MOAB

Chapter 27: Galene @ 0.6x nhs

Chapter 27: Galene @ 0.6x nhs

The next day, Galene went to work.

She felt tired. They had gone home early enough from their date, but she was kept up all night by girly thoughts and squeals of joy.

She waddled in the IT room and went to the kitchenette.

“Gal!” her boss yelled.

Heresy. He had violated the holy pentalepto, the amount of time at the beginning of work that nobody, no matter how high up the corporate ladder, could order you to do something.

“What?” she groaned and shuffled to his door.

“You’re assigned to the penthouse all day.”

“’Kay, I’ll go later,” she groaned.

“Now, Gal. Go!”

She rode the lift up. There was no one in the lobby. She stopped for a moment, thinking whether she should ring the bell. Knock on the door, maybe? Call Greg? She swiped her keycard and the door opened. It seemed they had upgraded her security privileges.

She reluctantly walked in. Greg was watching Olympic sports videos on his workstation. Sped up, of course, and the athletes were jumping around like cocaine-addled cartoons.

He smiled wide at her. “Good morning!”

“Yeah, that. Whatever,” she mumbled and held her laptop tight on her chest. “Why the f**k are you so chipper?”

“I love mornings!”

“You did not just say that to me,” she gasped. “Take it back.”

“Come on in,” he gestured.

“Co-ffee,” Gal moaned like a zombie.

“Help yourself. Have some ginseng tablets too, they’re right next to it.”

Galene nodded and shuffled slowly to the kitchen.

“Oh for f**k’s sake!” Greg jumped up and ran ahead. By the time she got there, he was halfway-done.

She sipped some coffee and just stood there, blinking away the sleep dust from her eyes.

Greg clapped his hands together. “Alright! You asked me to teach you, now’s a good time as any.”

Gal sighed. Well, she asked for it. “Sure.”

“Okay. Our goal is to achieve gnosis. Gnosis is a state of flow, where ideas pour out of your mind, creativity is at its peak, anything is possible, solutions simply present themselves to us. It’s not bullshit, it’s achievable. Now, the basic thing is what I’ve told you already.” He picked up a glass and went to the sink. “First, we define what we want to do. We want to fill this amount, 330 millilitres, with water.” He turned on the faucet and let it drip, slowly. “Then, we fill up with information about our subject. Articles, blogs, fan sites, movies, music, books, whatever applies and whatever is available. Okay so far?”

“Sure, water in glass, got it.”

“Now, this drip is what you normally have when you research. It takes time, right?”

“It will take forever to get that glass filled,” she said, pointing.

“Exactly. So, what I do, is to speed up the process.” He turned the faucet slightly and increased the water flow.

“Got it. Then what?”

“Then we let it fill up, to the brink. And more.” He did just that, letting the water overpour the glass. Then he placed it next to the sink. “Afterwards, we leave it there and take a walk.” He started to move away.

“The subconscious giant, right?” She hurried the whole thing along with a gesture.

“Exactly, Gal! Now, obviously, this doesn’t work all the time, but it can be taught and it has results. And you can train yourself to be good at it. Every time you do the technique, I swear it gets easier.” He held his palm over his heart.

Gal had woken up. She had after all gulped down a whole cup of coffee. Plus she was dead-interested about this. You couldn’t deny its results. She sniffed loudly. “So, the steps are, define the project, cram on the project, forget the project.”

“And,” he added, “very important, note down the ideas as soon as they come to you. Hence the notepad I gave you.”

Gal hadn’t forgotten. She treasured that notepad. She was clutching it to bed last night. It was a gift. From him. After all, she couldn’t hug the cactus.

“And that’s how you achieve gnosis.”

“Mmm, yes and no. It’s one way, but there are more things to do. I honestly don’t know. Melpomene knows best, she’s an expert at precisely that task. Maybe she’ll explain it to you better.”

“Sure,” she pffted. “Maybe Hermes will waste the time of a billion-euros worth of an asset to me, a lowly IT girl from the basement.”

“Don’t reduce your worth like that,” he said, frowning. He stepped close and clasped her shoulder. “Yes, the Muses go to the most valuable employees, sure. But-”

“But what? Don’t make fun of me!” She slapped his hand away. “I’m not getting anything close to that, ever. And I know it. I don’t need you to tell me lies just because we’re dating or whatever.”

Greg stood there, flexing his grip. He seemed to think about her words. “You don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?” she spat.

He gestured and pulled up a stats page on his veil, then spun it around so she could see it right way.

Gal blinked, shook her head. “What is that, what am I seeing here?”

“You’re watching at the revenue and download data of your speedreading app. Hermes published it yesterday. It made 16 thousand euro in a day, across the globe,” he said flatly.

Her breath caught. She felt dizzy for a moment. “But-”

“But nothing. Everything you make is property of Hermes Information Technology. And what you made has already produced more revenue than your current yearly salary.” He was angry. Gal had never seen him angry. But he seemed to be angry at her imaginary shortcomings, not her faults.

Gal squinted, reading the charts. Thousands of downloads. Thousands of people had bought her speedreading aid app for their veils and were using it right now.

“Tell me now how little you’re worth!” Greg said and slammed the door behind him.