Schemes Come to Naught novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Rule Three

Friday morning I scheduled a meeting.

It went on the shared calendar at eight, titled Operations Review, with two attendees and a room on the third floor.

Rule two said I could apologize in a meeting where she could answer.

I intended to use it.

Before that, at nine, the phone on my desk lit up with the name of a client in Tucson.

It was the regional manager, and she was shouting.

Our scheduling system had double-booked her entire Monday.

Eleven patients had been told to arrive at the same hour.

"I don't care what the ticket says," she said. "I want a human being who knows what happened."

"I'm looking into it right now," I said, and had no idea how.

The door opened.

Ines walked in with a sheet of paper and set it on my desk without a word.

She had written on it in her tidy capitals.

SAY: I'M SORRY AND I'M ON IT. DON'T PROMISE A CAUSE. CALL BACK IN 20 MIN.

Under that, in smaller letters: IT'S THE TIME ZONE FLAG. BEN ALREADY HAS THE FIX.

I read it aloud, nearly word for word, and the manager's voice came down by half.

"Twenty minutes?" she said.

"Twenty minutes."

I put the phone down and looked up.

Ines was already at the door.

"Ines."

"It's my job."

"It's not your job anymore. I put you in a basement."

"It's still my job," she said. "The basement has a phone."

"Thank you." I stood up and crossed the room before I'd thought, and put a hand on her arm.

"I don't know what I'd do without..."

"Rule three, Dex."

She looked at my hand.

I took it away.

"I'm sorry."

"Say it at six," she said. "In the room."

She walked out, and I stood in the doorway with my hand still half raised.

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