Geek Mafia | Page 5

fourteen hours at a stretch like they program. I can't do it.
My brain is done long before then. Four hours of writing in a day and I
don't have anything left to say. There's nothing there. Alternately, I can
draw for about twice that long. Sure, I can do more - a lot more if
there's a deadline or it really needs to be done, but then I'm wiped. I'm
no good for anything for the next few days."
"And your buddies at work thought you were slacking off because you
weren't putting in the same kinds of hours," she said. "Basically, they
fired you for being a lazy clock-watcher. That's the only reason?"
"Well, that, and the fact that I probably pissed a whole bunch of them
off even though I didn't mean to."
"Yeah, well, that'd do it. What were you doing to make everyone hate
you?"
"I don't think it was everyone - just some of them. To be honest, I don't
have a reputation for listening to other people's ideas." Paul stopped her
before she could comment, "And yeah, yeah, that would be bad if it
were true, but really it's not. I do listen to other people's ideas. I like to
listen to them. But if the ideas aren't good, I'm not going to use them
just to make people feel good."
"Besides," he continued, anger creeping into his voice. "They hired me
for my ideas. The game itself was my idea, based on my comic book.
And of course I listened to other people's thoughts. But I had the vision
and, I can tell you this for sure, no one else there had anything remotely
resembling a vision."

She'd nodded, her expression sympathetic. "Ok, Paul, I think I get the
overall picture. In a nutshell, they fucked you over."
"Yeah," he said. Saying it all out loud to her made had him angry again.
Angry at what they'd done to him. Angry and betrayed and...
"I do have one question though," Chloe said, interrupting his angry
reverie.
"Shoot," he said.
"You're talking in the past tense, like you've been fired already, but
earlier you said you're getting fired tomorrow. What's up with that?
Most people I know who get fired are shown the door right away. Why
wait twenty-four hours?"
"Oh, I thought I explained that," said Paul. "They can't fire me. I mean,
they can't just walk in and tell me to leave. I'm one of the founders. I
own nine percent of the company and I'm on the Board of Directors.
They have to actually vote me out."
"Really?" said Chloe, a spark of renewed interest in her voice.
"Yep. Like I said, this whole project - the whole reason for this
company - was my idea."
"So the vote hasn't happened yet right?" she asked. "How do you know
you're going to get voted out?"
"Well, there are only five of us on the board and the others all told me
today how they'd vote. They wanted to have a meeting right then and
do it, but I'm entitled to twenty-four hour's notice and I said I wanted
it."
"Why?"
"I dunno really. I was just so shocked. I had no idea they were even
thinking about doing something like this. Really. No idea at all. And
I'm sort of prone to doing rash things - you know, getting angry and

stuff. I knew if I went into a meeting right then I'd blow up. I might
hurt somebody or get in more trouble. Some part of me was smart
enough to say 'hey, just get out of here.' So that's what I did."
"That makes sense," she said. "I'd for sure have yelled and screamed
and broke something. Or someone."
"Those feelings came later - once I was in my car." Paul looked down
at his sandwich. This job, this company, had been his big break, his
chance to do something that tons of people would see and enjoy. He
was supposed to come out of this a millionaire. He'd never have to
work again if he didn't want to. But they'd kicked him out - some of
them good friends of his. They'd stolen his idea and kicked him out.
That morning, as he'd sat there in his car outside the office, he'd
contemplated just throwing it in gear and driving straight through the
plate glass door at the front of the office, just flooring it and putting his
trust in the airbags to save him. Or not. Whatever. Paul didn't think he
could have done it, but he really wished he had. He wished he had it in
him to be so grief stricken that he didn't care what the consequences for
his revenge were. But