Acts of Kindness Read online

  ‘Well yes, quite.’ She smiled. ‘As The Librarian suggests, if our operations were public we would be subject to regulation. We would have to defend the use of every piece of monitoring equipment and every iota of data. It would be impractical. The amount of data we gather is enormous, and growing all the time. You can see some of that for yourself here in the library. Every kindness perpetrated by OAK is recorded on the page of a book somewhere in this room. Up until 2003, that is, when we became 100 per cent digital.’

  The Librarian’s shoulders slumped and he snatched the book out of her hands, dropped it on the floor and manhandled it back into its case.

  ‘Some things are still done the proper way though,’ he announced as he resumed his seat and opened a drawer. Yet another beige book was produced and opened. ‘Everyone who has ever worked for the Institute gets entered into the Register of Names.’ He stabbed the page with a thick, yellow-tipped finger. ‘Including you.’

  He reached across the desk to where a fountain pen stood upright in a silver holder. As he drew his hand back it caught Bella’s glass and knocked it over. Isadora flinched backwards and Bella whisked the book out of the path of the liquid. The Librarian swore, pulled a filthy-looking handkerchief out of his pocket and started mopping up.

  Bella had accidentally closed the book as she grabbed it, and now began to leaf through to find the right page. The pages were full of uniform columns of handwritten names and dates. Near the middle of the book, her eye was caught by a crossed-out name.

  Teddy Thatcher.

  The Librarian stuffed the damp handkerchief back in his pocket and held his hand out for the book. Putting it back down on the desk he refreshed himself with another measure and added a splash to Bella’s glass before performing the ceremony of inscribing her name underneath that of the last member to join OAK.

  Bella was biting down on the inside of her lip where the skin was rough from being gripped between her teeth when she was anxious. One part of her brain was just about following what was going on in the room. The Librarian was producing more artefacts such as the first photographic record of an act of kindness. Isadora was providing the commentary in the form of more potted history of OAK.

  Why is Teddy’s name crossed out? Bella thought. According to Angela, he disappeared without a trace. Which meant that no one knew if he would be coming back or not. But maybe someone does know?

  She shook herself. This is ridiculous, she thought. She knew AC now – even if she’d only recently been introduced to OAK. It was staffed by normal people – perhaps unusually bright and capable people, but normal nonetheless. Their work was above board. OAK’s whole ethos was about helping people. It wouldn’t go around knocking off its employees. For a split second, she considered asking Isadora about the crossing-out. There would doubtless be a straightforward explanation and she could stop her imagination going into overdrive. Perhaps that was the best approach.

  Then everything went silent. The core of her brain had relied on the superficial part to monitor what was going on – and it had let her down. Isadora and The Librarian were watching her. Someone had asked her a question, but she had no idea what it was.

  Putting a limp hand to her head, Bella murmured, ‘I’m feeling a little faint. Perhaps it was the whisky, so early in the day, I’m not used to it.’

  She saw Isadora flick a puzzled glance at her undrunk glass. The Librarian picked up the decanter.

  ‘Or ’praps you need a drop more to settle your nerves?’ When she shook her head, he set about settling his own instead.

  Isadora stood up. ‘It’s time for the OAK debrief.’ She performed something between a nod and a bow as she thanked The Librarian, who returned the gesture before slumping back into the position they had discovered him in.

  As they passed through the shelves towards the door Bella glanced back in time to see his eyelids droop and close.

  The ‘debrief’ was the ten o’clock gathering that had piqued Bella’s curiosity in her first week. It was held in an enormous underground conference hall which had a square stage jutting out from the back wall and banks of seating on the other three sides. A vast screen covered the wall above the stage, onto which as they entered a video was being projected, showing the interior of a packed Tube train pulling into a station. A young man, wearing jeans which threatened to drop to the floor at any second, got up from a seat and began to push his way through the crush. As he neared the exit there was an exclamation and a woman tried to grab his arm. She missed but called out and a man further down the carriage stepped in front of the boy, blocking his exit. The woman squeezed her way through and handed the boy a wallet. He looked shocked, felt his back pocket and said a hurried thanks before jumping off as the warning signal sounded and the doors began to close.

  Ben stepped onto the stage. ‘As you can see, the fashion for wearing jeans slung low is continuing to cause young men to lose phones and wallets from their back pockets. Observe and Deploy teams, please remain vigilant.’

  Over the past three months, Bella had become less intimidated by Ben. Now, seeing him give a presentation in front of what looked like several thousand people, she was reminded of her first impression of him, the aura of authority. There was no sign of nerves, he could have been having a chat with an old friend rather than addressing what looked like the entire population of a small town. He was someone you would want on your side in a crisis; but also someone you wouldn’t want working against you. She’d seen a ruthless streak in him at times when he was working on projects that he was passionate about. Maybe that was what made him so flipping attractive. He was an unknown quantity. Plus, he was incredibly good at what he did. Bella had always found that appealing.

  At university, she’d developed an embarrassing crush on a middle-aged tutor with a paunch because of his startling intelligence and the way he communicated his passion for the Romantic poets. If excellence in one’s field could outweigh age and paunches, what might it do for someone as attractive as Ben?

  Bella preferred not to think about it, because whenever she did, the annoying, sensible part of her piped up that a) he was her boss; b) he seemed to be a stranger to self-doubt, whereas she was in thrall to it; c) she didn’t even know if he was single, married, gay, straight or what; d) he’d never shown the slightest romantic interest in her; e) her emotions were still fragile from the breakdown of her marriage… This went on through the whole alphabet.

  Ben left the stage and Oscar took his place. Now there was someone who was on her wavelength. They had the same sense of humour. He was reassuringly human, with foibles and lapses in confidence. Oscar was talking the audience through some figures. She recognised the software they used to monitor social media, but not the figures he was sharing. There were millions of Twitter accounts being crunched, sliced and diced before her eyes.

  ‘This month, OAK-backed Twitter accounts have followed six million new Twitter users,’ Oscar was saying. ‘We’ve retweeted over seventeen million tweets. We’ve been responsible for thirty per cent of trending topics.’ As the list of topics streamed downward from the ceiling, she realised OAK had been pushing positive search terms up the trending list at the expense of anything vicious or abusive. There was a spontaneous burst of applause. Oscar looked pleased in spite of himself as he acknowledged the audience’s appreciation and returned to his seat at the edge of the stage.

  A further hour of presentations elapsed as different departments shared the month’s successes and failures (or ‘opportunities for improvement’ as they were labelled). Bella only realised Isadora was no longer beside her an instant before she stepped onto the stage. She was greeted with rapturous applause.

  Holding up her hand for quiet, she waited until the noise had died down. ‘Thank you. And thank you to everyone who has presented today. Before we reveal the Kindness of the Month Award, I have two matters to share with you.’ Under the bright lights, she looked like a pristine, silver-haired doll. Bella felt one of her urges coming over h
er to do something to break up the symmetry, maybe muss up the helmet-like hair or smudge the perfect bow of coral lipstick. She screwed her face up as she mentally defaced the unsuspecting woman.

  ‘The first matter,’ Isadora was continuing, ‘is to welcome a new member of the OAK family.’ The world around Bella went white as she was picked out in a beam of light and her image was transmitted to the room via the big screen. A thousand people were hushed into silence as a giant image of her gurning face hovered above the stage. The gurn was replaced by a look of blank horror, which in turn was replaced by an unconvincing smile of gratification.

  Isadora appeared to have noticed nothing as she pressed on. ‘Many of you will know Bella Black from her work at Acorn Consulting. From next week she will also be operating as part of OAK.’ She paused to allow polite applause to ripple around the vast space. ‘The second matter refers to our expansion plans. I understand there have been rumours that the short hiatus in new office openings a few months ago indicated a change in strategy. I am delighted to tell you that these rumours are false. We are forging ahead and will have completed our initial wave of US office openings by the end of this year, several months ahead of schedule!’

  There was applause and cheers from around the auditorium. She allowed it play out for a few moments and then raised a hand for silence, nodding and smiling.

  ‘Thank you. I’d now like to invite our chief people officer, Catherine Knight, to join me on stage to announce the winner of the Kindness of the Month.’

  Seeing them standing side by side, Bella was struck by the similarity between the two women. Not in looks, so much, but Catherine’s sleek chignon was her generation’s version of Isadora’s over-styled coiffure and, like Isadora, everything she wore was neat and tasteful. They had the same air of professionalism and reserve. Bella had a vision of them rolling off the conveyor belt at Businesswomen R Us Inc, Marks One and Two, with a million identikit models trooping off the production line in their wake.

  ‘Thank you, Isadora.’ Catherine smiled at the other woman and then turned to address the audience. ‘This month’s award goes to a very special team. Let’s take a look at the footage. This was filmed in Southampton earlier this month.’

  The big screen showed a busy road, with a couple of pedestrians walking along the pavement. One of the women was eating what looked like crisps or nuts from a packet as she chatted to her friend – or perhaps her daughter, mused Bella, there was a resemblance between the two. Something was wrong, Bella realised as the older woman stopped walking. The packet had fallen to the floor, the woman who had been eating was leaning forward coughing, the other woman slapping her on the back. Even though she was convinced this story must have a happy ending Bella found herself holding her breath, nails digging into her palms as her fists clenched. In between slaps the younger woman was trying to flag down passing cars but the traffic continued to stream past. And then an angel appeared, borne not on clouds but in a blue Fiat Panda. The little car pulled up at the side of the road, disgorging a middle-aged woman in denim who strode across to the choking woman, performed the Heimlich manoeuvre, watched the obstruction fly from throat to pavement, returned to her car and drove away. The two women watched her go, open-mouthed.

  ‘What makes this kindness of particular note,’ Catherine told the crowd as the image of the two pedestrians froze on the screen behind her, ‘is that the agent you saw was off-duty. Guy Bredon from the Observe & Deploy team saw the incident and realised that Shannon Clarke, who a few minutes earlier had come off a long shift, was the nearest agent to the scene. He sent her an urgent alert and we’ve all seen what happened next. Moments like this remind us how powerful kindness can be and the impact OAK has on the world.’ She gazed out into the room for a moment or two, not at the audience, it seemed to Bella, but through them and beyond to where years’ worth of kindness-related memories unfurled across her line of sight. ‘Don’t forget, all winners of the Kindness of the Month will be eligible for the annual Elizabeth Faye Memorial prize. The prize recognises the year’s most impactful kindness and will be announced at our Christmas party.’ A polite smattering of applause greeted this announcement, while Isadora and Catherine smiled at each other. ‘Guy and Shannon,’ Catherine called out, ‘please come and up and accept your award.’

  When the award had been handed over, Isadora picked up the reins again.

  ‘Thank you. And now, I am delighted to be able to unveil the kindness total for the month.’ The projection displayed a number with so many noughts it struggled to fit on the screen. ‘That’s a point three per cent increase from this time last year.’ She raised her hands and clapped towards the audience, turning to acknowledge each sector of the room like a singles champion at Wimbledon. The audience clapped enthusiastically back.

  Isadora allowed them a few moments of self-congratulation before announcing, ‘Time for the US reports.’

  She stepped off the stage and attention turned to the screen, on which appeared a woman with very short caramel-coloured hair who introduced herself as Theresa Loomier. She proceeded to report activities in North America, where kindness figures were lower as the operation was still in its infancy compared with the UK. But to Bella, who was still getting used to the idea of OAK, the thought of all those agents out there, undercover, both in the UK and across the pond was proving to be hard to take in. One day, she presumed, she’d be as blasé about this as everyone around her. But for now, her brain felt under attack and as the meeting wrapped up, she stumbled out towards the oasis of normality which was the staff canteen with a feeling of relief.

  Chapter Six

  In the dining room, Bella grabbed a salad and a roll from the buffet and headed to their usual table. The marketing team and Catherine were waiting for her with a large cake, ‘Congratulations!’ piped across the middle. They gave her a round of applause as she approached and her cheeks reddened.

  ‘Thanks, everyone, that’s really kind of you,’ she said, pressing her hands to her burning cheeks. ‘You shouldn’t have got a cake, gosh, I wasn’t expecting that.’

  ‘It’s a tradition in the team,’ said Ben. He’d reverted to his usual self after the formal tone of her end-of-probation meeting. ‘Lauren makes them.’

  ‘Wow.’ Bella was impressed. The cake was piped with tiny perfect roses along the edges and intricate latticework on the sides. Lauren looked pleased but waved a dismissive hand.

  ‘It’s also tradition to take the newcomer for a celebratory after-work drink,’ Ben said as they resumed their seats. ‘If you’re free tonight?’

  Bella mentally checked her social calendar and mentally confirmed that it was a desert. ‘I’d love to,’ she said.

  ‘There are so many things to celebrate, after all,’ Oscar added. ‘You must be the first-ever new employee to do a passable impression of the Incredible Hulk while being introduced to a large contingent of the UK staff.’

  ‘Oh my god,’ she sputtered as they all burst out laughing. ‘Don’t! What an absolute nightmare! Someone could have warned me that was going to happen, I would have made sure I was looking suitably bland.’

  ‘I don’t think anyone realised your default expression when watching presentations was quite so terrifying,’ Oscar drawled. ‘Otherwise we would have done.’

  She started to attempt an explanation, realised it wouldn’t go well and changed the subject. ‘There were so many people there today. How many are there on the UK payroll?’

  ‘There are around 200,000 UK members of OAK,’ Catherine told her. ‘Five thousand of them are based here at HQ. Nearly everyone else is in the field.’

  Bella shoved a stray piece of rocket back in her mouth before responding. ‘In the field?’

  Catherine nodded as she peeled a clementine. Bella rarely saw her eat anything but salad or fruit. ‘Field agents. They work for OAK but hold down full-time jobs in areas where the potential for kindness is maximised. You’ll find a lot of nurses are OAK agents. They get a lot of opportunit
ies to do small kindnesses for people. Teachers, too.’

  ‘Mmm,’ agreed Oscar, ‘but you’ll also find them in places where kindness might be in short supply. They make up the shortfall. Or places where you might be in more need of kindness than usual.’

  ‘Such as?’ Bella was regretting having the seeded roll. She was trying to speak without opening her mouth too much in case she had poppy seeds stuck between her teeth. She probed her mouth with her tongue, located one wedged in a gap and tried to subtly dislodge it.

  ‘Such as DIY stores,’ Oscar replied. ‘If you’ve ever stood looking at the rows of things that claim to do what they say on the tin and you’re desperately trying to work out if you need eggshell, satin, gloss or whatever, it’s probably an agent that’s saved you. IKEA, too,’ he added. ‘People are always in need of kindness in there. As well as the field agents there are also branch agents. They don’t know they’re working for OAK. We plant HR professionals like Catherine here in large organisations to hire and train people to be kinder than your average Joe.’

  ‘Public transport is another key location for us,’ said Ben, ‘as you’ll have seen in the briefing today. We have a large concentration of agents working in London on the Tube. It’s a technique known as “PH neutral”. Where there are high levels of unfriendliness and aggression, we introduce more than average numbers of agents to try to bring the atmosphere back into balance.’

  Bella had stuffed the last bit of roll in her mouth and couldn’t reply other than to pull an enquiring face.

  Oscar said, ‘As an ex-Londoner, you’ll know you don’t get much more aggressive and unfriendly than your average London commuter.’

  She swallowed her mouthful in a hurry. ‘That’s a bit harsh!’

  Oscar shrugged. ‘The stats don’t lie. Now. More importantly, we’re all gagging for some cake. What are you waiting for?’ He shoved the cake a little closer to her and passed her the knife.