The Glue Protocol

Loyalty means nothing when the numbers don't add up.

Photo by Scott Sanker on Unsplash

At exactly 8:15 AM, Jonathan Crane adjusted his second monitor three millimeters to the left, aligning it with the edge of his desk. The fluorescent lights hadn't warmed up yet, casting a synthetic glow across the empty office of Weston & Co. He liked this time in the morning before his colleagues arrived with their chaos of coffee cups and conversation, but unbeknownst to Jonathan, it would be the last morning he would get to enjoy this moment.

"Good morning, Jonathan!" The cleaning lady's voice shattered his concentration. He'd asked her – politely, always politely – to skip his office. His color-coded folders and precisely arranged sticky notes had a system, one that didn't require the arbitrary redistribution of dust from one surface to another. Still, he pulled out the tin of Earl Grey he kept in his drawer. "Tea, Mrs. Rosario?"

When he'd first started bringing her tea after overhearing her telling another cleaner about her arthritis, the seven-minu…