text: *By Bebe Smyth, South Sun Gazette* *“Demolition of the old New Castle technology buildings in Commerce Park West was halted today after workers discovered the skeletal remains of a human being. Crime scene investigators were called in to help identify the remains. The New Castle technology buildings were abandoned three years prior as the parent corporation made moves to consolidate properties during the last economic downturn in the technology sector. City planners had rezoned the commerce area for residential use. Demolition is slated to resume Tuesday morning.”* Fred tunneled his eyes onto the monitor, pressed hard on the power button, and leaned forward. It was 7:00am, too early for any life to be stirring about the cubicle farm. Not that he would notice anyway. The machine booted (slowly), Fred entered his access password (#1TopDog), opened the e-mail app and clicked on the first new mail, something from corporate. Fred scanned quickly the standard corporate blurb; smiley greetings from the CEO; cheery few sentences about last quarter and the company making great strides; attitude and determination of all employees was key for continued progress. In total it was a collection of snappy inspirational clichés. That was the set up. The email continued on, not enough progress; tough times; competition, and unexpected shifts in the market place. The last lines gamboled on about the value of the individual, their importance, their spirit and the need for continued commitment that will lead to future success. I’m sure of it. Then he scanned the rest of his inbox. Before him a long list of emails from conference organizers, subscriptions of interest, daily updates. But the email that he looked for, the one of highest interest to his situation, was not there. He knew the plant was closing, he just didn’t know when. Fred exhaled a silent stream of exasperation. He read on but found nothing directly addressed to him. Just a continuum of corporate spam; Meeting Minutes, production announcement, customer success stories. By eight Fred was ready to move onto the next part of his routine - which started by brewing a fresh pot of coffee. He rose slowly from his desk; it was a task to raise his head after being fixed to the screen for an hour. He had to fight against gravity, or scoliosis in order to rise up. Years of hunching over a screen had turned the heads, necks and backs of colleagues into an s shaped curve. In the past, many of those walking around, reminded him of the comical parody “walking like an Egyptian”. They were gone now, let go ahead of the final plant closing. These deformed individuals, with their feelings of importance and corporate self-worth, were gone. Too bad Fred thought as he ratcheted his ass up slowly from his cubicle. His staying power rested on keeping a low profile. As his ass finally gained space from his chair he proceeded to the coffee machine, head down, eyes averted. Eye contact with the wrong manager could be dangerous. The coffee machine stood disgustingly bleak and alone in the break room, just another reminder of corporate cost cutting measures. The corporate sponsored coffee service had stopped long ago. How long he couldn’t remember. It still really ticked him off. He grunted low, with some disgust of this poor excuse for a break room. That growling sound made him feel defiant. But it was a sound made only for himself, because Fred never openly complained. “Nope, not going down that path” he reminded himself. Rule #1 - complainers go first. Just keep your mouth shut and focus. Be steady, one step at a time, keep a low profile. It was a strategy that worked. At least the water was still free. Fred filled the coffee machine with enough water for 2 cups. Staring at the Pyrex coffee pot, looking intently at the water Fred grunted again to himself. Well maybe it’s free, but it’s not looking to good lately. Maybe the brown tint was just coffee residue from the previous millions of pots of coffee. Maybe it came like that from the faucet. Maybe it was his eyes going bad from years of staring at a computer screen. He filled the coffee filter with his own store bought coffee, clicked on the machine and waited for the brew to begin. The coffee machine gargled and perked, and the coffee aroma filled Fred’s nostrils in a most gratifying way. When all the bubbling and gargling was over and the last drops of brown fluid dripped from the machine, Fred poured his coffee, added creamer and took the first cautious sip. Ahhh. This would be the best part of his day. The caffeine jolted his body awake and cleared his head. The gratification went right to his bones. His heart fluttered and he took a deep breath. Well, no sense hanging around the coffee pot. Loitering doesn’t help your company profile. Best to take your cup and move back to the cube as quick as possible. Walking back slowly to his cube Fred heard the ominous sound of electricity beginning to fail. A hard click of relays implanted somewhere in the bowels of the building. Fred couldn’t remember if he had left open his file on competitive benchmarking and marketing analysis, a huge compendium of a report that he had been working on for over a year now. Damn, I’m going to lose work, he thought, and in the next breath he cursed the IT department because his backup power supply never came back from repair. Fred began the race back to his cube hoping to close the file before the machine came to a dead stop. A ridiculous race to catch a file before all the electricity ebbed from his machine. He scurried in a jerky motion as quickly as his gimpy legs would carry him. As he raced he could feel the palpitation in his chest growing into a full hard thump. Ignoring the thump in his chest Fred listened to the sound of things whirring to a standstill, in his head he estimating the time before shut down, quickening his pace and keeping his feet moving. I’ll just make it he thought optimistically. Fred came to his cube row as things stopped completely. Spurring himself on his gait became gangly and awkward, the last steps to his cubicle were frantic and panic stricken. He plopped down into his swivel chair, the hard thump in his chest became a giant knot and he gasped for breath. It was a knot that quickly cut off his air and made him nauseous. Fred was able to gasp a breath, but he already knew this was a heart attack. Damn this will cause a commotion. He leaned over and vomited into his waste basket. He needed help quickly. He grabbed for a desk phone, something he hadn’t used in months, but there was no dial tone. Fred sputtered, and then slumped forward onto his desk as the lights went out. Thirty minutes later, in the twilight of the deserted office building one could hear the scurrying and scratching sounds of rodents stirring. Their interest had been peaked, and shortly thereafter the mutilation began. His body was found, at least what was left of it, 2 years later, right before the old New Castle Technology building was demolished. The story was initially reported in the South Sun Gazette. A follow up story reported on the identity of the bones found, one Fred Foster a former employee of New Castle Technologies. The mystery of what Fred was still doing there remained. CSI could not provide any conclusive evidence of foul play, and could not answer the question of how the bones of Fred Foster ended up inside a building that had been vacant for almost 3 years now. New Castle Technologies did acknowledge that Fred Foster was at one time an employee of the company, but he had been terminated along with several other colleagues almost three years ago. A spokesperson for New Castle could not answer or would not comment on how Fred’s body had found it’s way back into the building. And that was the end of it. Almost. Mary Conner, a second line HR Director, remembered the New Castle building having visited the site several times. The last time was to go over the closing schedule. She didn’t remember any of the employees there and only had a vague remembrance of her counterpart on site, an older lady who was ready for retirement and just counting down the days. But her curiosity had been peaked when she saw the story in the Sun Gazette. Over the course of the next five or six weeks, Mary spent a few moments of her spare time working on her “hobby” as she called it. She pieced together these details: Prior to plant closing corporate had moved Fred to a global responsibility. However the manager in charge had been on vacation and somehow the transfer was never actually authorized. The transferring manager had been let go in the last downsizing as well, so Fred was somehow a free floating element in the corporate innards. There was no one who clearly owned the headcount of “Fred”. So Fred never did get an email. As far as corporations go, New Castle Technologies operated much in the same way as every other corporation. Whether or not someone claimed Fred as a headcount, the IT department kept providing services to a one Fred Foster and billing this to a global headcount bucket that held all the miscellaneous contractors and temps that filled jobs on an as needed basis, and as long as IT got paid it provided service, no matter where the individual sat. Their world was virtual and they had little concern for actual location. That provided at least a theory as to what Fred, or his remains might have been doing in the abandoned building. But she thought further and asked herself why someone didn’t notice a car left for days in a parking lot unattended. She hypothesized that most likely someone did notice the car in an empty parking lot. Someone who could hot wire it, chop it up and sell the parts. Mary sat pensively in her cubicle staring at her screen. She felt satisfied with this hypothesis. In her mind she had elevated herself from HR Director to CSI agent. She smirked to herself, but understood there was no way to share this victory. No one to tell. Don’t stir the pot Mary, that was her motto. She hunched over, focused on her screen, and clicked to open the next email.