Prophecy: Tome of Skin

5. Higher Places

The elevator dinged as it reached the top floor. Monica hurried out and went on her way, obtaining the squeaky greetings and aversion of eyes from all of her subordinates that she passed. For once, that included Stephanie, who followed behind her and said nothing while she focused her gaze on her feet. She knew that Monica was still displeased with her, and though she had yet to be fired-or killed-she knew that she was only one more failure away from being severely punished. And those two things would be welcomed over the alternative, and Stephanie knew she would gladly take death or termination sooner than she would lose the greatest gift she'd ever been given. Her charm.

"They're already waiting in your office for you, I called ahead to check." She muttered as she shifted from the back to get the door. No thanks were given to her, and all she received for her effort was a well-placed scowl.

"It took you long enough, you do realize how valuable my time is, don't you?" Alistair sighed in exasperation as Monica finally joined him and Cliff.

"Your time isn't nearly as important as mine, sit down, keep your mouth shut, and maybe we'll actually be able to get through this." It was unlike Monica to be so blunt, but she'd endured all the tribulation she could bear in the midst of all her success. Now she wanted to play no more games. "There've been some complaints about our product, and I've called a meeting with the shareholders later this afternoon."

"What kind of complaints? The serum is perfect." Immediately he could see that any of his attempts to combat her would be useless, and perhaps dangerous.

"There's not really a problem," it was Stephanie who answered, "it's just that it's not as potent as some would like, you know, nothing we hadn't expected to hear when we diluted it."

"Yes, so now we have to go grease some palms, quell the unrest that's starting." Monica tried hard not to glare at her minion.

"Okay, so what are we supposed to say?" Alistair wasn't pleased by having to do the grunt labor himself. Talking to shareholders? He hadn't done that since his first company was only a startup.

"That might've been misleading, when I said we," she paused, smiling, "what I meant is you. I can't be bothered by such trivial matters, I have far more important things to attend to. You will go, you will deal with them."

"Fine." It seemed like his instruction was complete, so he got up and left, not wanting to stay and be patronized by her. It wouldn't be long before she was the one on her knees in front of him, and he had taken notice of how she had looked at Cliff when she said she had other things to do. Good, that meant his boy was moving their plan along nicely.

"Stephanie, you'll go prep the super soldiers, it's time we try them out once again. Get them briefed on what I want them to do, but don't send them out until you get the go ahead from me, got it?" Now she looked at the young enforcer, catching her by the arm as she brushed by. When she'd leaned in close to whisper in her ear she hissed, "don't you dare mess things up this time, understand? If you find that you have trouble properly motivating yourself, just pretend like your life depends on it."

"Of course." It was all she needed to say, probably all that she could've managed right then, and she escaped quickly so that she could get to a place where she'd be able to breathe again. When she had gone it left only Monica and Cliff, and he stared at her back while she was still watching her employee go. It wasn't like he needed to ask her, because whether or not he did he knew that she had a mission for him as well. Only, it wasn't like anything the other two had been sent to do.