Doc's Place

Chapter 11 | Part 1

Thursday, October 4, 1984

My stomach cramps painfully, and the acrid taste in my throat gags me, making me cough. The fawn lies still, not even moving its ears, but I can still see it beneath the shrub. I leap from the rock and bite into its neck. Shake it hard, hearing the satisfying crack and tasting the delicious blood in my throat. I drop the fawn and turn it belly up, tearing the guts out with my teeth.

A few minutes after I roll out of bed, the nausea passes and I'm on my way to the dojo. After I clean up and eat at Carter's, I feel refreshed. The pain in my shoulder from the old racquetball injury is almost gone. A few minutes before nine, I'm drawing large, rough sketches on newsprint and hanging them on my walls. Work through four or five drafts before I begin to envision the layout I want. Once I have the layout in my head, I finalize it on newsprint, roll it up and reach for the phone.

The first graphic designer I call already has a contract with Doc's Marketing department for layout and design of brochures, pamphlets and so on. He tells me he's busy this morning but he can see me this afternoon.

The second designer is a recent startup that Dick in Purchasing told me to see. Ron and Karen are a husband-and-wife team. Ron is the talent and vision; Karen manages the business and does grunt layout. Agree to visit them in an hour.

Megan calls to ask if I'm going to tell Lucy about our clandestine meeting. When I tell her that I had no idea it was clandestine, she explains that she and the doc are in a committed relationship. Tell her I won't mention it to Lucy and add, "Call me if and when you're ready." When she thanks me, we hang up.

Work the phones for another half-hour before I finally find someone who can show me their work after lunch. This guy tells me the word all over town is that I am hustling to produce an eighteen-month streak of issues. If that's true, I ask him, why am I having trouble setting up appointments with designers? He tells me that I won't last the month, just like the last guy and the entire contract will be let out of Las Vegas.

Stop by the restroom and then drop in on Dick in Purchasing to tell him what the designer told me. He assures me that I'll receive some decent bids. As I'm turning to leave, he says, "Hey Jill, the warehouse super got mugged outside the Z Bar last night. I can't take a collection because . . . rules don't allow it."

"Here," I say, handing him the twenty I took last night. "I won't say anything if you won't."

"Thanks," he mutters.

"How's he doing?" I ask.

Shaking his head, Dick says, "Broken nose, damaged eye socket and cracked ribs. It scared him bad enough that he resigned. He says he and his wife are moving to Vegas."

Patting Dick on the shoulder, I go see Louise. She looks like a solid punch to the solar plexus would take her out.

"You have formal budget approval," she says, handing me Dick Scope's copy of the two plans. He has scribbled `Approved' on each, and then signed and dated them. "Congratulations, Jill, you've worked hard for this approval."

"I appreciate that, Louise," I tell her as I return the copies so she can store them in the department's files.

When she merely nods, I say, "You seem a little subdued, Louise. Still bothered by what you told Max yesterday?"

She winces and says, "No. Well yes, but that's not what's bothering me. The warehouse super was mugged last night outside his regular bar. He resigned this morning. Says he's selling his house and leaving Reno."

"Anything Doc's Place can do to help?"

Shaking her head, she says, "Quite the opposite. This morning Dick Scope fired the whole warehouse crew for various, long-standing offenses."

"Jesus, that's cold." After a pause, I ask, "Does he have the authority to do that?"

"The orders came from Mr. Marriott," says Louise, "so Dick had no choice. The timing makes the Doc's Place executives look like heartless whores who only care about getting rid of undesirables and saving money."

Pretty strong language. I tell her the good news: Liz has started working on one project and the publication logistics are coming together on the other. Also tell her that Annette is tracking my comings and goings out of Doc's Place so she can locate me if I'm needed. None of this cheers her up, so I leave.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

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Doc's Place Chat
© 2008, Michel Grover.
Chapter 11 | Part 1
Autumn 2008

Lucia :

Mic has posted in the left frame paragraphs from Doc's Place, one of his copyrighted stories. I'm moderating chat here in the right frame. I post every day, but I don't post everything. I have formed a secondary group from which I may also post comments.

Alan :

Cat dream, means more bad shit comin down. Does it always happen that day, Jill?

Jill :

Within 24hrs

Carlos :

Did some damage to the warehouse supervisor. "Broken nose, damaged eye socket and cracked ribs. Scared him bad enough that he resigned," says Dick in Purchasing.

Jules :

Using the guy's 20 as a donation? That's slick.

Doug :

Yeah, and she kept 10% as a fee for her services.

Lucia :

If anyone's tracking her progress, Louise sounds more and more like she's losing it.

Benny :

Hey, Louise is on the hit list. Her deadline is when her replacement is ready. Jill told Peter that the warehouse guys would take a week and they're all gone by day 4.

I have more questions, Lizzie, this time about the culture at Pere. Do most people work at Pere offices or remotely?

Lizzie :

If it's okay with Lucia and everyone, I'll defer that question to one of the Pere executives. That way, you won't be receiving only my perspective/bias.

Lucia :

That's fine by me. Everyone, meet Sara, an executive of 23 years at Pere headquarters in Reno, Nevada. Sara appears briefly now and then in the story in the left frame, beginning within a couple weeks from where we are right now.

Sara :

The ratio of people who work at Pere offices to those who work remotely is 1:1, Benny. What do you want to know about the culture?

Benny :

How do Pere executives judge whether someone is doing a good job?

Sara :

If your work makes a significant difference and you work well with the current executive team, then you stay; if not, you go or end up in a nautilus like a mouse in a maze. We have a few of those. Pere is the most entrepreneurial workplace I've heard of or seen.

Benny :

How do you define entrepreneurial? What's it like to work with such people?

Sara :

Have you ever realized that if it weren't for someone's initiative, some things would not exist or would not have happened? Have you ever admired someone's work so much you wish you could meet her? It's like that. Pere executives are visionary, yet practical people who make Pere's success their personal responsibility. Yes, the money's good but once you've made a few billion, what becomes addicting is having the world as your oyster and working in the neural network—hooked up with so many sharp people. Once you're connected, you don't want to disconnect.

Marcus :

Is Pere hierarchical?

Sara :

No, it's flat. We don't have management or admin people because everyone does their own work or delegates it to net subroutines. The neural network does staff work like plans, reports and coordination with other executives. Take Margaret, Jill's administrative assistant you met in the story, for example. She retired and died years ago but if you call Pere today, you'll get Margaret. What you don't realize is that you're talking to Margaret's persona in the neural network.

As far as dealing with the outside world, Pere contracts out almost all of its trading in property, stocks, bonds and commodities. Pere hires male figureheads to deal with heads of global cartels and heads of state throughout the world. These men honestly believe that they are in charge of something but of course, they're not. They live well, look good and act important though.

Jules :

Hell, you could have Abraham Lincoln or Samuel Clemens answering the phones.

Sara :

They're too curt and irascible, like you, Jules.

Marcus :

Office politics?

Sara :

Politics presuppose secrecy and lies. As Lizzie told you, we have no secrets because executives know what the others are doing and saying. Claiming credit for work that is not your own or otherwise lying to cover your ass is impossible when your peers already know the truth or can get it within seconds.

Maria :

Are you going to tell us a little about yourself, like Lizzie did?

Sara :

What do you want to know?

Maria :

Married, kids, education, experience and so on.

Sara :

MBA at Northwestern, worked at one of the big accounting firms in Chicago for about a year and then came to work for Ume and Jill at Pere. I've been here ever since. I'm a lesbian who avoids long-term relationships, so no marriage or kids and no interest in either. I work out at the same dojo as Jill every other day. Other days I run, ski or swim.

Lizzie :

Sara is Amalie's mentor. She is also the primary architect of the neural network, including many of the breakthroughs we've made in accessing the organic network.

Sara :

We should always clarify that. Pere funded the research and development in accessing organic matter for computing, storage and retrieval through contracts to universities and private industry over a period of years. I developed the neural pathways behind the applications that make organic computing work with reasonable response times. Pere contracted out the development of those applications, again to universities and private industry over the years.

Doug :

So Sara, did you put up all those satellites?

Sara :

No. I'm not good with hardware. Carlos' wife, Donna, is the lead on that particular project.

Carlo :

Jeez Carlos, you could have told us.

Carlos :

This is the first I knew of it. Donna heads up SIA, Sara.

Sara :

She does but she's always been a hardware and security geek, so SIA has always assumed responsibility for the satellite project because it's security infrastructure.

Doug :

You're not manning up, Carlos. First we learn that your wife has the hots for a young babe because you can't get it up any more. Then we learn that she's a hundred times smarter than you are and you don't even know half of what she's done to change to world. You got anything going for you?

Carlos :

She's always been able to kick my ass too, so not really.

Jill :

Carlos is one of those male lions you see on the nature shows on TV. He lies around sleeping most of the day. When his wife brings home the bacon, he wakes up and eats most of it.

Ian :

Do you at least wake up long enough to kill an annoying hyena now and then, Carlos?

Carlos :

Nope

Lizzie :

We've been telling you what a bad ass Ume is, people. Well, as the woman who has headed up SIA, Donna has been the instrument of Ume's will for a couple decades. Donna hunts and kills hyenas for showing up on the same land mass, let alone showing interest.

Raj :

So, Donna's body count is higher than Jill's?

Lizzie :

By several orders of magnitude

Minnie :

As a Jew and an Israeli expatriate, I certainly understand the necessity of preemptory attacks and even killing to defend one's homeland. How does Pere define enemies and conditions for ordering SIA forces to attack?

Sara :

Ume provides SIA with flexible guidelines, all of which err on the side of extravagant aggression rather than fiscal caution or humanity.

Minnie :

Can you give us an example?

Marcus :

Can't we bring Donna into this discussion? Shouldn't she be the one who answers these questions? Lucia?

Lucia :

Everyone, meet Donna. She is Carlos' wife and the woman who has led SIA for 23yrs.

Donna :

Say a man—a known felon or sniper, armed or unarmed, with a clear line of sight—approaches within 2500m, about 1.5mi, of a Pere human asset, including those in relationships with Pere employees. SIA teams begin tracking and back tracking him; other SIA teams go on alert and begin looking for threats against Pere assets worldwide. The tracking team snuffs him if he approaches again. Meanwhile, the back-tracking team discovers who perpetrated the action. An SIA paramilitary force then captures the perpetrators and forces them to watch as SIA accountants systematically seize, disassemble and sell their business, their assets and all of their property.

Minnie :

What does SIA do with the perpetrators' families?

Donna :

Pere provides lifetime care, health and educational benefits for any children. If spouses are not involved, they go with the children; if involved, they suffer the perpetrators' fate.

Minnie :

What fate?

Donna :

Their fate depends upon their culture, religion, economic class and so on. It must deliver a clear and concise message that suits both them and their act. The intended audience—others who may try the same attack—must understand the message and see it as fiendishly clever and cruel.

Minnie :

So SIA never kills the perpetrators?

Donna :

Not the perpetrators. SIA kills or disables bodyguards and other violent hirelings only as long as they continue to resist. Once they give up, we cut them loose and track them.

Minnie :

You have just described a threat that actually happened, Donna. Can you provide details?

Donna :

Perhaps a few years ago you read of the Asian executives who decided to forsake all of their considerable property and beg on the streets. Some interpreted their act as selflessness and compared them to Buddha.

Doug :

Sure, 5-6yrs ago, these 3 old guys gave up their businesses, homes, families and everything so they could beg for pennies on the streets of Taipei. I remember that they were disfigured or something. All 3 guys ended up beaten to death by youth gangs, I think.

Minnie :

I remember they were older men—in their 80s—from mainland China.

Carlo :

Did all of this happen, Donna?

Donna :

Does it matter?

Ian :

Guess not. The story definitely delivers the message.

Steph :

What message does the story deliver, specifically?

Sara :

Pere has few agents and contractors working for us. We have fewer still executives and employees throughout the world. However, instigate actions against Pere or anyone associated with Pere at your peril. You will lose your business empire, see your friends and family scattered and in the care of strangers. Eventually you will lose your life at the hands of those you despise most.

Maria :

That seems a tad . . . excessive. Is it necessary?

Donna :

Wrong question, Maria. Question is, is it effective? We thrive and they are gone. No one has tried anything on that scale since.

Benny :

What about small-scale attacks like youth gangs intent on extortion or young terrorists bent on random, local destruction?

Donna :

Both operate at the instigation of manipulative men attempting to intimidate despite research that shows such violent acts rarely accomplish objectives. We capture these men, remove their limbs and teeth, connect them to intravenous drips in a room and let them watch news reports together under the care of retired physicians and nurses. For the rest of their lives, a retired bureaucrat comes in every day to sit and chat with them about anything they wish to discuss.

Maria :

You remove their limbs and teeth? Why?

Donna :

Even if they hope for escape or rescue, what will they have left? Can't even attempt suicide.

Carlos :

Jesus, honey, that's cold.

Ian :

Don't they go mad?

Donna :

Not with each other in the room 24hrs a day. When one gets depressed, which happens now and then, the physician administers a mild sedative or something.

Raj :

What is point?

Donna :

Occasionally, we arrange a viewing for an up-and-coming gang boss or cult leader who incites terrorist acts. Let them join the group for a few hours or in some cases, days—perhaps remove a limb or a tooth and then we cut them loose.

Maria :

Is it effective?

Donna :

When it isn't, they end up dead or worse: wake up in the discussion group.

Carlos :

Bet that group has some pretty big names—men who have disappeared.

Donna :

Most are known; some are not.

Lucia :

Donna, do you want to discuss your relationship with Carlos here?

Donna :

We love one another, socialize together, talk for hours and share the same bed.

Lucia :

Are you involved with someone else?

Donna :

Yes

Lucia :

Carlos, are you okay with that?

Carlos :

Yes