Hi! This is my first story in YEARS. Comments and feeback are appreciated. Criticism is welcome, especially if you give me reason for criticism. Read, Review, and Enjoy :D
Click. Clack. Click. Clack. A pair of somber but elegant black Gucci stilettos tapped across the granite and marble lobby of the Kaiba Corp. headquarters. It belongs to a woman clad in a crisp sleeveless light blue blouse tucked into a gray Miu Miu pencil skirt and covered by a gray cardigan trimmed with a single, continuous light blue strip. Her head is mass of meticulously curled black ringlets, piled onto the crown of her head except for the stray strand by her forehead that bounced as she walked. With her head held high, her stride long of purposeful, her blue eyes icy and proud, she had the image of a confident business women who has worked her whole entire life to obtain the high ranking position that she currently held. The only characteristic that may have betrayed image is her youth. After all, a woman who has slaved years of her life corporate-ladder-climbing could not possibly still look that young and refreshed. Of course, that is not to say that she did not hold a position of power in Kaiba Corp, or that she didn't earn that position by hard work or merit. She is every bit shrewd and opportunistic as your average successful businesswoman, but she is much more extraordinary than who she appears to be.
She stops in front the receptionist's desk and fixes her stony stare at the older woman. With a
voice profuse with confidence, she requested the location of office of Mr. Seto Kaiba, the CEO, is located. The first impulse that the receptionist, a beautiful woman of 40 years who prided herself on being the only receptionist at Kaiba Corp who has managed to secure position here for over a decade, had when she saw the upstart rich girl is to tell her that if she is here gaggle at Mr. Kaiba she can take her and her Prada handbag somewhere else. After all, this is a workplace, not some paparazzi red carpet event. However, upon meeting the girl's stoney pale blue eyes, not unlike those of Mr. Kaiba himself, she felt her strong resolve wash away like snow in the spring ring. With a meek voice, the receptionist answered, "Of course. He is on the 40th floor. Take a left when you get out of the elevator, and you will come face to face with his office. Shall I announce that you are coming?"
The woman replied with a curt nod, "Please do. Thank you very much," and left for the elevator without another word, leaving the receptionist, now cowered behind the ledge of the receptionist desk, to stare at the new girl in disbelief and slight fear.
Lynne stood in front of the oak door. She took a deep breath - or tried to, in any case. In her current state of anxiety, her breath had become shallow and ragged, as if she was afflicted with the asthma that she has long since conquered. As a precaution, she took out her inhaler and took a long drag of the steroids. Almost immediately, her breathing becomes deeper and more even. However, her nervousness did not even out like her breathing.
"Relax," she told herself, "This is not the first day of high school. You've earned every right to be here. You developed weapons with Toni Stark. You coded for IBM. You solved the Kaiba Conundrum in record time. You are a legend. No one will dare judge you!"
Yet, despite her best judgment, she could not quell the trembling of her hand, extricate the tangle in her stomach, or immobilize her eyes to stop them from darting back and forth. She closed her eyes and clenched her jaws and her hands tightly.
"No. I refuse to be nervous. I can't be nervous. I'm one of the youngest doctors to have graduated from MIT. I have extensive work experience, and I am a certified genius. This is where I dominate, where I rule. Rulers don't get nervous."
Out of sheer willpower, she stopped the trembling of her hands and fixed her icy gaze at the oak doors and knocked.
The door is opened almost immediately by a young man in his mid-twenties, who, upon seeing Lynne, froze for but a fraction of the second, bowed lightly and said, "Good afternoon, Ms. Heidrich. is expecting you."
Lynne nodded curtly but politely back, "Thank you." She strode across the vestibule of the office, coercing her body to use the confident stride she had when she first entered the building, to the fiberglass doors. Once again, she found herself paused in front of a door way, the entrance of a new life, a new future. She raised her hand slowly, almost faltering at the last moment, and knocked on the glass door whose usual clarity has been compromised, leaving only silhouettes of what it contained.
Plonk.
Plonk.
Plonk.
Mr. Seto Kaiba was having a very frustrating day. His engineers had, once again, failed to produce a program that better integrates the fiber optics hologram program, regardless of the gracious time and abundant resources he had provided. There was a system security breach in the security section, of all places. To add icing to the cake, the critical takeover that he had been working on for monthes fell through all because one of his VP's couldn't seem to get his act together. For the better part of the day, Mr. Seto Kaiba was on the verge of tearing out half his head of hair. However, Mr. Seto Kaiba is a dignified and shrewd businessman, so the urge to rip his hair of remained an urge, and nothing more than that. After all, showing up in public with bits and pieces of hair missing is not dignified, and Mr. Kaiba, being the shrewd business man that defined a good part of his personality, is well versed that there are far better ways to eliminate subordinate insufficiencies, such as getting rid of the root of the problem - and did it feel good to see that supervisory computer engineer's face when he was demoted!
However, it wasn't long before Mr. Kaiba's thoughts descended into the gloom of realizing that now he needs someone who is competant enough to keep this job for at least until the dueling tournament is over, and that is not an easy thing to do. His large hand came to rub the bridge of his nose as the other digged through a drawer for the bottle of aspirin that he keeps for days like this, which, given the current economy, is becoming more and more often. He leans back against his black leather chair, and closes his eyes, waiting for the drug to kick in. His mind drifted. Today Mokuba is coming back from university. Seto Kaiba would have liked to be waiting when his little brother came home after his first year of college, but work and these idiots have to be done. Now he wi-
Ring
His desk phone rang urgently. Muttering curses, Mr. Kaiba roughly snatched the phone off its charging station and growled, "What?"
A meek voice squeaked an answer, "M-Mr. Kaiba, a lady is on her way up to see you."
"Name?"
"I don't know, sir," came the timorous, barely audible reply.
Once again, Mr. Kaiba resists the urge to pull out a handful of hair - because dignified businessmen do not do that - and replied, "Are you telling me that you just let a stranger, who may potentially be armed and ready to kill, into this office building?"
"Well sir - she didn't - I … I apologize, it won't happen again!" The receptionist stammered an apology, hoping to appease the irritated business mogul and salvage her job. Maybe.
However, Mr. Kaiba wasn't a forgiving man. He didn't like mistakes, and errors, in his opinion, were unforgivable, especially when half of his corporation seem to rest upon the hand of idiots.
"Ms. Walsh, I'm sure it won't happen again, because you are fired. I do not want to see you again tomorrow morning."
With the cold employment termination notice still ringing in the ears of the receptionist, Mr. Kaiba ended the call. The possibility of danger changed the demeanor of the weary CEO. With steel in his voice, he called out to his personal assistant, "O'Connor!"
A young man with ginger hair and a pale complexion entered into his employers office.
"Yes, sir?"
In a tense voice, Mr. Kaiba commanded, "Alert security of a female intruder who is most likely on her way up to my office. Find her and escort her out gently."
With a polite nod and a voice unfazed by the chilly tone, O'Connor replied, "Very well, sir." Then, O'Connor slyly added, disguising this as an afterthought, "Is there anything else you would like to know?"
Mr. Kaiba fixed the full force of his infamous icy stares at the young man, who, despite his resolve, visibly flinched. Mr. Kaiba, replied icily, "Is there anything that I should know about?"
O'Connor looked down and fumbled with datebook in his hands, almost as if looking for an excuse to look away from the icy stare, replied hasty, "it's just that you have an appointment today, in 7 minutes with a Ms. Lynne Heidrich."
At the mentioning of this piece of information, the icy stare had turned into a full force glare.
"And you have failed to inform me of this appointment this morning because?"
"Sir, I apologize. I - " The assistant, like the receptionist, had been reduced to a state of nervousness that has never graced the appearance of the usually confident young man.
"I have no time for your excuses. Don't let this happen again, or your career in KaibaCorp is finished. When Ms. Heidrich arrives, show her to my office. She, unlike you, will be an important addition to this company."
"Yes sir."
"And you can forget about the call to security. It is not necessary, but tell HR that we need a new receptionist. You are dismissed."
Bowing and retreating, O'Connor half ran out of the office. Mr. Kaiba watched the young man retreat with satisfaction. O'Connor had become too confident of his abilities over the past month. Mr. Kaiba had been looking for a chance to scare him back into submission. Today's small success has brought some light back into the day. More importantly, he was finally meeting the woman who managed to hack the laptop that he has presented to interviewees of computer-programming positions. That woman was something out of the ordinary to do what few had done in less than ⅓ of the time. Mr. Kaiba sincerely hoped that this woman is someone who is worth hiring. After the fiasco this morning, he knew that he needed some new blood in his tech departments. A rouge-ish grin appeared on his face. Perhaps today would not be a total disaster after all.
In the room that lead into Mr. Seto Kaiba's office, O'Connor opened the door to see what appeared to be Kim Kardashian's business-like socialite side-kick marching into the office. He considered telling her that Mr. Kaiba was not really interested in dating superficial models, but something about her made him feel fear. He paused for a microsecond, trying to decide how to proceed from there, before realizing that this is probably the woman that Mr. Kaiba was expecting. He bowed politely and answered in timid politeness, "Good afternoon, Ms. Heidrich. is expecting you."
Dr. Lynne Heidrich nodded curtly back and proceeded to the fiberglass doors that lead to Mr. Kaiba's office. She paused for a second, although O'Connor could not tell why, and knocked. Mr. Kaiba's sharp voice resonated from inside of the room.
"Come in."