He sits by the window, reflecting on what others have to do in his situation.
The telescope rests on its tripod facing out across the city. His building, the tallest, his floor, the highest, looks down onto a number of towers with their flat rooftops. One of them has a garden with a patch of lawn, shrubs, tables and chairs. It even has a tiny pond with a small, trickling fountain at its centre. It is an exclusive café, opened each evening for the hotel’s guests and visitors. When he stands behind the scope he can bring the rooftop into focus, but the time has not yet come. His laptop sits on the table beside him. It has been made ready. A few minutes pass before two men, one known to him, only too well, the other, not at all. Only one series of encrypted messages have passed between them.
The man he knows is his manager. As he watches them stroll across the roof garden to the pond, where they sit down together on the low wall that surrounds it, he thinks again of all those poor souls out there that have suffered or are currently suffering from having such a boss. A boss like him; incompetent, uncaring, full to the brim with self-importance.
He knows that in most cases a person hangs onto a paying job, regardless of how truly awful their boss is. He knows this and in some small way, what is about to occur he dedicates to them.
He stands and puts his eye to the lens, tweaking the focus. He waits. He sees the scuffle. He zooms in on the figure now lying face down in the pool. The stranger stands looking up. He takes out a mobile phone and waits. The man above turns to his laptop and clicks on ‘send’ and the payment is transferred. Moments pass before the man below gestures with the globally recognised thumbs up and disappears through a door.
Dedication complete.