Being the boss sucks!
“Miss the Silicon crystals from China have arrived but the customs officers are trying to be shady about it. We might need you to talk to them a bit."
"Alright put them on the line in the next twenty minutes, my schedule should be free by then.”
“Miss, the chairman of the Durban cooperation is on the line requesting your audience, should I put him through.
“Oh, okay put him through, let's hear what he has to say.”
At the executive office, a busy Angelina could be seen with a phone stuck to her ear while she attended to the never ending reports with both hands.
Huge beads of sweat broke into tiny rivulets on her forehead despite the high end air-conditioning in the office.
She was literally overheating!
Phew!
Finally after a while she dropped the phone, heaving a tired long sigh, she sunk her back into the lush seat as a wave of fatigue immediately rushed over her.
“It's been two days already but why does it look like these damn files haven't reduced one bit?...ugh!" Staring at the pile of files on the desk that seemed to be mocking her efforts an exasperated sigh escaped from her lips again.
Everything was draining her both physically and mentally.
Yet, there was nothing she could do about it since she willingly agreed to this.
However, she had to say, being a boss sucked!
For the past two days, the amount of complaints and reports she had to address was in the hundreds if not more all thanks to the ongoing scandal.
As if that wasn't enough, Grant wasn't what you'd call a diligent boss either.
Just from the two days she had been filling in for him most of her work was stuff he had postponed till now!
She even wondered how he became the business genius he was hailed at when he was so lazy at even basic tasks like attending to files!
It wasn't like there were no upsides though.
At the very least she managed to learn some things about the inner workings of Daxter and despite having seen a lot of secrets even she was surprised by her discovery.
If she were to sum it up in one sentence it would be something along the lines of ; This company had roots deeper than anyone could ever imagine!
Angelina was technically an accountant, at least that was what she graduated from school as.
She had tucked that aspect of her life away most of the time since she was more into her private detective job.
Until recently when she started working at Daxter that is. Now that she was the acting executive she could see things on a layer most could never imagine. While it might look like the company was suffering from the effects of the scandal, nothing much had changed at all!
All the predictions internet analysts and commentators made about the company losing a huge chunk of their investors had never come to reality.
In fact not a single one had backed out!
She even had an inkling that even if Grant randomly disappeared for a year, the company would still be operating as usual.
“So why was I nominated as the acting CEO then?”
Massaging her sore shoulders, she slowly sat upright as a thoughtful look crossed her face.
Even if you considered her promotion as the CEO’s based on her role as Grant's personal assistant, it still didn't make much sense for her to take the role.
There were other senior executives with many years of experience who were more qualified for the role yet they were not given the position.
Plus, she hadn't even settled into the personal assistant role yet!
Fine, Antonio mentioned that Grant had a hunch that some of the executives might be under the command of Councilman Firman hence why he didn't give them.
However, it definitely couldn't be all of them or else wouldn't that mean the company was no longer effectively run by him then?
That was impossible!
"Therefore, it seems more like I'm being used as a smokescreen!" Flipping the pen in her hand she thought out loud.
She had come to this conclusion after numerous ponderings and it was the only logical conclusion based on her observations.
In essence she was being used as bait to draw out the real culprits behind the whole scandal!
Her pretty face darkened in annoyance.
Recklessly putting her life on the line was something she was fine with as long as she was the one in charge, however, when someone was trying to manipulate her, now that was different.
“Humph!”
Harrumphing, she slung her bag across her shoulder while leaving the office, work for the day was over and she was among the last to leave the building
“I'd better order a Taxi ride, my shoulders are still hurting.”
Opening the popular vehicle hailing app; SWIFT, she quickly hailed a ride. Instead of taking the bus which would surely be crowded with the afterwork crowd and further stressing herself out, it was simply better to take a private Taxi.
You might be wondering, why didn't she have an official car as the acting CEO right?
Well, Antonio had previously assigned her a chauffeur which she agreed to, she wasn't going to work for free!
She was expecting a Toyota sedan of a Ford.
However, she quickly changed her mind when he brought a Rolls Royce.
For Angelina who was more of an introvert, she wouldn't be able to handle such exposure the car would bring.
Plus if Tonia saw the car she couldn't imagine the ridiculous things the girl was going to say or do this she simply decided to arrange her own transport.
SWIFT rides were trusted because of their reliability and despite this being her first time using one she had to agree because less than five minutes after hailing a ride it arrived.
After exchanging pleasantries with the driver who was a cheerful middle-aged man she got into the car and began the journey home.
Scrolling through her phone, a Comechat mesaage banner with a cute white cat as it's profile picture suddenly popped up on her screen.
There was only one person who used a white cat as their profile picture among her friend list; Tonia!
She was bored already and needed something to keep her entertained, Tonia couldn't have come at a better time.
Tonia: Hey where are you????? (Confused cat JPEG)
Angelina : Just got off work, on my way home. I'm starving, what did you cook? I'm starving right now! (Baby bird JPEG)
Tonia: Nothing!
Angelina: Puppy eyes JPEG.
Tonia: Gross! Alright I've prepared dinner you glutton, plus I just found something you might enjoy even better than food.
Hearing that dinner had been prepared, Angelina nearly started salivating.
“Yesterday we had spaghetti and meatballs, what did she prepare today?"
However, the latter part of the chat aroused her curiosity.
Angelina : Oh even better than food? (Raised eyebrow JPEG)
Instantly a flicker of excitement flashed in her eyes. The only thing that she enjoyed even more than eating was solving cases.
Could it be that she had discovered something?
Ever since their argument two days ago, Tonia actually held up her promise. That was also when she discovered that her best friend was also a part-time hacker!
She was as surprised as she was shocked because she had never made mention of it previously, she only knew her as the top tier medical student she was.
Apparently, she had picked up the skill back in college as a pastime to escape the rigours of studying medicine!
For some reason she felt ashamed of herself when she heard this. When she was in college, all she did was watch Korean dramas all day long!
Tonia: Remember that security guard you stripped of his clothes.”
Reading the message, her cheeks turned a bright red. Now that she thought about it, she was surprised she hadn't felt anything at the moment.
Angelina: Yeah, I do. What about him?
Replying back, a bright flash caught her eyes, glancing outside the window she saw that the white flash was actually streaks of lightning gathering in the sky. The traffic had suddenly increased as more cars filled the highways.
There was probably going to be a thunderstorm tonight.
Tonia: I tracked him and discovered something, he is actually a member of a street gang, one of the gangs mentioned in Fleming's diary!
Instantly, her eyes widened in joy.
They had found their first clue!