...

Min gulped as she found herself passed off to a new keeper. Bolin looked sheepishly apologetic, but just waved as she was led off. Min once more vainly tried to explain that she was supposed to be at an interview for the typing pool but Aoto and his assistant Xiaxia were instantly deep in conversation about a slew of political issues that Min thought she had heard about on the news report. In this version politics sounded a lot more like quarreling teenagers than when it was being discussed on the radio.

They were sweeping through the building and suddenly they were through exterior doors onto the street being nodded to by White Lotus guards and Min found herself being gently shoved into a black Satomobile while Aoto slapped the roof and called out an address. She clutched her purse as she found herself sandwiched between the portly Aoto and the long legged Xiaxia who was constantly handing files and papers across Min's lap. No one was speaking to her and as she pressed her knees together tightly and stared blankly out the front windshield she wondered if it was possible she actually was a ghost. She certainly seemed to have lost all living agency since she walked up those steps this morning.

Shortly enough, her existential musings were brought to a halt as the car also halted and Min's forehead met the back of the front seat. Trying to fix her hair and hoping that the bump had not left a visible red mark, Min got out onto the sidewalk without noticing that only one other person had exited the car. It was not until Aoto slapped the roof again and his assistant sped off that she realized she had somehow taken Xiaxia's place at the man's side.

"Um, sir, er, your assistant, um, I think she just drove off," Min said weakly.

Aoto turned to her with his salt-and pepper eyebrows raised. "Yes, it appears she did. Funnily enough, just after I told her to get back to the office. I thought you were the listener." But here he breathed and softened his tone a bit. "Don't worry, I'm not likely to need you for anything more than carrying some documents. Come on, my office called ahead so the Miss will know if we dawdled on our way here." He said as he gestured to the wide glass doors of the massive skyscraper in the heart of the rebuilt city.

The Future Industries skyscraper stood as one of the principle landmarks remaining in the old downtown, its metal peak having been somehow spared from the uniform height restriction inflicted on most of the other buildings by the Kuvira's spirit gun. Min supposed this meant the company had been able to stay open for business during the reconstruction and the resulting money was evident in the lobby. Her little black shoes clacked across the broad expanse of marble as she hurried to keep up with the deceptively speedy Aoto while at the same time craning her neck to see the various cars, propellers and even a dissected train engine that were set up as displays for curious entrants. They reached the golden elevator bank at the back of the lobby just as the brass needle swung down to the first floor light. Aoto did not even have to say anything to the lift-operator who nodded as soon as he saw Aoto removing his hat. Once Min stepped inside, the doors slid closed and the control lever was depressed all the way to the right. It looked like they were going a long way up.

In the quiet rumbling of this elegant little upholstered room Min leaned over to Aoto. She spoke a in a whisper. "Um, forgive me for asking, but why do you call Sato 'the Miss'?"

Apparently she was not as quiet as she thought because she heard a brief snort of laughter that was completely smoothed from the elevator operator's face by the time she looked over. Aoto just sighed. "Well, part of it is that the words Miss Sato just sort of blend together when you are saying it all the time. And also the Avatar... Well, I'm sure you can extrapolate." He looked uncharacteristically awkward.

Min looked at this statement for some sort of hint or clue but found nothing. She was genuinely confused. "Um, no, what do you mean? What about the Avatar?"

Aoto turned to look her in the eyes curiously. "Either you don't listen to rumor at all or you are a very delicate lier. Either way she might like you more than I thought. Come on, this floor is us."

He gestured her towards the opening door with his hat but that only served to make Min almost walk into the chest of the man who was waiting just outside. As she hurriedly backed up the man clasped his gloved hands in front of him and nodded his head respectfully to her. He gave Aoto, who looked equally startled by his abrupt presence, a deeper bow.

"Mister Aoto," the man said. "Please follow me. Miss Sato will be free to meet with you momentarily."

Min decided to, from now on, let Aoto lead the way but in the brief time she had been looking at him waiting for him to assume point position the gloved man had vanished from next to her. She looked around in surprise and shortly noticed this sudden servitor now across the hall holding open a massive three meter tall door. There was no sign of how he covered the intervening distance but if it turned out all the super-rich knew secret airbender tricks Min was not going to expose that bit of ignorance on her part. By this point in the day they could start juggling tortoise-geese and she would just smile and nod knowingly.

She did not know what she expected the the office of the head of a billion yuan corporation to look like, but she supposed she expected there to be fewer transmission systems stacked in the corner as discreetly as one can arrange a couple hundred kilos of greasy metal. That was not to say that the rest of the massive room was not exquisitely opulent. Min was pretty sure that a single one of those eight lacquered chairs would buy her apartment, and that massive dark wood desk could pay for Uncle Sang's whole business. Also she was pretty sure she had seen that scroll painting on the wall at the National Museum.

Aoto absently handed over his hat to the gloved man with a vague, "Thanks, Hangsook," and collapsed backward into one of the two quilted couches that sat facing each other in the the center of the room. To Min's marvel, Hangsook smoothly took the hat with a precise and well-mannered nod. That man was a servant! And better dressed than Min had ever been in her life.

Min was marveling out the vast plate glass window that took up one wall at the city spread out below when suddenly Hangsook took her hand and elegantly prestidigitated her down onto the couch as well. She first put her purse on the floor by her feet before nervously picking it up again, and after remembering that she just put it on the ground and so shouldn't place it on her lap she awkwardly placed it on a little end table by her arm. How was she supposed to sit here? She pressed her feet together and tilted her knees to the side. Was that what fancy ladies did? Oh, who knew?

"Hangsook! Is that him?" A woman called out from an adjoining room. "Ask him if he wants anything! I'll be out in a second!"

At least Min knew this bit of etiquette. She turned, murmuring her polite refusal of the offer since it was impolite to consume before the host arrived, but Hangsook had already produced a full tea set from some invisible spiritual plane and was silently washing cups in hot liquid from the pot, the steaming drops streaming down between the wooden slats of the set's platter. Oh well, Aoto did not seem to be bothered by any impropriety, and the offered tea was very good. Min took another sip just as one of the side doors to the office swung open and a young woman in a dark skirt-suit and shoulder-cape entered. A trail of smoke streamed up from a burned down cigarette smoldering between her fingers. When she saw them two from the Avatar's headquarters she exclaimed cheerfully:

"Aoto, good to see you!"

"Miss Sato, good to see you as well." Aoto had hopped up as the woman entered, however Min found herself holding a hot cup of tea and before she could figure out how to rise without spilling it on herself the woman was waving for him to sit back down. Sato tossed her head slightly, clearing some of her shining black hair from her face as she said, "Please Aoto, call me Asami. Even if you were one of Tenzin's recruits instead of mine you don't need to be unfamiliar."

Aoto made a deep noise in his throat. "If it's all the same I would rather not. There's enough trouble already in people accusing us of industrial collaboration. As you say, you did recruit half of the Avatar's office. We need every bit of unfamiliarity we can muster."

Miss Sato nodded and shrugged as she sat down on the opposite couch, crossing her ankles as she snuffed out her cigarette in the ashtray on the end-table. "Fair enough. What can I do for you today? Is the conclave going well? Last I heard she was getting a bit testy in there." Min supposed they were talking about the Avatar.

Aoto barked a laugh, "Yes, testy will say it. But that is not exactly what I came to talk to you about." Here he took a sip of his tea, buying him a few spare seconds.

"Would it by any chance have something to do with the fact that Cabbage Corp is today suddenly and hurriedly issuing a series of new bids to your offices with all their prices revised down by up to fifteen percent? Including some bids for contracts that I was under the impression we had already closed. Tell me, am I close to the issue?" she said with a steely smile as her statement was punctuated by the snap of her gold cigaret case flicking open. Hangsook's hand appeared, holding a lighter.

To Aoto's credit he managed not to choke as Miss Sato's soft and kind voice went on the attack without ever perceptibly changing tone. "Erm? Are they doing that? Well you see, some of what I came to tell you was that this morning, Chao got it in his head that it would be more cost effective if the United Republic began awarding its construction contracts in a blind bidding process. An anti-cronyism measure. Of course to avoid hypocrisy our organization would have to adopt the same rules we're advocating, you see?"

"Hmmm," Miss Sato said opaquely. The tip of her cigarette glowed.

"I came here personally to give you the heads up on this new policy, a policy which I stress is not in place yet. I don't know about anyone having any communication with C Corp."

Miss Sato sighed, smoothly exhaling a cloud of smoke."It's ok, Aoto. I believe you don't. Cabbage Corp's crisis response time has gotten very good recently, even if their product has not kept up. Maybe turning over their advertising services to Verrimedia did actually help them streamline the business. Whatever it is I feel like I'm a step behind. As much as I hate it, Verrik does seem to understand his industry."

"Um, Miss Sato?" Min said, and discovered to her chagrin that she was raising her hand like she was back in school, in front of a woman not more than a year or two older than her. "Mister Verrik was in the building this morning. The, uh, Avatar building. He was talking to Chao when I left the room. It might be possible that he figured out the bidding process and told..."

Miss Sato put her hand to her forehead. "Of course he did. Aoto, you had better get Chao to make his statement quickly, or else Verrik is going to be saying that I pressured you to delay this new policy for my benefit by the time his papers hit the stands. He knows better than anyone that perception of the truth is often at least as important as the actual facts."

"Of course, I'll make the call from your lobby." He pursed his lips. "There is actually another issue I needed to talk to you about first. It's about the special order airship we-"

"Oh yes," Miss Sato clapped happily. "It's all done but some of the stenciling. You are going to love it. I could actually send it out today if needs be. I saw the Harmony Restoration anniversary delegation came in yesterday with the money so we can get the paperwork knocked out of the way quickly."

"That's just it. The delegation did give their contribution, but they gave us an airship."

For a second Miss Sato was just confused, and the cigaret was left to smolder on the edge of the ashtray. "No they didn't. I was on the trip with Korra when she talked to the Fire Lord about her organization needing money."

"For an airship. So the Fire Lord got us an airship. A Steadylight Streamliner two-oh-one I believe." Aoto stopped as he saw the CEO's face darken. "But that is not the point. I'm making an appointment with the delegation right away to see if there is anyway we can liquidate this new asset. And if there is some problem with that, well Bolin and Amishiq have always been saying it would be better to have two airships than one." He gave a weak smile.

Miss Sato was holding a hand over her eyes while the other reached out for a cup of tea which was instantly materialized into existence by Hangsook. "But you guys can not afford two. The calculations work out much better for leveraging Avatar Right to secure competitive pricing on commercial transport. Ugh, this is a mess. Have I ever mentioned I hate these international understandings over a pot of tea and a handshake? But Korra always acts offended when I want her to lean more heavily on her legal team. At least Steadylight Inc. does good work." The cup of tea was held out again and instantly vanished in a flash of gloves, making room for a renewed assault against her cigarette.

Aoto gestured broadly, "We are working on this, but to be honest the office as a whole only noticed the confusion a few minutes ago. In fact, it was this girl here who put it together for us." To Min's alarm he was pointing at her.

Miss Sato leaned back in her couch. "I'm sure you are working. Well, you've got a smart new assistant at any rate. Oh no, you didn't replace Xiaxia did you? I liked her."

Aoto shook his head. "No no, Xiaxia is just back at the office. This is Chan, a new hire."

Min broke in. "Er, actually I'm not. I mean, this is my first day but I am not-"

Aoto paid her no mind. "We've been looking to hire someone new ever since we lost Mengyao."

Min tried again. "No, you see no one has actually hired me yet and my name is actually-"

Miss Sato smiled wearily. "Oh, I you can believe that I heard about Mengyao. Well, you're right, you do need a replacement." Miss Sato now sounded contemplative. "It's gone on far too long without someone there."

"I don't feel that is our fault." Aoto said, as if at least one thing ought not be.

Miss Sato nodded, before turning to Min. "No, you're right. It hasn't been an easy process finding a fit. But enough grumbling about the past, what about you? How are you liking working with the staff?" Min found Miss Sato focusing warmly but closely on her. It was like being under a velvet wrapped magnifying glass.

Min stumbled over her first words. "Well. I mean it has gone good, I mean...I haven't actually done any work yet. I have just been sort of roaming around the building with all these different people even though I was just supposed to be going to the-"

Aoto interrupted, "She's actually the one who gave Chao the idea for the blind bidding, which though is a bit of hassle with the Verrik/C Corp situation I still think is a good concept."

Miss Sato concurred. "No, I agree that it will be best for the country. I actually suggested something like it at the last development conference but that all went nowhere." She smiled at Min. "So that's twice that you've saved these guys. Pretty productive for a first day."

Min felt that 'productive' certainly misconstrued a day in which she had been passed around like lost baggage at the train station. "I wouldn't say so, mam. Miss Sato. I just got shuffled around enough that I heard some things that not everyone else did. Honestly, a well organized memo system would do everything I could much better."

Miss Sato muttered to herself, "And I bet your system would not involve infesting the building walls with a swarm of hungry prairie badgers tied to strings."

"What?"

"Nothing. One of Verrik's business proposals got through my screeners to land on my desk yesterday. That man has more front companies that the Triads."

"Oh, I met Mister Verrik today. He seemed..." Min searched for a word for what felt like far too long. "...innovative?"

Miss Sato gave a short laugh that almost edged into a snort. "Diplomatic and she survived Verrik? Yes, I think you should hang on to her, Aoto."

"If we can, Miss." He stood up, "Well I have to go make that phone call to Chao and another to the delegation. I promise you we will sort this mess out." He started to walk but stopped as his hat was handed to him. "Oh, I still have to tell the Avatar about all this. That just sounds so pleasant."

Miss Sato smiled. "Don't worry, her bark is worse than her bite." She then reconsidered.

"Well, no, it isn't. But she isn't going to bite you over this." She turned to Min who had gotten up to find her purse which then suddenly appeared back in her hands courtesy of the omnipresent Hangsook. Miss Sato said, "And it was very nice meeting you, Chan."

"It's actually..." She gave up. "It was very nice to meet you to, Miss Sato," Min said with a small bow, giving up on the fight and wondering with vague curiosity what her name-tag would end up saying. As she walked out heavy doors clicked shut behind her.

...