"Simply great," he answered automatically.
The older man leaned back in his chair. "Dunlop," he said, "you've been here for some time now, I believe."
"Five years this month," Arthur supplied, trying to put pride in his voice.
"Precisely," Samson agreed. "And because you have been a loyal and dependable worker," he smiled blandly, "you'll find a little something extra in your pay envelope from now on."
Arthur breathed a sudden sigh of relief. So that was it, the automatic pay increase. It meant no financial gain, of course, since he would also automatically be put in a higher tax bracket which would just offset the increase. Pay raises were for "morale" purposes only.
"Thank you, sir," Arthur said, hoping he sounded as though he meant it.
"Quite all right," Samson said, turning once more to his papers.
"Yes, sir." Arthur strode, relieved, from the office.
The rest of the workday passed uneventfully and it was time to leave. The soft hum of preparations testified to that. Plans were folded, locked securely into desks, and workers filed past probing mechanical eyes that scanned them for anything hidden. Doors whirred open electrically, and humanity poured through them into tubecars which hissed with sickening speed to the helibus terminal.