[gebs]

..."Mother of god," the bespectacled executive said aloud to the empty room. He struck the phone so hard it almost fell off his mahogany desk. "Winston!" he yelled and his mousy assistant flew to his desk, clenching his fists nervously to his chest.
..."Yes sir?"
..."In all my years of stewardship at Magellan, I've never seen such uniform criticism of my projects. This cannot stand." He clutched an iPad in both hands, the screen shimmering under his iron grip.
..."Sir, they're just nerds on a forum." He flinched as he said it, knowing his boss hated when he was told something plainly obvious.
..."Winston," he said solemnly, the weight of his years pushing him into the leather chair. "Your years betray you. They delight in upbraiding the Thompson Center. No, they will remember this design oversight for the rest of their days."
...He stood up and walked to the window, the grey sky of Chicago draped over his empire. Shimmering towers that he had built rose around him like sentinels of glass and stone, protecting his kingdom.
..."What if we added windows to the louvers?" he asked.
..."We can do that?" Winston couldn't mask his surprise.
..."We can do anything. We're developers."
..."But sir, it would be admitting that the louvers were a design flaw! Not even Mr. Kamin could admit that."
..."Do it quietly," he said, a finger to his lips. "Wait until it snows. No one will notice, and by the time we've covered them, it will be as if we had just awoken from a terrible dream."
...Without another word, Winston turned and left with his orders. The lambent glow from the iPad faded to black, as if it knew its work was complete.