Professional Courtesy

Professional Courtesy: Dr. Mercy's Last Words 

 

Hang on, just a minute...

Just in case you kind of stumbled here, by chance, this is the fifth and final part of a series within a series, within a... you ___ ___ _____ . Near the bottom.

Go ahead, click stuff, I'll wait. 

Now, that we're as close to being on the same page as we're probably going to ever be, here goes:

"Will speaking."

"Hey...got a minute?" 

"Sure. Shoot."

"Sorry we got cut off last night. I was really interested in what you were talking about. You were serious?"

"Yeah, always."

"So, you were telling me that this guy was nominated for a promotion..."

"To become the head of department in another institution. So, yeah, kind of like a promotion... recognition for outstanding work. An excellent track record."  

"And then they started fucking with him?"

"I guess you could put it that way. There were cash on delivery packages they hadn't ordered, sent to his home. Or the calls from the restaurants asking why the party of twelve or so hadn't shown up yet after the reservations had been made well in advance. He was being harassed. Knocks on the door and phone calls his wife had to answer. That kind of thing."

"You said his wife had to deal with some of that. I remember."

"Apparently, in this culture, people tend to not want to make waves and often end up eating the bill."

"But he told her it wasn't their responsibility."

"That's right. Humble people. Not proud fools about to be pushed around by fear of embarrassment. Honest people. Not like other professional types. Not like the people ordering stuff, making the reservations in his name or calling at odd and very inconvenient times."

"What about the accusations that led to the investigation?"

"The way it's done here is that once the anonymous charges are made, everything gets combed through. Accounts are double-checked. They go through all your stuff. The audits are fairly thorough. A bit of an 'inconvenience' - to put it mildly."

"Did he ever find out who did it, who made the accusations in first place?"

"No. But he did say it was a 'coordinated effort'. He was never worried, though he did make it a point to let me know what was going on, why he wasn't working on what he felt he needed to be working on until the storm had passed. They'd put him on lockdown while the number-crunchers got a little meticulous." 

"So, those cunts were sore losers. And they just had to mess with him. I can't believe it!"

"Sometimes I wonder why he told me these things. And I realize that, in some ways, he was letting me know about the social terriain, maybe point out a few markers to navigate by. He was honest, not naive. A solid person. A real professional. One of the very few I've met."  

"Speaking of professionals, is someone there talking about prostitutes?"

"I wasn't listening. Hey, gotta go now... time to hang this thing up."

Thank you for your time and patience.