Free The Ax by Donald E. Westlake Page A

record of accomplishment, of what has actually happened. To the suppliers he passes the information of what raw material is needed, and to the distributors he passes the information of what finished product is available. He’s the conduit, and until now he has been an absolutely necessary part of the process.
    Once you bring in the computer, you no longer need middle management. Of course, you still need a
few
people at that level, to serve the computer, to run specific tasks, but you no longer need the hundreds and thousands of managers that were still needed only yesterday.
    People like me.
    As the computer takes our jobs, most people don’t even seem to realize why it’s happening. Why was I fired, they want to know, when the company’s in the black and doing better than ever? And the answer is, we were fired because the computer made us unnecessary and made mergers possible and our absence makes the company even stronger, and the dividends even larger, the return on investment even more generous.
    They still need some of us. This is a transition we’re in now, where middle management will shrink like a slug when you pour salt on it, but middle management won’t completely disappear. There will just be fewer jobs, that’s all, far fewer jobs.
    But
my
job, the one Upton “Ralph” Fallon is holding for me, that one still exists. A human being or two is still needed to run the production line, to be above the working stiffs but capable of communication with them, so the bosses won’t have to deal directly with people who play country music on their car radios.
    Fallon is my competition, all right. And the six resumés I’ve pulled out of the stack are my competition. But this is a sea change taking place in our civilization right now, and
all
of middle management is my competition. A million hungry faces will be at the window soon, peering in. Well educated, middle-aged, middle class.
    I have to be firmly in place, before the flood becomes overwhelming. So I have to be strong, and I have to be determined, and I have to be quick. Thursday, I have to drive into New York State and find Everett Boyd Dynes.

EVERETT B. DYNES
    264 Nether St.
    Lichgate, NY 14597
    315 890-7711
    EDUCATION: BA (Hist) Champlain College, Plattsburgh, NY
     
    WORK HISTORY
    I have worked in the paper industry for 22 years, in sales, design, customer relations and management. I have worked in the area of polymer paper specialized applications for 9 years, during which time I have dealt with customers and designers, and have also run a product line, where my responsibilities have included interfacing with design and production teams and being in charge of a 27-person production line crew.
    EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
1986–present—Production line manager, Patriot Paper Corp.
1982–1986—Customer relations and some design, Green Valley Paper
1977–1982—Salesman, all product lines, Whitaker Paper Specialties
1973–1977—Salesman, industrial product lines, Patriot Paper Corp.
1971–1973—Salesman, Northeast Beverage Corp, Syracuse, NY
1968–1971—Infantryman, US Army, one tour in Vietnam
    PERSONAL HISTORY
    I am married, with three nearly-grown children. My wife and I are active in our church and our community. I have been a Boy Scout scoutmaster, when my son was of the appropriate age.
    INTENTION
    It is my hope to join a forward-looking paper company that can fully utilize my training and skills in all areas of paper production and sale.

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    The New York State Thruway is an expensive toll road. It goes north from New York City to Albany, then turns west toward Buffalo. In that western part, it runs along just to the south of the Mohawk River and the Erie Canal. Just to the north of river and canal is a state road, Route 5, which is smaller and curvier, but doesn’t cost anything. I am on Route 5.
    I was never in Vietnam. Until I shot Herbert Everly, I’d never seen a human being dead because of violence. It irritates me that Dynes, old