You Had Me at Halo(71)

“Really,” Dr. Hill agreed.

Then something occurred to Holly. “So, if I only managed to get everything right by accident, wasn’t it a bit risky to let me go back to earth to solve the wrong issues? I mean I might not have made it.”

“That’s always a drawback,” the doctor admitted. “But if I’d told you to go down there and speak to your stepmother, or to ignore Todd altogether because he was a cheating bastard, would you have done it?”

“You knew he had been cheating on me?”

“Er...well, that’s really beside the point.” Dr. Hill squirmed in his chair before shooting her a hopeful smile. “Did I mention you’re my star pupil?”

Holly glared for a minute before her body was once again taken over by happy feelings. “I guess it all worked out in the end,” she conceded.

Dr. Hill wiped his brow as he stood up and started to pace the room. “I’m pleased you understand. It really was the best way for you to dig down and find out what’s important. So the question is what should we do with you now?”

“Give me a nice reward?” Holly said hopefully and the doctor smiled. “Preferably gift-wrapped.”

“Actually I was thinking more in terms of your future with The Company.”

“The Company?” Holly wasn’t quite sure she was following the program here. “Are we back in heaven or am I having a weird dream?” she checked.

“Oh, I forgot, you haven’t read your rulebook yet. The Company is what we call Level Two.”

“I’ve reached Level Two! One more level and I can see my parents?” It was more than she had dared hope for.

“That’s right.” He nodded as he continued to pace. “However to get to Level Three requires a vast amount of work. Some people get there quite quickly, like your father, while others spend an eternity trying to reach it. It all depends on your service record.”

Holly scratched her head. “You know I’m still not really following you. What’s a service record?”

“Why it’s the record of how you perform for The Company: the better your performance, the better your record. Obviously a job with a high degree of skill will improve your record.”

“Right, so you’re saying I need a job if I want to get there quickly?” To be honest Holly felt a little bit disappointed. After going back to Baker Colwell, it had become increasingly obvious that corporate life wasn’t for her. Yet apparently she was going to have to go back to the rat race again.

“Er yes. More or less.”

“Fine, so where’s the human resources place in this joint?”

“You don’t need to go there.” Dr. Hill picked up the machine again. “It analyses you and works out what you should do.”

Of course it did. Holly groaned before realizing that Dr. Hill wasn’t quite returning her gaze. “It’s bad news, isn’t it.”

“Of course it isn’t,” he said a little bit too quickly. “The thing is Miss Evans, not all jobs are glamorous. Or comfortable, but remember what I was saying before: high risk is high reward.”

Not glamorous? Not comfortable? Was he talking about working down a mine pit or something? Even if she couldn’t feel anything but divine happiness right now, she was pretty certain once she broke her first nail it would all be downhill.

“Fine, tell me what the stupid thing says then. I know you want to,” she said in a resigned voice.

He shot her a pained look. “It seems to think you’d be a good Mole.”

She knew it. He freaking-well wanted to send her down a mine. Unbelievable. Just because she’d been a big muscley boy with a rock hard stomach and biceps to kill for, was no reason to think she liked digging. Or getting dirty for that matter.

She was getting punished after all.

“I know it’s not everyone’s idea of a dream job,” he admitted, obviously reading the disappointment on her face. “But if you want to see your parents sooner, it might be worth considering.”

“You’re right,” she said with a sigh. “Tell me the worst.”

“The thing is you have to live on earth...”

“What?”

What?

“I told you it wasn’t ideal. Especially since you’ve only just been purged. Most people can’t even bear the thought of losing their celestial happiness and being turned back into a corporeal body again. All the messy emotions, the pollution, the politics. But the machine has calculated you have an eighty-five percent chance of adapting to the transition. The highest percentage ever recorded is eighty-seven percent, so you can imagine why my bosses were so keen for me to discuss this with you.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Holly narrowed her eyes and stared at him. “Are you making fun of me?”

“Of course not.” The doctor looked confused. “Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know, perhaps the same reason you sent me back to earth in a guy’s body. When the guy was still in it.”

He looked hurt. “I thought we’d moved on from that?”

“We have, but I’m not sure why else you are acting like this is a horrible job.”

Dr. Hill ran his chubby fingers through a red curl and studied her face. “You mean the idea doesn’t repulse you?”