57th floor of Wayne Corp
As soon as Helen arrived in her office, she was met with stacks upon stacks of books on her table. The books were of varing colors and sizes, and each had the names of different people written on them.
"Raden really works fast" Helen said as she sat behind her desk
"I'll escort myself out" Lisa said
"Sit down. I need your help with this first" Helen ordered, as she took up one of the books on the table "The stuff I asked you to do in the elevator can wait. In the meantime, make a list of everyone on the design team for me"
"I understand. However, may I do that in my office?" Lisa asked and Helen glanced at her "A-actually, I prefer to multitask. It helps get things done quicker. While in my office, I can prepare the list and have it set here through the printer....t-then, I can also handle the other things you asked me to do"
"I think I only like you when you're like this" Helen said, as she went back to flipping through the book she was holding "Go ahead"
"Excuse me" Lisa said, as she made a dash for the elevators. She immediately got in and took it back to her floor.
'I think I've already made my point to her' Helen thought 'And this person seems pretty clean. Their designs are unique, but the best way to tell it's theirs, is the darker pen strokes around the bust area of the women's clothing designs, as well as the strokes around the shoulders of the men's clothing designs'. She shut the book and kept it aside, before picking up another book.
When she was halfway through that design book, her printer made a couple sounds and she had to leave her desk. She picked up the five sheets of paper that were recently printed out.
'It's even arranged in alphabetical order' Helen thought, as she glanced through the list of names. 'Lisa really works fast' she thought while picking up a stapler and stapling the five sheets of paper, before picking a pen and ticking the name of the owner of the first design book she viewed.
******
56th floor of Wayne Corp
Lisa stretched her arms as she picked up her business phone and made a call to one of the suppliers of the fashion department.
"Hello, this is Lisa Brooks of Wayne Corp" Lisa said, in a somewhat professional tone the moment the call was answered
"What can we do for you? We already informed your boss of the late arrival of the materials"
"Sorry, but I called to cancel that order as well as any other future orders" Lisa said "The boss has changed and this is what she ordered"
"Are you serious? Our company has been supplying yours with materials for years. Nobody is willing to work with you, but we kindly stretched out our hands towards you and this is how you treat us?"
"I'm merely following orders. I don't want to be scolded. I already received an earful earlier due to the faulty materials that you've been supplying us for a while" Lisa said, as she turned on her desktop computer "The total price of the goods was exactly five million, four hundred and three thousand dollars. Consider the four hundred and three thousand dollars as consolation money for your time being wasted and in the meantime, cancel the order before refunding the remaining five million dollars in full"
"Are you insulting us?"
"I'm not insulting you, but you're clearly doing such to me" Lisa said "Don't push this any further or I'll involve our lawyers" she hung up the call and let out a groan before taking off her glasses and setting them on the table. She pushed some strands of hair away from her face and stared at her computer.
'There are still six more companies to call' Lisa thought, as she clenched her phone 'Miss Helen is probably worse off than me. There are over two hundred designers in this company and she has to look through all of their design books because of Raden and I's mess'
"We lost three billion, seven hundred and thirty nine million dollars in three years to various suppliers, a single plagiarizer and Miss Regina. I don't blame Miss Helen for being angry" Lisa mumbled as she dialed the number of another supplier on her phone 'Had Miss Helen not figured out where the money was being embezzled from, we would have lost fifty million more, today'
"Hello, this is Lisa Brooks from Wayne Corp" she said as soon as the call was picked.
******
An hour and a couple minutes later
The other fashion department floors were all in the same condition as Lisa. There was tension in the air and many of them felt that, being idle would only increase the pressure from the earlier announcement made by Raden.
However, the more nervous of the bunch in the department, were the ones who were on the same floor as Raden. They had to quietly watch him make different phone calls to businesses they had never heard about, and talk for a couple minutes before hanging up with a sigh of relief right after.
When Raden suddenly got up from behind his desk and stepped out of his cubicle, all eyes were on him as he walked towards the stairwells that connected all of the department's floors. He headed up on the stairs and could clearly feel the eyes on him as his figure disappeared on the fifty sixth floor.
"What do you think is going to happen now?"
"Didn't you hear him sighing at the end of all of those phone calls?"
"Hey, do you think we'll all get fired" one designer said and the whole floor went quiet
"Stop saying such horrible things" the others refuted. However, even in their midst, they failed to notice the one woman in the crowd, who wasn't bothered in the slightest by the situation.
******
56th floor of Wayne Corp
When Raden arrived in Lisa's office, he noticed the woman was just hanging up a phone call with someone. She seemed more exhausted than ever, but Raden knew it was for good reasons.
"Are you okay?" Raden asked and Lisa let out a sigh
"Out of the fifty million dollars that was paid to the suppliers for new materials, I was only able to retrieve thirty eight million" Lisa said "I just used a hundred thousand dollars to pay transport, to get rid of the sewing materials in the storage room. Their people will be coming in to move everything in storage to the dump. All that's left, is to report to Miss Helen" she got up from her chair and stretched
"I've already gotten in contact with the new businesses that Miss Helen said will be replacing the departments" Raden said as he handed the file over to Lisa "At the mention of Miss Helen's name, they all agreed without much thought. They didn't even care about the plagiarism incidents"
"That's good" Lisa said as she took out a tablet from her desk drawer and put her glasses back on, before heading towards the elevator.
"Also, the whole department is in chaos. Everyone is worried beyond measure" he said, while following Lisa into the elevator.
"Well, we're in luck because that was her aim" Lisa said "I really worry about the future of our department" she said as the elevator doors shut.
******
57th floor of Wayne Corp
Helen finished going through the last design book and ticked the name of the person who owned the book.
"I've found the plagiarizer. To think it was another bitch" Helen mumble as she stared at the name
[Ramona Gonzalez]
"What's with the people in this company whose name start with the letter 'R'?" Helen mumbled as the elevator doors opened, and Lisa and Raden walked into the room
"Excuse us, Miss Helen. I hope we aren't disturbing" Raden said "However, we're both done with the tasks you assigned to us"
"I see" Helen said, as she got up from her chair while holding the list in hand "Mr Designer Head, what's your name?" she stared at the list in hand
"It's Raden. Raden White" Raden said
"Your parents didn't do you justice when naming you, Mr White" Helen said as she walked around her desk "Lisa, can you get me all the information you have on Ramona Gonzalez?"
"Ramona?" Lisa repeated, but Helen only stared at her "I understand. I'll look it up right now" she said, as she dropped a file on Helen's desk before tapping away on her tablet
"Raden, tell the others to head to the meeting venue. They best reach there before I do. I'm giving them thirty minutes" Helen said
"Okay" Raden said, as he dashed down the department stairs while Helen sat on her desk
"Miss Helen, is this what you needed?" Lisa asked as she handed the tablet over to Helen
Helen took the tablet and quickly read through the information and frowned. "She's been working here for six years and is already twenty eight" she mumbled
"Well, that's true" Lisa said "At the time Crystal Palace was still trying to get a grip on the fashion industry, Ramona was a new recruit whom the late Madam thought was just a flower that just needed to be put in the right environment, for it to bloom. However, even after four years, Ramona's designs never made it to the runway"
"Naturally" Helen said "Her designs were all trash in my eyes too. To top it all off, there was no improvement in them and it looked more like she was tracing something she's already seen"
"Ramona's designs started making it to the runway two years ago. And around that time, the accusations for plagiarism started getting worse" Lisa explained, but the realization suddenly dawned on her "There's no way. Miss Helen, it couldn't be-"
"Ramona Gonzalez....I want you to keep an eye on this person" Helen said as she gave the tablet back to Lisa "At the first sign of danger or any mistakes she makes, fire her. I don't need trash that is trying to bring not just me, but everyone in this department"
"Okay" Lisa said
"One more thing. To replace her, the people who were fired by Regina, if they're still alive and jobless, rehire them" Helen said "I looked through their designs on my computer and although they were once like Ramona when it came to designing, their designs improved significantly and you could still tell it was their original, once you take a closer look. Those people couldn't get rid of their bad habits, of making the same mistake in each of their designs. That's what gave it away"
Lisa immediately began to tap away on her tablet and once she got what she needed, she took out her phone and began to dial some numbers.
"There's no need for you to attend the meeting. Do what you need to do and then, move all of these design books to your office" Helen said, as she got up from the desk and headed for the elevator "I'll have the designer come take it from you later" she said
******
55th floor of Wayne Corp
Raden rested on the railings of the department stairs when he got to the fifty fifth floor.
Due to the way the stairwells were built to connect a certain department's floors, there were areas where one could rest without trouble and view the whole of a department floor. Currently, Raden was standing in this position, on the stairs and everyone could see him.
"We have thirty minutes. Head to the meeting venue, now" Raden shouted at the top of his voice and the workers on the fifty fifth floor began to dash for the eight elevators, with some making a dash for the fire escapes and others making use of the department stairs.
In short, the fifty fifth floor had been thrown into chaos in a matter of seconds as they all began to clear the floor. Once the floor was completely cleared, Raden continued down the stairs and took out a megaphone from a nearby storage cabinet.
The company heads' elevator opened and Raden saw Helen standing inside, alone.
"Get in. We have work to do" Helen said and Raden immediately ran towards her.
He was already out of breath by the time he got into the elevator and suddenly sat on the elevator floor as the doors to the elevator shut.
'This woman is a total slave driver' Raden thought while looking up at Helen from below as he let out a sigh 'But I guess that's fine too'