Rift: Excerpt page four

Misty could have allowed Luke's death to wreak havoc with her mind, but she's a resilient person, much more so than I am. She whipped her body back into shape and found useful ways to spend her time. For several years she wrote freelance magazine articles (her very first submission--a story describing reduced calorie consumption as a way to slow the aging process--was accepted by Ladies' Home Journal, paving the way for more than twenty sales to various small- and large-circulation magazines). And later she joined the local theater group, where she acted occasionally and wrote several original plays. Her mother also managed to convince her that God could help ease the pain, and for the first time since we married, she made church a Sunday routine.

I did not fare so well. Golf isn't therapeutic the way writing apparently is, and I haven't found, nor do I care to search for, God.

"What am I supposed to do, Misty? Just call up Batista and tell him I changed my mind? It's too late now. He's counting on me. Everyone is."

"They wouldn't be counting on you if you had listened to me in the first place! If you had respected the opinion of me, your wife, instead of confiding in your boss, instead of going all buddy-buddy with that slimeball."

"He's not a slimeball. If it wasn't for--"

"Oh, come on, Cameron! Now you're defending him? You've done nothing but complain about him for years! He's too young, a kid just out of college who has no business trying to direct seasoned workers. Those are your words."

"I know they are."

"And now, just because he chose you to die in this--"

"I'm not going to die."

"You think just because he chose you to try this ridiculous machine, you think he's gone from untested child to brilliant leader in the span of a few weeks."

I rated myself a solid Meets Plan, the same as last year and every year. After all, I didn't do anything differently. I didn't launch any new initiatives or identify new synergies in the routine expense accounting that comprises the bulk of my daily work.

I look out my own window and watch a short line of cars moving up the freeway entrance ramp from the feeder road. A black BMW, a silver Dodge truck, a red Chevrolet sedan. The accelerating Chevrolet farts a disturbingly large cloud of black smoke as it merges with traffic, adding a little spice to the already polluted, humid Houston air. A little spice, but not really a lot, not when you consider the other three million cars in the area, not when you consider the stinking refineries on the southeast side of town, not when you consider twenty million passengers a year flying in and out of the city's three commercial airports. Houston's air pollution, after all, is among the worst in the United States, often as toxic as perennial favorite Los Angeles.

"It could be a good thing," I tell Misty. "Did you ever think of that? If the technology works-if it becomes popular, I mean-economies of scale could one day make transmission portals as ubiquitous as the automobile. Imagine how much less noise and pollution, how much less time we would spend--"

"Cameron, stop. I know you're frightened and you want to convince yourself that this is the right thing to do, but don't try to sell me. I'm not going to buy it."

I first learned about the "volunteer" program during my mid-year performance review. In Batista's office, sitting side-by-side, leaning over a poorly thought-out form designed to pigeonhole my job performance into one of three categories: Below Plan, Above Plan, and Meets Plan. You'd think a relatively new company a startup, really would find a more radical (read: logical) way to measure an employee's work ethic and value. And of course he asked me the question that probably every manager in the world poses to his subjects: Cameron, if you were me, how would you rate your performance so far this year? In this situation you are supposed to aim high (to prove your confidence) without aiming too high (which reveals arrogance or an inflated self-worth). I rated myself a solid Meets Plan, the same as last year and every year. After all, I didn't do anything differently. I didn't launch any new initiatives or identify new synergies in the routine expense accounting that comprises the bulk of my daily work. No, I pretty much maintained the status quo, which is what Batista asks of me since I never do anything else.

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