"And how do you decide what's major enough for everyone to get it?"
"There's a group of people who manage mass communications for the network. If you have an announcement, you send it through them. If they think it's worthy, they pass it on. An individual can't do a mass message."
I sighed. "That makes things difficult for me, if you can't get advertising out there.
This would be so much easier if we could buy air time on TV, or the magical equivalent, and do a really good image ad."
"Sorry I couldn't be more helpful."
"You were very helpful. I'm just going to have to be more creative. And I have to get back to my own office." I forced myself out of the chair before I got too comfortable and drifted off. Maybe that concussion was worse than I thought. Rod stood and came around his desk to open his office door for me.
"Let me know if you have any other questions," he said.
"Don't worry, I will. You may get tired of me."
He laughed. "I don't think there's much danger of that. And thank you for your suggestion. I'll think about it."
After the exciting afternoon I'd had, I hated going back to the dreary verification pool. As soon as I saw my coworkers, I couldn't help but wonder if my great idea about relocating the verifiers was so smart after all. The rest of the group seemed to enjoy their leisure on company time. How would they react to being asked to work harder? Would they really feel more like a part of the company? Thinking about it made my head hurt.
Speaking of my head, I made a stop at the bathroom before going to my desk and took a look at myself in the mirror. There was a knot forming on my temple where I'd hit the wall. It was currently red, but it was the kind of red that turns black and blue by morning. I wasn't sure how I'd explain a goose egg like that to my roommates. I tried pulling my hair across my face, but that made it look worse by drawing attention to it. I needed to come up with an excuse.
Fortunately, I wasn't dating anyone, so they couldn't jump to the conclusion that any lame excuse I gave them was a cover-up for an abusive boyfriend. They might think I had an abusive boss, but since I'd survived a year with Mimi, they had to know it couldn't get much worse. I supposed I'd just have to tell them I'd bumped into a wall, which was the truth, more or less.
It wasn't fair. Marcia came home with stories about big deals she'd had a part in, and Gemma was always telling us about the famous designers and models she ran into in the course of her job. Until now I'd never had anything more exciting than tales of Mimi's latest outburst. They'd listened politely and had done a pretty good job of faking interest, but I couldn't help but wish I had a job where I could do something important or interesting. Now I finally had something worth talking about, and I couldn't tell anyone about it.
The closing-time stampede struck just as I returned to my desk. Still deep in thought, I gathered my things and left the building. "That was some catch, sweetheart," Sam said as I stepped onto the sidewalk.
"Yeah, not bad for a day's work, huh?"
"Are you kidding? That was spectacular. I'd try to get you transferred to Security if I thought I could get away with it."
"All it took was a good eye and a strong set of lungs. Owen did all the work."
"Yeah, but he wouldn't have known what to do if you hadn't been there, pointing the way."
That was something to think about. Owen might be one of the most powerful wizards around, but that intruder could have got away with stealing stuff from his department if I hadn't been there. "It's nice to be needed," I said with a smile.
"And it sounds like you have even more on your plate now. At the rate you're going, you'll be running the place by Christmas." He saluted me with one wing. "Now, go home and get some rest. You've got a busy day ahead of you tomorrow."
He was right about that. I had a marketing plan to put together and a magical war to fight. This company and these people needed me. More important, they knew they needed me, and they were willing to listen to me. It was enough to make me want to call Mimi just to blow a big raspberry in her ear. Look out, world. Little Katie Chandler wasn't quite so ordinary anymore.
* * *
My head was still hurting and I was tired when I got home, so I should have been glad to be the first one there. It would give me a chance to rest and recover a little before I had to face Gemma and Marcia. But I was about to explode from nervous, restless energy. Even if I couldn't talk about what had happened, I needed to talk to someone. I could at least tell them I had an important new project. That sure beat having nothing better to say about work than "I typed another memo today."
Fortunately, Gemma and Marcia got home within a few minutes of each other so I didn't have to decide between holding myself back or telling the same story twice.
As soon as we'd all changed out of our work clothes and opened the take-out containers they'd brought in, I blurted, "You won't believe what happened at work today."
ten
My audience lacked the look of rapt anticipation I'd hoped for. Instead, they looked concerned. "Does it have something to do with that lump on your head?" Marcia asked.
Actually, I'd been planning to talk about being assigned a big project by the CEO, but the moment she asked the question, all my good intentions about telling a boring cover story to explain the knot flew right out the window. I couldn't keep one of the most exciting days in my life entirely to myself. It wouldn't hurt to tell a teensy little part of the story, would it? I could talk about the adventure without getting into magic. "Yeah, it does."
"Oh, Katie, you don't have another bad boss, do you?" Gemma asked. "I know Mimi was awful, but at least she wasn't physically abusive. "
"No, I don't have a bad boss. Well, okay, he's not perfect. He has anger management issues." And that was putting it mildly. "But the head honcho is great, and anyway, that has nothing to do with this. We had a little adventure at the office today. Some guy got in and was looking to steal some stuff, and I was the one who caught him."
Marcia nodded. "I've heard about that happening, people wandering around offices, trying to look like they belong and stealing laptops when no one is looking. You caught him?"
"I don't know about catching, but I saw him and yelled for help, so he was caught."
Gemma gave me a friendly punch on the shoulder. "Way to go, Katie. How'd you know he didn't belong, since you're so new?"
Oops. Maybe I should have thought this through before I blurted anything out. "He really looked like he didn't belong, and he looked like he didn't expect anyone to see him there." And that would be because he was invisible to everyone but me, but I definitely needed to leave that part out. I shrugged. "He just looked suspicious, and my instincts kicked in."
"How'd you get that lump, then?" Marcia asked, her eyes full of concern. "Did he hurt you?"
"He tried to take off when I yelled, so I grabbed onto him until Security got there, but he shook me off and I hit a wall. But I'm okay. They had someone take care of me at the office."
Marcia frowned. "This place you're working isn't dangerous, is it?"
That one was going to be a challenge to answer with any degree of honesty because you need a pretty good idea of the truth before you can come up with a good cover, and I didn't really know the truth. "I don't know that it's any more dangerous than any other place." That is, any other place that wasn't in the middle of a magical war against an evil rogue wizard.
"You win the prize for most interesting second day on the job," Gemma said with a grin.
"It gets better. Well, maybe not better, but there is more."
"The security guard who came to your rescue was incredibly buff and handsome, and he wants to take you out to dinner this weekend?" Gemma asked hopefully.
"Not exactly." The person who'd come to my rescue was incredibly handsome, and when he'd been helping me up to Merlin's office, I'd noticed that he had some decent muscles. On the other hand, the security guard who'd shown up was made of stone and had wings. As far as I knew, neither of them wanted to take me out to dinner this weekend. I didn't want to delve too deeply into this particular topic. "Actually, these two things aren't directly related. I got assigned to a pretty important new project."