Half an hour later he walked in to the office and headed towards Mr. Seaman's office. John was, for the first time in his career, late. Not very late, only about ten minutes, but still late. He couldn't help but feeling bad about it, though he could make room for some overtime before he went home. The very thought of it disturbed him a little, since it meant that his entire schedule for the evening would be very disturbed. He figured he could skip ten minutes of his TV-time, but still it left him a little unsettled.
He walked up to the office and knocked on the door. "Come in," he heard Mr. Seaman's stern voice say from inside.
John opened the door and walked in. Even if he hadn't found the wallet earlier he would still have gone here right away, since he and Seaman were scheduled for a meeting to discuss one of the cases John was currently working on. John closed the door behind him.
Charles Seaman was a man in his late fifties. He was a bit overweight, but in no way obese. His hair was dark brown originally, but was now more grey than
anything else. He looked at Mr. Walker over his glasses.
"You're late," he said with a cold undertone to his voice. The sound of it made John a bit nervous. He took a deep breath.
"Yes, I know," John said, "but I happened to miss my bus be..."
Mr. Seaman stood up behind his desk and glared at John who became silent.
"You missed your bus?" Mr. Seaman's voice raised and he was almost shouting. "What kind of pathetic excuse is that? Missed your bus, knowing we had a meeting. Have you any idea how full my schedule is, man? Do you think I can afford to sit around and wait all morning just because you decided to sleep in a little and therefore missed your bus?"
He was definitely shouting now and John took an involuntary step backwards.
"I-I am terribly sorry, Mr. Seaman, but..."
"Sorry? You're SORRY? You'd better be
sorry. And you'd better be glad that I am in a forgiving mood today and don't fire you. Now sit down so we can get this thing over with. I am running out of time."
John sat down in front of Mr. Seaman and in his mind his thoughts were spinning. Charles Seaman's words were echoing through his head.
...fire you... ...you'd better be sorry... ...don't show enough initiative... ...fire you... ...initiative...
He had to bite his tongue not to shout back at Mr. Seaman, but he thought of a better way to get revenge. He thought again of the wallet in his coat pocket and now he decided he wasn't going to give it back after all. A man who treated others like this deserved to lose his money.
He opened the file that was already lying on Mr. Seaman's desk; Seaman had wanted it yesterday so he could go through it on his own before the meeting, and started showing Mr. Seaman the details of the case. It took about five minutes and then he walked out of Seaman's office smirking to himself.
"Hmm... I think this was a bit disappointing," said Gazzt. "Walker acted exactly as we thought he would."
Stylox nodded. "Aye, he did. But I would not call that a disappointment. I'd rather call it proof that all our earlier experiments have been successful."
"I guess it could be seen that way," Gazzt agreed, "but it would have been more interesting if something new had been revealed."
"All in due time, Gazzt, all in due time. This experiment is merely just beginning. I am sure that before the day is over we will have learned a great deal of interesting things."
"I sure hope so, Stylox. I just hope this all won't prove to be one great waste of time."
"I am very confident it won't be, my friend. But we will have to see about that, won't we?"