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    "This very well may be the first New Year's Eve party that I have ever enjoyed," Doctor Hans Caldon thought to himself as he waited for the elevator to reach the twenty-first floor.  Twice on the trip up Doctor Caldon considered going back to the lab and double checking to make sure that everything was ready for his New Year's surprise. He knew he did not have the time.  "Besides, Wayne should be monitoring the system for me."
    As the elevator neared its destination Caldon looked into the mirror that covered the back of the elevator.  He picked off any hairs that were on his tuxedo, smoothed out any wrinkles and straightened all the buttons.  He had spent a lot on his tux.  He was going to look impressive when he delivered his ultimatum to the world.
     He had spent most of the last few days rehearsing his speech.  He had figured out what posture to use, where his hands should be and what tone of voice would be most effective.  Now he just had to wait a few more hours for all his hard work to pay off.
    The elevator doors opened to reveal a large group of people standing around talking.  Caldon produced his most charming smile.  The Doctor gracefully moved trough the crowd nodding his head to those he knew, most of whom he despised.  After years of dealing with them Caldon had become good at hiding his disgust.
    "Just wait. At the stroke of midnight you will all be bowing before me, hoping that I might be generous enough to let you serve me.
    "After so many years of being made fun of for my ideas.  You all laughed at me because me designs were too far ahead of their time.  Well that will all change tonight.  When I take over the world you will all be asking for forgiveness."
    Caldon spent the next few hours in conversations which he considered pointless with people he felt were beneath his notice.  He knew that these parties were only for show and had no relevance to his life. This would be the first time anything good came of such an event.
    Many of the other guests were considered Caldon's equals by themselves and the world, but Caldon knew better.  Though he had gone to school with many of them and worked on projects with most of them at one time or another, they were all inferior to him.  He knew that they just needed to be reminded of this fact.
    Caldon looked at his watch. "Just twenty more minutes and the world is mine."
    "If it isn't Hans Caldon," Jake Phillips remarked as he neared Caldon.  "I haven't seen you since you got that huge order from me way back."
    "Not him," Thought Caldon. "Hello, Jake."
    Phillips was a man out of his element.  Not bright in any sense of the word, lacking taste which was obvious by his off colored suit, who's only connection to the party goers was that he sold computers.
    "What did you need all that stuff for anyway?"
    "Just a special project I've been working on."
    "Well I just hope it ain't too important."
    "Why's that?"
    "Well I just found out that a lot of the chips I'd been selling weren't fixed for this whole Y2K thing.  I'll be more than willing to take them back tomorrow.  But knowing how intelligent you are, I'm sure you've put in whatever back-ups were needed to get past this problem."
    Doctor Hans Caldon stood motionless for a moment.
    "Doctor?  You Okay?  If this causes you any real problems I can send over a couple of my guys tomorrow to help you fix whatever problems that this might have caused."
    "No, that's all right," Caldon said, his eyes were wide with shock. "I'd better go and call my assistant."
    "Okay, Doc."
    Caldon moved with in ungraceful rush.  Tripping over a chair, he fell into one of the waiters and got caviar all over his nice clean shirt.
    "Damn," he mumbled as he tried to wipe the caviar off.
    As Caldon dashed for the courtesy phone he noticed that a young lady was already there using it.
 "Excuse me miss, I need to use the phone.  It is an emergency."
    "So is this..No, just some joker trying to get the phone. Once you have gotten the sauce to a boil you are going to need to.."
    "I really need to use the phone."
    When the lady made no reply, Caldon moved his hand to hang the phone up.
    Before Caldon's hand could touch the receiver the lady threw her cup of hot coffee in his face.
    "Ahhgg,"  Caldon growled as he grabbed a bunch of napkins
and started to wipe his face.
    Caldon looked back at his watch.  "Ten more minutes to go.
I'll just go a floor down and use the phone there."
    In his rush Caldon's jacket got snagged on a potted cactus, causing the back to rip along the seam. He gave a slight moan of annoyance as he reached the elevator.
    Impatiently Caldon waited for the elevator door to open.  When it did he rushed past the two people getting off and hurried them out.  He hit the button marked twenty and started pacing around in a small circle as the elevator went down.
    After a few seconds the elevator went dark and stopped.
    "What the hell!"
    Caldon grabbed the emergency phone.
    As soon as he heard someone pick up at the other end Caldon started talking. "What is going on here?  My elevator has stopped."
    "Well, it seems like the owners of the building forgot to have the computer that runs the elevators fixed for the whole year two-thousand thing.  All the elevators just went dead."
    "But it's not yet midnight."
    "Yeah, we think the clocks must have been running fast or something. We'll get you out of there as soon as possible.  It should only be about a half an hour or so."
    "No you don't understand, I need to get to a phone and call my assistant."
    "Sorry, but that elevator ain't moving till we get the whole system rebooted."
    "Then you'll just have to connect me with an operator.  I'll make my call from here."
    "That phone can only call from there to here."
    "No, you don't understand.  If I don't make this call all my plans will be ruined."
    "Sorry, but I got other things to worry about right now.  Just sit tight and we'll have you out there ASAP."
    "No, wait..." Caldon yelled as the phone clicked.
    Caldon yanked the phone out of the wall and threw it across the elevator. He then punched the elevator's control panel with all his might.
    "Owe!"  Caldon looked at his fist, which was now bleeding.
    His hit had caused the control paneling to fall open, revealing the wiring.
    In a fit of anger Caldon reached in and pulled out a handful of wires.  Sparks flew and Caldon's jacket caught fire.
    After several minutes of rolling around on the elevator floor, Caldon rose to a sitting position.  He heard cheers from above him then looked at his watch to see that it was now midnight.
    In the dimness of the emergency lights, Caldon stood and looked at himself in the elevator's mirror.  His hair was messed up and his face stained and burnt. His beautiful tuxedo was now burnt, ripped, and stained.  He took off his jacket and wrapped his cut hand in it.  Caldon then climbed into the far corner of the smoke filled elevator and cried.
 

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