The Corporate Dead

The conference room smelled like stale coffee and desperation. Marcus watched his reflection in the glass wall—thinning hair, dark circles under eyes that had seen too many spreadsheet presentations. At 47, he'd become what he once swore he'd never be: a corporate zombie, shuffling through quarterly reports like the undead seeking brains they'd never actually use.

He wasn't supposed to be here tonight. The email from his competitor's former executive had offered too much money to ignore. That made him a spy now, technically, stealing trade secrets from the company that had employed him for twelve years. But loyalty didn't pay for his daughter's tuition. Loyalty didn't cover the mortgage on the house his wife refused to leave after she'd stopped loving him.

The baseball game played softly on his phone in his pocket. Sox were down by three in the seventh. He remembered his father teaching him to keep his eye on the ball, how life was about timing and knowing when to swing. His father had died still believing Marcus would make something of himself. Marcus had made something, all right—a hollow shell of a man in Italian shoes.

He slid the USB drive into the port, watching the progress bar crawl across the screen. This was it. The moment the zombie finally ate something.

'Nice haircut, Marcus.'

He jumped. Elena from HR stood in the doorway, holding a takeout bag. 'You look tired.'

He touched his hair, trimmed yesterday. 'Rough week.'

She nodded, like she understood. Like they all understood. They were all zombies together, really.

The USB drive pinged. Done. He could walk out now, wealthy enough to disappear.

'Want half my burrito?' she asked. 'I ordered too much.'

Marcus looked at the USB drive. At Elena. At the zombie in the glass. Outside, the stadium roared—someone had hit a home run.

'Actually,' he said, pulling the drive from the port. 'I think I'm done here.'

He dropped the drive into his coffee cup. It sank into the dark liquid like a stone.

'You okay?' Elena asked.

Marcus smiled. It felt unfamiliar on his face. 'I will be.'