Chapter 1

No Title

"Good Morning Tom" said the officer. He was sitting in a plush chair behind a bank of monitors that were fed from cameras around the perimeter of the building where the offices of Smith & Jacobs, Inc were located.

"Good Morning Phil" said Tom, "I'm in a small hurry this morning, and I've got to catch the boss before he gets busy."

"No problem Tom. I'll catch you later."

He wasn't in a hurry, but he wanted to keep the chitchat to a minimum this morning. Usually, they asked about each other's family, and made small talk for a couple of minutes before Tom headed up the elevator to his office.

The offices occupied the entire third floor of the building. It was the highest floor for leasing office space; the fourth floor contained an exclusive restaurant, a private bar, a banquet hall, and a gym, complete with an Olympic sized swimming pool and a quarter mile running track.

The whole building was a bastardized version of the original design he had turned in while he was being recruited. His boss had asked for some samples of his work and immediately set to work using the design of the office building. He also took full credit for the design.

"It's fair; the design does have some modifications." he mumbled sarcastically under his breath.

The water fountains were all in a slightly different location than the original, the men's and women's restrooms were switched, and the specs were changed to include some inferior building materials instead of the quality material that he had called for initially.

Stepping off the elevator Tom reached into his pocket, grabbed his wallet, and pulled out his badge to gain access to the back entrance of the 'bullpen'. It was only secure in that it took the badge to get through the back door. From the outer offices, you could just as easily walk directly to the bullpen. It consisted of a large open area where the brunt of the design work was completed by under appreciated architects so the big shots could keep on looking like big shots. Everyone knew it, they just didn't say it. Especially Geoff.

Geoff was institutionalized. Relegated to life within the confines of Smith & Jacobs. This was his first real job too, but he wasn't as gifted as Tom. Proficient, but not gifted. So Geoff kept his mouth shut and his head down. Preferring to live vicariously through his best friend Tom.

"Morning Tom." quipped Geoff rather excitedly. "Is today the day?"

"Yep. I'm going to finish backing up my data, pack what little I have left here, and then go see the prick and probably get escorted out." said Tom. "Want to meet up for a drink later? I know I won't get a chance to tell you about it after I see him."

"Sure. I can't wait to see his face when you tell him you're leaving. He won't have anyone left to steal ideas from. All the real designers are leaving or are already gone."

"You're good Geoff."

"No I'm not. I'm a really good drafter. I can see other's designs and bring them to life with the software, but I'm not a real designer."

Tom knew he was right, and didn't push it. It was a sore subject for Geoff anyway. He grabbed his chair, sat down and logged in. There was a message waiting on him from the IT manager. An annoying little blinking message displayed in the center of his desktop said "Come see me FIRST Tom" and an OK button below. So Tom click the OK button, set his computer up to not log off, switched his monitor off to make it look like it was logged out to the casual observer just in case they tried to lock him out of his account, and made his way to Adam Michael's office.

He and Adam had always been friends, but that didn't stop him from being a little cautious about the way he approached this talk. The only person that knew he was leaving was Geoff. Tom knew that he could trust Geoff completely. So if Adam knew, maybe a lot of people knew. If so, what was this about? The first guy to leave angrily hadn't even been able to collect his personal stuff. A security guard had escorted him out of the bullpen while another one had been instructed to gather anything at his desk that looked like personal property and deliver it to him in the outer office where it was given to him on his way out the door. He hoped that he wasn't in for a similar fate.

He arrived at Adam's office, knocking gently on the door before pushing it open fully and stepping in. Adam was on the phone, and when he looked up at Tom he quickly told the person at the other end that he'd call back later.

"Tom — shut the door and sit." he said.