Ice Aflame

Prologue

The Board of Directors of FDM Holdings Inc. have been waiting for over an hour. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Nicomaine Dei Mendoza, was livid as she sat at the head of the table, beside the Chairman of the Board? President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO),
Don Federico Delgado Mendoza.

Everyone waited with bated breath for the new Chief Operating Officer (COO) to come online.

Who does he think he is? This is so unprofessional!, Maine thought angrily. He didn't even have the decency to show up personally. Instead, we're all stuck here, waiting to go on a frigging video conference call with the idiot.

Maine recalled last night's conversation with her grandfather, Don Federico or Lolo Dad as she called him. She was aghast when he told her that he hired a new COO and he was coming onboard starting tomorrow. When Maine pressed him for details, he told her to leave well enough alone and wait to meet him along with everyone else. A special board meeting was convened to introduce the COO to the group.

Now, here they were, ready to start the meeting and the new COO was still conspicuously absent.

Maine has had it with the jerk. Just as she was about to move for the Board to postpone the meeting, a face appeared on the conference room television screen.

If it isn't the devil himself. Richard Faulkerson, Jr.

Maine looked sharply at her grandfather, her eyes telling him that she's got something to say about this and he wouldn't like it.

"Good morning!", his voice boomed throughout the room, commanding attention from everyone.

"It's so nice of you to finally show your face, Mr. COO.", Maine told him scathingly. A collective gasp could be heard from everyone in the room.

"Did you wait too long, Princess? Don't worry, everyone's time will be duly compensated. But in your case, I'm sure you had plenty of useless time to spare.", the man replied.

Maine's retort was cut short when her grandfather put his hand on hers, silencing her.

The Chairman then called the meeting to order and they all settled down to discuss the day's agenda.

Maine never once spoke during the meeting. She was busy observing the great, Richard Faulkerson, Jr. The longer she stared, the more irritated she got.

She snapped back into reality when the Chairman asked if there were other matters to discuss. When no one responded, she was asked to move for dismissal of the meeting.

"Mr. Chairman, before I move for dismissal, may I just remind our new COO that split screen meetings is not the way we do business. Let me be kind enough to educate him on that point."

Without so much as a glance on the screen, Maine continued, "Anyways, I move to adjourn this meeting."

"I second the motion, Mr. Chairman.", that was the devil who spoke.

As everyone was packing up to leave, Maine looked at the screen one last time and immediately regretted it. Richard's eyes were pinned on hers, watching her every move. With an evil glint in them, the man dared give her a "pabebe wave" and then turned off the screen.

Right then and there, Maine vowed to make his life a living hell.