A Shattered Soul - revising

Chapter 2

Theo

"You're rescheduled, Mr. Wilkins. I'm afraid you're not to meet Mr. Stone until later this afternoon." The receptionist's voice echoed slightly in the spacious entrance hall. "I have a note here that you're to see Clementine Thomas at the public relations department. They're up on the eight floor."

I wasn't sure whether to be relieved or peeved that Stone chose to hand over the introductions to someone else. It gave me a few more hours to get used to the idea of working here before seeing him again, but it might have been better to deal with this sooner rather than later. What I'd rehearsed in front of the mirror last night might get muddled into incoherent mumblings of a madman.

The elevator had room for at least fifteen people, but I stood alone, watching the counter tick away. The building had been impressive from outside, but it was still strange to realize there were twenty floors full of Stone's employees. What they did remained somewhat of a mystery, but for all intents and purposes, I didn't need to know. My assignment concerned Mr. Stone himself rather than his company.

The counter passed the sixth floor. No more time to think, no time to change my mind and ask Waterbridge to hand the job to someone else, Stone's wishes be damned. I was in this mess now, and I would find a way to make it work.

I had barely left the elevator when a woman dressed in layers of light fabric bustled over, smiled broadly and exclaimed, "Welcome, you must be Mr. Wilkins, Simon downstairs said you were on your way up." We shook hands. "It's great to have you here, Dear. I'm Clementine Thomas, but Tina to everyone around here."

"Thank you, I'm Theo."

She continued before I could say something more elaborate. "We should be thanking you, Dear. We're always asking for extra resources, and finally someone answered our summons. Let's go meet the others. They're excited to have another colleague to talk shop with." She began to move, welcoming me to tag along with a brief nod.

Her easy command of the situation made me think of May. I'd never seen my friend out of her element in a social context, always able to apply her harmless charm to win over the grouchiest of people. Tina appeared to share that trait and it helped put me at ease. If the others were like this, I'd be fine.

"So, we received a memo yesterday that you were coming and would work on Mr. Stone's public image. I'm glad he chose to grab someone from Waterbridge to do it," Tina said while walking briskly toward a set of offices. "Did you know I'm an old friend of Samuel's?"

"You know Waterbridge? No, I wasn't aware." Somehow it wasn't hard to imagine, though. Her lively persona and ready smiles went well with his.

"We go way back. Met each other at college. He's done well for himself with the company." She knocked on the door to a small windowless office, peeking inside. "Joan, can you gather everyone? Mr. Wilkins is here." Joan nodded and Tina turned back. "Tell Samuel hi when you see him, will you?"

"Of course."

Joan and the others proved to be a motley crew. Two had to be around Tina's age, but the rest were likely in their early thirties. The men wore shirts, no jackets, with slacks and polished shoes. The guy on my left was alone to wear a tie. It would be easy enough to blend in and disappear in the crowd.

They were also more interested in getting a break rather than hearing about me, which was a relief. In fact, none of them pinged my triggers while we ran through introductions and chatted. Not the way Stone had done even before he'd opened his mouth. I swallowed hard and checked the time as Tina ushered the others to get back to work again, reminding them about this week's deadlines. My deadline to see Stone was fast approaching as well.