To Build a Home

Bribes and Concussions

Ralph Kafka did not particularly enjoy his job. It meant sleeping all day long and sitting at a desk all night, which consequently missing that he was missing most of his daughter's life even though they lived under the same roof. He hadn't made it to a little league game or ballet recital all year, in fact.

So he was not altogether pleased when he found himself being assigned an extra shift on what was supposed to be his night off. He really despised McKinnon and didn't give a damn about their building security. He did give a damn about money, though, so he put on his security guard uniform and went to work that night, expecting everything to be as it usually was— boring, boring, and even more boring. His job was to sit and guard the front door of the McKinnon offices. He was supposed to get up and do rounds of the building every hour, but nothing ever happened so he usually caught a nap and then did rounds once or twice throughout the night. Sometimes he talked to the janitor, Marvin, but it was Marvin's night off too this evening.

Ralph had just woken up from a catnap a little after midnight when he realized that it had been a few hours and that he should probably stretch his legs and make his rounds of the place. He stood and went about his business as usual— first walk through the main entrance, then through the offices and to the back. He didn't know why he even bothered with this part of the job description; it wasn't like anyone ever came here at night anyway...well, except for those two hotshot lawyers who had come in a few months ago and rummaged around in the file room for a bit before leaving. Said lawyers had paid Ralph nicely to keep quiet about their trespassing, so he hadn't brought it to his supervisor's attention that anyone had been there at night. Although he had seen one of them again a few weeks later during daytime office hours. Apparently he was defending McKinnon in a big lawsuit— some bigheaded attorney named Tammany or Tanner or something.

Ralph sighed and made his way to the back of the offices towards the filing room. He dutifully marched by the filing room and then immediately turned around and went to head back to his desk where he planned on reading the comics of yesterday's newspaper. He was technically supposed to walk through the filing room and make sure that it was secure, but it wasn't like anyone ever went in there anyways even during normal office hours when people were actually here working and—

Crash. Ralph froze in surprise at the suspiciously loud noise and turned around and backtracked to the filing room. He pulled out his flashlight and his nightstick (he wasn't qualified to carry a gun) and tentatively pushed open the door to the filing room. He shut off his flashlight and tucked it away, as the lights to the room were already on. Strange. He ducked around a bookshelf filled with records to get back to where the filing cabinets were and stopped short upon seeing an unconscious teenager slumped over in the corner next to the copier, the shredder on the floor next to him.

He edged forward and tentatively poked the kid a few times. He didn't stir but fortunately he was still breathing. Ralph sighed heavily. I really hate this job, he thought as he began shaking the teenager's shoulders to rouse him. The boy had obviously been knocked out somehow and it probably wasn't a smart idea to shake him or forcibly wake him up, but Ralph couldn't bring himself to care. He wanted this kid out of his hair and out of his line of responsibility.

Finally the kid stirred and blinked large blue eyes in confusion, moaning in pain and clutching at his head. "Where'm I?" he mumbled blearily.

"McKinnon Pharmaceutical Headquarters," Ralph boomed. The teenager winced at the excessive volume and clumsily clapped his hands over his ears. "What's your name, kid?"

There was a moment of slow blinking and a lot of thought. Ralph rolled his eyes as the kid struggled to remember his own name. "Mike," he finally said.

"And what exactly are you doing here at 1 in the morning, Mike?" Ralph said in his most intimidating voice. But it fell on deaf ears; Mike was just staring at the wall blankly and swaying slightly even though he was sitting down.