It was 8:30. He should be here be now. Damn it to hell, maybe he wasn’t going to show. Damn it.

Councilman Steven Longham has anger issues, he knew that, and he’d be working on it, he really had. But his contact should have been here thee quarters of an hour ago. Maybe he really wasn’t coming. If not, thought the councilman, I can kiss goodbye to that new Merc!

Wait! There was someone there. In the conference room that adjoined his office. The figure was wearing a hat and a dark coat, and in the dim light he could not see if it was the person he was here to meet or not. But he had better go and see.

Opening the door, Longham stepped inside.

“Bill?”, he asked the darkness.

The figure stood up from where it had been seated at the end of the long conference table. The hat was removed, and Longham could now see a young woman standing before him.

“Not what you were expecting, councilman?”, asked the woman. Longham’s face must have betrayed his surprise.

She reached into a pocket and produced a badge.

“Special Agent Renna Finnes, FBI. You have the right to remain silent.”

***
Longham wasn’t sure how much time had passed. Hours, maybe days. He had been unconscious most of that time, in the darkness for the rest of it. but he could no longer feel his arms and legs. Something waa going on, and what ever it was, he didn’t like it.

***
Emily picked up the box from the stockroom and carried it out into the shop. Finding the right place for these items in question, she set the box down, knelt beside it and smoothly cut the box open with a pair of scissors. She started stacking the shelves with the cartons.

Out in the light at last, Longham could see what was written on the cartons. “Cheese and salad sanwiches”. He was a sandwich?! At that moment, Emily picked him up and put him on the shelf with the other sandwich cartons. He saw her hand coming towards him, then felt himself whizzing through the air to land with a soft thud on the shelf. Something very strange was going on here.

Emily finished stacking the sandwiches on the shelves and stood up to go about her other duties. She had just got done in time. It was nearly time for the lunch hour rush.

Longham was noticing that the shop around him was becoming much busier. ‘Not good news for me’, he thought. At that moment, a woman came towards the shelves he was on. She looked Chinese, about 25 and wore a pair of jeans and a tight black top. Longham suddenly had a thought of this woman taking a bite into him and an involuntary inner shudder went through his mind. There had to be a way out of here.

The woman reached out her hand towards the shelves. It looked to Longham as if she were eyeing him. But then she reached up and took a carton from just above him. Relief surged over him. But he knew as he watched the woman walk away from him (nice ass by the way, he couldn’t help noticing) that it would soon be his turn.

***
Abigail, an attractive 26 year old blonde, worked in a nearby office building. She and the other girls who worked in her department took it in turns to go down to the shop to fetch lunch. Today was her turn. She’d just finished taking down everyone’s choices for the day and was walking towards the elevator. There were four others in her department, Ellen – the new girl in the office and the youngest at 21, a rather cute brunette, Natasha, 28, Russian and also blonde, Elaine, an overweight 30 year old brunette, and Joanna, a fiery 25 year old red head.

Abigail pressed the button for the lobby. She was headed for that shop on the corner that sold those good sandwiches. She re-read the list she’d made. 1 pate. 2 egg mayo. And 2 cheese salad.

***
Longham was starting to panic. He’d been trapped in this carton, sitting on this shelf for what seemed like forever (though the rational part of his mind told him it couldn’t have been that long), he was starting to feel claustrophobic (even though he’d realized by now he didn’t need to breath any more) and any moment, some woman was going to buy him and eat him for her lunch! This is insane, he told himself.

Just then, a dark haired lady of maybe 38 years old wearing a dark business suit entered his field of vision. She was talking on a cell phone, though he had no idea what she was saying. Probably to do with the packaging, he figured. She seemed to be pondering her choice carefully. Her hand was coming closer. Closer. Then at the last moment, she grabbed the sandwich just next to his carton and walked away.

Longham’s already frayed nerves couldn’t take much more of this.

Some time had passed, and Longham was started to wish some chick would just buy him and get it over with, the waiting was getting too much for him. He was already sorely regretting his corrupt dealings, but he was sure he’d come to regret them even more in time. He’d had a number of further near misses, just now a schoolgirl of about 16 had almost bought him, and just after that a cute brunette had nearly made him her lunch.

Just as he caught himself wishing again that it would just happen, it did. A young blonde woman in smart business clothes picked him up and put him in her basket. At first, he was almost relieved; at least the woman who did it was attractive. But then he saw a number of other sandwich cartons in there with him, obviously she was also buying lunch for a number of other women. His uncertain wait was not over yet.

He felt his carton being put on a conveyor belt, and a moment later a pretty checkout girl scanning him and putting him in a bag. The other cartons were put in with him and the blonde picked it up and off she went. It seemed like it was some time before the woman put the bag down again. Longham heard the noises of traffic, then a door opening, an elevator, and finally the sounds of an office, phones ringing, people talking, computers humming.

The woman put her hand in the bag, took out a carton and threw it to one of her co workers. Then another. Then she put one on her desk, and it was just Longham’s carton and one other in the bag.

It was at that moment he heard her voice call out “Now who was it who wanted the cheese salad ones?”