Fire and ice

7:27 a.m

A six-foot chain-link fence topped with barbed wire and razor ribbon guarded the perimeter of Nitko’s property. Employees were required to scan their badges and enter a password into an electronic keypad to open the double set of gates to the parking area. There was one way in and one way out. It reminded Matt of a prison.

Shelly tooled around the parking lot in her 1995 Ford Taurus station wagon, ignoring the five-miles-per-hour speed limit, her head bobbing to the beat of an AC/DC song on the radio. She finally whipped into an open slot and braked to a stop with an abrupt jerk.

“I have a question,” she said. “Why do you bring that ax to work with you?”

Matt had stowed the tool on the floorboard between the front and back seats. He didn’t take it inside the plant with him, of course, but he liked having it nearby. “It’s my talisman,” he said. “My good-luck charm. I don’t go anywhere without my ax.”

“That’s not much of an answer,” Shelly said. She went into one of her spells then, staring through the windshield at something beyond the horizon.

Matt had to tell people something when they asked, but the ax was really much more to him than a good-luck charm. It was an heirloom, for one thing, and the only remaining connection to his former life in Washington. His grandfather had wielded it, and his father, and he hoped to pass it along to his own son or daughter someday. And there was something else about it, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. It was the only worldly possession he cared anything about, and he felt extremely uncomfortable when it wasn’t with him. Or at least within walking distance.

After a few seconds, Shelly snapped out of it and looked at her watch and said, “Come on, we’re going to be late.”

The way she drove, Matt thought, it was a wonder they weren’t late in more ways than one. He followed her to the loading dock at a trot, and then through the maze of shelving to the time clock. Shelly swiped her badge.

“Made it!” she said. “Hot damn, that was close. I’m already on probation for clocking in late too many times. One more this year and I’ll get a three-day suspension.”

“Maybe you could use a little vacation,” Matt said.

“A little vacation,” she repeated.

“You know, get away from here for a couple of days,” Matt said. “Remind yourself what the rest of the world looks like.”

“You going to come with me?”

“Let’s do it,” he said.

For a moment, her eyes took on that empty, dreamy look and the hint of a smile appeared on her face. Then a horn blew from somewhere inside the plant and she snapped back to attention.

“That’s three days without pay. Can’t afford it.”

Can’t rhymed with paint. Matt liked Shelly’s southern accent. He thought it was sexy. But as he got to know Shelly better, he was beginning to hear what lay behind that honey accent. She came across as laid-back and easygoing, but there was a sadness underneath. And why not? He could tell she must have been a knockout as a teenager. She’d probably thought she’d own the world. Now she had a no-future job in a chemical hell and the only good thing in her life was a guy who’d announced he wasn’t going to stick around more than a couple of days.

They walked into the break room and put their lunch sacks in the refrigerator.

“I’m going to head on over to the foreman’s office,” Matt said. “See what he has in store for me today.”

“All right, sweetie. See you at lunch.”

Shelly headed toward Shipping and Receiving, and Matt toward the area of the plant called Waterbase. It was already at least ninety-five degrees inside the building. By noon it would be a hundred and ten.

Sweat trickled down Matt’s back as he made his way to the foreman’s office, a portable enclosure the size of a large closet with windows in front that overlooked the production area. From the office you could see the twin fifty-five-hundred-gallon stainless-steel mixing tanks where Fire and Ice were blended, Fire in the left tank and Ice in the right, and a press the size of a ’57 Cadillac where they were filtered. You could see the forklift charging stations and the scaffolds and hoses and the pneumatic pumps. Matt knocked on the door, and a voice from within said, “Enter.” Matt entered. The air-conditioned space felt like an oasis after a long trek in the desert.

Mr. Hubbs sat at his desk sipping a cup of coffee and reading a memo. Hubbs was middle management, just a tiny notch above the laborers he commanded. He wore jeans and steel-toed shoes and occasionally ventured out to the production area to help the blenders dump bags of chemicals into the tanks. Unlike a lot of the supervisors Matt had worked for, he wasn’t afraid to jump into the fray with his subordinates.

Hubbs looked up from his memo. “Good morning, Cahill.”

“Good morning, Mr. Hubbs. Just wondering what you wanted me to do today.”

“Have a seat. There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”

Matt sat in the steel and vinyl chair beside the desk. “What is it, sir?”

“You’re a good worker, Cahill. I pulled some strings with the guys upstairs, and I’d like to offer you full-time employment right here in Waterbase. The starting pay isn’t the greatest, but you’ll get a raise after your three-month probation period and another one after six months. You’ll get health and dental, and all the other benefits Nitko has to offer.”

Matt thought about it. He had been making three times as much money at the lumber mill back in Washington, and it didn’t involve working in an oven full of noxious fumes. The only future at Nitko was a bleak one. If he worked real hard and kissed plenty of ass, someday he might be able to afford a single-wide trailer and a ten-year-old vehicle from the buy-here/pay-here lot. If, that is, the heat and the chemicals didn’t kill him first. No, thanks. He had no intentions of working at Nitko forever, but he did need some time to investigate whatever it was that had brought Mr. Dark there. And signing on full-time would allow him to stay in Copperhead Springs a while longer and get to know Shelly better, maybe get to the bottom of her focal episodes.

“What other benefits?” Matt said.

“Are you accepting my offer for full-time employment?”

“Yes.”

Matt didn’t plan on staying, but he wasn’t out to dupe anybody, either. He would give Nitko an honest day’s work for the duration and then would give them proper notice when the time came to leave.

“Great!” Hubbs said. “Welcome aboard. I want you to go over to Human Resources, and they’ll explain the pay and benefits package in detail.”

“Thank you for the opportunity, sir. I’m looking forward to working with you.”

Hubbs rose and smiled and shook Matt’s hand. Matt left the Waterbase office and headed for Human Resources.