ALARM CLOCK DAWN (An Original Novel - Part 4)

Welcome and I hope you all are having a great Saturday! We ended our story yesterday with Adam trying to solve a technological riddle in the lab at XenTek headquarters. Today, we meet his supervisor, Stephanie Finch. I hope you all are enjoy this as much as I am! I welcome your comments and questions below.

Did you miss Part 3 of Alarm Clock Dawn? If so Click Here to read it.

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PART 4

“You are about to enter the land of make-believe,” the doctor had whispered. “Not a word of any of what you see here can be shared with anyone, not even your closest friends. Is this understood?” He said it in a way that made Adam feel special, like a member of a very exclusive club. With the lump of gratitude wedged in his throat, he could manage only a nod.

At the end of the tour, the doctor had pulled Adam aside. “Please remember as you start your career that unauthorized sharing of any of the secrets of this corporation are grounds for immediate termination,” he had warned Adam. “Take good care of XenTek, and XenTek will take good care of you.” Adam had nodded sternly.

After that first day, Adam was elated, feeling as though his future was limitless. He had made it to his next plateau, past the torturous years of being bullied for his stammer and uniqueness. This was the moment in which he would prove to all of those who ever doubted him that success would be his at last.

The syncopated rhythm of Ms. Finch's high heels clicking against the tile floor as she paced impatiently behind him pulled him back to the present and the strange metallic box in his hands.

“Hmm. T-t-t-this has absolutely no seams. If I were to venture a guess, I would say it’s made to contain s-s-something very volatile.”

He closed his eyes again held the metal box in his palms and as his fingers cradled its coolness. It occurred to him that it was constructed at an atomic level to contain a massive energy source of some kind. “No, wait! I think it's meant to contain an explosion!”

“That's it? That's all you can tell me? Some genius,” Ms. Finch said, sneering as she rocked back and forth with her sausage-like fingers locked behind her back. Adam could feel the resentment she radiated almost as distinctly as her coffee-tainted breath on the back of his neck. “All I see,” she said, leaning over to whisper in his ear, “is a st-st-tuttering f-f-fool.”

The first time she spoke to him in the condescending tone and mocked his stutter it left him speechless. The second time it happened, he filed a formal complaint with management, but her mistreatment of him only escalated after that.

Adam was an uncanny observer of people's behavior, and he had noticed he wasn't the only one she treated this way. He knew Ms. Finch had a vested interest in his success and could only take this negative reinforcement so far. Her annual bonus grew with each puzzle he solved.

Stephanie Finch was perhaps Adam’s greatest enigma. She was a short, overweight, middle-aged woman that didn’t play well with others. Her job was to manage a group of twenty scientists. Each of them was assigned a number, and Adam was number five of the twenty. The workers were seated a mere three feet from one another but were partitioned off on three sides with dividers so high all they could focus on were their own individual projects. On Adam’s wall hung a plaque whose words dripped with irony: “If you don't think outside of the box, you may just get stuck in a cubicle.”

She had the volatile combination of abrupt mood swings and a particular brand of vindictiveness that few could match. Stephanie seemed to take absolute pleasure in belittling Adam at every opportunity. To his dismay, the more Adam tried to please her, the more she seemed to despise him.

Stephanie Finch had been with XenTek for decades. Rumor around the office was that she didn't have much education but had attained Green status in her thirties with the help of frugality and sacrifice. She was one of the few employees left who climbed the ranks with a combination of luck and wit on the backs of whomever she could. At XenTek she was a living relic and she seemed to realize this. As a result, Stephanie dwelled in a constant state of insecurity and was always on the lookout for the next great threat. It seemed the only thing Ms. Finch resented more than her own mediocrity was anyone who reminded her of it. Unfortunately for Adam, he appeared to do just that—effortlessly, over and over again.

“Adam, I sometimes wonder what management saw in you when they brought you on board. This institution is about innovation and continuous progress. XenTek took you under its wing and gave you a damn good life. There are thousands of people as qualified as you standing in line for this job. We could replace you tomorrow. Have you ever taken the time to ask yourself how lucky you are?”

She rested her elbows on Adam's work table and looked him in the eyes, a smirk stenciled on her pencil-thin lips. “If the answer is no, I suggest you start to give it some thought. The world is a harsh place outside these walls. Especially for p-p-people like you.”

That was about the truest thing Adam had heard all day, and the thought of it terrified him. He knew a few multinational corporations in conjunction with the government, which XenTek controlled, wielded absolute power in this fragile economy. Working for them guaranteed that at least his basic needs were met. Adam realized that he would be foolish to jeopardize a secure job at this stage of his career so he quietly dealt with whatever mistreatment Ms. Finch dealt out.

To be continued...(the next installment of Alarm Clock Dawn will appear right here on Steemit tomorrow!)

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Alarm Clock Dawn is the first novel of a trilogy. The sequel entitled, Truth Is Stranger, will be published in the Spring of 2017.

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