Chapter 8, part 1: Retirement Party

Oxendine wasn't in her office when Altin tried to hand in his resignation. Oxy was always in her office. Something strange was going on here.

"Ahh, Snickerson. The thief extraordinaire turned decoy."

Oh no. The boss.

Dozens of attempts had been made by underlings over the years to come up with a clever nickname for Erika Kanzler like everyone else in the Organization had, but only one had ever stuck. The boss. Head of the Organization. Rumor has it the codename the feds had for her was the "Empress of Evil."

And apparently, she knew who Altin was. This was either very good or very, very bad.

"So, Snickerson. The Ox is busy with some private work for me. What can I do for you today instead?"

Eeek. Now the throwing-things-at-his-head starts. "I had some paperwork for Oxendine," he said. "I'm tendering my resignation."

Kanzler seemed sincerely surprised. "Now why would you go and make a mistake like that," she joked (he hoped).  "You were just starting to show some promise. Why on earth would we want to let you go?"

"I'm moving. Family stuff. Or something like that," he muttered. "I need to leave for Grey Meadow immediately." 

"Well, then, we don't have a problem, do we?"

"What?"

His employer laughed. "You are new here, aren't you? We're a worldwide network. There are hubs of the Organization everywhere, and they're all headquartered out of one central location...Grey Meadow. You don't need to quit in order to move, Snickerson. If anything, you need a promotion."

"What?" Oh, yeah, he was sounding really clever to his boss today.

"Thanks to this nasty business with the banks, we have some openings on the Grey Meadow team. Pack a barbell or something when you leave, because they're in desperate need of some hired muscle over there while we work on getting the janitors out of prison."

And now he was even more confused. "I thought we lost two thugs--"

"We did. And when they get back to us, I assure you, they will be janitors who used to have wellpaying jobs as thugs. I don't appreciate needing to come all the way out to this...what is this, a village? Do they still have villages?" 

Got it. Don't piss off the boss. Duly noted.

"I hope you're ready to leave immediately, Snickerson. I'll tell Grey Meadow to expect you by the end of the week."

Altin wondered if Kirk had this much trouble retiring.