By Michael Czyzniejewski
You know if Florez makes it anywhere near that basement, we’ll have no choice but to enact the Figueroa Protocol, meaning you can kiss your career, let alone that promotion, goodbye. First thing we’ll have to do is get his wife and kids out, and when I say out, I mean out: Like we pull the vans up to his house, carry out any human who’s inside—no pets, no wallets, no phones, not even prescriptions—and nobody ever sees them again. Then we go about changing the narrative, distracting anyone who might be suspicious of Florez, of who he really is. We focus their gaze on the awful crimes he’s committed: all those affairs he’s had, all that money he’s embezzled, murdering his entire family, and burning down his house with himself still inside. By that time, Florez will have checked in. Then we’ll either have everything he found in that basement, or nothing at all. If that information has paid off, proving to be the gamechanger we suspected it to be, only then do we reconnect Florez with his family, who will be plenty pissed at him when he explains why they’ve been held in a cell for who knows how long, that he’s not an accountant and never has been, that their house and all their belongings are ash, and they will never, ever see or contact their loved ones again, loved ones who think they are dead. If they still want anything to do with Florez, they’ll all be sent underground, where they will have no choice but to blend in.That’s only if that info pays off.
I will not speak aloud what happens if his information proves inconsequential.
And no, it’s not fair that a successful mission for Florez means that someone in this office has to take a fall, that someone has to be a scapegoat, that we need to make it look like something has gone very very wrong instead of very very well. Spies are everywhere, as the saying goes, and if someone isn’t markedly reprimanded—for reasons unexplained—suspicions will lead to investigation and investigation will lead to truth. We can’t have that.
I’m only telling you this now because you’ve done such excellent work, and while success in the world usually means promotion, know that your fall from grace, yours in particular, will distract more eyes from the truth than anyone else’s. You’re just important enough to matter, but unfortunately, not important enough to save.
I’d like to say that one day we’ll make it up to you, reward you for your service. But in your heart, you know that isn’t true. And that stinks. And even though this is a minor consolation, think of it this way: At least you’re not Florez. Imagine what he’s about to go through. In that light, your deal will not seem so bad.
Michael Czyzniejewski is the author of four collections of stories, most recently The Amnesiac in the Maze (Braddock Avenue Books, 2023). He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Moon City Press and Moon City Review, as well as Interviews Editor of SmokeLong Quarterly. He has received a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts and two Pushcart Prizes.
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