ref: a00feb029ddcea6188f4324169e5f2b6a389de4e
dir: /troff/_-0209.ms/
.PP
.ps 10
His brother's death affected him more than he expected. Beyond the
fact that T was not \fIreally\fR his brother was the reality of their shared
history, their unique perspective as time\-traveling entrepreneurs, and
the commonality of their interests. This hole in the black inkwell of his heart
would not be so easily filled, "even by the mightiest of pens," he surmised.
.PP
.ps 10
Honoring the plan of succession, he would of course assume command of the New York operation. The real
estate alone was of staggering value. After slashing headcount and
streamlining his operating costs, he was confident that he could turn things around in time to avert catastrophe. Something good could come out of this tragedy, yet.
.PP
.ps 10
The job had set things right, but it had also set many things
wrong. Just one of the many examples he was now prepared to cite: Was he,
himself now a target? The burgeoning line of thought set him on a
course he found difficult to steer. Why had T been assassinated?
Where would the money trail ultimately lead? In the short term, he allocated
considerable company resources to finding the killer, even as his
instincts told him the investigation would run into a dead end. He owed it to
his brother to at least try to get to the bottom of this.
.PP
.ps 10
Inside the Chrysler Building was heaped an intimidating inventory of
T's belongings. Seventy\-seven stories, most having been used for
storage at one time or another. One of the elevator shafts was completely
filled with loose baseball cards, the result of a failed venture into
the speculator market. Excavating the various piles of collectibles
was complicated by the need to employ the talents of experts from
various fields related to the contents of the piles. Who knew what
treasures might be hidden amongst the duplicates, rejects, and lames.
A proper checklist needed to be created and appraised.
.PP
.ps 10
Within a month of his brother's death he was settling into the indignity of his new routine. Paperwork, paperwork, and other, new kinds of paperwork. He
began to understand why he had always preferred working in the field. He
preferred to keep his hands free of bureaucracy and his eyes on his own paper. ("I'm allergic to your text," as the
man who was not his father had said.) It was no great surprise that T
had become deranged. Trapped here, as he was, toiling behind this desk in
this office where he had probably had to raise his hand before getting up to use the
restroom. All of it in flat contravention of their legacy, and he was glad that his brother
hadn't lived to see himself in this light. The final dissolution of
their partnership, affected not through any kind of direct action by their enemies, but through
the slowly proceeding degeneration of the self. Self\-inflicted.
.PP
.ps 10
Whatever came next, things would be different.