"Shanna Swendson - Enchanted, Inc" - читать интересную книгу автора (Swendson Shanna)

appointment with Rodney Gwaltney of Personnel."

He ran a thumb down a giant book that lay open on his desk and said, "Ah, yes,
Miss Chandler. We've been expecting you." He placed his palm on a crystal ball that
sat on his desk and said softly, "Rod, your visitor is here." Now, that was an
unusual intercom system. The crystal ball was held by a pewter dragon sculpture that
looked like something I'd once seen on sale at a Renaissance festival. The crystal
glowed, then the guard looked back at me, smiled, and said, "He'll be with you in a
moment."

It didn't take Rod long at all to come down the sweeping staircase at the back of the
lobby. "Katie, good to see you," he said. "Right this way." He escorted me toward
the stairs, saying as he walked, "Unfortunately, we don't have elevators in this
building. I hope you don't mind the stairs."

"My apartment's a walk-up. I think I'll manage," I said as I followed him.

If I'd been intrigued before, now I was downright curious. What kind of company
would be based in a building like this? It was a pretty safe bet that I could rule out
anything in the high-tech industry. I remembered what Owen had said the other day
about predating computers. Something financial, maybe? That wouldn't be out of the
ordinary around here. "Curiouser and curiouser," I muttered under my breath.

"What was that?" Rod asked.

"Nothing. Just feeling a bit like Alice."

We'd reached the top of the stairs and now faced a pair of doors almost as
impressive as the front doors. "Well, Alice, welcome to Wonderland," he said as the
doors swung open.

I'm not sure even Alice would have believed what I saw inside that room.




four
I felt like I'd stumbled into a Broadway-caliber production of Camelot. This was no
conference room. It was a great hall, with soaring, Gothic-arched
windows—complete with stained-glass crest insets—along one wall, banners
hanging from a wood-beamed ceiling, and a giant round table in the middle of the
room.

Seated around that table was an example of just about every weird type of person I'd
seen in New York—the kind of weird that others didn't seem to notice. There were a
few women with fairy wings, several people with pointed elf ears, and some tiny
gnomes like the figures I'd seen in parks around town and assumed were a bizarre
form of animatronic lawn decor. The gnomes sat on pillows piled high in their chairs
so they could reach the conference table, while the fairies floated inches above their
seats.