"Your attitude surprises me," he says. "But then, who am I to understand the ways of top CEOs? I'm just a medical supply buyer."
The rest of the dinner passes quite pleasantly. You say goodnight to Mahadi and climb into the back of your Cadillac. From there, you call MetaHuman's director of public relations; by the time you hang up, you're confident that a press release announcing MetaHuman's bounty will be released before you arrive at your desk tomorrow morning.
You hope that choosing morals over profit is the right choice on this occasion. As your driver drives you home, you are aware of the presence of MetaHuman's nebulous shareholders, watching you, judging you from afar.
next chapter february
February arrives and you have your first formal meeting with the MetaHuman senior team.
You sit at the head of the table. His CFO, Winston Q, sits to his immediate right, and Robert Leach, his assistant and meeting secretary, sits to his left.
"We've gone through some changes since we last sat in this room," Winston begins. "We have a new CEO and a new vision. For those who haven't had the pleasure yet, this is Roman Halama. Welcome back. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we look forward to working with you."
"The feeling is very mutual," you reply.
"You've already met Claudette," continues Winston. You raise an eyebrow at his lack of formality, but don't say anything - perhaps that's accepted custom at these high-level meetings. "Next at the table is Electra Jones, our head of security. With MetaHuman being a somewhat atypical company, our security department is a little more active than our counterparts in other industries. Electra is our resident, responsible spymaster. for anticipating or reacting to threats to MetaHumano."
"A pleasure," says Electra, with a slight nod. She's a thin, pale woman in her early thirties or thereabouts. Her gray eyed gaze never strays from you. You have the distinct impression that she is studying you.
"And the last one is Brett Golightly," says Winston. "Brett is head of field operations, below Electra. If Electra is the brain of the security department, Brett is the hand."
"Actually, I don't get invited to these meetings that often," says Brett, with an easy smile. He is muscular, with short hair; he looks a little uncomfortable in the Hugo Boss suit he's wearing. "But Winston thought it would be a good opportunity for me to meet the new boss."
"That's everybody," says Winston. "Let's do some business, shall we?"
"The first item on the agenda is mine," says Electra. "We have two rival middle managers in HR, Stephanie Hill and Ted Nguyen, who have been at each other's throats for some time. Until now, their superiority has involved breaking into each other's offices to steal documents, sabotage computers, files, that sort of thing. of thing."
"And you tolerated this behavior?" you ask.
"It's a bit de rigueur in MetaHuman," Electra responds. "In fact, it was always seen as an effective way to identify the real achievers in the company. I kept up the facade that I don't know anything about it, of course."
"So why bring this to my attention now?"
"Their efforts to sabotage each other are now spilling over into their private lives as well. Stephanie recently hired someone to break into Ted's apartment. Ted was away at the time, but if he'd been there, he could have been seriously hurt. Like you want to answer?"