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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: When a modest-performing financial manager suddenly becomes the firm's most successful investment prognosticator, an investigation reveals the dark forces of sorcery can affect more than just business.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: The Shimmering Door, ed. Katharine Kerr and Martin H. Greenberg, 1996
Fictionwise Release Date: November 2003

53 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [96 KB], eReader (PDB) [38 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [25 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [23 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [71 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [95 KB], hiebook (KML) [84 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [53 KB], iSilo (PDB) [21 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [26 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [54 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [37 KB]
Words: 7335
Reading time: 20-29 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

I. Friendship's Encounter With The Cat

Friendship was updating his client list when the E & P summons came in over his computer:

The Chakra of Ethics & Principles invites you to lunch this afternoon at 12:00, in her chamber on the fourteenth floor.

Thank you.

Friendship had worked for the investment firm of Happiness & Luxury Mutual Funds for two years, & had never been summoned by Ethics & Principles. He swallowed hard & felt his heartbeat skip a little faster. There was considerably more than an implied "Or Else!" tagged onto the end of that message. A summons from E & P--the Chakra, no less--was nothing to casually dismiss.

At noon Friendship went to the men's room. He stood in front of the mirror & combed his thinning hair. He tucked his shirt neatly inside his pants, straightened his tie, & smoothed his cape. He'd worn an old cape today, one that had faded over the years. If he'd only known he'd be meeting with the Chakra of E & P, he would have dressed sharply, shined his shoes, picked a cleaner tie. But the cape was an old favorite; he'd probably have worn it anyway. Two years ago it had been the only cape he'd owned. He wore it every day when he was an independent financial adviser, when the money & the clients were so damned hard to come by. Navy blue--at least in its heyday. It was the cape of a serious, no-nonsense investment man. Since he'd started working for H & L, he made it a point to wear the cape at least once a week, to remind himself how far he'd come, how hard he'd worked, to remind himself that he could do anything he set his mind to do. (He had no one else in his life to remind him, so he made it a point to remind himself.)