After a quick jog my morning routine was complete and I was ready for another day of grind at the office, but it turned out to be one of those days. My card failed at the entrance and I had to ask the guard for help to be let in. Proving my identity was easy as showing my badge, but they made me jump through all the bureaucratic hoops at their disposal. I don't have anything against it and just let them do their job at the cost of being late again.
This time I skipped the break room entirely and just went to my desk which remained empty just as it was left the day before. I assumed they had stored my belongings in a locker or something of the sorts, but a heavy hand on my shoulder let me know otherwise.
"I heard the news, are you alright?" Ericssen said the polite thing with the faintly hidden smug of a bootlicker.
"What news?"
"You were fired." Ericssen may have been a disorganized mess, a lowly bootlicker who climbed up on office politics and networking alone and a proper jerk, but as far as I know he was not a liar.
"I didn't hear anything..." I mutter as I try to make sense of things.
"You look pale, should I call someone?" Thompson offered, but the director herself showed up in the office and beckoned me with two fingers before disappearing.
"That's bad... this may go beyond getting fired. You may even get arrested," Ericssen sentenced and I had to agree. The few times I've seen that gesture had never been good. As I head out the office I could clearly hear Ericssen continue. "I always knew there was something wrong with Bob, no one takes their job so seriously."
"Agent Bob." The director said as she pointed me to the chair across from her.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"From what I've heard, you did a little more than something wrong." She scoffed.
I thought about apologizing for my mistakes, but although the mission was not perfect it was successful. Besides, I did the best I could with the training and tools at my disposal. The thing I like about my job is as long as you do your best, any mistake can always be overlooked. There's always a form to fill in case of mistakes and nothing is final. With that in consideration, there's no way I'm apologizing.
"I see. Am I fired?"
"No, you're not. Your desk was cleared pending on your signature."
"Here you go, then." I hand over the sheet and the director starts speaking before even looking at it.
"Are you sure? This line of work will take you far from your desk and into dangerous places. There's safety measures in place to prevent anything, but there's always a chance of something going wrong. Ramirez, the agent you covered for yesterday is not on medical leave but is actually missing in action. You may think that you can handle everything because you felt powerful in that place, but the truth is not even veteran agents are free from danger. Besides, that world is classified among the easiest."
"Then I made the right choice." I heave a sigh of relief sending the director into a panic.
"This isn't signed yet!"
"I don't think I am the right man for the job."
"Who do you think could do this, then?" The director asked as she leaned forward.
"Someone more adventurous, like Ericssen maybe. He always says he misses being a field agent."
"Please, Ericssen? He didn't last a month in the field and that was under supervision. Besides, a man like him would have been corrupted the moment he was summoned into a world with magic. No, you are the perfect agent for the job."
"Why me? I had a really bad time. Everything was uncomfortable and people was tiring. Pretending to be someone I'm not was also stressful. I'll take my desk job over any kind of field work any day."
"And that is precisely why this agency needs you. We don't just send people out into other worlds with hopes and prayers, each of the voices in the white room is a real person leaving this world. A real person, with a family who misses them, friends who will always remember them. Transmigrating isn't just a way to get rid of them, but to give them a second chance in life. A place where they can rest, heal or fulfill the dreams they could never achieve in this life." The director's voice weight heavy on me as she transitioned from duty to emotion with the efficiency only a true agent could.
"I also have my own family, my friends... why risk my life out there when I could simply..."
"Sit on your desk? You are a good agent Bob, a great one even. But the work you do on that desk can be achieved by anyone in this agency. If you were fired today..."
"Am I!?" I sweat cold.
"No, this is just a hypothetical situation. If you were fired today I could have your spot covered in less than an hour. But what I'm offering, no, what I am asking of you is something no one else can do." If I was a creative soul like Harris I would have pictured her speech with patriotic music in the background, maybe even special effects, but since I'm not the words carried their full meaning directly towards me.
And I signed.
"Look who's back!" Ericssen gasped with a fake smile plastered on his face as sweat ran down his forehead.
"It was a clerical error, a guy with my same name or something." As I speak, someone is being dragged out of the building in the background. Thanks to my name being common it wasn't difficult for the director to find a sketchy Bob, dig dirt on him and fire him in my stead. It was a lame cover and I feel sorry for the fellow Bob, but if he didn't want to get fired perhaps he shouldn't have done whatever it is he did to get fired.
"I knew it had to be a mistake," Thompson nodded. "no agent with a desktop setup so neat could possibly be evil."
'This guy gets it!' I inwardly shout while keeping the composure in the outside. I am told I am quiet, but Thompson is a quiet guy even for my standards and this is the first time he shares something unrelated to work with me. Right then, a wave of regret washes over me as I realize I could have been work friends with him and now I will never get the chance to know him better. He's introverted to the bone and taking the first steps into making friends is not really my strong suit. "I wasn't fired, but I'm getting transferred to another department."
"That's too bad," Ericssen says without even trying to hide the smirk, but then he continued. "you know what? Let's grab some drinks after work."
Just like that he used my transfer as an excuse to squeeze drinks out of my debit card. I'm not complaining though, because Thompson did come along and we had a great time and got to know a little more about each other.
I knew that all the agents assigned in our department had somehow stumbled upon the existence of other worlds during their careers. What I did not know was the specifics of how did the two of them ended up in the office.
If I take Ericssen's word at face value, he was on the field working a case when a returnee showcased supernatural abilities that could not be explained right in front of him. Then he proceeded to single handedly corner him, defeat him short range combat then arrested him. His recount of events was colorful, but not really out of the realms of possibilities and since I didn't have any reason to challenge him I just listened.
Thompson followed with his own tale and though he's an introverted, he doesn't have any issues when communicating with others in a socially relaxed environment. Contrary to Ericssen, he was never a field agent and was a data analyst from the beginning. He didn't see any supernatural abilities, but rather found undeniable proof that other worlds existed just by analyzing patterns and connecting the dots. It wasn't nearly as entertaining as Ericssen, but for someone like me who loves a properly filled form his detailed explanation was even more thrilling.
"It's your turn now Bob." Ericssen prompted me to speak by raising a hand.
"I don't know, it's not that entertaining." I shake my head.
"Fair is fair. We told you ours, now you need to share yours." Thompson declared in a logic that can't be argued with.
"My parents... they were killed by a returnee when I was seventeen." Just as I expected, that was quite the mood killer.