"Jerry Davis - Scuba (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davis Jerry)

not doing yourself any good by staying in this position, you're
not doing your division any good, and you're in my way."
"Oh, power games."
"I've got ways of getting you out of here, Jack. I can play
hardball." He stared at Jack intensely, trying to sear him with
his eyes. His stare did not have the desired effect.
"If you got ways, go ahead and use them," Jack said. "I can't
sell my father's stock, and that's it." He shrugged, and was
silent for a moment. "You want to know the truth? I want out as
much as you want me out, but I'm trapped. My father was a very
dominant man, worse than you. I was always fighting to live my own
life, but somehow I always ended up living for him. He's had
absolute power over me all my life, and when he started getting
sick and decided to sell out I thought, this is it, this is my
chance to get out of the way. I was in college studying to be a
marine biologist. But he put me in his place in the contract. When
he was on his deathbed I thought, finally I will be free of him. I
was glad he was dying, it was time for him to die. I thought it
was proper of him to refuse to go to the hospital. But on his
deathbed he tells me, 'Watch over the company,' he says, 'It's
part of me, it's been my life. As long as the company is alive,
I'll be alive.' Then he died. Any other person who dies, dies. But
not him. He's still here. He is this division of DGD, he is
Harvest. He still has absolute power over my life. Still."
"You're talking nonsense."
"He's here. His ghost is here."
"Ghosts." Neil half-chuckled. "You've got more to worry about
than ghosts."
"I can prove to you that ghosts exist."
"Get out of my office," Neil said, suddenly irritable. "Go
on, get out of here." In his mind he saw himself pushing this
little misshapen out of his immediate area, out into the broader
range of his sphere of influence. With Jack out of his office, he
picked up the phone and dialed his new employee. In his mind he
saw his enormous inflated hand nudging a figure with exaggerated
breasts, setting it into action. It made its way though his sphere
of influence to carry out his will.

#

Jack spent the rest of the day falsifying receipts to turn in
for an expense reimbursement. The woman he turned it in to looked
at it skeptically but made no comment. He ducked out of the office
a half-hour early and headed for his car, only to find that
another car had wrecked into it. He stopped and stood motionless
in the acid rain, unbelieving. He would not have been surprised to
find the car missing, taken by the repo men --- but to find it
sitting there with a giant dent in the driver's side door was a
shock. The car that had hit his was still there, its driver
waiting.