Karl and his Boss

Karl Munroe was working on his Masters of Business Administration and had an internship at a public relations firm. His boss was Sandra "don't call me 'Sandy'" Barnes.

Sandra was in her forties, twice divorced with no children and was a hard-driving, humorless woman. To her clients she was the opposite, but as soon as she was alone with her employees, the happy mask disappeared.

Karl lived in an apartment above a garage within walking distance of college and a bus ride to his internship. He did not own a car, just an electric bike, and had worked ever since he was 16 to save up for college. He earned scholarships and busted his tail to avoid debt, but he did have to take out a small student loan to pay for grad school, and needed his internship.

At the PR firm, Sandra used him as a flunky: his job was to get coffee, pick up lunch, and even get her dry cleaning, which luckily was just down the street from the PR firm. He was not really learning much, but it was not a mentally taxing job though it was demeaning. He was not even sure Sandra knew his last name, and sometimes called him "Earl," though he suspected she did it on purpose.

There was only one other man at the firm, a gay man, and Karl suspected Sandra liked it that way.

One day while he was at home surfing the web, he came across a site promising a computer program "guaranteed to upload a mind controlling subliminal program" to anyone's computer.

Karl, who had downed a few beers that night, clicked on it, and it was delivered for free to his in-box.