Finding the research and development part of the building turned out to be quite difficult. Henry had never ventured much into the southern portion of the building. Before working in the accounting department, Henry had originally worked in inventory, which looked very different now, but he at least had a sense of where he was as he made his way past that department.
At the far end of inventory, a guard stopped him. “Should you really be back here?” he asked. Everyone’s badge at Previx listed their name, department and was striped with a color the corresponded to the department. Accounting and Sales had yellow stripe. Inventory was green. Human Resources was blue, and R&D had a dark red stripe. Henry began to sweat a little bit from nervousness.
“W-well, I was asked to go to R&D-,” he started to explain, but the guard simply leaned back and gestured with his thumb.
“Keep moving,” the guard grunted.
Henry frowned. The guard was not a very good guard it seemed. He didn’t even try to validate his presence in the hallway. Henry hoped that the security system would be up and running again soon, and that they’d be able to get rid of the guards. He continued down a long hallway, moving deeper into the building.
It made sense to Henry that R&D be kept far from the front entrance. Technicians and Scientists did not often put their best face forward to potential customers and clients. When they came, they wanted to see a professional environment, which is something he and the others in the account department worked hard to portray. Customers did not often tour the accounting department, but when they did, Henry knew they were impressed by what they saw.
R&D, on the other hand, must look like and absolute wreck. Probably lots of people in lab coats around chemistry experiments with messy chalkboards that haven’t been cleaned in ages….
He arrived at the entrance to R&D and this time met a much more formidable guard. He actually carried a sidearm, but it was clipped to his belt. In his hand he held a clipboard. The guard glanced at Henry’s badge.
“Should you really be back here?” he asked, same as the previous one. Henry, much to his own frustration, began to sweat nervously again. “W-well,” he stammered, “I was asked to come back here and meet with a couple of technicians.”
“What were their names?” the guard asked, without looking up from the clipboard.
Henry froze. He didn’t know. Jonah had not told him any names. His nervous mind began to race. “Had Jonah played a trick on him?” he wondered. “No. No, Jonah was too nice of a guy to do that. There probably were a couple of technicians, and they were the ones playing the trick. They’d tricked him into wandering the halls for half the morning to try and find the R&D labs, only to be stopped by a guard and shamed back to his cubicle. Everyone would have a great laugh at his expense…”
“Oh here it is!” the guard exclaimed loudly, snapping Henry out of his panic and causing him to jump a little. “Some moron wrote it on the back of the sheet. Sorry about that. Go on in.” The guard stepped to one side and pushed open the door.
Henry hesitated, still not sure if this were a prank or not, but he did not want to press his luck with the guard, and so stepped through.
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