Chapter Thirty-Two: The Light in the Corner

The office building was dark except for the solitary glow of a desk lamp in the corner of the building. Steve had been up most of the night working in the lab. He came to his desk to type some notes on the computer and noticed a thick stack of paper sitting next to his keyboard. A yellow note on top of the stack read, “Steve – Please spend a few minutes looking at these papers. I'll talk to you in the morning.” The note wasn't signed, but Steve knew who wrote it. It was not unusual for Harold to give him extra assignments – things that Harold didn't have time for or things that he considered “beneath” him.

With a deep sigh, Steve began to dig through the stack. Hours passed and the desk became littered with white, Styrofoam cups that exhibited the dark stains of coffee. The tired frustration had begun to dissolve and Steve now anxiously flipped the pages, unable to read as quickly as he wanted to. He was unaware that the sun had risen and others would soon be coming into the office. Being in a subterranean office, it was impossible for anyone to know what time it was without looking at a clock. It had been many hours since Steve looked at a clock, his attention being firmly held elsewhere.

“Steve!” The sudden voice startled him and he jumped, knocking over a partially full cup of coffee. “You're in early,” the voice continued, seemingly unaware that Steve was now in a minor crisis. Steve hurridly mopped up the java using small napkins from the breakroom that were seemingly water-proof. In a last-ditch effort he grabbed the papers and shook them over the floor to remove much of the liquid that was now soaking through the pages.

“Thanks a lot! Think you might be able to lend a hand?” Steve responded in a manner that was uncharacteristically short-tempered for Steve. “Harold's gonna' kill me.”

Moments later, the panic was over and Steve found himself back in his chair straining to read the text through thick brown spots. He was ignoring his co-worker, Jeff, partially due to frustration and partially because he just didn't like the guy. Jeff was new and often came into the office early to impress the others. Steve couldn't see him as much more than a sycophant and treated him as such.

“Harold have you on another top-secret project?” Jeff used his powers of deductive reasoning to determine what Steve was doing. Steve rarely talked about the projects Harold gave him since they were typically fairly sensitive, as Jeff indicated. Anyone could have grabbed the papers off Steve's desk where they were often found, but they knew better. In this environment, you never knew who might be watching.

“It's just a little side-reading – nothing that's going to make any headlines,” Steve lied, hoping to get Jeff to leave him alone for the time being.

“Have you been here all night?” Steve quickly became annoyed by Jeff's persistence.

“Yes, I've had a lot of work to catch up on. Besides, Harold will be here in a few minutes and I need to talk to him. I've got a few things I need to review before he gets here, if you don't mind.” Steve tried his best to be cordial, but it came out much truer.

“Uh, sure. I'll catch up with you later.” Jeff, detecting an annoyance in Steve's voice that couldn't possibly lead to anything good went to his desk and got ready so that the boss would see him hard at work when he got there.