Prologue
A middle-aged woman with wild eyes and crazy hair walks up to the camera in the middle of the cement-walled room. Its damp, dark and has a general aura of mildew. This woman, Tiffany Sherwood, pressed the red record button and centers herself between the camera and a large metal table with a cloth on it to cover its contents. She takes a deep breath, grins and speaks.
"Anthony Stark." Her shrill voice begins. "You do not know who I am, but you will."
Even the rats in the corner seem to shrink in fear of this woman's presence.
"My name is Dr. Tiffany Sherwood, now that's a Ph.D., not an MD, and I am a victim of your companies' sexist policies." She shifts her body weight and straightens her back. She portrays arrogance and confidence with every movement.
"I have been a loyal employee for the past 15 years. I came to work for you directly after receiving my Ph.D. in computer science from MIT. You know MIT, right? One of the best colleges in the world, renown for the sciences, I believe you attend MIT at some point... am I correct?"
Her grin resembles the Grinch, all that's missing is the green fur.
"I have worked for your company in its coding department for the last 15 years of my life. I have given this company everything. I have no husband, no boyfriend, no children, no social life... just my work. For a long time that was enough. In fact, it would still be enough if it had not been for all the promotions I have been passed up for over the years. Now a person would expect that after 15 years of hard work they would have received a promotion or two, but I have received zero. Not for a lack of opportunity though. No, over the past 15 years I have watched as my male coworkers have received promotion after promotion. I have watched as they have gotten positions that I deserve. These state college, bachelor degree boys, children really compared to me, have been handed jobs that I deserve. Now, I am normally a quiet and patient person. However, when Thomas Lewis received a promotion over me serval months ago... that was the last straw."
Tiffany's body language has shifted from calm and collect to obvious suppressed rage. Her fists are clenched, her face is red and her voice has become harsh.
"I am sure you do not know who Tom Lewis is, but that's alright I'll tell you. Lewis was my intern 8 years ago. That's right, my boss is the kid who I taught how to use the copier 8 years ago. Do you know how embarrassing that is? He is almost half my age, has only worked here a third the time I have, and has a doctorate from Empire State University, and he has the job I should have gotten 10 years ago. This was the last straw. I marched up to my boss, Mark Wilson, and asked him why I have not gotten the promotion. Why had I spent the last 15 years benched from management."
The enraged woman steps closer to the camera, looking directly into it.
"Do you know what he said? He said I did not possess the leadership qualities of a manager. That is all he said. Quite a vague answer don't you think? Not being satisfied with his answer, I hacked into his computer to look at my file. This wasn't difficult as I have helped design the coding for all of the Stark computers for the last decade."
She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a piece of folded paper and begins to read from it.
"Tiffany Sherwood does not possess qualities of a leader. She does not command the respect of those around her as she has no strength behind her words. She is quiet and reserved and is too introverted to hold a position in management. She will do whatever she is told and does not stand up for herself. If she was put in a position of authority I do not believe she would be able to control any single person, let alone an entire group of people. I recommend she remains in her position for the rest of her time at this company. It is all she is capable of. -Ty Dawson."
She takes a few moments before speaking again.
"Ty Dawson was my boss 12 years ago. He has long since been promoted out of my division."
Tiffany shakes her head and crunches up the paper in her hands.
"This single recommendation made over a decade ago has kept me from receiving promotions that I deserved! This note made in my file years ago has kept me benched from reaching my full potential!"
Another pause and another step closer.
"Your policy for promotion, Mr. Stark, at your company discriminates against women. It states that the employee must be able to command the respect of their coworkers. How often do men respect women in a work environment? Why should women be punished and barred from a promotion when she cannot command the respect of a man with her mear presence. Shouldn't the man be the one who is penalized for not respecting their boss? Instead, it is once again the women who is punished."
Tiffany Sherwood turns her back to the camera takes a couple paces away from her original spot, stops and turns back to the camera, reorienting herself.
"As I am sure you understand Anthony, I could not just sit by and watch as this injustice continued. No, I had to take this into my own hands. I started with my new boss, Thomas Lewis. All I had to do was hack a couple cars and stoplights and little Tommy boy was all taken care of. The other 4 were just collateral damage. Wrong place wrong time. Next came Mr. "Doesn't possess leadership qualities", Mark Wilson. He actually did my dirty work for me. You see the man was a prolific gambler. All I had to do was hack into his online gambling accounts, change a couple of his bets and overnight he found himself 2.2 million dollars in debt. Like I said earlier, after that he did the rest. I hope his wife and children don't mind the debt he left them. Next came Ty Dawson, the man whose letter has left me nothing but a simple computer programmer, and nothing else. I took a couple weeks to think of his reward. After hours of debating, I finally settled on burning his apartment building down."
Tiffany describes her conquests with a simple matter a factly tone. She is completely composed. Its as if she is reading a book to a child at night.
"I am not going to bore you with the details, but long story short accelerant plus cigarettes tend to have nasty effects. As I sat and watched the building burn and watched as the people poured out of the building and fire trucks arrive to quell my handiwork, I realized I had not truly accomplished anything. A couple people were dead. That's all I had accomplished. Nothing else really. No policies were going to be changed. That's when I thought of you Mr. Stark."
She steps closer to the camera.
"You can change the way this company is run because you are the company. Although, as I watched the firemen and paramedics struggle to bring order to the beautiful chaos I created, I once again realized if I could manage to kill you, all you would be is dead. Again, nothing would change."
She pauses one last time and takes one last step toward the camera. Her evil grin is paralyzing.
"That's when, Mr. Anthony Edward Stark, my inspiration sorta just... swung in."
Tiffany Sherwood laughs as she turns and walks over to the metal table and pulls the cloth off to reveal a strapped down Spiderman.
"You know Spiderman, don't you... Iron Man?" She laughs once again before stating her plan. "I'm going to show you how powerful a woman can be Mr. Stark."