanley Banks, Please come in Mr. Greeg.” Mr. Greeg entered the apartment and waited for Mr. Banks to close the door.

****
Kaymore looked over the morning reports. A new position for a file clerk had opened up. He placed a called to the head of the division and asked why the position was vacant. The division head told him that the man that they'd hired 2 months ago, a Mr. Stanley Banks, had died in his sleep sometime over the weekend, from an apparent heart attack. Not too surprising as the man was extremely high strung and with all the investigation going on with a missing package he'd apparently misfiled. Thus leaving the position of file clerk vacant.

Kaymore smiled, 'Mr. Greeg does do good work.' he thought to himself. Now to fill that position, he had the perfect fit. Some woman from the medical sector looking for work outside her current field. No one would want to have anything to do with her for fear she'd contaminant them. She was perfect and if she ever failed at her duties he was sure her death would be a sigh of relief for the community.

****
Cassie's comm station buzzed for her attention. She answered it with her voice which activated the connection. A familiar voice came through the channel, it was Anton.

“I've got great news for you Cassie, I've got our problem solved!”

“I was going to call you too, I've solved our problem already. I've got a job in securities in the archives and files department. I just accepted the position this morning. Aren't you happy?”

“You what?” asked Anton as if the wind had been knocked out of him.

“I said I got a job in your sector so all of our problems are solved silly! Weren't you listening?” Cassie chided.

“Wow, I mean, that's great. Um, when do you start? Have they secured you accommodations yet?”

“Geez, don't sound so thrilled.” Cassie was taken aback by his reaction to her good news. She thought he'd be jumping for joy rather than sounding so down about her it.

“No, no I didn't mean it that way. I am happy about your news, really I am.” He apologized. “Tell me, please, all about it. Where will you be living? Is there anything I can do to help?”

He was happy. Now they could spend lots more time together. If she didn't like the job then he could offer her what he'd planed. So he decided to wait to see how things would work out and just be happy for her accomplishment.

****
Mr. Greeg sat silently in the foyer of Mr. Kaymore's office. Beside him was a rather bulky sack disguising it's contents. The pretty petite lady behind the desk covered in barrier cloth was busy on her hollow screen paying no attention to him. Mr. Greeg was not offended by this as he never liked drawing attention to himself. He was a expert at blending into his environment and quite physically un-noteworthy. When ever anything happened, no one ever remembered his presence. This was why he was so good at his job. Not too big, not too tall, no real distinguishing marks, just an average looking man. He could blend into a crowd and be invisible, and watch as his work unfolded before him. He like it that way. Many time people forgot he was even there. He traveled alone, no real friends or family so no one could connect him to any suspicious activities. He never minded being such a loner. It was kind of fun. When he had needs to satisfy he'd simply use the escort services or his female victims. He preferred his victims more because of the power he had over them, their fear was like nectar, their pleas for mercy, a joke, they were far more enjoyable than any escort.

The com buzzed gaining the woman's attention. She made no real reaction to what she heard and did not even looking up from her work. “You may go in now Mr. Greeg.” was all she said.

The door opened before Greeg as he entered the inner office. Kaymore seemed lost in though looking out the window behind his desk as Greeg entered. He moved silently to his usual seat that gave him full view of the office and the door which closed behind him. There he sat patiently for Kaymore to get to the business at hand.

Kaymore finally turned and looked at Greeg. Without a word Greeg took a package out of his bag and placed it on the desk before Kaymore and opened it. Greeg knew Kaymore would be repulsed at the idea of opening the package himself as he didn't want to touch something anyone else had handled. There in the box shimmered it's contents in tinny glass vials. Kaymore looked down at them and smiled. With a soft smooth voice dismissed Greeg. So with no real conversation Greeg left the office. He knew that Kaymore would be in contact if he was in need of anymore of his services.

****
The Lab was quiet and empty, except for a lone figure perched atop a stool busy examining the most recent data from her experiment. Professor Moore felt she was her most productive after the students and facility had left for the day. This way she could concentrate without interruption. She was working on perfecting her latest batch of serum. Her benefactor had made it quite clear that her funding would dry up if she didn't reach his expectations before the end of the month. His attorney had made reference to bright new minds could probably do a better job if she could not manage it.

At first she though this request was impossible but now she was sure she could do better than requested with the right ingredients. Already she was seeing greater potential with the serum with just a bit of fine tuning. Professor Moore knew only the type of product she was to produce but wasn't quite sure of it's application. She wasn't sure if this serum was to be used alone or in conjunction with others to create something more. It seemed benign enough, nothing illegal and the money she was receiving for her work was staggering. She couldn't speak to anyone about her work as she had signed a confidentiality agreement. That was no problem for her, she never trusted her pears as they were known to steal each others work and get credit for it as their own from time to time.

With her most recent data in hand and a shopping list of her required ingredients she sent off a wave to the attorney. “That ought to do it.” She said to herself with relief. “Now all I have to do is wait.” With that she shut down her computer and prepared to go home.

Just as she grabbed her barrier cloth she had an epiphany. She could use the data she'd just gained to improve the serum she'd just sent off to filing. If she could just get it back, for say a few hours, then she could provide her benefactor with such an improved product she'd guarantee her job for the entire project and maybe even elicit a raise. With that idea she rushed to find the secretary she'd sent the package with to be filed.

****
Kaymore relaxed in his palatal accommodations listening to his music and sipping a silver looking concoction of his own making. Thinking of how to align his subjects once he gained total power. He grinned sickly of the images of his underlings shaking with fear at the utterance of his voice. 'How sweet, their afraid of me.' He thought whimsically to himself.

A light on his desk started to blink. “I wonder who that could be at this hour.” With a single word command the consul sprung to life and displays hovered in mid air. He glanced over his shoulder to read who the message was from. “Ah, it's Dr. Zarrious's report. This should be interesting.” He pressed a button on his chair and it swiveled over to his desk. Touching the screen a video came to life.

Dr. Zarrious, a short pudgie man with squintey eyes, dressed in a white lab coat and covered in barrier cloth spoke. “This latest batch is far superior to our previous ones. The results are astounding. Your going to want to see the test subjects for yourself, before we have to terminate them. I'd say it's a miracle.”

“Well,” Kaymore puzzled over the invitation, “maybe I'll just have to see this for myself. This was the first time Zarrious had ever been excited about anything, so this must be good.”

****
The old warehouse district was dark, dingy, and in ruin, at least that was the outward appearance. No one was willing to knock down the buildings for fear of some hidden contaminant. The local city planners didn't wish to part with the kind of money it'd take to hire outsiders and the equipment, with their noise and air pollutants, necessary to demolish the buildings was just too much for anyone to bare. So they sat, tumble down building long abandoned.

When the dome was constructed this area was used as staging areas and storage. Now they were empty and unused, slowly falling apart on their own. Kaymore's building was especially rundown on the outside enough to keep out the locals and the authorities. Compounders with their innate fear of dirt and this location served it's purpose well. Keep out any curious people and secretly carry out it's usefulness.

Kaymore truly disliked coming down here but, Dr. Zarrious had peaked his interest. His dream plan had finally been moving forward according to his most recent timetable, with only a few minor setbacks. Those setbacks were easily taken care of by Greeg. Now to see his plan reaching fruition was going to be a thing of beauty.

A guardsman was waiting to escort him upon his arrival. To open doors and keep a clear path for his movement to the staging area. Once they made their way through the maze of broken down, antiquated machinery and into the bowels of the warehouse they found Dr. Zarrious was waiting for them. He lead Kaymore the rest of the way explaining to him the most recent developments. Zarrious was almost bouncing with excitement. He rambled on about details that Zarrious had little interest in. He was getting annoyed and wanted to get to the bottom of it all. Finally, Kaymore turned to Zarrious with furry in his eyes and waited for Zarrious to notice. Zarrious was in mid sentence when he looked up at Kaymore and was instantly silent. Kaymore took a deep breath to calm himself before he spoke. “The subjects please.”

“This way sir.” said Zarrious in a small voice empty now of all excitement. He knew full well the power of Kaymore and had no desire to end up missing or worse, a member of the test subject population.

They walked in silence to the viewing booth that had been equipped with the most up to date technology. From this vantage point they could look down onto the subject without notice. There to Kaymore view were 5 men and 5 women. 3 of each sex were healthy and active on one side of the enclosure while the other 4 subjects were suffering horribly on the opposite side with rashes, welts, bleeding sours, puss and mucus pouring from every orifice on the floor writhing in agony. The