The End

And just like that, things go back to how they were.

Or not quite how they were. Captain M has been promoted to head of the Cairo office after his stellar performance over the last few weeks (which means I get to go home on schedule). I fired an employee who did not cooperate with me the day were were tossed out of our office. And the troublesome former EIC has gone now, leaving me the job title along with the job I've been doing for the past year and a half.

Why would someone do something like that? Why would someone hold 15 jobs hostage and close an office and demand... money? Respect?

What did he really want and why did he do that?

The big boss, who in a former life was a clinical psychologist, says we can't know, to stop trying to understand, that sometimes "break-ups suck."

But still I wonder. The EIC firmly believed he was right. That he had contributed so much and been taken advantage of.

From my POV, he was more trouble than anything else. He had power issues, ego problems, and knew nothing of desktop publishing or comic books. It was always a ridiculous dance around him, and in the end, he was sidelined (to my relief and surely the relief of a few others as well).

For the first week that we were exiled, I did all the legal paperwork. I re-incorporated, this time without his name as the registrant. (That's why he was able to close us down.) With help, we surreptiously acquired our own lease which he had given up. I got the serial numbers and receipts for the computers as part of proving all the equipment was ours, not his.

The second week, we rallied the employees, passed out laptops, and made up fake assignments for his "spy."

"Find out prices on desks, chairs, fax machines, and phone," I told her, though we had already acquired our old office at that point. No doubt she dutifully reported back that we'd found a new office and were buying furniture. Perhaps this helped lead to his giving up, to agreeing to give Mr. Fixit all our possessions in exchange for a mere receipt. No, at first he asked for many things. But Mr. Fixit did not waver--"Dude, you have no leverage and do you really want to go to court"--and in the end walked away with the key in exchange for only his signature.

We've changed the locks and installed Captain M in the boss-desk.

And now, I get to go back to work. Back to the routine of the day job. But now, I have a new mission. Train up my replacement. And then go home.