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GWEN MITCHELL
The merger meeting was a formality. Businessmen like to make hostile takeovers look amicable. They never are, of course, and the swallowed company inevitably suffers casualties. I pretty much knew which existing Nova employees would get the can once the paperwork was officially signed, sealed, and delivered.
I didn’t have to worry, my numbers were off the chart.
For my region, I was single-handedly responsible for sixty percent of the new clinics and private practices we’d added to our roster this quarter. Novaguard’s newest offering to the market was a weight loss pill said to be like ‘surgery in a bottle’ and I’d pandered that pink magic tablet like my life depended on it, negotiating available quantities, cost, and handing out samples like the mall food court cronies with their bad uniforms and scratched plastic trays.
I had a reputation for being the best, and I knew Adigen Labs would recognize what I brought to the table. And if they didn’t, well, I’d take my loyal customers to a rival company. My non-compete clause was as holey as Swiss cheese, and all it would take was one half-decent lawyer to get me free. I’d heard through the grapevine that Phenzer was coming out with their own weight loss phenom.
My experience would have me in like Flynn. A few pretty words, and my laundry list of doctors would flip their script. I was confident in that.
Kicking back at my desk, I crossed my legs against the mahogany of the executive desk and stared out the wall of windows that overlooked Central Park. It was a glorious day and as soon as the merger concluded, I was packing up my rolling samples case and hitting a few new private clinics that had opened in Jersey over the last few months. They were the few remaining on my own personal hit list and I wanted to knock them out and get the doctors on board before I hopped on the plane to the Maldives.
The vacation had been in the works for a damn year, and I freaking deserved it.
My phone rang shrilly, and I stared at it with disdain. If it was one of my clients, they’d hit my personal cell phone. The only people who called me on the landline were work folks or my ex-boyfriend Rich. He just wouldn’t let the past stay dead.
Swinging my legs off the desk and sitting up, I checked the caller ID. It was an in-house dial. The cheat sheet taped to the phone told me it was an HR extension.
“Gwen Mitchell speaking,” I twirled the cord around my finger and spun around slowly. The call was probably about my change in direct deposit. I’d been with Rich for five years before we broke up, and cutting all the ties that bound us had proved slow and tedious. I still didn’t know why I’d agreed to a joint account back then. I’d been smart enough to only siphon a small part of my paycheck into it, but still. A smart woman knew better.
“Yes, Ms. Mitchell. Can you come down to HR to process your paperwork over from Novaguard to Adigen? It requires a few signatures.” The woman’s voice was harried, as if I was just the next call in a long list of calls.
“This merger’s got everyone overworked, doesn’t it?” I said pleasantly, centering my chair back at the desk and standing up.
“It feels like it’ll never be over, but thankfully you’re the last Nova employee who’s making the move.”
I sighed, wondering if I was right about the people who were getting fired. At least the severance pay would be good. It usually was. Nova was a decent enough company. “I’ll pop down now if that works.”
“Sure, sure. I’m in office 4C.”
I dropped the corded phone back in its cradle and slipped into my blazer. I’d do the paperwork and then maybe grab a sandwich at the deli on the first floor. The courtyard would be beautiful right now, what with the blue skies and soothing fountain. I had time for a quick bite, as long as I took my samples case with me and left from the courtyard.
Two signatures later, I left office 4C. Riding the elevator down to the ground floor, I exited and smiled at the security guards who waved absentmindedly as they watched their video monitors. Tuna salad and a lemonade called my name at the deli kiosk, and I made quick work of paying before heading toward the double doors into the gardens.
The space wasn’t huge, maybe five hundred square feet, but it was kept wonderfully. The flowers were a riot of color in spring and summer, and the evergreens still breathed life in fall and winter when it was chilly and overcast. I loved it here, and loved that in the middle of the day, typically it was empty. Not even the cameras reached here, because the garden couldn’t be accessed from the outside, only from the double doors past the main lobby which was very secure.
I sat on the edge of the fountain, unwrapping my sandwich. I took a bite, washing it down with lemonade and tilting my face up to the sky to soak in the warm sunlight.
I was so at peace, and so distracted by the warmth, that I didn’t know how long the buzzing behind me had been happening. It sounded like electricity, humming and randomly popping like there was a short in a wire somewhere.
I shifted against the concrete lip of the fountain, glancing behind me.
My gaze widened as I saw a strange blue glow hovering beneath the calm surface of the pool. It grew stronger, despite the brightness of the day. The soft hue became a blinding assault seconds later.
I stood up, backing away as a cavern began opening beneath the fountain. Yet, water did not pour into the newly formed hole. It seemed to hover around it, as if an unseen force kept the liquid at bay.
My scream died before it was born as a giant tentacle rose from the rip in reality.
Its suckers blinked at me, opening and closing to reveal sharp talons at the center of each fleshy pink cup. I wanted to run, but I was frozen.
All my life, I’d always known what to say, how to act. I’d always known how to win and close the deal. But as the tentacle snaked around my waist and began yanking me toward the fountain, I was a babe in the damn woods.
I grabbed the handle of my samples case, as if keeping it with me was somehow important in this nightmare scenario. Or maybe I thought it would anchor me to the Earth. Oh no, you can’t whisk me away, not while I hold onto this rolling suitcase of cutting-edge pills.
As my heel smacked against the hard fountain, I finally came to my senses and made a last-ditch effort to escape.
But it was too late.
