Huntzberger Publishing Group-
Mitchum Huntzberger prided himself of two things, HPG and his eye for a new acquisition, so when a startup company that boomed overnight threatened with no the company his father started he knew he needed to creatively bring down the threat and do so quietly. That ladies and gentlemen is how the Huntzbergers found themselves in red handed in bed with the Du Bois five years later with pending treason and terrorist charges.
Hayden More CEO and founder of Hayden Associates International Consulting, was a simple woman, she owned a Consulting firm, she lived in a spacious but somehow modest penthouse in Washington D.C., the road to presidency campaigning had led her here twice and she found that she loved the behind the scenes of politics. Five years ago when faced with an indecision on what to do with her life and a new born baby boy, she settled for Washington D.C. Sure she worked more than 70 hours during the week but made sure Sunday's she spent every last second with her son Ian, with a string of Au Pairs, maids and tutors she had managed to integrate him into a life of small private schools while somehow keeping him down to earth and unaware of her career. For all intents and purposes she had a very successful PR firm however her firm went above and beyond what a typical PR firm does and their work doesn't come cheap they are more like Gladiators in suits, they came in cleaned up affairs, messy assaults, and on some occasions crimes and the occasional murder. Her clients who were all protected under confidentially agreements were all more than willing to pay top dollar for her to re-write the story in a way that benefited them, having been the recipient of someone else's re-written story she found her calling and it paid handsomely. So today on a Monday like many others, in her Burberry coat and her Yves St Laurent dress and Dolce Gabbana heels when she received a call from an old associate asking her to take on a client she found herself wondering why she had a strict take every client who's innocent policy with her team and further more why she told her team that Finn was a friend they should always helped.
30 Minutes Earlier
Knock knock*
She looked up to see Quinn and Huck looking grim and she waived them in,
"Start from the top"
"Hayden, we pulled survelliance photos and phone records for that Du Bois situation. " Huck Started the review Hayden found herself frowning, Du Bois, they didn't have a client named Du Bois, did they? She turned back o look at Quinn who clearly wanted to also jump in Hayden nodded her head in clear indication for her to put her data on the table.
"It's bad, Hayden. At first I thought I'd have to fly to Paris or London to trail her which I know you don't like us going out of the country until we have a retainer from the client but after Huck pulled her card and account statements and I saw she had booked a flight with AirCanada I pulled the flight information and saw she was flying into Ontario I figured I'd just drive out to see who she was meeting and it's not good, she met with Michale Martin who is the head of Political and International Correspondence and Makar Petrov a Russian operative linked to the Kremlin. These are the pictures I was able to take and I also took the liberty of following her back to her hotel room. I booked the room next to her and was able to tap in to her cell phone and while I think she had already made her calls with the majority of details I was able to hear this call to Michale.." Quinn was in the process of playing a recording for her when Hayden put her hand up signaling her to stop.
"Quinn breathe, I haven't even heard of this client much less decided on taking them on whoever they maybe and it sounds like more trouble than it's worth, the Russians are not a walk in the park you BOTH know this so explain to me why have the two of you gone through all this trouble" Hayden remarked as she waved her hand over the records Huck pulled, the photos and recording that Quinn placed in front of her.
"Um Hayden we have a standing order to help and take action on any request made by family and you said Finn was family" Quinn stammered out while glaring at Huck.
"Well she said to protect Finn no matter the costs."
Huck said looking down at his feet
Quinn slapped Huck's arm "that doesn't mean take orders from Finn! You told me she was ok with this!" Quinn turned to look at Hayden. Who had at this point begun reviewing the folders in front of her along with the pictures.
"I'm so sorry Hayden I should have- WE should have checked with you. But after reviewing the files and into the Du Bois affairs it looks like the Huntzberger's are innocent in this and we help the innocent."
Hayden's head snapped up at the mention of Huntzberger's
"Huntzberger's?" Hayden could barely contain her disdain and spat the last name out.
Quinn and Huck slowly nodded, Quinn had never seen her show any emotion about a client before sure during "the fix" as they called it she would get fired up and use anything at her disposal to get the job done but not before and certainly not in front of them. If she felt any discomfort or disdain about any of their previous clients she never disclosed it with her maybe Huck, but Huck had known Hayden much longer than she had.
"Get out and get me Finn on the line" Hayden was already pulling her keyboard towards her with emotion no longer showing and a steel resolve.
"Hayden we're sorry but we already accepted the client they fly in today for their intake at 3pm." Quinn stared at
Hayden only having seen her once ever before take this detached resolve on clients situation. She had to keep herself from shuddering at the memory.
Hayden lifted a hand in dismissal "You and Huck take point, have Marty assist if needed."
Quinn turned around to walk out she threw out a quick "You got it boss. I'll patch Finn through in fifteen." Before walking over to one of the assistants in the office and handing her a 10 dollar bill.
"Go grab Hayden a black coffee and a blueberry muffin from that shop on 3rd Ave and it better be hot when you get back."
Jo gave her a puzzled look before quickly jumped up to get her coat and purse. "You got it Quinn."
"The place on 3rd Ave not on 2nd that place is crap and she's already in a crap mood don't make it worse for me than it already is got it?" Quinn barked at Jo who was already at a quick walk towards the elevators. Quinn set her tea down before making a call to the Australian that got her in this mess. The phone rang twice before a voice cam on the line.
"Morgan here love ."
"Cut the love bullshit Finn, you knew she wouldn't have wanted to take this client that's why you went through me and Huck."
"Why darling is that any way to treat a good friend of Hayden and Associates?"
"We'll see how good of friends we are after this debacle. Hold for Ms More please."
Quinn quickly transferred him to Hayden and started doing some more research on the Huntzberger family. Typically they didn't research them until after the meeting but with Hayden's reaction she felt she better go in to this intake with as much ammo as possible.
Hayden's Office.
Hayden's desk phone rang knowing it was Finn she snatched the phone up and walked over to close the door she still hadn't said anything before walking back to her desk and sitting down pulling up another clients file up on her computer.
She heard a sigh on the other line signaling Finn was ready to talk.
"I'm sorry love but you're the best in whatever business you can call this."
"This is a PR firm Finn, Huntzberger Publishing Group does this for breakfast they don't need me."
"Love that's not what I meant they desperately need someone to fix this Du Bois merger."
"I can't help them Finn"
"You help people in these types of situations all the time, they have the money the need I don't see the problem."
"The problem is that I don't want to help them, they made their bed now they need to lie in it."
"They didn't know what they were getting into."
"Then they should have thought of that before sayingI Do."
"He didn't know what he was getting into, are you really going to let him go to jail possibly face treason charges for what Mitchum did to him?"
"I'm one of the few that do what I do and I'm the best at what I do Finn, if I wasn't in this line of work he'd be in the same boat either way. I'm just simply not getting involved."
"That's very selfish of you love, you've never been this selfish everything you've don't up to this point has had a reason behind this I don't see one here."
"Well maybe I'm a selfish person Finn, but that's my decision to make not yours." Hayden said in an icey tone he had never heard before.
"Do this for me? I can't stand by and let my best mate be sent off to jail or prison for something he had nothing to do with, it's only a matter of days before this hits the news and even they can't spin this one without it being more incriminating he needs you."
Finn pleaded with her.
Hayden couldn't bring herself to say yes this was opening up a door to her life she very much wanted to stay close.
"Please love I'll make sure he stats out of your way the whole time."
She sighed and Finn knew he had worn her down.
"Yes you will along with another few conditions"
"Name them darling, whatever you need"
"I won't be involved unless absolutely necessary. Quinn and Huck are more than capable of handling this. Meaning your presence isn't required unless I call you. If I call you, you are to keep him AND his family out of my hair at all times. There's usually a finders fee paid out to the referring party as a thank you, I'm not paying you a cent and I think a collateral fee of $25,000 should suffice the headache that I am sure to come from all of this."
"Done and done" he said smiling knowing those were things he could easily accomplish and wasn't a bad list of demands. He frowned as her heard her voice break as she started on the next part, he had thought she was done.
"And Finn, this is the last time you call or see me."
"What?! Love you can't be serious!"
"As a heart attack" she said using the LBD tried and true reply. "Take it or leave it. You have until 2pm to decide they're meeting Huck and Quinn at 3pm." The line went dead and Finn stared at his phone in disbelief. They may not have had constant communications over the years but they saw each other once every few months since the engagement incident.
A small beep on his computer made him aware of an email he saw the sender Hayden Associates International Consultants. He quickly read through the pdf attachment with a scowl, Ror-Hayden as she went by now sent him a non-disclose agreement along with a cease and desist contact agreement. With a pay agreement of $25,000 from Hayden Associates for his previous referrals. She was going to pay him off with his own money he knew she was ruthless in her element but to actually see her use her prowess and cutthroat business savvy on him stung him in ways he didn't know possible. He returned to the email to reply to her only to find that it was sent by Quinn, Hayden hadn't even bothered sending it herself.