Freedom's Outcry

Chapter 1 - Business As Usual

Cassandra Noble sat at her desk in her 4th floor corner office at Stafford Distributors.

She shuffled through papers and memo's that her secretary had left in her in-basket. "God, this is boring stuff!" she murmured to herself.

But, she read what needed to be read and signed what needed to be signed and placed what was necessary in her out-basket.

Cassandra had acquired her position with the company through fraudulent means. Although she was only a teenager, she had matured quickly for her age and looked several years older than what a normal 16 yr. old looked like. Between that and supported by a fake ID, a skillfully crafted bogus resume and some highly praiseworthy recommendations from influential people that had been friends with her parents, she was able to land this job.

Stafford's purchased wholesale weapons and ammunition from weapons manufactures and in turn, sold them to clients located around the world who they had contracts with. The U.S. government was one of their biggest customers with over $2.2 billion is sales just last year and sales were expected to increase by $100 million this year.

As a top liaison coordinator for her company, it was her job to seek out new business opportunities, ensure deliveries were on schedule and handle any problems or concerns of the company's customers.

That's how she met Marcus (Marc) Hawthorne. He was the very handsome blonde haired, blue eyed 27 yr. old CEO of Hawthorne Manufacturing.  A position he had recently assumed after the death of his father a few months earlier.

She had arranged a business meeting with him at her apartment a few weeks ago to try and close a deal to purchase weapons from his company.

He would believe the purchase was on behalf of Stafford's when in reality she wanted to buy them for a group of resistance fighters, that her deceased parents had formed, and which she was now the leader.

When Marc was reluctant to do business with her company, and she couldn't tell him that the weapons were really for the resistance movement, she tried to seduce him into cooperation. During a break in their love making, she confessed the truth to him, hoping it would somehow make a difference.

It didn't! She had fucked his brains out and still didn't close the deal!

What Cassie didn't know is Marc was sympathetic to the resistance movement cause, but was annoyed that she wasn't honest with him up front and instead, tried seducing him to gain his cooperation. So he decided to teach her a lesson and played along but left in the morning before she woke up.

Marc was fascinated with Cassie and contacted her a couple days later to meet up with him to ask her out to dinner.

Cassie adored Marc and agreed to the dinner date. He also surprised her with a truck load of arms and ammunition. They've been seeing each other ever since then. However, not wanting to scare him off, she's been afraid to tell him her true age.

"Ms. Noble" the voice of her secretary, Janice, came over the intercom. "Just reminding you that the Friday afternoon weekly staff meeting starts in 15 minutes".

Cassie pushed her intercom button, "Thank You, Jan!"

Cassie grabbed her purse, laptop, and a note pad and headed to the Elevator and pressed the call button.

When the doors opened, she entered and was greeted by Tom Stafford.

"Hi, Cassandra....on your way up to the staff meeting?"

"Yep, sure am!"

Tom was Walter Stafford's nephew and the head of the advertising department. He was in his early thirties, of average height and build with light brown hair and a slightly receding hairline. He had asked Cassie out many times but, of course, she had always politely declined.