Climbing into the car, she smiled, recalling the day she drove it
off the parking lot. Another little gift to herself, for all her
hard work.
* * *
Now that Matthew Locke was gone from his office, Peter Jones
twisted the brightness knob on his computer monitor and returned
to his work.
Beneath his hand he rolled the mouse and pressed its single
button, causing the screen to scroll. Small connected boxes drawn
on the electronic document rolled from the bottom of the display
to the top. He stopped when he arrived at the top of the chart.
With the pointer he selected the uppermost box and clicked the
mouse twice on the name that currently occupied it. Peter looked
at the highlighted name for a moment, then pressed the Delete
key. MATTHEW LOCKE disappeared instantly.
Peter smiled to himself at the literalness of this small,
effortless action, of deleting from his computer the very man who
threatened to ruin its bright future. He typed in his own name
into the vacant box and, beneath it, added the word ACTING before
the title that was already there, PRESIDENT & CEO. Beneath this
box were others, connected to the uppermost with straight black
lines, each titled with the name of the corresponding division
vice president. His name was titled in one of these other boxes
as, VICE PRESIDENT, JOEY.
The man Peter had hired two years ago to act as his partner had
failed.
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