the interloper, part five

by nick nelson

part five of eight

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my duties at the department of retribution were not that much different from my old duties in the supply department of the space corps. my duties at the department of retribution were not that much different from my old duties in the supply department of the space corps. the biggest difference was that i never needed to leave my desk. occasionally i had to make a note on the pad i had been provided. complaints, or “requests for retribution” were flashed on the screen on a variety of topics, and i had only to transfer them to one of twenty-six departments. occasionally a complaint did not clearly fit the parameters of any of the twenty-six departments. and it was to be noted as such on the screen and on the notepad. i remarked to helene that it seemed a job that could be handled by the machine, and she told me that 99.65 percent of complaints were, and that we were processing 99 percent of the remaining 0.35 percent. i asked about the other 1 percent of the 0.35 percent and got the answer i expected - that i did not want to know. the woman with thick glasses had not informed me how long the hours were, and where i might find something to eat, and a place to sleep. when i asked helene about these matters, she told me we would quit in about another three hours, and pointed out that here was a time display in the lower left corner of the screen counting off the seconds until we could quit. she also told me that i would find some pamphlets addressing my concerns about food and shelter, in the lobby of the building when we exited it. helene did not look at me when she answered me. in fact , the whole time i worked with her, she never looked directly at me, or spoke to me unless i spoke to her. on the whole, i was bitterly disappointed by the turn events had taken. so this was the new life that, fool that i was, i had eagerly looked forward to! with the three hours and a few minutes had ticked off on the screen helene stood up. i followed her out of the office and down the end of the corridor to a door which led to a large lobby and then to the street outside. it turned out that we were on the ground floor of the building, which somehow surprised me. it was full dark outside, with nobody passing on the street outside that i could see. the lobby was empty of other people. helene pointed to a rack full of pamphlets against one of the walls and then disappeared through the wide revolving door to the street. i began looking through the pamphlets. part six