In the restroom of her office, Doctor Elaine splashed water on her face and stared at the mirror. She smiled dryly and rearranged her hair, pulled it back in a ponytail and wet her face again.
For over forty five hours she had been denied sleep and jumped from one important task to another. She usually only worked about ten hours a day so the unusual busy schedule weighed heavily on her.
Her system was already flooded with lots of coffee she had pumped herself with to stay awake and keep a clear mind. Looking into the mirror, she studied the patches around both her eyes and sighed.
She was very careful about her appearance.
Work without sleep was simply torture. The past few days had seen her eating only quick snacks between tightly packed tasks and appointments, it was finally over.
The effects of the coffee had worn considerably, Elaine stumbled out of the restroom and moved towards her desk to pick up her things and arrange her other things.
The desk was a thing of beauty, fitting for a lady as gorgeous as the doctor. It had moved in with Elaine who refused to use the old overly large desk that had been in the room and served three doctors before her.
The new desk was equipped with lots of gadgets and the latest technology available in the public market. Elaine had ordered it at the expense of the hospital she now worked with. Of course no one complained, the hospital treated their doctors very well.
The rest of the office too had been modified to suit her taste. Countless clients who held private meetings with her always commented on how it felt like they were stepping into a girly palace. Their comments always evoked a knowing smile.
'Of course. I'm not gonna spend my years working in a dump' she usually reasoned.
As she walked unsteadily towards the table, she didn't take the time to admire her little palace as she usually did, she was too tired to.
She had only picked up her bag when a part of her desk glowed green. Horrified, the doctor hastened to get her other things and run out of the office as fast as she could.
'Not another appointment, dammit' she bit her lip.
After packing, she stared at the light again, it was hard to ignore. She did a quick check and let out a sigh of relief when she saw the name, Alice.
She tapped the light and opened the message. If it was indeed another appointment she would cancel immediately after all she wanted nothing to do with Simon. She liked Alice though.
The message was short and straight to the point. Simon was sick and needed a medical report so he could skip work for a few days.
Elaine shrugged, the young General was being increasingly lazy these days.
'Do they want me to lose my license?'
Elaine knew the truth, Simon was definitely not sick, he only needed an excuse to stay home all day doing nothing. She would go over to his home later and let him have a piece of her mind, but not now.
Sleep was her top priority. In a few seconds she was walking through her door. Making the report was easy, she had already sent it to Simon's assistant. She breathed the fresh morning air outside the hospital and knew she would be asleep for many hours.
Maybe fake an illness too? She shook her head, Simon was really being a bad influence.
On her way home, Elaine thought about Simon. They were buddies since childhood and were always together.
Parents and friends had teased them, called them a couple. Elaine hadn't found this pleasant, she didn't appreciate the fact that they shared a birthday either. But Simon seemed to love it, soon he was teasing her too every time they met.
Although he was a total fool, Elaine had to admit he was exceptional, the rest of world knew that. No General younger than Simon had existed in the last millennium, he was a genius.
Being the youngest and by far the most handsome General alive, he was loved by many girls and women. Elaine hated this but the fact that he was such a loner and wanted nothing to do with these fan girls made her glad though she would never admit to it.
She hadn't seen him in months, he kept trying to contact her but she tried her best to stay away, he was just too annoying.
Eyeing the massive building a considerable distance away, she rested her head on the side of the train, the building always took her breath away whenever she saw it.
She wondered like most people, what exactly happened within those walls. It was like staring at a fortress.
It was so tall, it blotted out the sky and seemed to stretch endlessly. She had forgotten it's length but it's height, definitely three thousand feet.
It wasn't the tallest building on earth but it easily stood above and taller than all others. She imagined standing on it's highest floor on on its roof, the thought made her shudder, she was scared of heights.
From the roof, anyone would easily see the rest of the world. That was the myth but the doctor knew better. She concluded she would probably not make it past the second floor in her entire life.
'So that's where Simon works?' she thought as her eyes slowly fell closed.
When the 'Golden pheonix' train reached and cut through the massive building known as The Plot, Elaine was sound asleep on her chair. The train raced east. Little did she know that her report had just been received by the most powerful men in the land, the Generals. She would never know.
Her report was a contributing factor leading to the cancelation of the meeting of Generals. Had she known, she would boast to her colleagues and even superiors. Most doctors would.