“Don’t worry. I’m not leaving you,” he said. “I will be keeping my position of CEO and chairman of the board. But I’m tired of talking only to myself. So at our company-wide annual retreat next week in Santa Barbara, I will be announcing that I am appointing one person to be president of Benson Pharmaceuticals.”
The murmur now was mostly confusion and some concern. No one knew what this was going to do to their own jobs, or if they should even care.
Gus cared. He had fought his way to the level of executive vice president, which was the highest office in the company below D-Bob himself. Now he was going to be shoved down in the ranks, forced to answer to some corporate lackey. He’d had unbelievable freedom in his job, almost as much as he had with Psych. But he knew a little about corporate politics from his position in his old pharmaceuticals company and there was no way the new executive was not going to clamp down on everyone beneath him. Sure, he’d play the game, pretending to hold to D-Bob’s ideals, but at the same time he’d be spending every waking hour consolidating his own power base. This had been a dream job for Gus, but there was no way that was going to last once the new guy took over.
Gus was so lost in thought he missed D-Bob’s next few words.
“… a man who has shown not only wisdom but compassion,” D-Bob was saying. “Who understands what our business needs, but also what the world needs from our business. I have come to admire and even love this man, and as you see what he brings us I know that you will love him as much as I do.”
Sure, Gus thought. Kiss up and kick down. That’s what they’d be getting. The new corporate hack would make sure to echo D-Bob whenever the boss was around, but as soon as his back was turned, out would come the knives. First order of business would be to start eliminating any potential competition. One by one he would find reasons why the vice presidents had to be demoted or transferred to Kabul or forced out of the company. There would be a crisis overseas that only this longtime executive could handle, an incipient scandal that could only be prevented by the immediate firing of a vice president who could be made to take the fall. Gus wondered which excuse the new president would use to get rid of him, but deep down he knew it didn’t really matter.
“I’m sure that many of you already do love this man, as you’ve had the opportunity to get to know him over the past few weeks,” D-Bob was saying. “For the rest of you, you’ve got something great to look forward to. As I said, the official announcement will be made at our company retreat, but I wanted you all to have a chance to get to know our new president before he takes on that title. Friends, employees, partners, I’d like to introduce you to the president of Benson Pharmaceuticals: Burton Guster!”
Chapter Thirty-four
Gus must have walked back to the Benson building, but he had no memory of the trip. The past two hours had gone by in a blur. From the moment D-Bob had called his name Gus had barely been able to think or even to breathe. He’d been mobbed at the meeting and every one of Benson’s employees had shown him the love that D-Bob had urged. They pressed food and drinks on him, they hit him with ideas for moving the company forward, or they just came up and hugged him.
But none of it meant as much to him as when Jerry Fellows came up and took his hand. “I’m so happy for you,” he said. “Chanterelle and I both are.”
And indeed Chanterelle did seem impressed. She was gazing at him with an intensity he’d never noticed before, at least not when her eyes were pointed in his direction.
“Thanks,” Gus said, pulling his own gaze away from hers.
“No, I’m the one who should be thanking you,” Jerry said. “Because you’re in a position now where they’ll have to listen to you. I’ve seen so many people take a stab at the orphan drugs issue, and they’ve all fallen short. But I know you won’t. You’ll make us all proud. Won’t he, Chanterelle?”
She nodded, still staring at Gus with eyes that seemed to see straight through to his musculoskeletal system. “It’s my da’s passion, you know,” she said. “And now you’re in a position where you can do something about it.”
Gus felt an odd tingling at the base of his skull and turned back to Fellows. But the elfin gentleman was still smiling happily at him. He was nothing but pleased. How could Gus ever have been so crazy as to think of him as a killer?
Finally the party had broken up around three. D-Bob had told everyone to take the rest of the day off, and the employees filtered out to enjoy the perfect afternoon. Gus had tried to find D-Bob to talk to him about this promotion, but when he was finally able to extricate himself from the mass of well-wishers the boss was nowhere to be seen.
Gus hadn’t planned to go back to the office. Actually he hadn’t planned anything at all. He felt incapable of thinking. He just wanted to experience this day, to feel the uncomplicated joy that this expression of confidence in him brought. Later, he knew, there would be nothing but complications. There would be the terror of facing the new job, the difficulties of dealing with the other executives who had been passed over in favor of him, the responsibilities that came with the presidency. But for now he wouldn’t worry about any of it.
When Gus stepped back into his own office he was feeling so good he didn’t even notice that the duct tape had been peeled from the carpet and the curtains were now open. If the window had fallen out, Gus felt he could have floated down to the ground and landed like a feather.
He also didn’t notice that he had a visitor.
“I think they bought it,” Shawn said, popping up from the couch he’d been lying on.
Until this moment Gus hadn’t realized what was missing about this day. He’d had no one to share it with.
“You will not believe what happened today,” Gus said, delighted that the afternoon’s deficiency had been addressed. And then he felt that delight dissolve into confusion as he realized what Shawn had said. “Bought what?”
“But you realize this was only the first step,” Shawn said.
“The first step toward what?” Gus said. “What are you talking about?”
“I think you know,” Shawn said.
“If I knew I wouldn’t be asking,” Gus said.
“I think you would,” Shawn said.
“I’ve had enough of this,” Gus said.
“I think you haven’t,” Shawn said.
“Stop that!” Gus shouted.
“I think you-” Shawn said, then broke off. “You’re seriously interfering with my rhythm here, you know.”
“And you’re seriously interfering with my life,” Gus said. “Here I was all excited to tell you my big news, and you start talking like Darth Vader.”
“Vader, really?” Shawn said. “At least you mean the Darth Vader from the first films, right? Because if you’re comparing my silk-smooth delivery to that whining little punk from the sequels, we are going to have serious issues.”
“We can deal with your issues later,” Gus said. “I want to know what was bought and who bought it and what you’re doing here when you’re supposed to be in Santa Barbara.”
“Can I take the second part of that question first?” Shawn said.
“Whatever,” Gus said.
“Okay,” Shawn said. “What was the second part again?”
Gus tried to reconstruct his thought: Although he’d only uttered it seconds before, the sequence was completely jumbled in his mind. “Just tell me what you’re talking about.”
“They did,” Shawn said.
“Who did what?”
“I remembered the second part of your question,” Shawn said. “It was ‘Who bought what?’ and the answer is, ‘They did.’ ”
“That’s not an answer,” Gus said. “It’s not even a hint. It’s completely meaningless. ‘They’ only has any value if there’s a precedent in the sentence.”
“There is a precedent,” Shawn said. “That’s you.”
“What?”
“Precedent Gus,” Shawn said. “Didn’t Damp Blouse make the announcement?”