Where to turn?

My job hunting efforts also had produced a positive response from the Costeal Corporation in Louisville. They invited me to visit their technical center the week of the Thanksgiving Day holiday so I knew I would have the results of that interview prior to my Plains,TX trip.

My time at work was spent doing very little, and for the most part I spent my time preparing for my upcoming interviews and trying to negotiate some reasonable separation from Gamma Supplies. I felt no dedication to Gamma Supplies and on one occasion I left work about three in the afternoon. On my way home, I decided to stop at Club Tennis for some exercise to relieve the stress I was under. I was shocked to walk into the exercise room and find Buzz there exercising. The reason for my shock was that Buzz had always maintained that he exercised exclusively with Jeff and John in the morning and that he had to come to work early and leave early because he had to babysit in the afternoon while his wife worked. I had always considered Buzz's unusual work hours another pain in the side, but when I had tried to get him to change them, Carl interceded and backed Buzz. Now I had proof that none of his stories were probably true. When Buzz saw me, he looked surprised and then ran for the door and left the establishment.

I was in a largely confused state as a result of all the deceit that had gone on, but I still needed to know who was behind the whole plan so I decided to try to get Darth to talk. I remembered the words of a journalist who had been take captive. She said when you are in trouble, play to the prejudices of your captors. Since Darth was such an egomaniac, I decided to play to his ego. I arranged to have a conversation with Darth concerning what had gone on while I was employed at
Gamma Supplies.

I said, “Darth, it really was quite a plan you had. How did you ever sell it?”

Darth laughed and replied. “Russ, you give me too much credit. You don't
really think I planned all of this by myself. Do you?”

I waited for Darth to go on and tell me who was responsible, but he abruptly
stopped and went on to a new subject. I was unable to get him to respond further on
who was behind the terrorism. At least I knew that “they” were not just my imagin-
ation. “They” were real people, but I still didn't know their identity.

I made my interview trip to Costeal as planned and everything went well. The
Vice President of R & D told me they would be giving me an offer. Still, I was
suspicious if for no other reason than I was now suspicious of everything. There
was also some anxiety about the move to Louisville because the city was the home
of the firm representing Better Supplies in their legal battle with Gamma Supplies. I always felt if worse came to worse, I could tell my story to the Better Supplies legal staff. Somebody had to interested in what was going on.

I returned home and told Anita about the job and expressed my fears and
concerns that “they” might interfere. Any doubt that my activities were going un-
observed were erased when I got a call from Tenneland the following night
and Gordon Simms asked me if I still planned to make my interview trip in light of
recent job offers. Since I hadn't mentioned Costeal or any other job to him, I could
only assume he meant the Costeal job. I assured him I was still going to go to
Plains, but his inquiry left no doubt in my mind that “they” knew everything I was
doing. As a result of being under constant observation, I became paranoid in most
everything I did, and I even checked the phones and the house for “bugs”, but I
found none.