Awakening, 2nd edition (54 page)

“ . . . I’m the first one to win? That ’s nice to know.”

“You don’t understand, ” Clark ’s baritone said sorrowfully. “You have won a contest that is impossible to win.”

“Didn’t you just say—” Michael ’s voice began.

“Impossible!” growled Clark ’s voice. “That’s how the workshop is designed. Do you realize what you ’ve done? Do you have any idea of what you ’ve done? No one is supposed to win here! It is impossible to win here and no one has ever done it! Do you understand this? For forty-two years—no one! Week after week, year after year I keep watching the same show over and over again: people agree on the rules, spend four days violating these rules , and o n the fifth day fail to choose the winner! They all fail at that! This is the crisis , this is the very foundation of the workshop, its core, its heart. The crisis is imminent, it is inevitable! There ’s always someon e who says first, “If it ’s not me, then it ’s no one!” And soon enough everyone else says it , too! For forty damn years they ’ve been saying it! Whatever they agree on, whatever they swear to do in public, whatever they write down, whatever they promise to the world, human nature takes over. Human nature is the real winner here —the one and only winner. But in your case they all of a sudden decided to vote! And vote for you ! As if—”

Clark turned off the recorder and said gruffly:

“That was the first time in my entire career. Spontaneous uncontrolled yelling? I don ’t know what could be worse than that . . . Do you?”

Ed didn’t know. But he had some words of consolation to share.

“Take it easy, ” he said. “Okay, we had a winner. So w hat? Sooner or later this was bound to happen. Everybody knows that. Don ’t we have enough jokes about this? I still remember reading Dolger ’s works, he expected to see one winner in ten years. It ’s a on ce—in -a -lifetime thing in this business. Isn ’t it better that it happened on your watch?”

“Yes,
it was bound to happen, ”
echoed Clark, emphasizing ‘it .’ “Well, you ’re right, it did happen. And it would ’ve been helpful if—n ever mind, let ’s keep moving. As for Dolger, you probably should ’ve paid more attention while reading his works. True, he expected to see some winners, but he attributed this to a rare combination of circumstances. And , first of all, to the very rare occurrence of all the others being weak . Still, somehow , until today it was a pure theory. And the level of participants this time was higher than usual, you know that. Alex alone was a pure gem.”

He clicked the p lay button and the voice recorder immediately produced a series of hurried indignant sounds. With a grimace of disgust , Clark clicked the fast—forward button.

“ . . . So I won, you didn ’t expect it to happen, I made the news. Fine. But why are you so upset about it?”

“Why? Because by winning you ’ve turned the whole theory upside down , that ’s why. This workshop is all about power. About true power. It ’s built with a single purpose in mind—to teach everyone who goes through it that there ’s no power inside a modern corporation! There ’s a ghost of power. A phantom. A smell of power. But not power itself.

“It exists in politics, in the military , the police , organized crime, cults, religion. But not inside corporations. As far as true power is concerned , a manager is nobody. Power is when you tell someone to lick your boots clean and he licks them clean. Whimpers, but licks clean. Hates your guts, but licks clean. Or , even better , wants to do this with all his heart.
That ’s power.

“When you command someone: Go and die. And he goes and dies. Without asking you a single question.
That ’s power.

“When a schoolboy tells another schoolboy to bring him cash from home and the next morning he gets that cash—that ’
s power.

“But should a manager—no, scrap ‘manager ’—should a CEO try putting his boot anywhere near an employee ’s face, what do you think would happen? That employee would raise hell and make that power lord sorry he was ever born. He ’d leave the company the same day, he ’d sue them for harassment or whatever else he feels like suing for and they would end up paying him more money in settlement cost s than that CEO makes in five years. This is what our workshop is about!”

“I understand.”

“No, you don ’t! At least, not completely. Do you know that we ourselves don ’t call it ‘The workshop ?’ We call it T
he Shot . It ’
s a vaccination against the worst disease in the world. It ’s our shock therapy for the most gifted, the most talented. This is a reality -check workshop, a workshop of purification before the journey to the top. It ’s a pail of cold water after a week of heated emotions. Our workshop encapsulates—”

“I know what it encapsulates, ” said Michael ’s voice calmly .

Clark’s voice coughed and broke off.

“You gather together a dozen bright people who are used to giving orders. Hardened, dangerous, smart, with a well -justified feeling of self-importance. People who ’re very good at politics. People who ’ve been climbing up faster than the vast majority of their colleagues. People who have no illusions whatsoever about what happens between the middle of the pyramid and its very top. And you herd them into a trap. The truth is, the entire goal of selecting the leader is nothing but smoke and mirrors. The real task is entirely different: make people give up something they really want without having formal control over them. Without using any of the levers you ’re used to. Make them do it of their own free will.

“By Friday, people realize —or at least some of them do —a nd , naturally , they say it ’s a bad deal and say no. At that point you enter the scene with your speech. Not the improvisation you gave us today —the real one. The one you ’ve just partially given me here. About true power, about the phantom, about the disease that kills companies. And towards the end you deliver the key message.

“Had one of you, you tell them, accomplished that, it would ’ve been real power. The quintessence of power, so to speak. But none of you has been able to accomplish that since it is impossible to accomplish in these conditions. Barehanded, my dear Napoleons, with no titles or chain of command to back your orders , you can ’t even make someone blow his nose. The worst thing you can do to your subordinate is to fire him, which would immediately set him free from your power or , more precisely , from its imitation.

“So once you’re back, p lay politics all you want, but every time you ’re doing that, ask yourself why. And if your honest answer is ‘Because I want more power ,’ recall this week, recall this very moment. Recall your encounter with true power and how dramatically it differed from its poor knockoff replica you face at work. And find something more useful to do. It will only be better for your career, not to mention your company. But if you still want true power—look somewhere else. Inside corporate walls it simply doesn ’t exist.”

Michael’s voice quieted.

“Yes,” slowly uttered Clark ’s voice. “You did get it right. That was . . . quite impressive.”

“I know,” Michael ’s voice replied, still dispassionate. “And so I ’m asking again : why are you so frustrated about this? Forty years have already proved that your theory is flawless. Anomalies are unavoidable. If anything, they only prove the theory.”

Ed smirked and gestured with significance at the recorder.

“Especially because, ” said the recorder in Michael ’s voice, “this is not even an anomaly. I just exposed a weak link in your current implementation of the workshop. Fix it—and you will have another forty years of uninterrupted power exposure.”

“A weak link?” Cla rk ’s voice asked perplexedly.

“You’ve asked whether I intend to keep working for my company. This, of course, wasn ’t accidental.”

“Accidental, ” Clark ’s voice echoed bitterly. “I ’m glad you ’ve brought it up. Accidental . . . For some reason every single one of your colleagues thinks that next week all of you will be called up to create some great conglomerate, some nebulous joint venture between your companies. Everyone thinks so. Everyone, but you . And they all think that the winner will be put in charge. In other words, you will be put in charge. They even talk about this—some hint, other s are more direct. Alex, for example, explicitly requested me to ignore the voting and put him in charge. He kept doing this until I informed him that I hadn ’t a clue of what he was talking about. Took another five minutes to convince him I was serious. He just wouldn ’t take my word for it, until I showed him some papers.”

“To Alex?”

“Yes. Is there a problem?”

“No. Did you convince him?”

“Yes, I did. But whoever had convi nced him before me that the opposite was true achieved some very impressive results.”

The voice recorder quieted.

“Thus, it should come as no surprise to you that we would be very interested in learning why out of eleven people you are the only one who doesn ’t know anything abo ut this mysterious joint venture?” asked Clark ’s voice after a considerable silence.

“I never said I knew nothing about it, ” came a calm response. “I only said that I had no intention of moving to another company. As for your question, the best person to shed some light on it would be Ed.”

The button clicked.

“Actually,” said Clark, setting the voice recorder on the table, “
this is what I wanted to discuss with you.
”

He stared steadily at Ed, who looked as if he was about to fal l from his chair.

“This, as well a couple of interesting facts that Joan has shared with me this afternoon.”

The empty narrow road rushed towards the car. Alan had to force himself to slow down once in a while—the turns here were rather sharp. But every time , taking his foot off the gas was a struggle. What he really wanted was to push the pedal to the floor and go full throttle. He was doing exactly that whenever he had a chance and kept doing it so persistently that a black car, which at the beginning of the trip had occasionally appeared in the rearview mirror, fairly soon gave up and completely faded away, lost in the road turns.

He also wanted to sing, and so he kept humming endlessly some cheerful upbeat tune that emerged from nowhere. The tune was of the sort that calls people to journey to the end of the world, to dive to the bottom of the sea, to climb tallest mountains and to otherwise engage in bright crazy adventures.

And although Alan couldn’t remember where the tune came from, he knew precisely when it came to his mind—as soon as , instead of the hateful name , he wrote “Michael .” It was exactly at that moment that it tiptoed into his head. And it had been partying there ever since. But he didn ’t mind. Even some foolish jovial words were laying on top of it, also coming from nowhere. “Got news for you, got news for you, you moron go and screw yourself . . . No way you will be telling me how I should live my life . . .”

Michael said it loud and clear: “He ’ll pay for everything he ’s done.” Michael got it in a second and immediately took on the right tone—not a drop of pity. Sympathy, understanding, compassion—but not pity. And cold inexorability. “It ’s not about a position anymore. People end up behind bars for stuff like that —and for a long time .” He promised full support. And said , “But don ’t wait for all the mergers to happen. Who knows how long it will take them go public with the news. Officially no one has told us anything yet. So just go straight to the police and tell them the whole story. It ’s one thing to go there the next day, but it’s a totally different story to go to them two months after the fact. And don ’t sugarcoat things. Tell them what you ’ve told me—and he ’s finished.” And there was that unbelievable gaze again. One that made it clear that he wouldn’t let you down, he’d back you up, you could count on him.

And perhaps that conversation with Alex today wasn’t such a smart thing to do. It had happened completely spur of the moment. But running into him right after talking to Michael and staying silent was too much. Had this scumbag at least not smiled his snaky smile and said , “It was great working with you, ” most likely it wouldn ’t have gone beyond goodbyes and curt nods. But after those words full of hidden poison , staying silent was too much.

And so he told him. He told him everything. Almost everything. At least he was smart enough not to mention Michael and the police. But he did spill his guts about everything else. He told him there would be a price to pay for everything. And that he was sorry that , despite such an impressive initial number of votes , Alex still didn ’t win the race. And that sometimes even the best plans fail. And about unreliable powerboats. At that point Alex ’s face had changed expression. And even about the civilized country with great courts. He told him a lot. Perhaps too much. Still , it was very unlikely that Alex would rush to the police himself. He ’s got nothing to complain about. No worries , though—they will call him. He ’ll have a chance to present his side of the story. Before he gets locked up. Got news for you, got news for you, you ’ll pay and you ’ll pay dearly. . .

A black dot flashed in the rearview mirror. Oh, so you ’ve decided to stick around after all. . . You ’re stubborn, I like that in people. No, I like persistence. It ’s not the same. Anyway, if it ’s a race you want, it ’s a race you’ll get. Why don ’t we push the pedal a bit further? Yeah, just like that. See ya !