Francis Headquarters was an elegant, glass-walled building located a hundred and thirty feet underground with no physical entrance. The only means of arriving there was by teleportation. It was the local branch of the organisation started by Jean-Simon Francis, for the purpose of uniting perceivers internationally and motivating them to combat the Darkness in the world. Francis Funds was used to commission them, and the sudden decline in cash reserve was bound to impact the morale of employees. Though perceivers were seldom required to report to headquarters, it was the place to look for chiefs and where important meetings were held.
It was where Leo and Clarisa burst in through the front door. As they expected, there was more of a bustle in the building than usual. Their colleagues moved briskly from office to office with stacks of files in their hands and gloomy expressions on their faces. Clarisa reminisced the days when more of her peers were out on the field. As someone who worked independently of Francis Funds, she found it disappointing that the majority of perceivers were chained to a desk, accounting and analysing statistics. That left a small department of them fighting in the front line. She wondered how anyone could see the Darkness and actively choose not to annihilate it. To her it was second nature.
She began to question why she was even a member of this organisation.
They were stopped short in their tracks by a tall man in a grey suit who looked to be in his fifties. He had the face of an army sergeant, and did not care to apologise for standing in their way.
“Who are you looking for and for what purpose?” he demanded.
“Johnson,” Leo nodded his head respectfully. “We’re looking for Jonas to ask him about the cause of-”
.
“From now onwards you report to me and to me only,” Johnson interrupted. “Jonas has been demoted.”
“What?”
“You know the drill,” he stated plainly. “Jonas reports to me now, and so do the both of you. There will be no questions.”
“What drill? Surely it can't be Jonas who told Jaydis about the funds?” Leo defended.
“I never said that,” Johnson said coldly. “Forget everything that Jonas told you. Your duties will resume as per normal until all causes of the current situation have been investigated and clarified.”
“And how long is that going to take?” Leo argued.
“That is our business. Yours is to obey without question.”
“Johnson,” Clarisa began, “As we are not used to having our leader-”
“Get used to it,” he dismissed. “I would leave this place if I were you. We're too busy right now to answer enquiries.”
“Where’s Jonas? We still wish to speak with him,” Leo insisted.
“He’s at a meeting. You may see him if you're willing to wait for an hour,” Johnson barely finished his sentence before walking away.
Leo and Clarisa exchanged looks of disquiet.
“What the- What drill is he talking about?”
“Leaders risk losing their rank when a member of their team dies,” Clarisa recalled.
“I’ve never heard of that. I mean how could he? Jonas is-” he sighed, too exasperated to finish. “Are you going to wait?”
Clarisa shook her head. “I've got an appointment in ten minutes. You?”
“Staying. I'll be sure to fill you in.”
Before she could teleport, Leo told her, “On a final note, I really hate him.”
Clarisa smiled a ‘I agree but I don't have a choice either’ smile before she vanished. Leo pocketed his hands and began to stroll up and down the corridors impatiently, wondering what meeting Jonas had to attend without him now that they were both of the same rank. He considered gate-crashing it to find out, but that would only complicate things and make the present circumstances worse for himself.
Silly idea.
So lost he was in his thoughts that he slammed straight into Larry Dooley, his least favourite colleague, and sent his files flying across the floor.
“Watch it, you!” Larry snapped as he knelt down to collect the documents. Leo bent forward with the intention of helping him, but Larry snatched up the last folder before he could touch it. Something in Larry’s eyes told Leo that an apology would only aggravate his temper, so Leo fled to the cafeteria. There, he ordered an espresso which he didn’t touch, as he was busy eavesdropping on a conversation between two other co-workers at the next table.
“Who in the world thanks a boss for giving her more work? That is so fake, anyone can see through that.”
“Yeah, and she bought him tea? Afterwards? Is she doing this on purpose? I mean- of course she does it on purpose but sometimes I think it’s all just a facade to gain popularity and attention, as if she doesn’t already.”
“And she got all the credit for that previous assignment. Don’t they know that although we get paid, we suffer from the Darkness too? It’s unfair.”
“And I’ve heard that Larry likes her? Come on, Clarisa doesn’t go with him at all.”
“Besides, she likes Leo.”
“I’m right here please stop it.”
Leo stomped out of the cafeteria without so much as a second glance at the two surprised gossips.
He continued to pace the corridors until the hour was up, then headed up to the floor where meetings were held. He looked through every door window as he passed them and finally found the only room that was occupied. He waited out of sight for the door to open, but fifteen minutes crawled by and the meeting was still ongoing. He resisted the temptation to peep through the window, and told himself to endure another fifteen long minutes. Soon enough, thirty minutes passed and it had not yet ended.
Leo looked through the window and witnessed a most animated argument between his new leader Johnson, Johnson’s manager, the chief fieldwork officer, the chief finance officer, the CEO of the local branch of Francis Headquarters himself, and lastly, Jonas. He leaned in closer to hear muffled and incoherent shouts through the thick wooden door, but one name was quickly distinguished by his ears: Clarisa. Why was she the subject of conversation today? Right at that moment, Johnson’s eyes fell upon the window. He uttered something to the others, and in the next moment, all eyes were on the window. Leo was forced to make his entrance. He cursed under his breath before turning the doorknob. His leather shoes sounded like thunder against the carpet as he entered the deadly quiet room.
“I was… I was looking for Jonas and I thought the meeting was supposed to end half an hour ago,” Leo explained as calmly as he could.
“Were you listening in on our discussion?” the CEO asked.
“Yes, I’m sorry,” Leo confessed. “I didn’t know what you were talking about, but I’m really sor-”
“No no, I’m glad you’re here. We would be interested to hear your views on the matter,” the CEO insisted in a friendly tone that intimidated him. “Please, take a seat.”
As Leo sat down he looked to Jonas for some form of reassurance, but he was staring at the table, too upset to give him eye contact. The CEO nodded to the chief finance officer, who cleared his throat and began,
“Leo, did you study finance?”
Leo shook his head. “I'm a high school dropout.”
“Fine, then perhaps I'll explain all of this to you in layman terms, shall I?”
As he activated the presentation slides on the screen, Leo was still trying to decide if he was being considerate or insulting. The screen displayed fours bars on a graph. The two red ones represented the decrease in funds of the local branch and the two blue ones represented that of the UK branch.
“As you know, we are experiencing a drastic reduction in funds. As it turns out, this is happening in every branch around the world, but in unequal quantities. We started out with more funds than the branch in London, but ended up with less. Do you… understand what I'm saying?” he gestured to Leo as if he were a kindergarten child.
Leo decided on the latter.
“I can read graphs. Go on.”
“Good,” he pretended not to notice. “We have tried to contact Francis many times, but he's shut himself out and there’s been no response from him for two weeks. The only thing left for us to do is to run the business as usual until we go broke, but of course, we don’t want that. Hence we have requested for the London branch to loan out some of their funds, which can hopefully sustain us until Francis restores all of it somehow.”
“And what if he doesn't?”
“We'll give him the chance,” the chief fieldwork officer took over. “But here comes the problem.”
He changed slides, and the screen now showed a line graph with five differently coloured lines representing the success rates of each branch. The red line peaked in the current year, way above the rest.
“Tell me what you observe from this, Leo.”
He stared at the screen. “Our success rate is at an all-time high.”
“That's all?”
“And it’s way surpassed the others,” he added.
“It's unreal,” the chief fieldwork officer corrected. “Our success rate is impossible. And the London branch wants to know the reason for this before they even consider loaning the money out to us.”
“Do you know how this is possible, Leo?” the manager asked him.
Leo frowned as he fit in the last piece of the puzzle. “Clarisa?”
“Attaboy,” the manager nodded. “Not only does she have insurmountable skill that allows her to extinguish Darkness with her mere touch, she works extra and doesn't cost a thing.”
“And you told them?” Leo said in disbelief.
“Yes, we told them,” the CEO affirmed, “And they said they would loan us the money in exchange for Clarisa.”
Leo’s eyes widened with apprehension.
“We’re not agreeing to that, are we?”
“That's what the whole debate was about,” Jonas said bitterly.
“So… So why am I listening to this?” Leo rose from his chair. “You want to hear my opinion? Like it even matters?”
“Every opinion matters,” said the CEO.
“My opinion is hell no!” Leo said simply.
“Watch your language, Mr Horgan,” the chief finance officer warned. “We need the funds and we need it now. We won't last more than a few months without the loan, and you know we don't stand a chance looking for new jobs.”
“But how long more are we gonna last with that loan? Johnson voiced. “Use it all and run out again? It’s not going to solve the problem. On the other hand, Clarisa has value. She’s an asset. It's not something you can just give away. Having her can be immensely profitable in the long term.”
“You wanna talk long-term? Forgo the loan and we won't even have a long-term to think about!” the finance officer countered. “This is a state of emergency. We do whatever it takes to survive.”
“You wanna know what I think?” Leo piped up. “I think you’re all treating Clarisa like she’s property. If you do decide on the loan, are you just gonna hand her over to them like that? Do you think she’s dumb?”
“Finally,” Jonas remarked, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms. “I don’t even have to say anything. He just said it.”
“Actually, that’s a good point,” the CEO remarked. “Once we do decide on the loan, I will be sure to talk to Clarisa about it.”
All eyes were suddenly on him.
“You’re saying, not yet?” Leo inferred.
“At a later date, we might consider. But at present, not yet,” he confirmed. “It’s too soon to talk about anything. That’s why this discussion has been dragging on and on.”
Everyone stared at the CEO as if he had a codfish on his head.
“You mean that we’ll all naturally agree to a decision later, when the circumstances get clearer?” the finance officer queried.
“Yes, because evidently we’re not desperate enough to strongly agree on something,” the CEO replied. “Dismissed.”
They all made their exit from the meeting room except for Leo, Jonas and the CEO, who looked up at Leo and said,
“Thank you for dropping by.”
Leo raised his eyebrows.
“What I said helped?”
“No,” he explained, “But because you came, everyone summarised their views clearly and I got a better picture.”
Leo nearly snorted.
“Oh.”
“I’ll be going then,” the CEO rose from his seat. “You must want to have a word with Jonas.”
With that, he teleported away, leaving the room to the two perceivers.
Jonas directed a cheeky smile at Leo. “What you said helped me though.”
“How?”
“I don’t know, brought a little light into my life?” he said casually. “What is with you, young man? If you wanna talk, at the very least sit down.”
Leo appreciated how easily Jonas relaxed him. He sat down opposite him so that he could speak to him at eye level.
“How did Johnson tell you about the demotion?” Leo initiated.
“In the bluntest way possible. ‘I’m replacing you. You know the drill,’” Jonas imitated Johnson’s sergeant-like voice.
Leo shook his head. “That must’ve hurt.”
“It wasn’t so much about the demotion,” Jonas said sadly. “It was… Jaydis.”
“I know...” Leo sympathised. “Have you any clue how she knew about the funds?”
“I have literally no idea,” he shook his head firmly. “I told you and Clarisa and that was it. Knowing Jaydis, whoever told her must have had some serious motives.”
“Is everyone informed about the funds now?”
“They all know about the funds and Jaydis.” Jonas confirmed. “Word gets round.”
The last three words echoed through Leo’s mind. He remembered those exact words from Jaydis’ lips when he asked her how she had obtained her knowledge. Panic suddenly rose in him.
“Jonas!” he stood up from his chair again. It was only now that he fully understood what Clarisa had perceived long ago. “Surely there are perceivers who will die like she did. Hopelessness, fear- it spreads- it’s contagious. It’s like the Great Depression!”
“Don’t fall into it,” Jonas reminded him.
“Right.” Leo immediately composed himself by taking a deep breath. “I mean as long as Clarisa remains with us, I won’t.”
“We can’t rely on her all the time,” Jonas reasoned.
Leo stared down at the carpet and regarded his words.
“That’s true…”
The big man stretched in his seat and began to yawn. “I need some coffee. Wanna come with me?”
“I thought coffee ‘isn’t your thing’.”
“I said I need coffee. Not that I want it.” Jonas quipped.
“Had mine already. Nice talking to you, Jonas.”
“Back at ya,” Jonas acknowledged before disappearing. Leo stayed in the room to think for a moment about how much he had to fill Clarisa in on.
That was when he realised he had left his espresso in the cafeteria untouched.
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