house at road’s end page 6 it was worse than i’d expected. pulling the project, yes, but firing the whole team? why? we watched in shocked silence as roth and longmont—the only people with jobs—left the room. over the stunned silence, someone shouted, “run away, you lousy son-of-a-bitch. how am i going to feed my three kids?” as if those words had flipped a switch, everyone erupted in a mixture of angry words, tears, and one sharp bang on the wall. sixteen men with security badges entered. two of them ushered soph and me to our area. several maintenance people were already removing documents from our offices. i found my desk stripped of paper. all that remained was the vase of roses, a box of tissues, and an empty file box. the computer was gone. i began taking my awards and diplomas off the wall. the bleak room screamed failure. “i am not a failure,” i said. “excuse me?” the security agent asked. “sorry, nothing,” i said. i left my office, security guy in tow. protocols be damned. “longmont.” i strode over to where beth stood in the hall directing the confiscation of my research. “how could you let this happen? you approved this project, you authorized all the money we spent, and you saw the data. you know as well as i do, this was going to change a lot of people’s thinking.” i commanded the tears i felt not to fall. “damn you. my people. how could you?” i braced myself as a maintenance worker dumped a stack of my research into a bin marked shred. shred! i think of myself as a stoic person. one who keeps her feelings concealed. right now, they were front and center. i could not—would not hide my rage. “it’s the way it goes. your research wasn’t what those in power wanted to hear. you might try to be more in tune with the political side of things in your new job.” she took a step toward me. “you’ve always been arrogant. you think you’re the most brilliant researcher we have? you were. but, how’s that working for you now?” she motioned to a security guard. “this stack too.” to me, she said, “i’ll give you a piece of advice. leave town. your career is over here…probably