Sonya sat in the office and wondered what the debriefing would be about. Tom sat at the desk in front of her looking at a stack of official looking documents. She shifted in her chair. She was always nervous during meetings with Tom. He always had an air of cool collectiveness that was almost surreal. Tom picked up a sheet of paper from the stack to his left which all seemed to have a blue stamp on them. She couldn't make out what was printed on it. Tom looked at the paper and appeared to skim the contents. After a moment, he looked up at Sonya.
"Sonya," he began, "you have been a member of this organization for several years. I have seen you deal with some of our hardest cases, some of our most unruly subjects and you have always managed to get the results we were looking to achieve." Tom gathered up the documents and pushed them to the side. He crossed his fingers together and placed them on the desk in front of him. He looked at Sonya with something that might have been close to admiration.
"I could never understand how you were able to accomplish this. At first I attributed it to your femininity. This prompted me to hire more employees that resembled that nature, but this proved to not be your secret. In observing you more closely, looking through your case files and especialy your case notes, I have come to find that the proverbial magic you have comes down to a concept as basic as belief and loyalty."
Tom continued to gaze at Sonya. She wasn't sure if she should feel pride or be uncomfortable. The meer thought of being uncomfortable made her want to excuse herself from this briefing. Sonya had been working for this establishment for many years and found it strange to be this uneasy.
"Because of your deep belief in what we do here," said Tom, "you have made it a point to obtain the information we seek for the betterment of society at large, though it may require you to...as they say break a few eggs for the sake of the omelet." Tom leaned forward and spoke to Sonya in a slightly softer voice, as though he were going to tell her something confidential. "This is why you would be perfect for this assignment." He looked away from from Sonya for a brief moment and then his focus snapped in on her eyes. He had a look on his face that spoke of determination. Sonya swallowed visibly.
"What assignment is this?" she asked. She tried to keep her voice as even as possible. She didn't want to show him how nervous she was at this point.
"Sonya, we have been working on Mr. Colin for a long time now. I say a long time since, as you know, the average stay here for a subject usually is no more than a few weeks to a month. Most of them are not able to handle the strain on their psyche passed this point. Mr. Colin has proven to be one of our strongest! I had my doubts in the beginning, but after many protocols and proceedures, he has manage to perservere." Tom picked up the document he had been looking at. He ran his finger over one of the paragraphs, nodded, and then placed the paper back on his desk. "Sonya, what I need you to do may be more...extreme than what we have asked you to do in the past. Mr. Colin has not given us the results certain people would like to see. Our project depends on obtaining unquestionable outcomes. We MUST be able to ensure that or proceedures are foolproof and there is so doubt that, if needed, they could be adopted into any sector for any person willing to settle on a suitable compensation agreement."
Sonya looked at Tom in a slightly confused manner. She wasn't sure if had understood what he was trying to say. Did he just ask her to falsify information? Did he just say all of the work she had put in was going to basically be sold to the highest bidder? She couldn't grasp it. "Um, sir?" she asked. " What exactly do you want me to do? I mean what is it specificly?" Tom's lips stretched into a smirk. "Don't worry Sonya. I'm not asking you to do anything more than what you have been doing. I'm only asking you to move along faster and more intensely."
"But sir," Sonya began, "that could possible harm Mr. Colin unessessarily. He could suffer severe trauma that could compromise the validity of our processes." Tom gave Sonya a stern look. "Is this a problem Sonya? Should I be worried?" He picked up yet another sheet of paper. This one was also blue, but seemed to have not been filled out. "Should I have a reason to doubt why I chose you for this particular assignment?"
Sonya did not want to make Tom anymor upset than she already had, though she wasn't exactly sure if he was in fact upset at all given his always cool nature. She had noticed an extra added ice in his last question though.
"No sir," she responded. "You have no reason to feel as though I will not perform as I always have."
As Sonya left the office, she could not help but feel a little uneasy. She had always done as she was told and never once asked if she should, but this? It seemed as though she was being told to do something outside of the scope of what she had been hired for. She had the sneaking suspicion that things here in the organization were changing and she was goig to be caught in the middle.
Tom looked down at his desk at the empty blue form, reached into the drawer on the left pulled out a yellow form and placed it next to the blue one. He looked from one to the other and then bagan to fill out the yellow form.
NAME: Sonya Vapahtaja
NUMBER: Alpha-27.
ACTION: Survail employee until otherwise stated.
REASON FOR ACTION: Possible breach in loyalty.
Tom looked up from the form and stared at the door Sonya had left from not too long ago. He seemed to be contemplating something. He shook his head slowly as in disappointment, folded the form and pressed a small white button on the side of the desk. A voice crackled from a speaker somewhere in the walls.
"Yes sir?" It was a slighty whiny female voice.
"I need you to come and pick up this TR-40 please," Tom stated.
There was a pause from the speaker.
"A....TR-40 sir?" asked the speaker hesitantly.
Yes, and bring me a coffee as well." said Tom.
"Black."
© 2009 by Laira Reid
