Nick had been out of work for months. Every day he sat at his old laptop, sending applications to companies that never replied. His money was almost gone, and each morning it grew harder to believe his luck would ever change.
One day he saw an ad in the newspaper: “GlobalCore Industries needs a worker. High Salary. Travel Opportunities. Start now.”
The job sounded too good to be true. Still, he decided to apply. That afternoon, a woman from GlobalCore called him and asked him to come for an interview the following day.
When Nick arrived at the big office the next morning, the tall building looked dark. Inside, it was quiet and clean. At reception, a woman smiled and said, “Hi Nick, we’ve been waiting for you,” even though he did not give his name. Nick thought that this was very strange.
The interview was strange. A man in a black suit asked only a few straightforward questions. He didn’t look much at Nick’s papers. At the end, he smiled coldly and said, “You are exactly what we want. Welcome to GlobalCore.”
The welcome meeting was short. A speaker talked about “a new future”, but the words were not clear. The contract worried Nick: no fixed hours; he must always be ready for work, and he must never tell anyone, even family, about his job. But the salary was very high. With nervous hands, he signed.
On his first day, he was given an office in the basement. There were no windows, only bright lights. His job was to “translate” papers with numbers and names. They did not make sense. When Nick asked what they meant, his boss only said, “Do your job and don’t ask questions.”
The other workers looked afraid. They spoke only in low voices. Cameras watched Nick all the time. At night, when he left the building, he saw lights still on in the top floors, with people moving inside.
One evening, Nick found an open paper on his desk. It had names of people, cities, and countries. Some names had one word in red: “GONE”.
Nick’s hands felt cold. Now he understood. GlobalCore was not making the world better. It was controlling it.
The next morning, Nick tried to quit before things became more complicated. “Leaving already?” his boss asked with a thin smile.
“I don’t think this job is for me,” Nick said.
The man closed the door and locked it. “You don’t leave GlobalCore, Nick. You stay. You work. That is the deal.”
Nick’s heart beat fast. He saw the truth: this was not a new chance. It was a prison.
And there was no way out.
📒 Key vocabulary
- laptop – a small computer you can carry
- ad – a short text that tells people about a job or product
- salary – money you earn from your job
- reception – the front desk in an office or hotel
- contract – a paper you sign to agree to work rules
- basement – the underground floor of a house or building
- floors – levels in a building
- quit – stop working in a job
- lock – close something so that it cannot be opened
- deal – an agreement between two people or groups
- heart – the part of the body that pumps blood
- prison – a jail; a place where people must stay as punishment
🤔 Comprehension quiz
How much of this story did you understand? Test yourself with this easyEnglish quiz!
Leave a Reply