Nanodaemons: Reason Has Left The Building (Draft)

Chapter 2

Danae was late. Late late late. She tried to do things simultaneously, brushing her teeth, combing her hair. Of course, she dropped some toothpaste on her blouse. She washed it away, but she knew the stain would show up miraculously later on.

She cursed wildly and ransacked her closet once more.

Clothes flew in gentle arcs towards the bed.

Danae mumbled. "No. Shit. No. Eew! Amaranth? When did I get that colour? No. Nope. Apricot. Maybe... Ash grey, safe bet. No Danae, this is a cosmetics company! You need to be pretty, colourful. Amethyst. Hmm."

Her parrot showed up in her field of view. Parrot was the interface everyone had in their Personal Area Networks, a semi-intelligent program that let you connect with smart-devices on your person and over the internet. A notification popped up and parrot read it aloud in a cartoony voice, "The limo driver is expecting you, Danae."

"SHIT!" A flurry of arm motions and she was out of the stained blouse, into the amaranth one, up on her heels and out the door. Then into the room again, around the house to find her forgotten tablet, and out the door once more.

She slammed the door shut and saw the limo driver wincing. "Okay," Danae mumbled to herself, "Ease up on the doors. Remember that." Then she said to him, "Hello! Good morning, I mean. I'm Danae, hi." She tried to shake his hand through the little roll-down window that separated the cabin.

He shook it backwards and smiled. "It's okay Miss Danae, we're on schedule. I came early and accounted for a bit of a leeway there. We don't want to keep the CEO waiting," he said, his tone underlining that last part.

"Nope," Danae agreed. Then she leaned close to the window, trying to start up a conversation. "How is she? I mean, as a person? I know you won't tell me anything bad of course, but I'll be her assistant and I hardly know anything about her. I met her, once. Met is such a strong word. I've had my callback for a second job interview, and at some point she passed through the door and glanced at me. Whoo! I tell you, it was such a rush!"

The driver just nodded as he slid through the traffic.

"So no, I hardly know her. And now we are going to pick her up? Isn't that exciting? Well... I guess that's your daily job and all, so it's not that exciting for you."

"Yes, we are going to pick her up. She is not the morning type, so we make it a habit to have everyone ready and waiting for her."

"Oh good. Good to know, tell me more," Danae said writing it down on her tablet.

"Well, she's strict, but fair. She'll have her eye on you the first few days, you being new and all."

"What happened to the last personal assistant she had?"

The limo driver forced a smile and said, "Oh, nothing to worry about. Don't believe any of it, those rumours are exaggerated..."

Danae started. "What rumours?"

"We're here," the man said and pulled over.