Dangerously Placed (5 page)

Inge sauntered off, and I picked up the papers of our rough draft.

‘I'll do it,' I told Dale, and headed for the door to Grody's wing of the office. I lifted my chin. Inge was right. We had to work with the guy, so we might as well make the best of it. I was halfway down the corridor before I noticed that Dale was following me.

‘Weren't you supposed to start finding out about the light-scanners?'

‘What, and let you take credit for the whole thing?' Dale smiled. ‘Actually, I just thought you might like some support. We can find out about the scanners later.'

‘Thanks.' I had to admit, I was relieved not to be entering the Demon Lord's lair alone. I had the feeling that while the dragon was harmless, Grody probably wasn't.

Dale knocked. A voice called ‘Enter!' and we went in.

Grody was typing at his desk. He glanced up at us, then pulled at his monitor to make sure we couldn't catch even a glimpse of whatever he was doing.

‘Well, well … the brat pack,' he drawled. ‘What do you want?'

I held our proposal up to him as the dragon lifted its scaly head to stare at us. I forced myself to ignore it. Grody's desk and throne-like chair were elevated, I realised; in fact, his whole environment was designed to intimidate. And it worked. My hand shook as Grody snatched the papers from it, and flicked his cold eyes over the proposal, but then I felt Dale squeeze my arm. I shot a grateful smile at him. An image of what Grody must look like in realspace, sitting on thin air with nothing but his padded grey Virk Suit to support him, came into my head. Suddenly he didn't seem quite so scary.

‘And what exactly am I supposed to make of these scribbles?' he asked.

‘It's our preliminary draft of a –' I began.

‘I don't have time to go through papers – if you want me to take you seriously, girl, you'll need to email a proper proposal.'

‘Actually, sir, that's why we came,' interposed Dale. ‘Ms Wellenschnitter told us we need your approval before we can add our work to any official proposal files.'

Grody snorted, and the dragon hissed at us.

‘If I had my way, students wouldn't even be allowed in the office, let alone near the computers. And now,
I have an important announcement to make to the staff, so you'll have to leave.'

‘But Mr Grody, we need to know if we –'

Grody stood up. One of the spotlights shone down on his fiery hair, throwing his pale, angry eyes into shadow, and his dragon reared up behind him. For a horrible moment, he looked like the Devil in a pinstriped suit.

‘I'll
think
about it. NOW GET OUT!'

We ran for it.

We had only just made the safety of our cubicle when Grody strode into the open space area.

‘Your attention, everyone!' he called. Heads emerged from behind dividers. ‘I would like to announce that this afternoon I succeeded in signing a three-year contract with Avatar Robotics. It's going to net us well over a billion dollars. That's the biggest deal in Simulcorp Marketing Division's history, people.' He smirked and continued, ‘And frankly, I think you all ought to be pretty damned grateful to me for this!'

There was a smattering of laughter, although I was sure no one actually believed Grody had meant that as a joke.

‘Congratulations, Pierce!' cried Inge, clapping. The rest of us took the hint and began to applaud. ‘I think this calls for a celebration, yes?'

Everyone applauded harder at that.

‘I suppose that's what keeps the drones happy,' Grody sneered. ‘But some of us have work to do.' And
he headed back towards his wing of the office, holding up a hand in acknowledgement to the few brave people who offered him personal congratulations as he went.

A buzz of conversation rose up as Grody left the room.

‘So, how did Pierce like your proposal?' asked Inge a little later, as I sat on the couch with her, awkwardly holding my glass of virtual Pepsi.

‘It was … hard to tell,' I said. ‘He didn't really have time to look at it.'

‘You mean he was too much of a jerk to
bother
looking at it,' said Budi, coming over with a plate of cake in his hand. ‘He's not really all that interested in other people's ideas, Peaches, unless he thinks he can use them. You know that dragon in his office? He stole the basic programming for it from an electronic lizard toy he saw while he was in Japan last year. Oh, no one can prove that, of course – Pierce wouldn't be careless enough to get himself into legal trouble. But still …'

Inge tried to look disapproving, and failed.

‘You will teach her bad habits, gossiping like that, Budi! But I'm afraid Pierce
can
be rather overbearing and self-important.'

‘That's putting it mildly,' said Budi. ‘And gossip isn't a bad habit, Inge, it's my livelihood! Cake, anyone?'

‘Uh … can you actually eat the cake?' I asked,
reaching tentatively towards the pink-iced slab on Budi's plate.

‘I'm afraid not,' sighed Budi. ‘Shame – it looks delicious, doesn't it?'

‘What's the point of all these virtual drinks and things, then?' I asked.

Budi considered.

‘Well, the drinks are partly to create a celebratory atmosphere, and partly to give people a sense of choice and individuality. But I find it's also quite useful sometimes to know what a person's favourite drink is, and keep an eye on trends in that area.'

‘And the cake?'

Budi laughed.

‘The cake is just traditional!'

‘In that case, I'll have some,' I said, taking the plate. Since there didn't seem to be anything I could actually do with my cake now I had it, I settled for looking around at the people crowded into the open space area. Dale had gone to the bathroom, but just about everyone else seemed to be there. Except Grody. ‘Kind of weird, isn't it? Mr Grody being the only one not here when it's his own celebration.'

‘Pierce is … different from the rest of us,' Inge told me. ‘I suppose one could say he is special.'

‘Is it okay if I ask what kind of special? I mean, how come he gets that huge office, and gets to be so …?'

‘So rude to everybody?' Inge smiled. ‘Well, he is quite brilliant. He's a marketing genius, but it's
more than that. This contract with Avatar Robotics, for example – there are not many people who could have handled it. You see, Avatar want to move into personal robotics – that is, robots that work in people's businesses and even their homes. They have had some success in technology-friendly countries like Japan, but in many places consumer fears about robots have absolutely crippled marketing attempts. Pierce's idea was to create mobile virtual test units. They can project virtual representations of Avatar's robots into the consumer's home or workplace so that they can experience the usefulness of the product while overcoming the issue of consumer fears, since there is no actual robot present.'

‘That's so simple, when you think about it,' I said.

Inge nodded.

‘But it's not merely this idea that makes the contract so valuable. Getting it off the ground, making the technology work – Pierce played a major part in this also. So, he is not only gifted when it comes to marketing, he has the technological know-how to help create something as complex as a portable virtual experience. He is an incredible asset to the company.'

‘And an incredible jackass
in
company,' commented Budi.

We all laughed. A few drops of virtual Pepsi spilled from my glass, and as I turned to look for something to mop them up with, I caught sight of a face in the crowd around us staring in my direction, its features twisted
with such fury that I gasped. And then it was gone as something blue filled my vision.

‘I'll clean it up,' said Dusty, who had appeared in front of me in his blue overalls. He leant over to wipe away the Pepsi. I peered around him, but the strange face had gone.

‘Oh! Um … thank you,' I said. The cleaning bot's face formed a brief smile before he drifted off towards a fallen morsel of cake.

When I turned back to the others, I saw that Inge had wandered off. Budi shifted over to sit next to me.

‘How're you enjoying your placement so far, Peaches?'

‘It's great!' I smiled at him. ‘You guys have been very kind to me. I'm learning heaps.'

‘That's good to hear. I think you're doing very well. You remind me of myself when I was your age.'

‘Thanks!' I said, trying not to laugh. It was kind of weird hearing him talk about his youth like it was fifty years ago. ‘So, is this how you got started at Simulcorp – you did a placement here?'

‘No, no. I started work at a firm in Jakarta and made a bit of a name for myself there. One of my strategies for an Indonesian clothing company went so well that they were bought out by a multinational and that brought my name to the attention of Ravi Chander. He headhunted me for Simulcorp personally, two years ago. There's another lesson in this, you know.' He wagged his finger at me. ‘Always treat any marketing
proposal as if it's your step to stardom – just in case it is!'

‘Oh!' I suddenly remembered my own proposal. ‘I left the Impression proposal in Mr Grody's office!'

Budi looked at his watch.

‘It's 5.32. You'd better get it saved in the Mainframe Room so it'll still be there tomorrow – you'll have to put it in the Temporary file if Grody hasn't approved it. Better check in the Proposals file first, in case he did decide to approve it, though.'

I nodded.

Out in Grody's wing of the office, away from the party, all was silent. I went straight to the Mainframe Room, hoping I'd find that the Demon Lord had decided to approve and save our work after all. I was sure asking him for my papers back would also be asking for a nice big serve of insults on the side. I pulled open the door to the Mainframe Room.

‘Mmm … yes!'

I stopped, startled. From behind one bank of monitors I caught sight of an unmistakeably female leg, below a narrow, dark skirt. Someone was already in there – and judging from the sounds of enjoyment issuing from the room, either she had a big slice of the celebratory cake and a very good imagination, or she wasn't alone. I hastily shut the door again.
Bad time to forget Budi's rule about waiting a few seconds before going in there
, I told myself.

There was nothing for it but to go to Grody's office
after all. It was past 5.30 – with any luck he'd have left the workplace by now. I knocked anyway. No one answered. Cautiously, I turned the doorknob and peered inside.

‘Mr Grody?'

Silence. No one was sitting at the big black desk. The dragon was curled up in the corner of the room, its red-rimmed eyes closed. Our proposal was still lying where Grody had left it. Keeping a cautious eye on the sleeping beast, I tiptoed over to the desk. I stretched out a hand to gather up the papers, but at that moment the dragon suddenly snapped awake, hissing and baring its fangs at me. I dropped the papers, which scattered everywhere.

‘Nice dragon,' I soothed, standing very still. ‘There, there. Go back to sleep.'

Whether the dragon had been programmed to respond to the word ‘sleep' or I just had a talent for talking to scary virtual pets, I don't know, but it worked. The dragon settled back into its curled-up pose. I leant over the desk to see where the proposal papers had fallen … and froze.

Behind the throne-like chair, something was flickering.

Slowly, I stepped around the desk and stared down. My breath caught in my throat.

Pierce Grody lay on the ground, his eyes open but unseeing, his pinstriped body blinking in and out of existence like the picture on a faulty television.

I backed away until I felt the door behind me. Then I whipped around, wrenched it open and began to run.

‘So that's when the police showed up?' asked Sky, sitting cross-legged at the foot of my bed.