Until The End

CHAPTER 2 - THE SEVENTH FLOOR

The meeting that would eventually lead to the demise of the once very luxurious Leamington Hotel was about to begin in the next few moments. Mason Wilson, who was unaware of this fact- due to the unfortunate absence of a time machine- was thrilled by the opportunity of getting to sign a deal with the best security company in the country.

Mason led the way for Dylan and his team, guiding them towards the biggest meeting room of his hotel. Once seated inside, he turned to his manager, Joshua who was arranging his files in order. A thing he always did when nervous.

"The guy working right now, do you trust him?" Mason asked in a whisper.

Joshua stopped fidgeting with his files and nodded his head, "yes, he's an old friend. I instructed him perfectly on what has to be done." His eyes then moved away from his boss to the man, in the head chair, who was talking to his assistant, showing him the iPad and instructing him on the things that were inaudible to others present in the area.

"Do you think we'll be able to work out this deal with Mr VanAssche?" Joshua asked, worried after all the things he'd heard about the man.

"Of course, we planned well" his boss answered confidently. VanAssche was, no doubt, an intimidating man but, Mason was better.
"What makes you think otherwise?"

Dylan finished his little talk with his assistant. He picked up the iPad, looked up at the two men for the briefest of the second, then dropped his eyes to the screen in his hand. There was no way one could know what was going inside his head or what he was reading on the iPad as his face, ever since he had entered the building, had been devoid of any expression. Joshua observed how the man ignored everything and everyone whom he didn't consider important. People had been trying their best to grab his attention but all they managed to receive in return were unanswered questions and one-sided conversations.

Mason, his boss, was extremely confident that they'll easily bag the deal with the company but, the look Mr VanAssche had given them earlier, the manager thought. It was the look that made him think otherwise.

Mason opened the files and adjusted his mic for the start of the meeting. Joshua, on the other hand, took the time to text the guy, who was working for them, some seven floors above the conference hall.

'Do your work and leave asap Derek and for heaven's sake don't mess up'
-Josh

The phone placed on the table in the technical area of the seventh floor beeped with the arrival of the text. The person, however, had no time to read it as he had done exactly what he was instructed not to. Derek, for heaven's sake, had messed up.

Sitting inside the deserted tech area with nearly a dozen computer screens facing him, Derek tried to come up with several ways to rectify the problems, both the one that he was called upon to fix and the one that he had created himself. The file that was supposed to guide him through the complicated software had been of no use to him. Derek had read the entire document twice now but, the more he tried to comprehend it, the more complicated it became. Giving up, at last, he snapped the file shut and threw it at a corner of the table, away from his tired eyes.

Having no options left, he grabbed his phone, ignored the message from the manager, and dialled the third contact on his speed dial.

As Derek waited for the call to be answered his eyes went back to the computer screen, filled with complex codes that had stopped making sense to him about an hour ago. 'This was supposed to be manageable', he murmured to himself.

"I need your help!" He exclaimed as soon as the phone was answered.

Derek could hear the chaos, that was his workplace, through the phone and felt worse knowing he had bigger problems to deal with after this one. He should have declined to come to this place, he thought, but then, Josh was an old friend of his and the money he was offered was way too much to refuse.