The meeting

Zeke burst into the meeting room with not much more of a plan than to grab everyone's thought bubbles and edit them to make sure that Ariel kept her job, (and kept sucking his dick when he felt like it), and that basically everyone should just do what he says. He was surprised by what he found instead.

A raven haired woman who was sitting opposite Ariel across a table turned to look frostily at him as he burst in the door

Between her and Ariel a monitor showed a third, slightly older woman, who just as Zeke entered said "Well, if that's all then, I'll see you at the next meeting!" and hung up, just before Zeke could make a lunge for the screen to catch her thought bubble on it.

Shit! thought Zeke, cursing his timing.

Exasperated, he turned to the woman facing Ariel and only just noticed that there was something different about her. The woman's thought bubble had one solid bold statement on it. "I will carry out Connie's instructions!" it read. This was almost embossed on her thoughts and above everything else. He could see transitory thoughts come and go, but almost too quickly to read and some were blurry ... almost as if encrypted somehow. Zeke grabbed her thought bubble and quickly discovered her over-riding mission was not erasable as he smoothed his thumb over the message to no effect. What the hell? He rubbed more frantically at the thought bubble but nothing in it changed.

"Ariel? Who is this and what's going on?" demanded the new woman.

"I'm sorry Tamara - this is Zeke, he's one of our very best employees."

"No wonder the division is in the state its in then! What do you want Zeke?" she said in icy tones, turning back towards him.

"Oh.... ah, I have a personal message for Mrs Silverman but it can wait", he said releasing the newcomer's thoughts and hastily withdrew from the room to take stock. What the hell was going on? he thought as he almost ran to the corridor.