Gnurrs

By Kenn Brody   kenn@brokensymmetrypublishing.com

Arthur Engle III emerged from the Rolls Phaeton under the arched portico.  He had never been to the Chairman’s estate home before.  None of them had.  He reluctantly admitted it was impressive, with topiary shrubs, floral arrays and a lawn that had been seeded and rolled like the green on a country club golf course.

The twelve Directors were escorted through a heavy door into a long, large room off the foyer.   The room was dominated by a boardroom table of rare rosewood in a baroque style and twelve armchairs upholstered in green leather.  Arthur’s seat was marked by a brass placard with his name.  The room was paneled in dark walnut with ornate coving.  The ceiling was wainscoted with heavy oak beams.  The woodwork was impressive.

Chairman Barnard Walter Baron Harrowden took his seat at the head of the table in a chair just larger than the others.  It was larger not to accommodate his size, but for his status as a Baron of the British Realm.  The Baronage was his persona, as much as his cultivated Oxford accent.  

There was complete silence in the room for several seconds.

“Directors, we are met here to resolve a crisis in our organization.  Our several activities have been conducted quietly and efficiently for many decades.  However, we must now to take issue with one of us who does not meet that standard.  In fact, we are here to unmask a traitor.”  He stared hard at each of the Directors in turn.  That stare made them squirm and look at each other.  Who could it be?  Who would dare?

“Before we start, gentlemen, I have a gift for each of you.”  Harrowden pushed a button under the table and the door opened.  A man came through with a tray and set a small lacquered box in front of each man, including the Chairman.   Upon exiting the room, he closed the heavy door.  Arthur heard the snick of a lock.

“Please do not open these boxes yet.  Does any one of you wish to step forward and confess to betrayal?  Come, gentlemen, we have all pledged honesty and forthright dealings among us.  Hmm?”  He lasered the room with his eyes again.  No one dared twitch.

“Very well then.  Herr Frosch, you will present the evidence, please?”

Vieker Frosch, from an elder family of German nobility, spoke with an accent.  “Ve haf zese reports from Vashington.”  He pushed a pile of report covers in blue with a gold eagle seal around the table.  The contents were only a few pages.  The men grabbed them, scanned them with various reactions, shut them hastily.  Some affected nonchalance, others fidgeted nervously.  Arthur Engle III became a statue.

“Now does anyone wish to come forward?”  The reports had incidents of interference and double dealings but fell short of any personal accusation.

“No?  Then let us proceed.  Gentlemen, inside your boxes you will find a signet ring.  It is your badge of office.  The officers of the various corporations and governments we control will recognize those seals.  No one else will.  Please retrieve your rings and put them on.”

There was a rustling in the room as each man opened his box and extracted a large gold ring from the plush lining.  They put them on, each to his own choice of finger.  

Arthur slowly opened his box.  It was empty!  He blinked hard to hide his terror.  There was no hiding it!  ViekerFrosch could see the empty box from his seat.  Arthur trembled as he turned the box over and stood shakily, eyes downcast.  He had nothing to say.

Chairman Harrowden slapped the table, hard.  A chittering began in the walls.  Dark creatures the size of housecats emerged from the paneling, the desktop, the floor, the beams in the ceiling.  The monsters were fast, vicious with long jaws and lots of teeth.  There were dozens, no,hundreds of them, running all over the room, a crescendo of chittering horrors.  

“The gnurrs, they come from the voodvork out!” exclaimed Vieker Frosch.

Some tried for the door, but Arthur knew it was locked.  He also noticed the gnurrs were ignoring the other directors.  He saw the razor edges of their teeth as three of them jumped onto his face.