**
“Welcome CJ, Hugo. I’m Alexander Gideon, pleased to meet you.” When the man shook Hugo’s hand, he looked him in the eye. Behind them Hugo could see the picturesque skyline of Seattle; however it wasn’t the correct view for where Gideon Enterprises was downtown. This was a problem. For a moment the man’s grip on his hand tightened, and then the skyline exploded in a flash of roaring white. Even though he should have been blinded, Hugo could clearly see the mushroom cloud billowing up from the broken teeth of wrecked buildings. The large pane of glass shattered inwards, but Mr. Gideon just kept smiling.
Hugo’s eyes snapped open and for a moment he completely stopped breathing, then he quickly snapped into a sitting position in his bed, blinking in the dark. He rubbed his palms across his damp face, trying to get the rattling breath in his chest to even out.
It was fine. Everything was fine. Hugo pulled his legs from the tangle of his comforter, glancing around the dark shadows of his room, trying to get his bearings. Everything was fine. He was at home. It was 4 am and he wasn’t dead. He’d had a nightmare. He pulled himself from the warmth of his bed and into the bathroom to wipe the cold sweat off his face.
That was the problem; it hadn’t felt like a nightmare. Not entirely anyway. It was more like 2 visions mashed up into one: his memory of the meeting with Mr. Gideon and the explosion. That had never happened before. Did it mean something? Maybe it was a delayed reaction, like he should have had the exploding vision when he shook Mr. Gideon’s hand, but something had prevented it, and this was just its way of compensating?
Its way? Were his visions a conscious thing trying to direct him? Part of the wind that told him everything would be alright if he’d just pay attention to it? Hugo shook his head, splashed water on his face and crawled back into bed, burying himself in the covers. He really didn’t want to think about any of this anymore, he was tired. And he had work soon.
The rest of the night he dozed, drifting jerkily in and out of vague, shadowy dreams and woke up to his alarm almost more tired than he’d been before he’d gone to bed. He blearily passed through his morning routine and took the bus to work.
The secretary at the front desk, a redhead with pale freckles, smiled at him as he entered through the automatic glass doors. “Good morning, Hugo,” she said brightly.
“Good morning, Eva,” he responded, thankful he could remember everything now. She brightened at that, then buzzed him in so that he didn’t have to fish his badge out of his back pocket.
Hugo sipped his coffee as he took the elevator to the second floor where the security center was, where he knew he’d find Christian. His guess was correct; Mr. Williams was sitting at the bank of monitors, looking at them with a slightly bored expression on his face. He turned when Hugo entered and stood.
“CJ’s down in the labs, so for now I’m going to take you to see your boss since Mr. Hansen wasn’t available yesterday. He’s the Vice President of Human Resources, so he’s in charge of recruiting.” Christian walked past him towards the door, “Come on.”
Hugo looked at his coffee and then quickly followed.
Mr. Hansen was towards the back of the building on the second floor, down a side hallway that only had two doors and a desk. The desk belonged to Mr. Hansen’s assistant, one was Mr. Hansen’s office, and the other one was enticingly labeled ‘Mainframe.’
The assistant smiled at them, Nancy was what her nameplate said, then glanced at her computer screen, “Hi Christian. This is Hugo, right? Great. Mr. Hansen will see you now.” Christian nodded towards the black-haired woman then abandoned him again. Hugo glanced at the coffee in his hand, wondering if it was appropriate, then, with a nervous glance towards Nancy, entered Mr. Hansen’s office.
The small room was dim and simple, a contrast to Mr. Gideon’s office. There was a desk and a couple chairs before it, and a few abstract pictures on the walls. Mr. Hansen himself looked to be a man in his late forties, brown hair just starting to gray. He was smiling, but it didn’t seem particularly warm or welcoming. His eyes were dark, staring straight into Hugo, causing him to pause for a moment.
And then the man rose, motioning to the chair before the desk, “Good Morning, Hugo, have a seat.”
Hugo complied as Mr. Hansen sat down as well, shifting a little nervously. “Good morning.”
“Welcome to Gideon Enterprises. How are you finding it so far?”
“Uh…” Hugo glanced down at his coffee, “It’s only been a day, but…uh…great…I guess?” Mr. Hansen was taking everything in, his eyes carefully watching Hugo’s movements, making the younger man blush. This wasn’t a friendly orientation, Mr. Hansen was profiling him. What if he said something stupid? What if they found out he joined the company to spy on them? Hugo squeezed his paper cup.
“Hugo, you seem distracted, what’s wrong?”
Hugo fidgeted, looked away, “N-nothing. I just…”
“Hmmm?” The man sitting in the chair across from him had his hands folded on the table, expression thoughtful and patient. His white, button down shirt and dark red vest were perfectly wrinkle-free, Mr. Hansen seemed completely composed, which made Hugo even more nervous.
“Well…this is just a psych test and it’s making me nervous, even though I know you’re going to be telling me what I’ll be doing, but still, and I’m sorry.”
There was an unusual pause, and then Mr. Hansen smiled placidly, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to mislead you, this is just part of the profile we create for each employee when they start here, so that we can provide each individual an environment in which they can excel, of course.”
“I’m sorry! Um, I can uh, pretend, I…uh…”
Mr. Hansen laughed a little. “Don’t worry about it. Now we can just be more straight forward. Just remember, there are no wrong answers as long as you’re honest.”
Mr. Hansen wasn’t angry at him for ruining his test. Hugo smiled; this he could handle.
The profile took a lot less time without the superfluous chatter and they quickly got to the outline of the duties of recruiting. He hoped he didn’t have to stay at the job long, as it involved talking to people he didn’t know and trying to convince them to join a company he wasn’t certain was safe yet. But at least at the very beginning they’d always go along with a member of the security team, someone who had more experience with the process. Someone to help them if things went wrong; as Mr. Hansen warned him, not all negotiations went smoothly. Hugo tensed a little at that. Not everyone wanted to be discovered apparently. But he and CJ were new; they wouldn’t have them talk to someone dangerous, would they?
When Hugo had run out of questions about his new responsibilities, they both stood and Mr. Hansen offered his hand. Hugo hesitated. He didn’t want to see anything bad happening to this man, and he was seeing a lot of things lately. But curiosity overrode caution and he accepted.
Mr. Hansen had a sniper rifle. He was laid flat out on a rooftop, the scope revealed a blonde woman on a crowded street, casting her glance around in frustration. Squatting next to Mr. Hansen was another man with very similar features; a brother perhaps? He was whispering something into Mr. Hansen’s ear that Hugo couldn’t make out. And then Mr. Hansen was letting go of Hugo’s hand, so Hugo backed up a few steps and quickly left the office. Mr. Hansen’s secretary let him know that Christian was on his way up with CJ; he distractedly thanked her and said he’d be right back. Hugo practically ran out of the building. He backed away from it, staring up at the sleek, mirrored structure. What was he doing? How could he possibly have joined this company? The head of Human Resources killed people. With a rifle. Hugo was having a little trouble breathing.
No. He hadn’t seen him kill anyone. Maybe he was just using the scope. Maybe the person was a criminal or a terrorist or it was a war oh god Mr. Hansen was a murderer. No maybe he had a good reason, could there be a good reason for killing some blonde lady? He had no idea of the context, maybe it hadn’t happened yet, or maybe it had happen
ed a while ago. Maybe it was the only time. Maybe if he knew the circumstances it would be ok. He didn’t really know what had, or would, happen, he shouldn’t jump to conclusions. That could have been anything. Right?
The sky was a bright blue and the breeze was soft, but a little chilly. Hugo shoved his hands in his pockets and took several deep breaths. He’d joined the company to find out what was going on, he couldn’t just jump to random conclusions based on what he’d witnessed. Mr. Hansen seemed like a reasonable man, so there must be a reasonable explanation for what he’d seen. Hugo took several more deep breaths and then walked back into Gideon Enterprises.
Eva gave him a peculiar look when he passed the glass double doors, and Hugo just shook his head slightly, “Just needed some fresh air.”
The receptionist smiled at that. “Yeah, it is a beautiful day out, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Hugo responded. He started to walk past the redhead but then stopped, turning towards her. “Do you like working here?”
Eva straightened, her smile broadening. “Yes, this is a great place to work. The people are wonderful and the company genuinely helps people.”
Hugo pushed his hands into his pockets. “What…do you think of Mr. Gideon?”
The receptionist’s face went a little red at that. “He’s very nice,” she said softly, gaze drifting to her desk for a moment.
Hugo raised his eyebrows at that, but didn’t press the issue. “And what do you think of Mr. Hansen?”
Eva glanced around, then leaned against the desk, her voice a conspiratorial whisper, “I probably shouldn’t be saying this, and I haven’t talked to him much, but I’ve heard some scary things about him.”
Hugo’s breath caught in his throat, “Like what?”
Eva’s eyes widened slightly, and she leaned in even closer, “That he has a serious temper and doesn’t tolerate screw-ups at all. He can control your senses, and he uses it to scare people into acting right.”
“He what?”
The receptionist leaned back, shrugging, “I’m not sure if it’s true, I’ve never run across anyone who’s been on the receiving end of his supposed temper, but I imagine he could do some nasty stuff with his ability.”
Hugo nodded in response, a wave of cold traveling through his body, “R-right…”
“Hugo! There you are!” CJ was waving, bouncing towards him, “Dr. McFadden wants to see you. It’s time for your physical!” The girl spun on her heel and started bounding back down the hallway. Hugo numbly followed her, trying to calm the sharp, nervous pain in his chest. “The doctor’s nice and all, and it doesn’t take very long, but she tried to draw some blood.” CJ shivered, “I hate needles, so I didn’t let her do it. She was trying to talk me into it, but she failed.” There was a note of triumph in CJ’s voice. She led him to a room where the young doctor was waiting. “Ok! I’ll let you two go at it. I’m going back to the labs.” CJ bounced off down the hall again, leaving the two of them alone.
“Hello again,” the doctor said, her smile bright.
Hugo shoved his hands in his pockets, glancing around the room, “Hi.”
“This won’t take long, I promise. I just need you to fill out this questionnaire and we’ll do a quick physical,” as she spoke, Dr. McFadden handed him a clipboard with several pieces of paper on it. Hugo stared down at the questionnaire, frowning. He didn’t want to commit his bad habits to paper, but he found himself checking off a lot of the boxes that gave a less than flattering impression of him.
“Can I get you a glass of water?” The doctor asked as he filled in his answers.
Hugo glanced up at her, shaking his head. He handed her the clipboard, then immediately returned his gaze to the ground.
Several long, awkward moments passed as she reviewed the questionnaire, and then she looked up at him, a frown on her face, “Have you tried to quit smoking?”
Hugo looked away, “A couple times…I…it just…”
The doctor smiled warmly at him, “It’s ok. It’s atypical to succeed on your first try, but you should keep trying, for your sake.” Hugo nodded, his shoulders slumping. She sighed slightly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like I was berating you. I’m just worried. You need to take better care of yourself. Your chart is…” Dr. McFadden shook her head as she trailed off into a silence. After that it was only broken up by the few instructions she gave him during the rest of the physical.