She shut the door behind her, saying, "What's wrong? As if I can't guess."
"The last CE guy went berserk," Tony Tollini said miserably. "He broke the PC."
Wendy Wilkerson sank into a chair, saying, "Oh, God."
"They want a Jap. Today."
"Excuse me?"
"A Japanese service engineer. And they want him now."
"This can't go on, Tony. If the board finds out, do you know what will happen to you?"
Tony Tollini's head came up like a startled giraffe's. "Me? You mean us. This was your idea."
"It was a joke! How many times do I have to tell you? I never meant you to take it seriously."
"Well, the joke's on us. We have to do something fast. I can't hold them off much longer. I have to send out a real customer-service engineer."
"Are you crazy? If another one doesn't come back, we'll have the FBI, never mind the board, on our backs. I don't know about you, but I'm beginning to think there are worse fates than to be exiled to an office at the end of the south wing. "
"Name one."
"Discovered stuffed in the trunk of a Buick, for one."
"I'll take it," said Tony Tollini, trying to get the childproof cap off a bottle of aspirin. After grunting and groaning without success, he simply bit the thing off with a savage jerk of his head.
He swallowed four pills. Dry.
"I'm going down to customer service. You'd better come."
"Why me? I'm only director of product placement."
"I need the moral support. And we're in this together, like it or not."
They walked down the corridor and turned into a more brightly lit corner of IDC world headquarters.
"I sure miss having seventy-five-watt bulbs in my work area," Wendy Wilkerson said forlornly.
"I heard in Atlanta they have to make do with forty-watters. "
Wendy Wilkerson hugged herself tightly and shivered.
"It's a cold cruel world out there."
"In here too."
They went through the door marked "CUSTOMER SERVICE."
Amid a profusion of spaghetti wire and computer equipment in various states of disrepair, lab workers in white smocks and medical-style caps were conducting diagnostic tests.
"Attention, everybody," said Tony Tollini, lifting his hand to get their attention. "I have an important announcement."
Heads turned. Surgical gauze masks were pulled away from puzzled mouths.
"I need a volunteer," said Tony.
Everyone froze. Fingers in the act of removing surgical caps stopped as if paralyzed. A single gasp could be heard.
"Our Boston client needs us. Needs us desperately."
A man corkscrewed to the floor in a dead faint. A woman wearing horn-rimmed glasses ducked under a workbench and shivered like a toad under a sheltering rock during a hard rain.
"Please," Tony said. "This is important. I need help here."
"You go, then," a voice snarled.
"Who said that?" Tony Tollini demanded, head swiveling angrily. "Who spoke?"
No one volunteered. The surgical masks completely disguised lip movement.
"I tell you what," Tony said suddenly. "We'll draw straws."
"Are you in the pool?" a pinch-faced technician demanded.
"I'm VP of systems outreach," Tony Tollini said fiercely. "And I am ordering you all to draw straws."
No one had any straws, so Tony Tollini snipped a length of blue wiring into equal lengths and one slightly shorter one.
He turned to Wendy Wilkerson, saying, "Wendy, you do the honors."
Nervously Wendy Wilkerson gathered up the bits of bright blue wire and arranged them in her fist so that they stuck up to equal height. She held out a trembling fist. There were tears in her eyes.
Timidly the technicians in the room clustered around Tony Tollini and Wendy Wilkerson. No one made a move for the bright blue bits of wire which gleamed copper at their tips.
"Come, now," Tony Tollini urged. "Don't freeze up. IDC men do not shirk before a challenge. Remember, the odds are better for those who draw first."
A trembling hand reached out. It withdrew a bit of wire. No one was quite certain if it was long enough, so they held their breath.
"Let's go," Tony urged. "Slackers face shorter odds."
Another hand reached out. Another short bit of wiring came to light. The two bits were compared side by side. They matched.
Whoops of joy came from the two who had drawn the wires. They reverberated throughout the room. The remaining technicians looked sick. One began to retch. Another threw up. A third said, "My God! This is a clean room. He threw up in a clean room."
"Enough." Tony pointed to the man who had spoken. "You, you're next."