‘Death is what you make of it.’
“I can’t even remember the last time I had a cigarette…” she said slowly.
“This morning?” Arlo asked helpfully.
The two men stared in shock as an insane sounding cackle burst forth from her lips. She laughed so hard, she started wheezing. Arlo felt a nervous giggle rise to his own lips in response as the one person he felt a connection to in this place fell completely off her rocker.
Gillian stopped laughing just as suddenly as she’d started. After her outburst, it was so eerily quiet that you could have heard a shoe squeak in the next room.
“Uhhh, Gillian?” Arlo said.
Gillian let the booklet drop from her fingers and land on the damp linoleum with a thump. Spinning on her heels, she abruptly marched from the room, the door slamming shut behind her.
Arlo sighed and turned the knob of the metal door. Holding the bathroom door wide open, he turned to Roger. “After you.”
Roger propped his mop up in a corner and stooped down to retrieve the fallen handbook.
Epiphany
“Where did you get that?” Arlo asked Roger, nodding at the handbook in his hands as they trailed along behind Gillian.
Roger shrugged. “One of the accountants gave it to me. He said I needed to review the section on insubordinate charges.”
“One of the accountants…” Arlo said. “You mean Phil?”
Roger nodded.
Arlo and Roger paused in the middle of the lobby to observe Gillian. She was hopping up and down in front of the security guard’s station. The guard on duty was motionless behind the counter as the excited woman bounced and shouted random obscenities at him. Arlo and Roger watched curiously as she jumped, heels clacking against the tile floor, a manic giggle bubbling up from her throat.
“Maybe this handbook is exactly what we need,” Arlo said as if the scene of Gillian having a nervous breakdown was an everyday occurrence. “Like it’s our guide. Maybe we can use it to get out of here.” His eyes locked onto the thin sliver of hope bound in brown leather poking out of Roger’s pocket.
“Get out of here?” Roger said.
“Yeah.” Arlo said. “Maybe if we work at it, we can change more stuff. Maybe… maybe if we change enough stuff we can get out of here.”
“Umm…” Roger said.
Gillian was slapping the security guard’s face now. The ringing cracks echoed throughout the foyer.
“Roger, who updates the handbook?” Arlo said.
“I don’t know. Human Resources, maybe? They’re in the Acquisitions department.”
“Acquisitions?”
“Yeah,” Roger said, “I used to work there. It’s a difficult job. They pore through stacks of drone records, using an advanced algorithm to-”
“When you say drones,” Arlo interrupted. “You mean people, right?”
Roger nodded.
“So, the Acquisitions Department… they acquire… people?”
“Umm…” Roger scratched his head.
“Never mind,” Arlo said. “We’re getting off topic. These drones all work for the firm, right? So, there must be a person in charge somewhere who oversees everything.”
Roger nodded again.
“Then that’s who we need to see.”
“Why?” Roger asked.
“Has anyone ever described you as curious, Roger?”
Roger squinted his eyes in thought, scratching his head slowly as he took a ridiculously long time to ponder the simple question.
“I didn’t think so,” Arlo said. “Have you ever been to the Obsoleteorium?”
Roger shook his head.
“It’s this really wild place in Topeka. An old shopping mall that’s been converted into an exhibit of outdated tech. They have a whole floor devoted to vintage media- LPs, cassette tapes, 8-tracks, you name it. Anyway, there’s a section donated to the first colorized motion picture- The Wizard of Oz.”
Arlo’s eyes lit up with excitement as he remembered the last time he visited the mall.
“The whole display is covered with a multi-colored silk canopy so that it’s like you’re inside a hot air balloon. And there’s a huge pipe organ. They project an image of ‘the man behind the curtain’ onto smoke that’s released from a fog machine hidden out of sight. It’s all very dramatic.”
Gillian had apparently crossed the room while Arlo was talking. He jumped in surprise as her voice said from right beside him, “I think I’ve been there. There’s a midget… I mean a little person who stands outside with a giant lollipop and tells everyone who enters to wipe their slippers on the mat.”
“Yes!” Arlo shouted. “That’s the place. That’s what we need.”
“A little person?” Roger said.
“No,” Arlo said. “We need to see the Wizard. All three of us.”
“The man behind the curtain,” Gillian said.
“Exactly,” Arlo said.
“Phil,” Roger said.
“What?”
“Phil. He’s the one you need to see.”
“I knew it,” Arlo said excitedly. “I told Gillian he was the person in charge. Didn’t I, Gillian? Didn’t I say he was the person in charge?”
“Yes, Arlo. You’re so clever.”
“His name just keeps coming up,” Arlo continued, oblivious to Gillian’s biting sarcasm. “He has to be important somehow.”
Roger nodded. “He’s the head of Accounting.”
“Right,” Arlo said. “You said that. You said something about bean counters…”
“Yes,” Roger nodded. “The accounting department monitors the drones- where they are, what they’re doing, how well they’re performing…”
“So, if he’s the one monitoring us, then that means he’s the one doing this to us right?” Arlo said. “And if that’s true… then maybe he can help us get out of here. Why didn’t you tell us any of this before?”
Roger blinked slowly. Arlo could have written a full blog post in the amount of time it took Roger to respond.
“You never asked.”
Part V: The Accountant
The Man Behind the Curtain
The bald, male-assigned humanoid figure in the polyester blue suit pulled a linen handkerchief from his pocket and swiped it across his sweaty forehead. He tucked the white fabric square back in his pants before pressing the pause button on the keyboard with a little more force than absolutely necessary, freezing the black and white images on the computer monitor.
“This is an unmitigated disaster,” he
