Free Off The Grid by Dan Kolbet

substitutions they played four on four with a goalie. The nets were positioned to shorten the field in half. No reason to make anyone’s lungs explode. The strategy was basic, get the ball to Luke and let him run with it. On the other side, the idea was to keep him out of the play.
    “Let me cover him,” Kathryn said.
    She looked so determined that Amir readily consented. For most of the game Luke held back to about half speed, knowing that the desk jockeys were not the most fleet of foot and this was supposed to be fun.
    Kathryn saw it differently.
    Luke received the ball and dribbled up the far side of the field, looking to pass the ball inside to an uncovered teammate just outside the goalie box. Kathryn rushed him full force and slid to steal the ball when he held up to avoid a collision. With the short field, she quickly punched a pass to Amir that he knocked in the goal easily. Luke stood, motionless with a look of shock on his face as one of his teammates yelled, “head in the game, man!”
    She repeatedly slammed herself into Luke when he received the ball, trying to steal it. His athleticism allowed him to avoid several, but not all of the intentionally ferocious hits.
    On one particular play Kathryn trailed Luke, who was without the ball. She ran even with him on his left side, then positioned herself on his right and launched her hip into his right knee, forcing both of them to the ground. Luke grabbed his knee – the same knee that had kept him out of most of the games his sophomore year at Stanford. He walked it off, but it hurt like hell. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought she meant to go for his knee.
    They were playing until one team scored four goals. It was 3-1, before Luke decided to play to his full potential, and quickly tied the score up, drawing some sneers from his co-workers. He made it a point to pass to open teammates and not make a break for the goal every time it was available to him. He scored once, but assisted on the other goals.
    Amir found the net on a long pass from Kathryn to win the game 4-3. The team celebrated as if they had just won the World Cup.
    “Tough game out there Kincaid,” Kathryn said, barely even breathing hard as they walked off the field. “I thought you were some hot-shot soccer player.”
    “And I thought you were some stuffy executive.”
    “I am, but with a mean streak,” she took a gulp of a sports drink. “I played lacrosse at Vanderbilt. It translates.”
    “That explains it,” Luke said rubbing his knee.
    “You’ve got to play to win, or don’t play at all. I know you were pulling your punches out there,” she said. “What, afraid to upset your buddies?”
    “Just kicking around the ball on a Saturday.”
    “Like I said, play to win or not at all.”
    ***
    The break from the humdrum of work was a welcome one for Luke, who had been spending 65-80 hours a week on MassEnergy’s campus. His assignments were rather trivial and he routinely completed them in less than half the time he was allotted. The remainder of his time was spent in the cafeteria, courtyard and common rooms in the dorms, attempting to elicit information from his fellow employees. The most significant obstacle in his attempts was the lanyard he and all Engineering Class candidates were required to wear. The large orange tag signaled that he was an outsider.
    The exception to this was in the dorms, where overly-tired employees went to crash after a long shift. Most considered the time in between shifts as personal time and didn’t wear their campus identification. He’d had several lengthy conversations with female lab techs, but even then, they were guarded about their work, like good little employees.
    Even after a few drinks, they were tightlipped – at least about work.
    Kathryn was fundamentally wrong about employee fraternization. He’d stayed the night in the dorms a few times a week probing employees for information. The dorm rooms resembled college