Ransomed.
Mai Valentine sighed softly and pushed back her executive chair from the desk, her long fingers automatically reaching for the intercom button.
"Ma'am"
A slightly accented British voice responded even before she spoke.
"Cancel all other appointments for today, and shift the unavoidables to any free time tomorrow"
"Very good Ms Valentine"
It was then Mai noticed the envelope sitting underneath a pile of papers. It was a simple square envelop, with her last name scrawled neatly in a large loopy handwriting. She turned it around and noted the gilt wax seal. Two ebony roses entwined in an X over a gold background; it was very familiar to the symbol that crested the top of Valentine Cybernetics. She broke the seal and a single slip of paper fell out, on one side was the word Carouselle, and on the other a five digit number. Mai didn't need any more clues to know whose handiwork this was.
Her fingers reached for the intercom once again.
"Riven, get me Kaiba"
There was no mistaking the hardness or impatience in her voice.
The Kaiba corp. jet was sixteen thousand feet in the air and half way toward its destination at exactly that time. Mokuba casually lifted up his headphones when the flight attendant approached phone in hand.
"Excuse me sir, but this came through line two"
He nodded once and took the phone from her, smiling with appreciation as she turned to walk away.
"Mokuba"
He chuckled softly at the irate tone of her voice and settled back into his seat.
"If it isn't the boss lady, I take it then that you've found my memento"
Mai's reply couldn't have been more chilling if he were standing in her room and she was glaring at him from behind her immense desk.
"It this your idea of a joke?"
Mokuba's chuckle developed into a light laugh and he almost heard a shard of ice pierce through the receiver.
"No joke I tell you, just my way of saying thank you for another record year"
Soon after his brother handed him the reins of operations in Kaiba corp. Mokuba decided that the only way to meet up with the other top game making companies in the highly competitive gaming world was to overhaul most of Seto's outmoded designing logistics for newer models that would appeal to all age demographics.
It seemed smarter to affiliate Kaiba corp. with one of the fastest rising game designing companies, and in what was certainly the friendliest take over in the history of Kaiba corp. a sister company was formed to handle that specific area. Mai Valentine swept in, changed its name and proceeded to buy 49 percent of the shares, making her the largest shareowner in the company. Mokuba didn't regret putting the company in her hands; they were recording the biggest sales in years and Kaiba corp. was undisputedly number one in the gaming world.
"There are other ways of getting that across"
The sixteen year old grinned into the phone and propped his feet on the table in front of him.
"Oh I know, dinner in the most exclusive restaurant in the world, all expense paid spa treatment, but they all sound so mundane compared to this. Just take it as a little Rand R, after the last few months surely you must be even a little tired"
It didn't seem possible that Mai's voice could get any chillier, but it did.
"Is that your muted way of telling me that I'm getting on in years?"
Mokuba got to his feet and walked toward the nearest window seat to look down into the clouds. He might be vice president of one of the biggest companies in the world, but he was still a kid at heart.
"I would never suggest such a thing. Come now Mai, you're only a few years older than myself and certainly younger than Seto"
"Does your brother know what you're doing?"
"Right now he's occupied with his…bubble head puppy. Not to worry, Seto has faith in me and respects your business acumen"
Mai chuckled mirthlessly into the receiver.
"I couldn't care less what your egoistical brother thought of me"
Mokuba rolled his eyes and muffled a sigh; this conversation was beginning to drag.
"How about it then? Take my gift in all good faith and…enjoy"
Mai dropped the receiver in its cradle, wondering not for the first time at the younger Kaiba's persuasive powers. Mokuba was no less effective than his brother, only without the latter's blatant show of intimidation.
"Gift hmmm, Mokuba? Well then, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth"