New York, Lyndon building. 31/10/2012. 10:15.
In the CEO office located on the top floor of the tower, Nathaniel's grandfather, Robert Lyndon was busy signing papers. As the CEO, the thing that he was doing the most was signing paperwork and it was kind of tiring.
"Don't forget father, we need to be at a meeting downtown at 4PM." Mary said, taking each paper once signed and putting one which wasn't on his desk.
Making sure paperwork was carried out was not normally Mary's job but the character of her father was legendary by now and she was the only one who could talk back to him and in certain measure, force him to do things. Like the paperwork right now. Before she came along, it was not surprising to have two weeks of backlog because he hated doing paperwork.
"You know, you are supposed to take work away from me, not add more onto my plate." Robert grumbled coldly.
Mary did not even dignify that with an answer and kept putting paper on his desk. Near the door, Jean and Amal were watching the show with a hint of amusement in their eyes even if the expression on their face was stoic. They were here to talk about the next trip in terms of security viewpoint but in the meantime were happily waiting for him to finish. Seeing that his daughter did not answer him, he looked at his bodyguards for a second.
"So, how is the pet project of my annoying grandson going so far?" Robert asked.
He had tasked Jean to observe how Michael Campbell was doing while Amal was keeping his eyes on the hacker. Even if he respected the opinion of his grandson, he was still young and too trusting with a criminal. Robert did not have that weakness and would not endanger his company for that.
"So far I'm satisfied with Campbell. He is hard working, serious, competent and very loyal. I was actually going to put him as the personal security detail of your daughter effective next monday." Jean answered first making Mary frown when she heard him speak like she was not even there.
"His loyalty is not that surprising. My grandson is still inexperienced and too giving but saving that man's family was a sure thing to win him over." Robert nodded.
Jean did not agree with what his friend just said but he knew better than trying to change his mind. Robert was of the stubborn type and the more you tried to convince him of something, the more he was holding on to his belief. The only thing that Jean could hope for was that Robert finally noticed how extraordinary his grandson was and accepted it.
"What about the hacker?" He added, looking at Amal.
"I put a tracker on her work computer like you asked me to and I observe everything that she did. Like you know Nathaniel put her on security protection. She is not the best hacker I have ever seen but she's not that far off either. She has not even been here for two weeks and she already patched a huge number of security breaches. She could very well have saved the company millions in terms of confidential information." Amal answered in his usual deadpan voice.
Hearing the answer of Amal, Robert knitted his brow while Mary turned to hide her pleased smile. She was not happy when she learned that Nathaniel had recruited two nobodies into the company but now that it seemed he was right, she could not help but be proud of him.
That's when the door of the office of the CEO opened without warning. Amal and Jean had their gun in their hands in a second when a playful voice was heard.
"I come in peace gentlemen." Nathaniel said with a big smile on his face.
Seeing it was him, Amal and Jean put their gun back to their holster and nodded to him as a welcoming sign. Entering the office, he was followed closely by a cute looking brown haired girl with her head lowered to the floor. Looking disapprovingly at her son, Mary was curious about the cute girl behind him. Her hair was impeccably dressed and she had slight make up on her face which complimented her cute appearance. The thing that was surprising was the fact that she was wearing a beautiful Prada dress and Jimmy Choo heels.
"Nathaniel can you stop entering my office without even knocking? This is my company, not your backyard." Robert said with an angry voice.
"Sorry grandpa, no can't do, it's just too fun." He smiles silly, impervious to his grandfather's anger.
"Who is the girl?" Mary asked, curiously.
"This is Lina Campbell. She has a gift for us." Nathaniel answered, pushing Lina in front of him.
Looking at his grandson with piercing eyes, Robert finally sighed and looked at the shy girl in front of him.
"What do you have for me, Miss Campbell?" Robert asked with a severe expression on his face.
"Sir, I did… find… euh thing… on computer.." She stuttered in a barely audible voice before Nathaniel put a hand on her shoulder.
"Lina breath and calm yourself. Try speaking a little louder too, we need to be able to hear you." Nathaniel said encouragingly, smiling at her.
Seeing her scared eyes and her shy demeanor, Nathaniel knew she could not do it. The severe expression on his grandfather's face was scaring her too much to even talk. Giving her a comforting look, Nathaniel sighed slightly.
"We will need to work on that." He said, before turning to his grandfather and mother.
Explaining to them what Lina had found in their system, the two of them got madder the more they listened to what Nathaniel was saying.
"I presume that they did it because they get a bonus if there are no intrusions into our system each year." Nathaniel finished talking.
"Close enough, their contract says that if an intrusion is detected, they will get a penalty of fifty thousand dollars. On a four hundred thousand dollar contract a year, it's not that much but I take it they did not want people to know that their security was garbage." His mother said coldly. As the one who had handled the case and fired the employee in question, she was the angriest here.
Robert wanted to talk about what they were going to do but could not as there was still a stranger in the room. Looking at the shy girl in question, his composure softened a little.
"Miss Campbell, I was wrong about you. Thank you for your good work."
"Is the dress and shoes that you are wearing from the fifth floor?" Mary asked.
The fifth floor of the building was a floor dedicated to making video clips. It was like an extremely reduced Hollywood with cameras, scenes and especially a huge wardrobe. That's where Nathaniel had brought Lina to shower, then put on makeup and dressed up by a fashion artist working there.
"Euh yes madam… I was going to give them back…" She answered shyly.
"Don't bother, take this as a gift for your hard work. Moreover, the dress suits you quite well." Mary smiled.
Lina was going to object as the dress and heels that she was wearing right now were worth more than five thousand dollars when Nathaniel put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.
"Jean, can you please task one of your men to drive back Miss Campbell to her home? She worked all night and needs some sleep."
"Of course sir, miss Campbell follow me please."
With a last nod of encouragement, Lina followed Jean out of the office. Once they were alone, Nathaniel finally dropped his smiling expression, his blue eyes turning cold. The truth was that he was by far the angriest person in the room. Ruining a man's life for just ten thousand dollars was way past his bottom line. Nathaniel would always be nice and kind to everybody but doing something against his family or their company and he would become even more implacable than his grandfather.
"I have an idea on how we can deal with this." Nathaniel said, locking eyes with his grandfather.
"Alright, what do you need?"
"Five of our best lawyers, one banalised van and your two personal bodyguards."
"What do you have in mind?" Mary asked intrigued.
Nathaniel started to explain what he was going to do.