Beyond them, Logan noticed a man sitting at a desk. He walked in that direction. The man behind the leather-topped oval desk looked to be about forty. He was dressed in a brown business suit with a blue tie. The nameplate on the desk read simply “Director.” He rose from his chair and extended his hand.

“Welcome to the fifth floor. What can I do for you?”

“My name is Logan Bell. I came to apply for a job.”

“Wonderful. Have a seat.”

Logan sat in a leather captain’s chair in front of the desk. “I’m…I’m a bit surprised to be directed to you. Do you really interview all applicants?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Do you have any openings? I’ve heard that this is the place to work.”

“We always have openings.”

“I’d like to see if I’m a match for any of them.”

“You will be.”

“What do you mean? You don’t know what I do.”

“All our job classifications are always open,” the Director replied.

This had quickly become the strangest interview Logan had ever experienced. Not that his experience was that extensive: a couple of summer jobs in high school, one all four summers of college, and his first post-college position.

“You mean, you are always hiring for all jobs?”

“Yes.”

“Universal Systems must be growing by leaps and bounds.”

The second Logan said it, he cringed. That sounded so…juvenile, and it betrayed the fact that he hadn’t bothered to do a lick of research on the company before arriving.

The Director, however, didn’t seem to react adversely. “Yes, we are always growing.” He leaned back slightly in his chair. “So what is it you would like to do, Logan?”

“Well…” Logan couldn’t believe he was being asked such an open-ended question in an interview—assuming this really was a legitimate interview. “My degree is in business management. In my first job out of school, I was a human resources generalist at a chemical plant. But I’d like to work for a company like yours. My father is a senior vice president at Vescon Technologies, so…I figure high-tech is a good direction.”

“Why don’t you go to work there?”

“I just don’t know if that would work out so great, long term.”

“I understand.”

“So do you have any HR jobs available?”

“Of course,” the Director replied. “But let me ask you a question. Did you enjoy human resources?”

“Well, I realize my first job was entry level, and I would naturally be advancing into positions that would be more…”

He stopped. It was all BS, he knew. And something about this place and this man told him he could drop the BS. “No, not really.”