* * *
After the lesson, he found a note from the Director in his pigeonhole. Five minutes later, the old man told him to sit down and looked him in the eye.
“Is it true that in your last class you called technology ‘the enemy’?”
“How do you know that?”
“Miss Chelovek secretly blogged it on her iPhone while you were handing out some moth-eaten 20th-century textbooks. There are already thirty comments, all upped, and her post is trending. It may soon go beyond campus.”
“There’s nothing wrong with healthy debate.”
“Our marketing department feels differently. Do you know the resources they devote to virally marketing our course as the most hi-tech, cutting-edge program in the country? Do you have any idea how many false identities they maintain to disseminate this truth? Not to mention the millions we’ve invested in technological hardware and the virtual campus. And it could all be swept away by the actions of one textbook-wielding dinosaur?!”
“With respect, aren’t you being rather alarmist? Our department’s reputation has been built up over fifty years. It—”
“It could be swept away in fifty minutes! The only constant nowadays is constant change... Look, I’ve made an appointment for you with Consultant V.”
“Velcrodoigt... the man with the virtual touch.” Bender’s lip curled upwards at the mere mention of his nemesis. “Tell V he knows where to find me. I’ll be waiting for him.”