by Ryan Tang
CHAPTER 4: THE INNER CIRCLE ELITE
"Zach! I'm sure you're very proud of your son's accomplishments."
Director Stock was sixty, but his wrinkle-free face and thick brown hair made him look at least twenty years younger. A flaring gold tie accentuated his jet black suit and neatly pressed shirt. Jared was suddenly thankful that he'd gone out to the Spire before his test. Otherwise, he would have been wearing the same suit he had slept in for the last four days.
The great man smiled broadly and shot Jared a sideways glance. He was very handsome save for a single odd eccentricity. The front of his hair was cut in a rigid square shape that unflatteringly framed his broad forehead. The Director was very particular about his strange haircut. He refreshed it daily and dismissed his private barbers if they ever made a single mistake. Engineers and even technicians had been known to imitate the strange style in the hope of currying additional favor. Jared had briefly considered it himself until he realized how foolish he'd look.
But as Jared turned to meet the Director's eyes, he was suddenly innately aware of his hairs drooping against his forehead.
Were they out of place?
He could feel the sweat building on his shirt.
"Yes, I'm very proud."
His father smiled brightly, then shot Jared a quick sideways glance.
They'd spent countless hours at home going over how Jared was supposed to behave when this day came, although neither expected it to be so soon. The infinite little rules whirled endlessly around his head.
Should he thank the Director?
The great man had complimented him. But he'd only be talking to his father, not to him. It might be pretentious for him to interrupt. Director Stock hated pretentiousness more than anything else.
But what if he didn't say anything?
Jared had been invited to the meeting. If he didn't say anything, the Director would think that he was just a boy who'd been pushed to success by his father. He might be seen as letting his dad take the lead. The Director hated Irl Stock Sr. more than anything else. He liked engineers who tried to break away from their fathers.
Maybe he wanted Jared to interrupt the conversation.
What was he supposed to say?
How was he going to stay political?
The Director whirled sharply towards him.
"Well. Aren't you going to thank me? I just told your father to be proud of you. It's more than anyone ever said to my father."
Jared flushed.
He'd gotten it wrong.
He hastily bowed his head in gratitude.
"Thank you, sir."
He hadn't said the right thing.
It was his first interaction with the Director, and he hadn't said the right thing.
The Director snickered.
"My father never knew what he had in me. Well, he's dead now, and I'm in charge. Not much he can do about that, is there?"
Jared's father hastily cut in, saving Jared from answering a question he had no idea how to respond to.
"No, sir. I'm sure he's rolling around in his grave."
Director Stock's eyes lit up.
"Yes. Yes. That's another way I'll surpass him. There will be no grave for me."
The handsome director giggled for a moment longer before turning back to Jared.
"You know, your father begged me to let you into one of these meetings when you first joined the company."
Jared hadn't known about that. When he first joined the company, his father told him not to expect any help. Birth didn't count for anything at Southern Robotics. It was all based on merit. Well, merit and political skill.
Stock's childish giggle turned into a sneer.
"I refused him, of course. I'm not going to promote you just because your dad served me well. It's a meritocracy here. You have to earn your way at Southern Robotics."
Director Stock turned and shot a barbed smile at Jared's father before turning back to Jared himself.
"It's funny how much your dad was willing to do for you. When I asked him to get on the ground and beg, he leaped down without any hesitation! I made him stay there for an hour before saying 'no.' It was the funniest thing I've ever seen!"
The Director's tone was harsh and mocking, but all Jared's father did was laugh along with him. Jared just stood there awkwardly until the great man clasped him on the shoulder.
"Well, I appreciated your comments at the Spire today, but you need to work on taking a joke. Come on! Laugh a little! And Zach. I was laughing at you, not with you. Try to tell the difference next time."
And with that, the great man left to take his place on the stage.
____
Jared stared after him, completely lost for words.
His dad gave him a quick pat on the shoulder.
"You did fine. He just gets like that sometimes. Hurry up and find your spot. Don't forget to stay political."
Jared pulled out his invitation and carefully took his assigned seat.
His father had mentioned before that personal encounters with Director Stock could be very confusing.
But Jared still couldn't help but wonder if he should have said something different.
Maybe things would have gone better if he'd thanked the Director sooner.
Maybe he should have expressed sympathy for the Director's poor relationship with his father. Director Stock had seemed very jealous of what Jared's dad was willing to do for him.
Jared shook his head. He suddenly realized how stiff his lips had gone during the brief meeting.
No. Trying to sympathize would have been far too great a risk. The Director definitely would have accused him of being pretentious.
He would just have to try and do better next time.
At least the next part would be easier.
It mostly came to keeping his head down while staying silent and respectful. The Inner Circle meetings were for Director Stock to discuss his vision for the company. Everyone else just cheered at the appropriate times.
Jared took his seat at the far edge of the circle. The number 72 was emblazoned across his invite in glossy black font.
The seats were all carefully numbered from 1 to 100. The ordered seats were a physical reminder of their status within the inner circle.
The ten highest-ranking members, like his father, sat at the high table behind the Director on the main stage.
The lower your rank was, the farther away you sat.
Seat 100 was placed in the middle of the door, to warn whoever was sitting there of the impending possibility of removal.
He didn't recognize the men sitting to either side of him. The one on the right had a somber and serious expression on his face. Both his hands were clasped tightly together over his lap. He stared straight at the Director's stage, patiently waiting for the event to start. He was sitting in Seat 73, which technically meant that Jared should monitor his behavior.
The man's quiet focus was a relief. The thought of reporting one of his coworkers, even someone he didn't know, made Jared feel very queasy. Engineers spent their whole lives working to get into the Inner Circle. He didn't want to ruin that.
The man sitting in Seat 71 had fraying gray hair and a very rectangular head. His hair was cropped short to his temples, fixed in the worst Director's cut Jared had ever seen. The boxy frame only emphasized his unusual appearance. His face looked tiny in comparison to his overlarge head.
He leaned close to Jared's chest and eyed him pointedly. He was painfully close, so close that Jared could smell him. His skin had a strange sour smell that made Jared's eyes water.
"You better be on your best behavior today. Kid."
He placed a hard emphasis on the word "kid," and his eyes bulged a little when he said it. He was probably bitter. Jared was half his age and just one rank beneath him.
Jared gave him a polite nod then back to the stage.
It was just his bad luck. His dad always warned him about this. Some inner circle members took their supervi
sion responsibilities much more seriously than others, especially those who knew they had no hope of further advancement.
Jared tried to imitate the somber expression of the gentleman on his right. The man to his left craned his head over even further, until Jared could smell his stale breath. The man with the rectangular head panted loudly through his mouth.
"I'm watching you. Kid."
He spat a little at the last word, and the warm flecks got all over Jared's face. His skin crawled with disgust, but he kept on smiling politely and staring at the stage. His only hope was that whoever sat in Seat 70 would set his neighbor straight.
The Director clapped his hands together as he took his place in the very center of the stage. An attendant rushed to fawn over him, but he dismissively brushed her aside.
"Good evening, my loyal Southern Robotics followers!"
Another attendant wheeled out a podium with a thick stack of notes. Director Stock moved behind the podium but contemptuously shoved the papers down to the floor. The Director was proud of speaking extemporaneously. He pointedly rejected notes at every single public event.
The podium was carved from Eternium and made to look like a Paragon's sword. Although the secrets of Eternium were lost, it was still possible to reshape old pre-existing metal into new forms. It was the only remaining trinket from a bold plan that had ended in failure.
Director Stock had commanded everyone in the company to bring in all the baubles or trinkets they could find in the hopes of reforging it all into a single Paragon, but there just wasn't enough metal lying around. The surviving Eternium relics were tiny and jealously treasured. In the end, they barely had enough to form the sword podium.
As the Director stood proudly behind the massive sword, Jared suddenly found himself fighting to keep a smile off his face. A shield would have been much less suggestive.
The man with the tiny face leaned over again. He let out a carrying whisper, and lukewarm droplets of spit doused Jared's face again. The sour scent of the ugly man's skin assaulted Jared's nostrils.
What was that smell?
He didn't want to breathe in.
"Hey. Kid. What are you laughing about?"
Jared ignored him, keeping his head faced forwards and to the podium. He wiped the smile off his face.
The man to the left of the ugly man was a dignified-looking balding man. He turned, saw Jared, and laughed.
"Man. They are just letting anyone here these days. Why are there so many stupid kids here?"
Jared's heart sank a little. He wouldn't be receiving any help from Seat 70.
"It's our job to keep them out!"
The smelly man in Seat 71 stuck his face in close again. Less than an inch separated the older man's baggy skin from Jared's cheek. It was close as he could get without touching.
Being invited to the inner circle at 25 was an opportunity worth dying for, an opportunity the men to his left furiously envied.
He wouldn't be goaded into making a mistake.
On the stage, Director Stock gestured for an assistant to turn on the projector as he began his speech.
"As you know, the Paragon development team has severely disappointed me. I expected to see results months ago! Why am I paying for failure?"
At the push of a button, image after image of Southern Robotics's Paragons flashed onto the screen. None of them could even stand. His father's failed design flashed across the screen alongside countless others. His father had spent weeks working on the frame, but the whole thing had crumpled apart when he tried to lift the 50-ton weight. The once proud machine was now just a head lying on a pile of scrap metal.
The screen stopped briefly at Jared's machine. Next to all of its failed competitors, Jared's Paragon looked like a miracle. And it had completed the tasks!
Then the Director sneered, and Jared's heart sank.
"I heard there's been some excitement about this naked ape looking thing. Disgusting. Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting!"
By the end, the famous inventor was screaming. He pounded a fist against the podium, barely missing the sharp point at the top. The Eternium sang as Director Stock hastily flinched backward.
Stock pressed the button again, and a true Paragon appeared on the screen. The legendary machine shone a dazzling white and gold. A jet black sword, shaped just like the podium but a hundred times larger, was pointed heroically towards the sky.
Next to the gleaming wonder, Jared's misshapen bronze creation looked uglier than it ever had before.
Stock hawked loudly and spat on the floor.
"Useless! Useless! That machine is useless! Southern Robotics will never create such an ugly product, not with my reputation on the line!"
Jared sat in his chair and said nothing. He felt like his stomach had been carved right out of his body. His machine worked!
Director Stock ranted and raved, spitting all over the Eternium podium. His eyes bulged out of their sockets, and sweat poured down his square-framed forehead. He called out each of the men on the high table by name. His voice screeched and cracked as he listed out each of their personal failings. When he called Jared's father lazy and uncreative, Jared clenched his fist so tightly he could hear his knuckles crack. His father worked so hard on the Paragons that he talked about them in his sleep.
"What an embarrassment! What a disgrace! Imagine! Imagine if you all had disgraced me. You all are...you all are.."
The Director's voice trailed off as he tried but failed to find the word he was looking for. His face was flushed furiously red. His mouth worked and worked, mouthing out incomplete words at an alarming pace.
He screamed at the top of his lungs before stomping back to the podium.
"Disgraces! That's what you are! Disgraces!"
It was all Jared could do to keep his face calm. Humanity had failed to rebuild the Paragons for generations. What did Director Stock expect them to do? And Jared had given him a working machine, but he'd thrown it aside as ugly!
Jared took a deep breath and then another.
Jared looked past Stock to see his dad on the high table. His father still had the same polite and thoughtful expression on his face that he'd throughout the whole meeting. The Director had mocked him to his face, and he'd dismissed it with a grin.
He forced himself to calm down.
He could not be resentful.
Jared had to think like his father.
He had to see things from the company's perspective.
The Director had given them a task, and they'd failed at it. The great man was right to be angry. He assigned them impossible tasks because that was the only way to make the impossible happen. Close was not good enough. The company's image was too important, and Jared had entirely overlooked it. He had to do better next time.
The Director returned to his sword podium. His chest was heaving violently. Apparently frightened by how close he'd gone to stabbing his hand, the boss was standing noticeably further back from the stand than usual. He wiped his glistening square-framed brow with the sleeve of his suit.
His voice abruptly returned to a shout.
"I'm going to do this all by myself! The best geniuses stand alone! Effective immediately, every single one of you useless failures is removed from the Paragon project and fired from Southern Robotics!"
____
The Inner Circle had only achieved their positions through long lifetimes of staying political. But after the Director's announcement, nearly every man failed to suppress their murmurs.
"What?"
"Fired? All fired?"
"How? How can I be fired?"
Jared saw heads whirling this way and that as the most diligent engineers turned and marked the names and faces of their neighbors to report them for disruption. A few scuffles broke out as desperate designers fought to avoid being reported on.
Through his shock, Jared felt a brief flicker of additional confusion.
What were they doing?
Nobody's behavior mattered if
they were all fired.
But the bulk of the crowd simply stared at the stage, completely aghast.
The smelly man to his left started crying.
“F-f-f-f-f-f-fired? F-f-f-f-f-f-fired?”
The dignified man on Jared's right was completely petrified. His mouth was frozen in a perfect-O. His pupils were wide and dilated.
Jared looked to his father for strength. Countless years of work had just evaporated before his eyes, but all he did was smile politely with his hands folded.
Director Stock repeated himself.
"Yes. You heard me! You are all fired! I don't need any of you failures!"
On the stage, an elderly man with thick plastic glasses pushed his chair back from the Top Ten Table and calmly got to his feet. Paul was the board member with whom Jared's dad got along best. They had him over for dinner at least once a month. He was the longest-serving member of the Southern Robotics board. Because of his efforts developing the false sky, he'd been ranked in the top 10 since the days of Director Stock's father.
"Sir. Please let us know if there's anything we can do to help you."
He pointed out to the crowd.
"Many of us began working as technicians or even assembly-line workers in the days of your father! It would be an honor to –"
It was the wrong thing to say.
Stock's face twisted.
The Director's face turned beet red.
His eyes practically leaped out of his sockets.
Sweat squirted out from his square-framed forehead.
He bellowed and stomped his feet, leaping up and down in uncontrollable anger.
"You're fired! You're fired! Didn't you hear what I just said? I said, you're fired! Why would you bring up my father? Anyone who brings up my father is fired!"
The other board members hastened off the stage. Jared's dad didn't take a look back as he descended the stairs from the opposite side of where Director Stock was standing. The boss only had eyes for the elderly man standing horrorstruck at the end of the stage.
