ISecretary Part 2

Chapter 5

Carly woke up in the morning. Her daughter had, fortunately, inherited her mother's drive and got up easily enough. The two were ready for the day on time. After dropping off her daughter at school, Carly took the employee transportation to work. Mass transport was paid for by the company. The actual vehicle was a new model, not quite a bus, not quite a train. Though it appeared quite small, it was spacious and swift.

Carly felt somewhat more confident now that she had a job, a real job that when people asked her what she did, she could answer them without saying, "But I'm trying to find real work."

Oh, mama… this was worth the trouble. The town was incredible; a testament to what money, ingenuity and time could do to an area. Overlord Tower was massive, a phallic symbol that practically made her retch. It was enormous, a testament to the unbelievably massive ego the owners possessed. The second her hand hit the door her watch beeped all the information she needed.

Carly proceeded to the executive elevators. Once inside, she waited for the receiver in the elevator to acknowledge her and send her to a floor. Instead, the machine beeped irritably.

"Identify!" It screeched aggressively. Carly faltered. Apparently that was the wrong thing to do. The elevators lights went out and it began to glow bright red.

"Initiating counter-measures; identify yourself!" The machine was pretty adamant.

"Carly Smith, my name is Carly Smith!" She frantic pressed the resend button on her watch. It beeped cheerily, ignorant of the world around it. The box started to heat up.

A buzzer sounded, and the machine, this time in female voice, informed her that it was initiating lethal defenses. Her eyes went wide as sweat poured down her cheeks.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Drawled an effeminate voice, "There's no Carly Smith in our system…"

She knew that voice, "Nevel, help me!"

"Sorry, Carly, but this is going to get gnarly!" He declared. She rolled her eyes. Even on the verge of death she knew poetry was poor showmanship.

But criticizing him was not doing her much good, "I am employee 0080012128, Carly Shay-Smith. I am Carly Smith, Nevel help!" She started crying.

"Hmmm…. That's not your name in the computers, see, I was the one who entered you." He droned on. 'Oh' she thought to herself, 'well then, it must be something very offensive then.'

Carly made the mistake of touching one of the walls. It zapped her, sending a shocking amount of pain down her arm, and up her spine. She collapsed onto her back, paralyzed. The computer threatened her further as she lay on the ground.

"Good-bye, Carly!" The computer then beeped twice and vibrated. In three seconds, it flew up two hundred and fifty stories. The machine then dinged pleasantly opening its doors.

Lying on her back, drenched in sweat and tears, Carly looked up in the face of a man silhouetted by enormous windows.

"You're late," Is all Freddie would say. He extended his hand grabbing one of hers. His watched sent out a special tone when it touched her skin. Somehow it knew what happened to her, and fixed the problem. The numbness and pain was swept from her body. When the device finished, it gave a tone and shut off. Carly staggered to her feet.

The two stared at each other in silence.

"Hi."

"Hi."

Carly excused herself to the executive bathroom clean up.

Freddie watched her walk away, trying his hardest to convince himself he was just checking on her, not checking her out. His sighed and ran his hands through his face. Turning around, he found his partner, now with a reddened cheek, happily typing away. Nevel apparently found something with which to amuse himself.

A scream came from the computer that sounded familiar. Freddie sighed and headed to the executive bathroom, key in hand. Apparently his partner had initiated the countermeasures in the restroom. Nevel played the same prank for the rest of the week.

Friday afternoon rolled by. It was a beautiful day outside, but inside the executive floor, it was a nightmare.

Carly sighed wistfully as Freddie once more took up the offense of another. He was so naïve. Right now, she and Helga were supposed to be going over what they had learned that week. Of course, Carly was pretty sure she the other secretary did not speak English and would soon be replaced by some other sex bunny, but that did not matter much.

'Item 1,' Carly wrote down, 'If it has the word 'executive' in front of it, it can kill you. Even the executive toilet.' She paused for a moment, 'Especially, the executive toilet.'

Freddie was yelling on about how much of a certain radiation a human body could take while Nevel made baby noises, mocking him.

'Item 2, if I ever need back-up, I'm going to the bathroom, 'cause that things better armed than the mafia. It's got guns coming out of the wazoo!' She chuckled at the word, drawing the attention from Nevel, who was making chicken noises, and Freddie, whose veins stood out like they were about to burst.

"Wazoo is a funny word…" She smiled absent-mindedly. They kept staring at her as Helga leaned over and asked, "Vat did you get for number seven?"

Soon the two men were back to yelling. Helga told Carly it was almost over.

Last she had seen, Freddie was yelling about inner-city kids, and Nevel was dry-humping a desk whilst screaming his own name at the top of his lungs. The brunette resisted the urge to look up, and regretted her decision the second she took a peek. The end of an argument up here was signaled by Nevel pulling down his pants and mooning his partner. Freddie made a remark about his partner's maturity, and Nevel made a remark about Freddie's sexuality. The two then went to their private wings, slamming the doors behind them.

Helga adjusted herself and followed her boss. Resisting the urge to throw-up due to the fact that her counter-part had to have intercourse with Nevel, Carly followed her boss too. It always amazed her that the two heads of the company worked in the same office. The top floor was enormous, but the two typically stayed within fifty feet of each other.

Freddie was running his fingers through his hair, growling. His watch beeped and whined at his frenzied programming. Tired of standing at attention at the front of his desk, she sat down on the back of it by his left arm. He barely noticed. Something about the way his hair was cut now was alluring to her. Carly considered the state of if, and what Nevel had said about Freddie not being 'man enough.' He was more than man enough, he always had been.

Carly's fingers moved on their own accord, stroking through his hair as she was lost in memory. Back in college, he had still been a dork. 'Dead Fred' had made little progress on the wrestling team, or the mixed martial arts club. He just was not made to hurt others, unless it was with a sword. He managed to compete at the highest national levels in fencing, earning notoriety for his name and ability.

There was this one party in California where he had… feeling his eyes on her, she stopped stroking Freddie's hair. His breathing was level, he was no longer muttering, and he looked content.

"Go prepare for my three o'clock," He ordered, and went back to his computer. She nodded and walked away, heart thumping. She really did not want to think about anything right now.

Chapter 6

Sarah was ecstatic to see her mother. Kara was in time-out, again, and was not up for their play date. The little girl rambled on about how great her teachers and classes were. It was apparent that Benson School for the Gifted (It was the only thing in town Nevel did not care enough about to put his name on somewhere) was run extremely well. Freddie took great care to make sure that kids had excellent schooling. It was probably due to how poor his childhood had been.

"Momma, when's Daddy coming home?" Carly practically tripped when she heard that. Her daughter was looking up at her like a sad puppy. Sarah's big eyes were comically large, and her lip pouted out at an inhuman level. It was more than her mother could bear.

"Sweetie, sometimes… things happen, and we can't be with those we care about," She spoke softly, knowing her daughter's tender heart and quick mind.

Her daughter nodded, accepting her mother's words, "But I don't see why you get to see him all day, and I only see his pictures." She accented her remark by pointing to a picture of Freddie smiling warmly. Her daughter did not realize that her 'Daddy' was the public face of a massive corporation, and that his picture was not there for Sarah's use.

Carly's eyes went wide, "Uh oh… honey, Fred- I mean, Mr. Benson is just an old friend of Mommies', and she really likes this job, and just because some European blond plays house with Nevel doesn't mean Mommy and him are going to be doing that too, even though they like each other. Understand?"
Sarah nodded her head, but Carly felt more confused than ever.

Dinner was delivered. Apparently working in this city meant everything was taken care of. The school, though one of the finest in the world, was free, as was transportation. Food was rationed. One of the corporations taken over viciously by Overlord Corporation had been out to solve world hunger. Once it was apparent that they had discovered new ways of producing and preserving food, the technology had been used for employees, not those who were actually starving.

The delivery was not a surprise, but the delivery boy was.

Carly gasped when she opened the door, and then leapt out to hug her old friend, "Gibby!" She squealed.

He grunted when she made contact. The two chatted amicably as they ate. Sarah was off in her own little world, unconcerned by the world around her.

Hours passed as the three played a couple of old-fashioned board games and lights up and down the street turned off. Eventually, Sarah passed out on the couch as the result of a sugar crash. Eating a gallon and a half of cookie dough ice cream will do that to a kid, though the child may insist they are, 'Nocturnal, Goddess of the night, and defeater of the Dream Lord, Sandman!'

After putting her daughter to bed, Carly returned to find Gibby checking out the street outside.

"Uh, is something wrong?" When he turned around, it was apparent something was.

"We need to talk."

Half an hour later, all the blood had drained from Carly's face. The old Gibby, some sweet, innocent kid, had died a long time ago. In his place was a merciless agent of an unstoppable corporate giant.

"Why are you telling me all this?" Carly asked quietly.

"Because you need to know what's going on around you. Overlord has you on their radar now. The entire town is bugged. Not inside the houses, Freddie made sure of that. But Nevel has every public area covered. He's got a team of analysts already working on Sarah." Carly shook with rage. Life here had seemed so nice. Gibby continued, "You need to help me stop them. I've seen the future, don't ask, and they just get more powerful."

"What do you want me to do?"

"There's one kid who's really special. There's an entire department working on her. Name's Kara Diffy. If you can get to her that would really help."
Carly nodded her head. She hugged her friend, and invited him to stay the night on her couch.

"No offense, Carl, but… you look boy hungry again, and it's not a good idea. Besides, as the evil right hand, I have places to be," Then he left.

Unsure of her place in the world, Carly spent the night drifting in and out of sleep.

Chapter 7

Carly stood silently in front of the desk. It turned out that the executive assistant's priorities were not that of an executive assistant. The men handled their own affairs. Simply put, Nevel screwed his, and Freddie just wanted someone to blame.

Currently she had been standing in high heels in his office for the better part of an hour, and by the way, ouch, that really hurts. Her boss was tapping the fingers of his right hand, and she knew from experience he was waiting on her.

"You two have been spying on me!" She screamed. He flinched. She went on for some time telling him how unethically he had been behaving. It looked like he was smirking…

"I'm sorry," He said, "It's just been so long since someone wanted me to do right…"

"Oh Freddie," She opened her arms for a hug, and then stopped herself, "I mean, Mr. Benson sir. I know you can do a lot of good for the whole world."

He nodded, "Pack your bags, Smith, we have business in Washington. Seattle, Washington, to be exact," Freddie's eyes grew dark, "Apparently Pam is still kicking."

The helicopter ride over was uncomfortable. For one thing, Pam had apparently faked her death, again. There was also the fact that their ride was a prototype for next-generation helicopters, and thus Carly was riding in something that, on paper, did not exist. She tried not to stare at anything, especially the parts that appeared to be ray guns, so as not to seem like she was spying. If only Gibby had not told her the truth. This would have been a great deal easier without the knowledge Freddie could make someone disappear.

The house sitting in the middle of a trailer park was rundown. Somehow one of Pam's cousins had managed to steal a two story house. Carly did not like to think about how they managed it.

They landed and headed inside. Freddie had hired a cleaning crew who immediately got rid of anything incriminating. A couple of his assistants brought in a chair where he sat as the crew worked. Carly rattled off a list so Freddie was kept up-to-date on the goings on of the house, and dealt with any problems that arose at the company. Finally, the crew brought a box that they considered keepsakes. It surprised the secretary a crew like this knew what would be considered sentimental. Carly loaded it into the helicopter. Freddie had business with Sue. He left a person there to give her a message. It sounded ominous. He had that dark air about him when he returned to the vehicle and they lifted off.

Freddie dropped Carly off at her house. She kept the box, which mostly included knick-knacks from I-Carly. There were love letters to the guy who made fat cakes, the shirt Carly gave her all those years ago, (no doubt collected through unlawful means) and the box for sound effects.

Smiling, Carly pressed a button. To her surprise, the voice of Sam, dead for years, sounded.

"Hey, you, there's something you need to know…"

Chapter 8

Gibby looked at Carly in shock, "No… way… There's no way…"

"Yes way," Carly proclaimed waving the machine as evidence. Gibby rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Does he know?"

Carly bobbed her head uncertainly, "It would make sense if he did. It explains everything, but tomorrow, I'll talk to him." Her watch beeped with an executive message, "Or tonight will work out."

Carly made her way to the tower. The elevator did not try to kill her as she made her way up. The building was more ominous at night, but it did not issue any threats at all. The door binged open to an empty room.

It took Carly awhile to find Freddie. He was in a hot tub in his suit.

"Carly! Carly, over here, Carly, this is, this is the best thing ever, and you have to try it, Carly. 'Cause, I'm rich and crazy, and I dig up things I don't want to know."

He was obviously drunk, and not the first person to misuse technology's ability to connect with others. The Overlord watch promised that it could screen drunk-dialing, but even inebriated, Freddie could program if he wanted to. It was simple for his alchohol laden mind to get a message through, appropriate or not. She shook her head, and picked him up out of the tub. He was not wearing pants.

"I really did it this time, I can just tell. I'm just a boy, really, and you're this whole…" He trailed off, waving his clumsy hand over her body stupidly, "Woman-thing… that is all mature, and I'm still suffering from a schoolboy crush."

She took his hands and led him to his desk, "So… what happened to you?"

Not realizing he was drunk out of his mind, he began his story.

It was the most shocking thing Carly never knew about him, but in the morning something even worse would happen. They would both be thrown into conflict with a dead woman.

A.N. I feel bad for any mistakes I make. When I go back through and read some of this, it drives me nuts.

I hope those of you who can appreciate them found the references; obviously Tori is from 'Victorious' but the Diffys will be from 'Phil of the Future.' It's not important now, but I felt like putting them in.

This is the future, so I felt like putting in future technology. In the final part, which is only supposed to be four chapters until the conclusion, we will find out where the Nevel-Freddie connection really began, talk about where we were, and where we're going.

I don't think I've kept true to the characters so far, not really. But in the coming portions, we'll find out how we became the people we are.

-Clever.

R&R It's kind.