“Hello, what can I do for you?”

He walked up to the receptionist’s desk and leaned on it with one arm.

“I have an appointment with Mr. James Bennett at 10. Sorry. I’m a bit early. Less traffic than expected.”

She smiled as he carefully traced a finger along the curve of the trigger in his pocket.

“That’s alright, his previous appointment was canceled. Go on in. His office is down the hall on the right near the corner window, number 734.”

“Thank you, ma’am. Have a nice day.” He pushed off the counter and grasped the edge of the desk, standing still for a moment, eyes closed.

“Are you okay?”

“I’ll be okay here real soon. I just get lightheaded sometimes. Chemo’ll do that to ya.”

“I’m very sorry to hear that. I hope everything goes well for you!”

“Oh, I’m sure it will. Thank you.”

As he walked down the hall, he kept running his finger over the trigger in his pocket, softly, almost like he was caressing a powerful talisman.

He came across a kitchen area where an employee was making coffee. Behind him, a poster: “INNOVATION,” written in large text just below a photo of eggs in a skillet. “You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs” was written just below that.

He chuckled, and the employee turned around. Seeing the stranger, the employee smiled and asked, “What’s got ya laughing?” as he sipped his coffee.

“I like your poster is all.”

“Oh, yea. You see them so often when you work here that you begin to tune them out.”

“Well, take some time to think about them every now and again. What happens when the eggs decide they’ve had enough of being broken?”

The employee’s brow furrowed and he cocked his head slightly to the side.

“Uh…I’m not too worried about that right now,” he said, laughing nervously.

“Just food for thought,” he said and smiled. “Have a good day.” He turned and continued towards Bennett’s office.

The employee lifted his eyebrows slightly higher in mild annoyance. “You too,” he heard as the employee headed the other direction.

  1. 734. 734. 734. 734. 734.

Finally, the office appeared, near the corner of the building. Nice view, he thought to himself as he knocked against the door.

He heard Bennett moving inside the office, his chair sliding on the floor as he rose. The door opened as Bennett smiled and held out his hand.

“Welcome, welcome! Come on in. You must be thirsty; want me to have our receptionist bring you something? Water, coffee, tea?”

“No, thank you,” he replied. “I don’t plan on being here too long today.”

“Alright, just let me know if you change your mind. How was your drive in?”

“Well, my Lyft driver was a sweet gal, made great conversation. Is Mr. Sterling going to be joining us today?” he asked as he sat.

“No, unfortunately, he wasn’t able to make it, he’s addressing other issues today.”

“Ah, I see. A shame.” His disappointment was plainly visible.

“But he did want me to make it known he’s very interested in your tech and will definitely make himself available to speak to you if everything goes well during these initial negotiations.”

Well, that’s very nice of him, but I doubt we’ll end up meeting after all.”

“I’m sure you’re courting several companies looking to acquire you, but give our offer a chance. We just want to verify that your tech can do what you say it can before we proceed with bringing in our top executives. Due diligence.”

“I understand that. I just meant that my cancer is rapidly advancing and I have very little time left: extraordinarily little time.”

“Oh.” Bennett looked down at his desk for a few moments.

“I’m very sorry.” Mr. Bennett stammered, raising his eyes once again.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve made my peace with it. In fact, that’s part of why I’m here today. Mr. Sterling was supposed to be here. I really wanted you both to be here today. You and he spearheaded together the development of your autonomous transportation division, yes?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“That’s how I understood it. You and he really transformed that industry. ‘Creative destruction,’ as he termed it, if I recall correctly.”

“Yea, that was in his shareholder’s meeting presentation when we launched that division. Revolutionary technology like that always disrupts established industries to some degree, as I’m sure you’re aware.”

“Oh yes, I’m very aware,” he said, as his brow furrowed and his left hand clutched the arm of his chair. “Most of my friends lost their jobs and livelihood when you rolled out your autonomous fleets. You creatively destroyed the lives and livelihoods of thousands and thousands of good people within four years.”

Mr. Bennett stared at him, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms across his chest.

“Well, most drivers were able to fin—”

“Shut the fuck up. I’m not here to listen to your apologetics. I’m here to kill you for what you did to my people.”

Bennett’s eyes widened and he began yelling “SECURITY!” as he tried to jump up out of his chair.

He opened his jacket as Bennett began yelling and Bennett’s face went white as the driven snow as his mind processed what he was looking at.

His eyes closed and the corner of his lips flickered upward as he silently pressed the trigger.

Office #734 and its occupants rained down upon the gardens below as the building belched fire.