"Back with us, Ms. Castile? Good-you nodded off there for a moment."
Izzy noted her wrists were still zip-tied to the chair. She flexed her arms- she was stuck.
Not wishing to look at Ms. Granie, smiling in her office chair, she looked up and to the right of the woman, at the portrait of the Emperor Larsen, Emily the First.
Mindi Granie held up the card.
"Really, Izzy-if I may call you Izzy? Really, it is SO simple. All you have to do is read this card, just one little sentence into the camera, and we can both go home.
Wouldn't you like that, Izzy? To go home?"
Izzy had already read and torn up the card, which led to her beating and the zip ties.
"Here-I'll read it to you: 'I, Izzy Castile do swear on my honor that I fully comprehend that Climate Change is a problem which we must work hard to solve.'"
Izzy shook her head, which turned out to be a bad idea.
"Why? Why am I here? I have never publicly stated any opposition to Climate Change, nor have I mentioned the subject to anyone here at work."
"But...Izzy. You are a City employee, and yes, you DID make such ridiculous statements. Come clean, Izzy."
"Never in public, never here in the City offices. It never happened!"
"Izzy. Do you expect me to believe that your comments on the "ChairComfort Social platform" were NOT public?"
"Comments made at home, from my HOME Computer, on my personal time, with the use of a proxy server to protect my privacy!"
"Well, not much of a proxy-as a City employee you should know that WE will maintain order and a unified front, which means that we must be vigilant regarding statements made by our Workers."
She held up the card again.
"One sentence. Into the camera, to be kept in your file. Read it."
Izzy spit on the desk just as Ms Granie pulled the card out of harm's way.
Granie still smiled.
"Dear, could I get you anything? Some sour wine, perhaps?"
"I'm fine. Let me go."
"The wine might be a good idea."
"I don't drink alcohol. I wouldn't even take water from you right now if I were dying of thirst."
"Just a cup. I promise-it's only sour wine."
Izzy was going to remain silent, but after a minute a thought occurred to her.
"Granie. Ms. Mindy Granie-the Emperor Larsen recently appointed you 'Grand Climate Inquisitor', isn't that right?"
Granie beamed.
"Yes! And you are the first case on my desk, so lucky for both of us."
"Both of us? How?"
"Because the Good Emperor Emily Larsen is 'Results oriented', and so, if in this very FIRST case I deliver the result she wishes...but here is why we are both lucky.
Because you are going to read this card, and I am going to have a gold star achievement awarded to me! Win/win!"
Izzy's head was starting to ache again. Her feet felt like concrete. Everything in between hurt.
"I will not read that stupid card."
"Finger."
"What?"
"If you do not read this card, into the camera, with a BIG smile on your face...I will take a finger."
"That's CRAZY! Why would you even threaten me like that? You're just a civil servant, like me!"
"But I have a mandate. And a lot to lose if you don't read this card, so, yeah. We'll start with a finger."
"You wouldn't dare. Not over something stupid like reading a card!"
Mindi Granie and her smile froze for a second, and then she pressed the button on the desk and Ferdy Argone stepped into the room with one hand behind his back.
"Ferdy! This lady is crazy! Call the cops and get me out of here!"
Ferdy looked at his assistant zip-tied to the chair and shook his head as he brought the pruning shears from behind him.
"Izzy, I'm sorry, but she told me I owe her TWO fingers if I don't take one of yours. Read the card for Emperor's sake!"
*************
Right before the weather on the morning News it was reported that a city employee-name not released until family could be notified-had a blood alcohol reading of twice the legal limit as she was found in her car which had cascaded down and submerged into Miller Creek in Lincoln Park. She was 27.
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