A Second Chance Page 3

  “You misunderstood me. I wasn’t asking about your relationship to the institution of faith. I was asking about your relationship with God.”

  “That’s a very personal question, Mr. Williams. I need a job, and I don’t know how to answer your question in order to get it.”

  The old man laughed. “Brody, there are no correct answers here. I’m just interested to know what sort of person wants to work in my company.”

  “I think I would best describe myself as an agnostic.”

  “Thank you for your honesty. People are losing their faith. It’s tragic, but not without reason. Barliona can also be used to control the people, can’t it? Hehehe.”

  I didn’t know what to say, and shrugged my shoulders. I wanted this to end soon, and with some degree of certainty. It was crappy practice to philosophize on the subject of citizen-control techniques during a job interview.

  “Tell me, Brody, what is good about faith? Why do people believe in God?”

  “Because it’s easier to overcome hardship. Some people don’t have enough strength of their own, and faith supports them, humbles them. It’s like an element of psychotherapy.”

  “Good. I like your answer. You’ve probably noticed certain peculiarities of the company. I shall explain. It’s connected with my faith, and that, as you correctly stated, is very personal. Consider everything which doesn’t fit into a normal framework for you, to be the folly of a pious old man. When all is said and done, what does it matter if I give you the opportunity to pay for a villa in sector two, and at the same time don’t demand that you share my feelings? Right?”

  He laughed again. With a couple of unconventional questions, he had checked my resolve in a stressful situation, and defined the limits of what was admissible. Whatever underpinned his methods of business organization, he acknowledged the right of his employees to choose their own faith, but demanded the same of them. It does no harm in this business to remember who pays who, and for what.

  “And now to business. Tell me about yourself.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard this more familiar interview phrase. In view of the fact that my life story had recently flickered across the screen, the request was obviously loaded. A classic test of attention to detail. Without touching on information already provided, I had to flesh out my resume. Which was all well and good, but the facts needed sifting through scrutinously, otherwise the security service would not have done its job properly. Knowledge of such details allowed relations with the security team not to be spoiled from the word go. I had a set piece ready for just this situation.

  “Brody West. Thirty-five years of age. Divorced. Employment history as project manager — over thirteen years. Three major and twenty-five smaller projects successfully completed. I prefer to use Gantt charts, and PMI methodology, considering other methodologies superfluous or inadequate. As tools for Gantt charts I use—”

  “Enough,” Nathan cut me off, twiddling his fingers nervily. A company owner is the last person who wants to hear the jabberings of a potential mid-level manager, which was exactly what I was banking on. “Have you been told about the project?”

  “No. But I’m ready to take on anything lawful. My experience enables me to manage any size of project concerning the construction of network infrastructure. That’s why I’m here.”

  Williams was quiet for a while, concentrating on the restarted presentation. After rubbing his red eyes, he pressed a button on the desk with a shaking hand and said, “You’ve got the job. But there are conditions. Go and have everything explained.”

  The secretary came in and stood by the door, holding it open. I said goodbye to Williams and left. The lady followed me out, sat down at her desk and, in a businesslike manner, held out a file of documents, saying, “Brody, here is the decision of the personnel department concerning your candidacy. The director has already approved it.”

  The file contained my slides printed out on copy paper. When I got to the Conclusions page I was flabbergasted. “Avoids solid social relationships outside the workplace? Seriously?” The conclusions of the local psychologists stated categorically that I had problems communicating with other people outside work. When was I supposed to socialize and establish these “solid” relationships, if I was at work from eight in the morning till ten in the evening? I stared at the secretary, demanding an explanation of what this had to do with the company. She took the file back and flicked through it.

  “The conclusions are based on an analysis of the last four years of your life,” she began. “You have no family, friends, or interests. Even in Barliona you’re represented by a level-ten character. Your entire life is work. You are in a risk group.”

  “What risk group?” I asked, gobsmacked, still not quite grasping what they were trying to tell me, and unable to get my head round the surreal situation. The secretary slapped the file shut.

  “The company is not interested in hiring employees with a risk of developing depression or neurosis from loneliness. If you notice, we pay particular attention to interaction, especially real-world interaction. Even our electronic document flow is kept to a minimum. Brody, has anyone ever made you work thirteen hours a day?”

  “No, but work must be completed on time.” Apparently the lady and I lived in different realities. In mine, any boss was happy if a person lived at work and for work.

  “Mmm. So, you’re a good project manager, but managing your working time is beyond you, right? Or were you just afraid to leave the office before the management?” She raised a mocking eyebrow. A secretary able to play with facts! “I must tell the girls to register you for the time management course. Don’t worry, it’s a common problem now. The director considers it necessary to remind employees about the importance of free time, socializing, and other pleasures.”

  “So to work for you I have to get married? Or will sexual relations with a long-standing partner suffice?” Angry that strangers were teaching me how to live, I couldn’t resist a touch of sarcasm.

  “If sex is supplied to you on a contractual basis, it doesn’t count,” replied the secretary, utterly unabashed. “Brody, do you need a job?” I nodded gloomily, and she smiled at me almost humanly. “Then let’s dispense with these attempts to rub me up the wrong way. We are currently recruiting a team. The project begins in ten months’ time. Your professional qualities are impressive. Your personal ones are cause for alarm. The latter is a priority for our company, but the former permits us to give you a chance. Attend our training course. Of course it’s not exactly what you need, but you have to start somewhere.”

  “And how will you know when I no longer cause alarm for your psychologists and HR people?”

  “That’s no problem for them. While you’re on the course, they’ll watch you and suggest an individual approach to solving the problem.”

  “For example?” I already didn’t know what to expect from these people.

  “Anything at all. You can make it up for yourself. Meet up with friends, take interest in their lives, have lunch with your parents more often. If you find a steady partner, it can only be a good thing. Or join a clan in Barliona. You can socialize there. The main thing is that it should be just for fun, and not for the pursuit of some work-related goal. Understand?”

  “I understand,” I replied unenthusiastically. It irked me that people had weighed me up and were now giving me their recipes for normalcy.

  “It’s important for us to evaluate your ability to communicate with people outside work. During this time, Nathan is willing to employ you officially as an intern, with a salary of twenty-five percent of a project manager’s full pay. If you accept, sign the last page. There’s a pen on the stand.”

  Biometrics had long since replaced personal documents in our state, and a handwritten signature had lost all meaning. Your fingerprints and the retinas of your eyes were always with you, and when you held them to the scanner, you weren’t worried about forgeries.

  Tired of the weirdne
ss and excessive questions, I just wrote my surname. I didn’t have a specific flourish for these situations, because these situations didn’t arise. I would deal with everything as it happened, since there was no other way out. I needed any work I could get, because I wanted my own house, a real piece of meat, and the real sun.

  “Welcome to the company, Brody. Training begins in one hour. Helen will show you the way.” The secretary folded my signed papers meticulously and filed them away.

  “Okay, um…” I hesitated, realizing I didn’t know her name. “How should I address you?”

  “Victoria.”

  “Victoria, I still haven’t been told anything about the project,” I said, reminding her of the purpose of my visit.

  “All information upon completion of your training. Helen, show Brody to the training hall.”

  The course turned out to be standard communication training, the likes of which I’d seen a gazillion times before. Never mind seen, I used to run them myself. For a good half hour, myself and seven other unfortunates were subjected to tired tropes explaining the importance of communication and live contact with coworkers. Badly, and by the wrong person. Little Helen, standing by the board, studiously drew adaptation graphs, recited wise quotes, and even read a short piece on the history of the Imitators, without understanding the first thing about it herself. It was clear she had mastered the methodology well enough, but she’d never actually been to an event like this. The result was a master class in how not to conduct a training session.

  With my experience and the necessary knowledge, out of sympathy for the girl I gently seized the initiative and organized a Brownian Motion business scenario. One of the best ways to acquaint people with each other is to take the heat off by showing the need for nonverbal communication. It was curious to watch people who were used to exclusively digital interaction, blushing and becoming flustered in their attempts to think up new ways to greet another person — at first tactilely and silently, then tactilely and verbally, and by the end just verbally. After touching another person twice, they now found it difficult to readjust and greet them with only words.

  Following this I introduced a standard scenario called, “Find five positive features of your neighbour,” which forced them to enter into dialogue, communicate, and draw conclusions about somebody based on that communication. Helen forgot completely about her role and became actively involved in the game, and by the end of the session, the atmosphere was certainly warm, if not friendly. Eventually came the moment I’d been dreaming of since the very start — they let us go home. On the way out of the hall I was intercepted by a stern-looking woman, who turned out to be the head of HR and Helen’s direct boss.

  “Brody, I’d like a word with you.”

  I went back into the hall to see Helen, now wearing headphones, tidying up and shaking her tousled head in time with the music. Seeing her superior in the doorway, she quickly removed the device and tried to adopt a serious look. It was comical, just like in school, I swear.

  “Brody, these sessions are not suitable for you,” announced the lady. “You’ve clearly had experience of something similar before. When was that?”

  “Way back at the dawn of my rebellious youth. And since then I’ve often conducted them myself.”

  “You can tell. You helped me a lot,” Helen chipped in.

  “Helped?” the boss teased her. “He did your job for you. Should I give him your wages? It’s shameful.”

  The dressing-down had been friendly enough, but the girl’s eyes sparkled with tears. The lady and I pretended we hadn’t seen anything. To encourage snivelling in the workplace was the height of unprofessionalism. We were agreed on that.

  “The training is pointless for you.” The lady steered our conversation back on course. “You were clearly in your element. You need taking out of your comfort zone, and we have a number of solutions. Please take a look at these.”

  An image flickered on the screen. At last, a glimpse of automation, a hint that this might yet be an IT company!

  “A company trip to an exhibition of modern art… A fishing competition... A blind date... A character upgrade in Barliona… Stop, rewind! I agree to the training.” And I’d thought we were done with idiocy for the day.

  “Brody, concentrate on the matter at hand, which is to take you out of your comfort zone.” She was relentless.

  “I have another suggestion. You and I are business people, right?” I wasn’t about to give up so easily, so I said, “You still have to do the adaptation course for the others. I can help Helen, teach her. For that we can keep… an upgrade in Barliona, and we can forget about my personal life.”

  She wasn’t exactly fired up at the suggestion, and she fixed me with a heavy stare. But I didn’t yield. Assistance came in a very unexpected form. Helen.

  “Oh, Grandma, say yes. Brody can help me with my training, and I’ll help him with his upgrade. And I’ll introduce him to my friends.”

  The boss’s stern manner disappeared in an instant, and she said to her granddaughter, “Helen, there is no ‘Grandma’ here! How many times do I have to tell you? Here I am Maria,” said Maria before turning back to me. “Very well, Barliona it is. It’s good enough for your purposes. I see your case isn’t too far advanced. With your acumen, Brody, you need to build your career using social connections.”

  “And I will,” I chuckled, looking poignantly first at Maria and then Helen. “So what’s happening with Barliona?”

  “We have a checklist for that kind of adaptation too.”

  The projector displayed a list of ten items.

  SOCIALIZATION VALUES FOR A BARLIONA SCENE

  Numerical value

  1

  Develop your character to required level (candidate chooses parameters)

  50

  2

  Become a full clan member or create your own clan (clan size in both cases min. 20 people)

  —

  3

  Pass a dungeon at any level as part of another group

  20

  4

  Receive Friend status from other players free of charge

  5

  5

  Fulfil socially important tasks which provide no game advancement

  50

  6

  Give assistance free of charge to random players when they complete tasks

  20

  7

  Ask for insignificant help from Social category players

  10

  8

  Extended verbal communication with another player

  >=2,400 min per 6 mths.

  9

  Participate as a contestant in 2 festivals in Barliona

  2

  10

  Receive 80 Agreeability points from a Barliona NPC

  2

  “On top of that, you will lead the course and teach Helen for six months, and then I will approve your socialization.” The HR manager had pronounced my sentence.

  “I’ll be playing at home,” I warned.

  “You can play in the nether world for all I care… God forgive me,” she replied. I was beginning to take a shine to the lady. “But you will spend two hours every day in the office. I shall be checking up on you personally. Now off you go, I’ll be expecting you tomorrow.”

  I went home via the nearest Barliona office. I urgently needed a new pod with the standard frills, and the only game-connection devices at home were a dusty old helmet and gloves, the kind long since discarded by everyone.

  Barliona had almost as many outlets as KFC or McDonald’s. Each office had its own unique fantasy design based around a real object in the game: a medieval castle, an earth-goblin burrow, or a witches’ hut. The person who dreamt all this up was a genius — it was both advertising and immersion in the game. And you couldn’t miss it.

  The office I came across was stylized as a country tavern. Everything was so real I could hear the creaking of worn steps under my feet, and the sweet aroma of food pl
ayed with my empty stomach. The interior furnishings and decor also seemed authentically medieval. As you would expect, keeping house behind the oaken bar was an Imitator-innkeeper, and several “customers” — devil-may-care pirates or highwaymen — were drinking beer, playing dice, and poking fun at the serving girl. The most active and noisy were the Imitators; the rest of the crowd consisted of holograms. There wasn’t a single person among the office staff.

  “Good day to you, lord. What is your desire? I see this is your first time with us.” An electronic menu appeared on the counter.

  A new client is a favorite client!

  In order to become our client, select a type of pod:

  General continuous-immersion pod (GCI). Supplied free of charge. All standard features: medical unit; sanitation unit; bed sore prevention and massager; pleasure/pain impulse sensors; feeding tube.

  Professional continuous-immersion pod (PCI). Supplied for an additional fee. All standard features, plus extras: full tactile sensation unit; olfactory centre; fitness module, allowing increase of real physical characteristics (agility, strength, endurance) whilst playing.