Four Elements (on hold)

Chapter 1 - Keira

Chapter 1 

Music was blaring from the little round speakers Keira had strategically placed around the room.  She swivelled around in her chair to face the opposite desktop, an alarm had just sounded and she was scanning down the error report to find the problem.  Punching in her override code she redirects the flow of information and the alarm stops.  Smiling she swivelled back and continued debugging the program code she was busy with. 

This was her kingdom.  The server room at Excel Laboratories was a state of the art facility that took up an entire floor of the glass encased tower.  Not only did she have a 360 degree view of the city but access to the best equipment money could buy.  Her workstation consisted of a circular island of desks with 12 flat screen monitors giving her complete control over the vault of servers that was her domain.  

A new message popped up on the screen to her left and she glanced at it quickly before tapping the speed-dial button to the sender. 

“Miss Potts, yes, I received your message, and no, your printer is not broken again, press the green button.  Nothing?  Is it plugged in? Yes?  Is the plug switched on?  Is it printing now?  Good.  Next time please check the plugs first before sending a message.  Thank you!”  Keira sighed and cast a glance over the rest of the consoles checking for alarms.  

When she convinced the technical director to let most of the tech support go in favour of her custom designed network, she knew she would have to deal with the ID-10-T problems too.  Still, she preferred to work alone and outsourced the big hardware problems.  Keira walked over to the kitchen area and set a cup underneath the espresso machine.  She hummed to the music while frothing the milk and didn’t even hear the elevator doors open.    

“I’ll have a cup of that!”  A male voice said behind her.  

Keira spun around to come face to face with a gorgeous smiling Mike Burton.  Mike with the deep blue eyes and dark-blonde hair.  He was the youngest Marketing Manager in the history of the company and Keira has had a crush on him from day one - as did 90% of the other female employees.  The epitome of a young, successful, charming up-and-comer; what’s not to like? 

“Hi Mike!”  She grinned slightly stunned by his megawatt smile, reaching without looking for the cup of espresso, which she topped up with foamy milk. 

He leaned forward, those blue eyes full of mischief and gently took the cup from her fingers. 

“You make the best coffee Kay!” His mellow tone just loud enough to be heard over the music.  

Keira’s knees nearly gave out, but she pulled herself together just in time. 

“It’s my own special blend imported from Columbia; but apart from my barista expertise, I’m sure you are here for more than coffee?”  Mikes’ eyes swept over her for a second before he took a step back and leaned against the countertop –oh so suave- cradling the cup in his one hand.   

“Well, not just the coffee.  But yes, I need you to enhance the graphics capabilities of the multi-media room on the 5th floor.  I’m having a special presentation and the media-room in the lobby is too small for what I have in mind.”  

“The projector is the same as in the lobby though.  Not sure what I can do to enhance it. “ Keira frowned. 

Mike’s smile got mischievous.  “Actually, that’s not the problem; it’s just not enough, I want one on each wall.  I don’t want to just show it to the audience, but immerse them in it!” 

He spoke with such enthusiasm Keira couldn’t help but wonder if he is always so passionate. 

“I’ll see what I can do for you, when do you need it?” 

“Being the little miracle worker that you are, Friday shouldn’t be a problem?”  Mike stated more than asked. 

Keira shook her head at his blatant compliment.  “You know, you could’ve just used the video-com to ask.” 

Mike handed his cup to her with an exaggerated bow.  “And miss the excellent coffee?  Never!”  He headed for the elevator with a last “You’re a star!” thrown over his shoulder.

Keira just stood at the window for a minute staring out while sipping her own coffee when an alarm pulled her attention back to her desk. 

“Oh well, back to work!”  She sighed and took her coffee over to the workstation. 

Shortly after silencing the alarm her video-com pinged from the other screen.  “Keira, you there?”  Ryan’s face appeared on her screen from the security room. 

She tapped the accept button.  “Yes Ryan, where else would I be?  On a beach in Mexico?” 

Laughter came through her speakers.  “You wish!  When you can wrench yourself away from the pinacoladas I think you should go through last night’s video feed of the labs.  There is something odd about them.”  Keira frowned. 

“Odd how?”  Ryan was suddenly serious.  “Just check, you’ll see.” Without another word he disconnected.