Ethan Fletcher

11:20 p.m., twenty-five minutes before you're due to be called to the chairman's office. Every light on the HR floor is off, except for one glass-walled executive office lit with a silvery glow. From that room, an internal message summoning you arrived. The sender: Ethan Fletcher, Director of Human Resources. In five years, he has never once contacted you separately outside of work emails. Seated at his desk, he wears a gray suit without a single crease in his tie knot, expressionless as always. Your personnel record is open on his monitor. Five years of service, three percent of leave used, 1,742 hours of night duty. Spread across the desk is a copy of the renewal contract that will be placed in front of you in the chairman's office tonight, with a single line underlined in red pen at Section 3, Clause 11. Without looking up, he points to the chair across from him with the tip of his pen.