Oliver Benjamin
two days ago and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. I’ve alerted
the authorities and they’re searching for him as we speak. He was last
seen headed for Martinique.”
“Of all the times to drop off the face of the earth.”
“You’re not kidding,” Leona said. “Our sales figures have also
dropped off the face of the earth. Everyone’s afraid to go into our
stores.”
“But could his disappearance be linked to the bombing?” asked
the vice president of media relations.
“I should think so,” Leona said. “Luckily we’ve got some very
likely suspects.”
“That paramilitary protest group. The Martians.”
“Do you really think it’s them?” the director of promotions said,
“Their spokeswoman just doesn’t seem the type.” A few others
nodded in agreement.
“Bull!” Leona snapped, “Just because she’s pretty doesn’t mean
she’s innocent. She’s the enemy!”
“I’d like to sleep with thatenemy,” the creative director joked. A
few snickered, a few glared. But this was not the time. “Sorry,” he
apologized.
“We’ll have to talk to the press,” The vice president of purchasing
said, “Convince everyone that everything is okay. We could take out
advertisements in major newspapers.”
“Yes. Let’s do that,” Leona said sarcastically. “Then, when people
come back into the stores and another bomb goes off, who’s going to
be blamed for the deaths? Also, what if they find out that we already
knew about the bombing?” She stood up and slammed her pencil
down on the oak table. “We have to maintain a cover of silence and
see how this thing plays out. In the meantime we can use Morris’
disappearance as a shield. We don’t know what to do because we’re
leaderless. Everyone knows that Biddenbrooks isMorris Bidden. For
the moment, let’s use that to our advantage and pretend that
Biddenbrooks is in a state of limbo. A blameless state.”
There was some disagreement, but in general this seemed to ease
the consciences of the assembled vice-presidents. Once again, they
found it easy to slide out from under the quilt of contingency into a
fantasy world where they were all just doing their job.
Leona returned to her desk, bathed in a unflinching summer
light that revealed all the dust particles normally invisible to the
human eye. She sat down amidst this swirling cloud composed
335
 |
 |
 |
 |