There was a slight problem, which I realised as I stood there. I was expected to know my way around and go to the office, but unfortunately I had no clue. I was asked by a young woman in her twenties, who seemed to be an intern who was wearing a provocative make up and a way too much graceful attire.
"Why...aren't you going?"She asked me nervously
I shot her a death glare to maintain my facade, but at the same time I wish I had asked her where his office was. Out of nowhere Ken appeared and motioned me to follow him.
Wait? Was he gone? I followed him nonetheless. It seemed he had followed him to his office earlier, anticipating my current confusion. Oliver followed me as well.
I went back to my office to search for my files, but unfortunately they were nowhere to be found. It took me really long time to find them. One would think that the current project would be a priority, but the folder was shoved into the lowermost drawer. Without further ado, I went to his office. If he asked me to brief about this project I was screwed. I hope he just shouts at me or something.
"Sir?" I asked him, before entering. He just motioned me to enter but he kept quiet.
I was standing in the middle of the room, waiting for him to ask something, or say something at least. It was taking too long so I started looking around. His office was well managed, it was simply bland, but the files and everything were arranged neatly and efficiently.
This guy looked younger than what I imagined a superior to be, in fact he seemed even younger than me. How was this guy my boss again? I looked at the name tag in his desk where it was written:
"JEREMY S. LANGSTON"
'SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT'
So he was family? I hated people showing authority when they have not even earned it. It was taking so long that I got frustrated, so I could not hold back anymore.
"Sir," I called out to him "here are the files that you asked me to bring."
"Did I ask you to speak now?" He finally looked up from his laptop at me.
"I was standing here for a long time, I have work that I need to tend to."I told him boldly. So what if he was supposed to be my boss, from tomorrow he is this imposter's problem. Maybe I can antagonise him so she will get a hard time here. I laughed internally with my mischievous thoughts.
"So?"He raised his eyebrows.
"It's a waste of time." I challenged it. Oh she will have such a bad time here. This was so fun!
"So you can tell what a 'waste of time' is." He said without any emotions. His face was stone cold, it was really hard to predict what was going inside his head. Not sure what he meant by that I remained quiet and simply raised my eyebrows at him.
"Explain your absence yesterday." He ordered.
"My daughter was very sick and my husband is out of town for a few days at the moment."
"Alright, and what about this morning? You came late." He asked further with that emotionless face of his.
I sighed. "There was a slight misplacement of the files, I had to arrange it properly." I said confidently. Like lying was my second nature or something.
"Manager Stanford, I very well know that my father is fond of you and you are valuable to the company, however do not expect any kind of special treatment form me."He straightened himself up. "You have pending work, take care of it ASAP, even if you have to put in overtime. You can go now."
I exited without bothering further, but I did roll my eyes at him. Ken was laughing at our interaction. Oliver stayed in the office taking liberty in going through every files present there, whereas Ken simply followed me.
"Why are you laughing?" Oliver asked him as soon as we entered the room.
"I think this woman is going to suffer here a lot, she almost made the guy angry. Almost, because I think the guy is lacks emotions" He pretended to think.
I rolled my eyes before settling down in my chair. Most of the files were related to the office, but luckily 'my' personal email was logged in, so I snooped around for any clue.
It was clean, most of it was work related. It was weird how I knew my way around this computer. Everything came so naturally to me. Few of the emails were sent by Timothy but most of them were like love letter, I miss you and all.
I checked the progress of this woman' work, and it turns out she was three days behind the schedule. No wonder that guy was mad, anyone would be. If that becomes four days, it will be worse for her, I smirked subconsciously. Maybe I was being a bit mean, but this was nothing compared to how she treated my baby. She deserved worse than this.
Amongst all the files I found, there was one which was thoroughly corrupted. It refused to open no matter what I did. As if something had taken over me or something I started doing something with it. The file was shown 'recovering' a moment later. I guess I do now my way around computers too well.
It was taking few minutes so I just sat there and waited. I looked around to see both Oliver and Ken staring at the screen in anticipation and awe. "Wow, you are good." Oliver whispered, clearly impressed by me. I just simply smirked.
Suddenly there was a music coming from the same lowermost drawer. It was too faint for humans to notice. I opened it to find it empty. Oliver tapped it a few times and his expression changed. He put his hand though the box and looked up at Ken. "Can you break it?"He asked him.
"Ken simply nodded and looked at the wooden drawer with a grave expression, and soon enough it broke to reveal a secret chamber. There was a cell phone in it which was ringing. So I picked it up and answered.
"Hello"
"What's the word?" A complete mechanical voice, asked me. Before I could think of what to say, my vision went blurry, and my hand started trembling. I could feel that woman trying to fight me, and somehow I was losing my control over her.