Lex leaned over his pool table and lined up his shot. He should be working but his day at the office had been stressful. He looked up from the shot and changed his mind. He went to poor himself a scotch.
When he had walked into his office, three very unhappy invoice checkers were waiting for him. They made sure to take up an unreasonable amount of time with repetitious criticism of his staff and the way things were run at Luthor Corp. Their supervisor was mysteriously absent, which was probably a good thing. If they were any indication, she was probably -- the devil incarnate. He made a note to himself to make the three of their lives uncomfortable when this little check was over.
He strolled to his desk and looked at the folder of the supervisor one last time. Boring. The most interesting thing about her was that she was in the reserves. It didn't exactly fit with the rest of her profile. He couldn't help but wonder why she wasn't there today. She was the supervisor; she should at least introduce her self to him. But then it wasn't as though she had to be there. All she had to do was sign a paper at the end to say that the job was done.
He walked back over to the pool table and set down his drink. He started sinking the billiards into the pockets.
Rhone steered her car along the road. It was getting dark. She had spent considerable time collecting data. She had to sneak into Plant Number Three, which for someone like her was -- nothing. Then she collected all the invoices she needed. She also collected data on the people that worked in the invoice office. She analyzed data about their workloads, busy days, and the like.
She saw a few lights ahead, approximated her position, and concluded she was at Luthor Manor. There was a security guard that regulated who entered the estate. She stopped, rolled down her window, and held up her high level security Luthor Corp. ID one of her men had taken the liberty to fashion for her. The guard didn't even get up; he opened the gate quickly. As she rolled up the window, she murmured to herself: "That's what you get when you hire your security from a Tuesday morning security guard seminar. I hope he doesn't genuinely wonder why he has had so many problems."
The castle was big, and it was in excellent condition for its age. Rhone saw it as the mark of a conceited man. No, it was the mark of a lonely man. There was a Porsche parked near the door with vanity plates. She parked a considerable distance behind it in the parking circle. She grabbed her tube and fiddled with the concealed buttons. She wanted to be able to just open it without -- incident. She got out of the car and slung it over her shoulder, grabbing her laptop as well.
A light had turned on in the windows around the main entrance. She went to the door and raised her hand to knock on it. Someone was approaching; she lowered her hand. A few moments later, the door opened and a young man was looking at her. She remembered file photos; he was a servant.
She smiled warmly and held out her free hand, "Good evening, Mr. Miller, I'm Rhone Chade."
He looked surprised that she knew his name. He had never seen her before, he was pretty sure he hadn't anyway. He shook her hand, "Hi…" No one ever did that to him. They always just treated him like, well, a servant.
Awkward silence. She smiled widely, "I was wondering if this house had a good set of encyclopedias. You see I'm going door to door."
He smiled widely in return. He felt more at ease now, "What can I do for you, Ms. Chade?"
"Rhone," she corrected keeping her smile.
He smiled wider, "What can I do for you, Rhone?"
"I need a favor, Mr. Miller," she stated.
"Mark," he corrected maintaining his smile as well.
"I need a favor, Mark," she restated.
"What is that?" he asked, waving his hand that she should come in.
"I need to see Mr. Luthor," she said with an honest look on her face.
He looked at her laptop case in her hand and the artist's tube she had on her shoulder. He knew it wasn't late; Lex took guests later than this all the time. And besides, he trusted this woman. He didn't know why, but he did. Maybe it was because she was nicer than all the other women that Lex had in this castle as guests. He thought of Victoria and cringed.
"Are you all right, Mark?" she put a hand on his shoulder.
He smiled at her and nodded. She returned his smile, definitely the nicest. He started to lead the way. She stopped him. "Should I get the bread crumbs?" she asked.
He smiled even more, "I think I can get us there and back safely."
"Excellent," she said gesturing for him to lead the way. However, she knew exactly where Lex was. He was in his office. Go up the stairs; take the first left, first door on the right.
Lex had finished his game of pool and had returned to his desk after beginning a fire in the fireplace. He was looking at some reports on the office that kept track of the invoices.
Knock, knock, softly came a rap from the door.
Lex looked up and furrowed his eyebrows. "Yes," he said in a slightly raised voice, as to be heard across the room and through the door. The door opened a crack and Mark peaked through. Lex looked back down at his reports. "What?" he asked plainly. He wasn't angry; he just wondered why Mark was here when he wasn't called for.
Mark opened the door and stepped to the side. He said lightly, "A Ms. Rhone Chade is here to see you, Sir."
Lex looked up, surprised. He watched her step through the door and quickly analyzed her image. She was not conventionally beautiful. She had extremely short auburn hair -- no. It was just tied back that way. She wore a dark pants suit that was fitted to her. It showed off her lean body and broad shoulders. She had a laptop case and an artist's tube. However, the oddest things that he noticed were her shoes. They were nice, but they were tennis shoes. Airwalk is what they said, he had heard of them. Why was she wearing tennis shoes? Mostly, she had a presence about her, was it confidence?
She thanked Mark quietly before he left the room and closed the door. She turned and looked at Lex Luthor for the first time as she purposefully strode toward him. He was as he looked in all of those file photos she had seen. He was completely bald from the meteor shower. She wondered if that bothered him or he enjoyed that regal air she thought it gave him. It was quite becoming…. After all, Captain Picard had always been her favorite Starship Captain. He was dressed nicely too, from what she could see from behind the desk. The silky gray button down shirt that he wore accentuated his piercing blue eyes.
He leaned back in his chair slightly. She never looked away from his eyes. It seemed like her walk to his desk took a long time, but it only took a few seconds. In that time he figured out that that was why she wore the tennis shoes, she walked like a guy. He thought the silence between them odd. She didn't.
She reached the desk and stood in front of it. Immediately she lifted her hand and said, "I'm Rhone Chade."
He realized he had forgotten himself in his analysis of her. He stood and shook her hand, "Lex Luthor. What brings you here, Ms. Chade?" He offered her a seat on her side of the desk with a gesture. For the first time she looked out of his eyes and onto his crowded desk.
She spotted the files on his desk. Unfortunately, hers was on top. Maybe she wouldn't notice. He realized she must have when she didn't sit down. He also noticed that she had one hell of a handshake.
Rhone saw the file and was disappointed at how thin it was. Maybe this guy wasn't as good as everyone said. Too bad. "You may call me Rhone if you wish, Mr. Luthor," she said without smiling. Neither of them had smiled since the encounter began. They were both very placid.
"You may call me Lex, Rhone," he said. Her eyes didn't match the rest of her correctly. They were light brown. He didn't know what they should be, but they weren't right.
She narrowed her eyes, "I don't think it will come to that, Mr. Luthor."
Lex had to admit; he didn't know what she was talking about. She had come here for a reason, hopefully not to be rude. But he really couldn't tell if she was being rude, she said it so plainly. It was just a comment, like she really didn't believe that they would speak often enough to be on a first name basis.
"Do you have a room with more -- table space, Mr. Luthor?" she asked, briefly looking at his desk. She specifically looked in the direction of her file.
He looked away from her to an adjacent door. He started to walk over to it. She was following him. He wished she would call him Lex. He hated being called Mr. Luthor; he wasn't his father.
He opened the door and walked through it. It was a room much like the last. It was large with high ceilings. There was a very large table in the center with a few chairs around it. It was decently lit.
She left Lex near the door. She walked over to the table and began to place her laptop case onto it. She began to unpack it without a word. Lex found her -- he didn't know. He could tell that his presence or her surroundings didn't make her nervous, like it did to almost everyone else. "Would you like a drink?" he asked either to lighten the mood or to just get her to give him a hint as to why she was here or what she was doing.
She stopped what she was doing, and turned completely around to look at him. She said, "No thank you, Mr. Luthor." Then she turned back to what she was doing and continued, "I would prefer to drive myself back to my hotel, instead of getting there in the trunk of your car."