The Meeting, Part 1

Monday, November 25, 2030: Mid-morning, a little after 10.

I was sitting in a conference room at a college in Columbus, Ohio, flipping through feeds from campus surveillance. I was desperately hoping I wouldn't see snowflakes.

I couldn't look outside because the room had no windows. The door to the hallway was open, but there weren't any windows visible there either, at least not from where I was sitting.

Fortunately, there were countless little windows on my laptop screen, and each one of those showed the video stream from a camera. We had hacked into the building's security system just so I could watch them all, but at the moment I was focused on the ones mounted on the roof. I had made a bet with my boss, Henry Nelson, who thought that a snowstorm was coming. I was sure he was wrong at the time, but now I was worried. He had a habit of being right.

Of course, a lot of the exterior channels were dark. The outside world is hard on a camera, and with nobody to maintain them anymore, it was a wonder that any of them worked. Even of those, the pictures were so bad that it was hard to say what I was seeing: snowflakes, or just dirty lens and noisy electronics.

I flipped slowly back and forth between the two best feeds, concentrating. Maybe if I squinted just a little and stared hard enough…

"See him yet?" asked the Boss, startling me. He was sitting just a few feet away, but it had been so quiet that I'd almost forgotten him. "It's almost 10 – he should be here."

"Ummmm, still looking," I said, hoping he hadn't seen me jump. I started flipping channels in earnest. "By the way," I said casually, trying not to gloat, "no snow yet."

He sighed – a very familiar sound. "Focus," he said, but he didn't sound hopeful. Then he snapped, "Stop touching your beard."

I jerked the wandering hand away from my face. All of us were wearing disguises. The Boss's was a very long red beard and a wig. My beard was better - only short and black – but he made me wear a cowboy hat. Even Sam, the dog on the floor by the Boss's feet, had been temporarily dyed black – and hadn't that been fun to do?

"Itches," I complained, but under my breath. I think that the Boss sighed again, but if he did, he kept it low too. I focused on the search.

Oh crap. There he was, already inside the building and getting on the elevator. "He's here", I said, closing the laptop and getting to my feet.

"Turn off the lights first," the Boss whispered. That meant running back and forth in the dark, but there was no time to argue. I crossed over to the switch by the door. The room had already been dim – I had disconnected half the lights when we got there – but once the switch was flipped, with the laptop already closed, the only light come through the open door to the lighted hallway.

As I turned back, I saw what our client soon would see. The Boss, seated behind a table against the back wall of the room was only a shadowy figure. There were a few things beside him on the table, but you couldn't make them out. Sam, lying at his feet, was an unrecognizable lump. Perfect.

I crossed back over in the dark to my end of the table, banging my toe on the way. The Boss hissed, but I just kept on going. The laptop and a few other items had to go into a large copper box still resting on the dolly we used to bring everything up. It was a pretty painful process. In the dark, everything suddenly seemed to have acquired sharp edges and a defiant personality.

I had just finished latching the copper box when I heard the elevator ding. According to plan, I was supposed to be at the door at this point, so I hurried toward it, sprinting on tiptoe, trying not to make any noise.

"Joe!"

I froze in place. That's my name, but it wasn't the Boss who yelled it. It was Sam. Looking back into the darkness I could just make out the Boss. He was holding his cane in the air. He had presumably been waving it at me, but it was motionless now, and he was starting down in Sam's direction. I couldn't see his expression, but since I could imagine it, I didn't mind.

There was nothing to do about it now, though, so I rushed back to the table. The Boss pushed the cane into my hand. "Hide it," he whispered. Hide it? Where? But there was no time, so I took it with me and ran back to the door, pressing my back against the wall and trying to make myself invisible.

My heart was pounding and I was short of air, but after a couple of quiet breaths I could hear footsteps coming up the hall. They stopped and, I could hear the sound of adhesive tape being peeled from the wall. He must be taking down the sign, I thought. We had taped up arrows, from the lobby right to outside this room. I hoped that he got them all – less work for me later.

Another couple of steps, and he stopped again, this time in the doorway. Across the room, I could just make out the Boss's silhouette. No one spoke. After a moment, the Boss's silhouette moved. There was a soft click, then a hiss, then the sound of a computerized voice: "Please step inside".

But the client didn't move. The tape continued to hiss, and then the message repeated. I was starting to worry. I had stopped breathing when he first came into view, and it was getting uncomfortable. More hiss, then the message again, then… the client stepped forward.

It was my turn to act. As soon as the client cleared the way, I grabbed the heavy door and swung it shut as fast as I could. This, of course, cut off the light from the hallway. As the door was closing, I caught a glimpse of the client's face looking back at me, and then it was gone.

I wasn't done yet. Even in the dark, I quickly found the long metal bar attached to the door. Fortunately, I had practiced earlier. By pulling it tight, I latched the door and sealed us all in. "Done!" I shouted.

Immediately there was a quick bright electric flash from the other side of then room, followed quickly by a groan and a thud.

"Turn on the lights," said the Boss. When I did, there was the client – down on one knee, arms raised defensively around his head, our paper signs splashed out on the floor around him. He was still looking back at me with the strangest expression.