Outside the Wire by Richard Farnsworth

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  On the first night of the new moon, Mr. Nussbaum brought the initiate into my office and I stood from behind my walnut desk to greet him.

  The Board of Directors had appointed me as Mr. Colund’s replacement following his unfortunate incident. It may have seemed an unorthodox move, as I was the first female mid-level executive in the history of the Chicago Tabulating Devices Corporation, but the board had been quite impressed with my thesis for relay logic algorithms.

  I had learned from them that my advisor had been one of several luminaries in the field that had sent unwitting, but promising students on to this industrial setting rather than continue to risk them remaining in academia and outshining their advisors. I don’t believe Dr. Wireman knew the fate of the students he had sent before me, only that they had left the Ivory towers for a less distinguished career in the field of automated tabulation and were never heard from again.

  Working with Pishacha was a different sort of challenge than working with my thesis advisor, though there were parallels. But at least with the demon you were prepared for the sacrifices. It was unfortunate that the demon required a human soul every accounting quarter, but such were the sacrifices one would have to make for the twentieth century and the future of accounting.

  I reached out to shake the hand of the middle-aged man before me.

  Mr. Nussbaum looked down at the floor and fidgeted.

  I said, “Dr. Wireman, I am so pleased that you have agreed to help us with our little problem in automated tabulation.”

  Dougie's Hand