<div class="floatleft">(http://i2.listal.com/image/437775/300full.jpg)</div>Workaholic lifestyles are impossible to disown. He began, as all men with ambition did, adhering his energies to a vision. Though it sprung from a misguided inspiration. He had seen<em>A Few Good Men</em>for one Mr Jack Nicholson. But what he saw was a rookie lawyer berating a decorated general into self inflicted disgrace.<br/><br/>That blustery winter night turned into spring in full bloom for Michael Kaplan. His child's heart had done much the same of what Tom Cruise did, berating him for finding a natural alignment with manipulation and deceit.  But instead of wilting, the darkness scavenged strength from a piece of fiction and rose. By his next birthday, Michael cozied up to the right people, dug into and discovered the wrong people's dirt, garnered support for himself and, for all intents and purposes, took over his orphanage. He was fifteen. He stole the Main Street paper route from an older kid who enjoyed untoward magazines and in due course, secured a clerk's post at the DA's office.<br/><br/>His occupation disguised his intelligence and its enormity. People in power tended to forget how vulnerable they could really be. Soon enough, a lowly clerk had the attorney general himself in his pocket. Darla Sloane, occasional prostitute and his next door neighbor the time. Even now, he ensured a monthly stipend reached her.<br/><br/>'Sir?'<br/><br/>Kaplan snapped back to reality. The momentary mist that had built over his keen, dark pupils faded to reveal the calculating mind within,<br/><br/>''The Jenson complaint. Their case hinges on the security guard's testimony. Get me everything from his favorite cereal to his juvey records," his own clerk nodded and took leave of the spacious office. Extravagant hardwood furnishings settled artfully well with his three beige couches surrounding the magnificent glass coffee table. The far wall was home to a couple of abstract neo-modernist paintings which had an unnatural ability to calm him as did the book shelf stocked with 18th century literature, primarily English. An intricately designed, handcrafted  Japanese rug hid the floor whilst his desk, made of the richest mahogany, featured authentic puzzle box he had secured at auction. A vivid view of the city's majestic skyline bounded in through the floor to ceiling windows on one side of his desk.<br/><br/>Michael was now 35 years old. He headed the legal department of Mayflower Records. He was married to the CEO for four happy years and three more recent ones best described as 'going through the motions'. They had a dinner date tonight. He jabbed his finger on the intercom, "Oh, Malcom, cancel my dinner with Mrs Kaplan, please. I'll have to stay late".<br/><br/>The clerk's scrambled voice sounded in the affirmative and Michael leaned back in his chair. Today was his wife's day off. The situation simply begged to be exploited. He slid his phone out of his pocket and texted his daughter.<br/><br/><em>Daddy's hungry</em>