As Check left to rejoin his squad, a buzz came from Anthracite’s intercom. The financier pressed a button. “Yes?”
“There’s a Gersaøïhg TyVrklþiwkð here to see you,” replied Miki, his youma secretary (who coincidentally happened to have the same name as Gerald Stewart’s human secretary). “Shall I send him in?”
Anthracite smiled—in all honesty, he was glad Bob had decided to contact him. “Yes, send him in.”
An instant later, the spiky purple administrative demon materialized in the office.
“Hello there, Bob. I trust you’re here about the offer?”
The demon nodded—his ultimate decision had actually been pretty simple.
The fact that Anthracite had heavily censored most of his biography would probably raise a multitude of red flags for most humans, but Bob wasn’t human—and while youma could also be prone to suspicions, they were also used to being given information on a strict “need to know” basis. To his way of thinking, the best way to satiate his curiosity was not by trying to discover the answers surreptitiously. For one thing, doing such a thing in secret was probably impossible; if Anthracite had gone to such great lengths to keep his past a secret, he no doubt also had spells in place which would let him know when someone was trying to access that information. No, in Bob’s opinion, the best way to find out about Anthracite’s past (and his plans for the future) was to put himself in a position where Anthracite would actually have to tell him everything—which was essentially what the former Dark General had already offered to do.
Really, the only reason he’d even done any investigating at all was to make sure that Anthracite really was different from all of the other failed power-seekers whom he’d worked under in the past. And that was definitely true—hell, Anthracite’s particular focus on gathering (and verifying) intelligence before making major decisions had been damn near revolutionary in the Silver Millennium. Plus, his capacity for thinking outside the box was amazing—to his knowledge, no one had taken the idea of “hiding in plain sight” to the degree that Anthracite was currently doing. Bob had taken everything into consideration and come to the conclusion that Anthracite really did have a chance to defeat the Senshi, if only because the human warrior-mage had defined “defeat” in political terms instead of military ones. Thus, the question of whether to accept the offer was hardly a question at all.
“I think I’m going to take you up on that offer.”
“Glad to have you aboard, Bob,” Anthracite said in his cordial, businesslike tone. He shook the youma’s hand and once again motioned for him to sit down—this time in a chair that had been upholstered in a way that accommodated Bob’s spinal horns very nicely—better than the chair that he had in his own office, in fact.
Anthracite noted the purple demon’s surprise and answered the question before it was even asked. “Yes, I had it specially made for you—when I realized how much you were managing to learn about me despite all of the censorship spells, I knew that you were the type who wouldn’t refuse a chance to work with someone like me.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Oh, never mind the ‘sir.’ I get enough of that crap from everyone else.”
“Well, if you say so.”
“Good. Now, then, in order to explain why you have the freedom to not kiss my ass at every opportunity, we’ll have to see about getting you a better office—”
“Actually, I’d rather keep this promotion a secret from my coworkers at the moment.”
“Why not?”
“Well, with office politics being what they are, and considering my relative lack of offensive skills, I just think it would be safer for me if nobody knew about this for the moment.”
“Don’t want to make yourself a target, eh?”
“Not particularly.”
“Fair enough. Now, onto my plans—I want to give you a chance to prove that you can succeed as an advisor before I give you too many details.”
“Oh. Well, is there something I can do right now?”
“Actually, there is. Since you’re in the Demon Resources department, this will be right up your alley. I need an expendable moron to cause a minor headache for the Senshi. Any suggestions?”
Back at his middle management office, Bob was looking over some first quarter reports when his door was kicked in by a hulking 7-foot demon—and a loud one, at that.
“Well, Mr. Look-At-Me-I-Got-A-Bonus-For-Not-Getting-My-Ass-Kicked-By-Schoolgirls, guess who’s the boss’s new favorite youma?” the aggressive youma asked with a snarl.
“I didn’t get that bonus just for surviving, Llobewu.”
“Whatever. That doesn’t matter, because the boss has just tapped me for his new super-important plan!”
“And why would he do that?” Bob asked, mostly because that was the question his coworker was going to answer next, whether or not it was actually asked.
“Isn’t it obvious? Someone’s finally recognized my madd fighting skillz! Finally, all those hours of training have paid off!”
“I don’t think playing Dead or Alive for 48 straight hours necessarily translates into ‘madd fighting skillz.’ Especially since 24 of those hours were spent on Xtreme Beach Volleyball.”
“Oh, what do you know? You’re just a lowly paper pusher with no ambition who managed to score the easiest job ever completely by accident. Now me, on the other hand, I’m going places. Once I’m done, nobody will remember you, ’cuz it’ll be all eyes on me.”
“I’m already jealous,” Bob replied with a subtle eye roll.
“Of course you are. Tell you what, if you play your cards right, I might consider letting you name-drop me in conversations once I become a total bigwig around here—not to often, though, it you’d better make sure it’s understood that you’ve always been and always will be inferior to my awesomeness, or I’ll twist your head off. Got it?”
Bob’s attention had already turned back to his work, which did not please Llobewu. “Hey! I’m talking to you!”
“Huh?”
“Oh, never mind. You obviously aren’t worth my time. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a meeting with the big boss.” And with that, he exited with a slam that nearly took the door off its hinges.
“Been nice knowing you, asshole,” Bob muttered under his breath.
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(Posted Sun, 03 Sep 2006 17:31)
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