Chapter three
He spent half the day going through the mountain of files twice the normal speed, he had to get the gift and be on time for the dinner.
As he was talking to James, a deafening sound of the double door hitting the wall resounded.
Turning, a shaking Matthew with soaked shirt stood panting he spoke
"sir, something is wrong with our server someone hacked in and…and.." as he was struggling someone ran in nearly knocking him down
"Sir, there's something wrong with our accounting"he spoke putting his fingers in his mouth.
"What do you mean there's something wrong with the account ?" getting up from his chair he walked up to him.
" I…I " sweat formed on his forehead, the dark patch on his armpit spread, the back of his shirt soaked, the click sound of his knees followed with a thud.
" sir I'm sorry, the guy we put in charge of accounting for in and out flow of the funds made a mistake, I just discovered the errors when I needed to compile the year data" he spoke in one breath
Eyebrows creased Tesfaye asked
"how much is lost"
" twenty billion sir…" he said as tears rolled down his eyes
James eyes popped, mouth dropped. A bone crack sounded as he faced his boss, expecting his reaction to be mirrored on him, only his eyebrow were still creased, he looked as though it wasn't his company they were talking about.
At that moment secretary Ada walked in nearly falling face flat.
"Sir the tax force and government people are here"
The eyes on her made her neck shrink.
"Matthew go and save as much files as you can, shot down everything thing"
"Sir?…oh, yes sir" running to the elevator, he fumbled with the keypad, his thoughts everywhere, not sure if this was the best plan, but his boss had spoken.
"You get the accountant here, try to crop the news before it spreads out, Ada tell the people in the company not to panic and to corporate with them, direct the government people to the meeting room"
"Yes sir"
Breathing out, he turned and saw the head accountant.
Shooting him dagger eyes.
His back straightened as he spoke
"Sir, he submitted his resignation letter yesterday evening, it's cause I gave someone to temporarily hold on before we found someone else to fill in that we discovered that the account balance wasn't right." The end of his speech muffled as mucus covered his mouth and chin.
James felt a rush to knock the whaling man
Holding his head Tesfaye felt a headache coming on.
"James I would leave the accounting to you go find out what happened, I don't think you can get all the files, but I want to see the accounting records, how to get them? I would leave you to solve"
With that he walked out of the office.
Sighing James looked at the man still kneeling with mucus on him.
Shaking his head he walked out.
...
Walking into the meeting room large enough to host thirty people, he saw the officials for the land project and two people from one of the rivalry Company.
Sitting on the main sit he didn't look like someone who was worried even after seeing the unpleasant look they had on, he didn't address them or greet.
A man wearing gray suit, who looked like he just graduated spoke
"We got a complain that the project you submitted was stolen, we came to investigate and get down to the bottom of this" one could hear that he wasn't really there to get down to the bottom of anything, but that he had already convicted Tesfaye as someone who had bullied a smaller company and took their work.
A ripple of surprise flashed in his eyes, but he sat there as though it wasn't him he was accusing.
"It sounds more like you came to catch a thief"
Everyone looked at him speechless, the reaction they expected from him was not this.
Sighing he placed his folded hands on the table
"Since you want to investigate we would corporate with you, what would you like for us to do?"
Gray suit man was pissed with his attitude.
About to speak, his superior sent a look his way.
"Mr Zane we would like to see the original draft of the project" he spoke calmly, he wasn't in a haste.
"Get the original draft from my office, it's the black file" secretary Ada nodded.
With her departure a silence that could be cut settled in the room.
…..
He couldn't wait for the elevator, so he used the stairs, getting to the account department Papers were scattered all over the floor, desk drawers opened, the eight foot shelve by the left wall empty with different coloured files littered around it, the tax officers went about collecting and scattering files, while most employees stood at a corner, some picking out form the break room.
Spotting the door that had Account manager he moved by the wall without making a sound, pushing the door gently he meet a skinny looking young man with large glasses on, gathering documents into what seemed like a pillow cover
"Assistant James!" The young man dropped the files almost wetting himself when the door opened.
Releasing the breath he was holding, he noticed the strange look on his face, waving both hands immediately
"It's not what it looks like, Head Account called and said to photocopy and guard this files for you, that you were coming over.
Nodding he went over to the system in the office to check if it was on. Seeing it was off he turned and faced the man standing beside him.
"Are all the systems in your department working?"
"No, they just stopped walking before the officers came in"
"Okay here's what we're going to do…" Whispering the plan to him, he didn't wait for a reply before walking out of the office.
Exhaling he walked up to an officer, pushing the files in his hands, grabbing his white collar shirt, he had to stand on his tippy toes.
"Why are you guys taking and scattering our work? when the boss shouts at us are you going to compensate us" rushing over they held his hands, suit, leg, but he refused to budge, even with the amount of saliva flying all around him. No one noticed the skinny young man who snuck out.
After pulling back and forth James stopped Pushing their hands, he dusted his suit and tie.
"Sorry, you can carry on " smiling he walked out
Everyone watched as he left, the officers were irritated while the company workers had their eyes popped with one thought in mind 'was that assistant James?'
…..
"What's taking your secretary long, hope you're not trying something funny?" Mr gray suit rude tone asked.
At that moment secretary Ada walked in, all the guest eyes on her as she walked over to her boss whispering to him.
"Sir there wasn't anything inside the file" turning he stared at her, seeing the worry and fear, he knew that really the file was empty.