e outer office left
in embarrassment and then was stupid enough to tell her in front of
witnesses that the hearing panel was only a formality and that she
would be terminated anyway."

The VP shrugged, obviously irritated. "Admittedly, he pushed too hard.
It came as a shock to him that she would refuse his demand that she
resign. He lost his cool and tried to bully her into it. He's new to
this, taking over as he did such a relatively short time ago from
Jimbo."

"Well it does appear that he had problems with her. I do see that she
appears to have a propensity for causing discomfort, but other women,
and men too for that matter, have been troublesome. Why the excessive
anger toward her?"

"First off, Jonathan, the anger is not excessive, it is justified,"
Henry retorted testily. "Yes, we've had critics, annoying critics, but
when we offered them some redress, they were grateful. She, on the
other hand, considered every concession we made as 'a day late and a
dollar short'--utterly maddening! And what really frosts everyone's
ass is that she is just as recalcitrant when she argues on behalf of
someone else. Who the hell is she to care if someone feels unfairly
treated by us?"

"Well, of course I'm still using the only frame of reference that I
have which is her personnel file and from what I can see she was as
much 'sinned against as sinner'."

"That might have some validity up to the point where she openly and
publicly challenged the president of this university," retorted Henry
waving the file he was holding in Jonathan's face for emphasis, "but
not anymore."

"You mean she picked on The Pope, Henry?"

Chapter 3

John T. Pope had been president of Belmont University for nearly twelve
years. Because of his belief in his own infallibility, he soon became
referred to as The Pope. He greatly increased the senior
administrative staff which now occupied one whole wing of the
administration building. This wing was known as the Vatican and when a
person spoke of kissing the Pope's ring, it was well understood what
part of the Pope's anatomy they were referring to. The slew of vice
presidents, associate vp's and assistant vp's around the president were
soon called the Vee's. Most people believed Vee was short for vice
president but insiders knew it really stood for vestigial virgins.

He located the personnel office close by the Vatican. It was the
administration's muscle and the buffer betwe