It was the third night in a row Mike McQuarry stared wide-eye awake at the ceiling. He had much to worry about not least of all the plummeting value of his corporation. But if had paid attention a bit more, had he studied the details, had he read all the urgent memos, he probably would have been most worried about destroying the world.

He was the CEO of Automatomics Inc., a once pioneering robotics company known best for its smash hit, the groundbreaking DustKrusher automated vacuum. But the momentum had run out, and in the blink of an eye it was five years later and everything had changed. From pioneer to underdog, vast swaths of market share went to competitors. Despite branching out into new markets, McQuarry was never able to capture the spark of those first few years of success.

But the problems grew worse. Much worse. The data analytics team reported not only more malfunctions, but more injuries across the entire product line. There were even some deaths, but fortunately the Automatomics Hypno-Lawyers smothered those hot embers before they became a full PR conflagration.

Ground down by kilotons of stress, McQuarry slept less and less. Normally a confident risk taker, self doubt crept into his life for the first time. It haunted every decision he made during the day and for good reason. It was an invisible board member. Some days the stress was so intense, that he’d have hallucinations. He saw strange things at work. Things he knew couldn’t be real. But it wasn’t anything that a handful of pills couldn’t cure.

During an emergency board meeting, his marketing team informed him that a DustKrusher 3.0 had taken hostages at a nursing home. The Hypno-Lawyers were on it, but they weren’t optimistic. The room spun around McQuarry, the pressure like a vice on his head. It was as if the damn was about to break, and the truth would drown McQuarry and the company he built. For the first time in years, the financials of the company looked bleak. He threw his papers against the wall and stormed out of the meeting leaving board members whispering and plotting.

Life at home wasn’t any better. He sat heavy on his imported leather couch, surrounded by a battlefield of exotic cigarette butts, empty coffee cups, dirty napkins, and pills to cure his hallucinations. Nerf darts bounced off his head as his kids chased each other through his office. His wife yelled something about the garbage or his in-laws. It was hard to tell, he wasn’t listening.

He rubbed his temples hoping to free the good ideas from his head. But no matter how the numbers were arranged, delete a debit, or added bogus credit, the outcome was bad. Even flooding online retailers with fake reviews had not translated into increased sales. Automatomics Inc. was circling the drain and everyone knew it was McQuarry’s fault.

That’s when he knew he had to speak with the engineers in the Fabrication and Design department. They needed to manufacture a miracle.

* * * *

Angry glances followed McQuarry as he walked through the halls of Automatomics. Seeing their stock options and potential for raises evaporate, the staff teetered on the verge of revolt. Each week a new wave of employees quit for better jobs, poached by competitors. Those that stayed were employees without options.

He had come to rely on their superstar Human Resources Lead, Patty, a former HypnoLawyer who trained in the dark arts of mind control. She could make any corporate scandal disappear. She could negotiate salaries down to staggering lows. But it turned out she wasn’t loyal to the cause, and she too was poached by a competitor. Patty left in a flurry of middle fingers pointed in his direction, a very non-HR-like gesture McQuarry thought.

McQuarry sat with a team of the best contract recruiters money could buy. He presented them with the following problem: his staff needed to be replenished. Mended, Refreshed. He needed someone who could help his team meet their potential. Someone who didn’t mind doing everything themselves with almost no supervision. Someone who could make even the eye-opening scandals disappear.

The recruiters nodded enthusiastically. They had encountered this problem before and had a plan. They would help draft an advertisement for a new role at Automatomics, and broadcast the message around the globe. But it would take some time…

The team blasted the job req to all the places powerful people spent their time. Within minutes every bank, stock, and porn site across the internet had a banner.

But would they find the right candidate in time?