Free The Nightmare Scenario by Gunnar Duvstig

discuss your behavior towards the staff.”
    “We’ve talked about that many times.”
    “Yes, but this time you will have to lead. Your habit of not remembering their names, firing people at a whim and just generally being rude won’t work.”
    Aeolus sighed, frustrated that Walt just didn’t get it. “Walt, Walt, Walt… as for the firing, you know what I’ve told you. You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Still, you do have a point. Set up an all-hands meeting in the lobby at three. And connect our regional offices via video. I agree it’s time we rally the troops. Please, stay while I read.”

    Kevin Brice and Edward Moynes stood outside Aeolus’s office. Kevin was fidgeting with his pencil nervously and Edward walking around in circles. They were the two senior staffers who had written the report Aeolus was reading. Kevin was a tall, lanky man known around the office as being somewhat of an eager beaver; ambitious and always anxious to show off his knowledge. Edward, or Ed as he was usually called, was, in terms of appearance, Kevin’s polar opposite: short and stocky, with a comb-over, which failed to hide his ever-growing bald spot. He was the senior staff’s permanent cynic, always pointing out the obstacles and potential misfortunes of any proposed course of action.
    Ed spoke in that high-pitched voice, which made it easy to identify him even from far away. “If he calls me an intellectual midget again, I swear to God, I’m resigning and taking up that research position at the Karolinska Institute.”
    Kevin, trying to lighten the mood, responded, “At least he’s never called any of your reports ‘a grade-F college midterm paper.’ But seriously, Ed, he’s one of thegreats. Just working next to him, you learn more than you could anywhere else.”
    “The only thing I’ve learned is to smile and nod gratuitously in the face of humiliating disparagement.”
    As Walt opened the door and motioned the two men to enter, Aeolus started speaking. “It is not without satisfaction that I note you’ve printed this report, not on our regular eighty gram office paper, but the considerably heavier paper used for final reports, no doubt in order to try to impress me with presentation rather than content. This paper’s thickness will work far better for starting the fire in my fireplace. And that is the only thing it will be used for.”
    Kevin lowered his gaze to the floor and Ed sighed inaudibly as his eyes turned to the ceiling. They both knew that if the text they had produced, with all the effort that had gone into it, was not up to par, it was unlikely that anything they wrote ever would be.
    Aeolus chuckled. “Relax, I am merely jesting.”
    Walt cleared his throat. “Sir, may I introduce…”
    “Kevin Brice and Edward Moynes,” said Aeolus, cutting him off. “I know.”
    Walt could not hide his surprise.
    “This is a good brief,” Aeolus continued, tapping his finger on the folder, “It has what I need, and it’s not clogged with ephemera.”
    Now Kevin and Ed were the ones who were shocked. Aeolus was not a person who gave praise. In fact, they’d never heard him be so appreciative.
    “You are going to be my point-men on this,” Aeolus told them. “You will sit in on the meetings and be fullybriefed. You will lead a piece each, and you will also form a triumvirate with Walt. If, in the unlikely event that I will be indisposed at some point, a snap decision will need to be made, and you three will make it by majority vote. As you know, we have not had a Deputy Director-General since I took over. Now we have two. Consider yourselves deputized. There is going to be a staff meeting at three. I want you by my side so that everyone can see the authority I am granting you.”
    Kevin and Ed stood frozen, dumbstruck. They couldn’t believe what had just transpired.
    After a couple of seconds, Aeolus snapped, “What are you standing around here for? What do you think this is –