Page 101 - Psychoceramics and the Test of Fire

Secrets of the Endosphere

“Money? Why should I need any money from you?”
That query, posed pugnaciously by someone who ought to be
asking a diametrically opposed question—to wit, “why should you
need to give me any money?”—almost caught me off guard, and
could have knocked me out of character and off-message. However,
I knew up front I would be dealing with a man to whom the
proposition that up was really down required serious consideration.
Barry Cade had the piercing gaze of a lunatic: rules of polite
interaction with his fellow humans did not apply to one whose eyes
emitted rays stripping the world bare, revealing the truth, if any,
behind all illusions prior to receiving their image back on his retinas.
That sort of reflection often looked a lot like self-fulfilling prophecy
to outsiders. But it brooked no disagreement. I was determined not
to satisfy his need to reject preemptively any and all who might lead
him down the path to ridicule; instead I would follow him through
his tortuous minefield of challenges and paradoxes. He didn’t know I
had a map.
When Al Magnus made me a handsome offer to contact, establish
trust with and shower riches upon a series of struggling eccentrics, it
wasn’t immediately clear how my potpourri of skills, experiences and
quirks of character fit the job requirements. He claimed to have his
own scientific method of matching people to functions in his
organization, and made it all seem quite convincing. It was, perhaps,
the case of a crackpot bestowing largesse upon an unworthy
recipient—another curious reversal. Nevertheless, I was in no
position to turn down a profitable engagement just because it made
no sense; half the work-force could see they were employed under
such conditions, if they cared to look closely at what they were
actually doing. I thanked him for the opportunity, accepted his
conceit, and soon found myself drawing upon inner resources I only
dimly knew I possessed. How did he so definitely know I was up for
the job? I could not intentionally find out, as part of the deal was for
me never to contact him again; he did not want his sponsorship of
my slightly shady enterprise to become known to the board of
directors of the Hog Wild Corporation. I received my assignments
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