I knock the door lightly with a tray in one hand, consisting of his usual breakfast items.
"Who's there?" He calls from inside.
"It's me." I wait outside and enter when I hear him approve my entrance.
"Here is your breakfast tray," I say, placing the tray to his usual spot on his table. I prepare to leave when I hear him clear his throat.
"Sarah, I want to take you somewhere today." I turn back to look at him. His hands clasped together on the desk and his eyes were focused on me.
"Okay," I reply and turn back.
"In fifteen minutes." I stop on my track again but don't turn back.
"Okay."
"Aren't you going to ask me where to?"
"Will it make a difference?" I say, turning my head to him and hear him sigh.
"Meet me outside on time." I nod without looking at him and without further conversation, I leave his office and went inside the changing room.
I don't know what further truth this world holds for me. I haven't been myself for a long time and this isn't going to change anything anyway.
I just pray to my Almighty that this doesn't cost my family, it should be just me who should bear the pain and only me and if according to Samuel this could in anyway help me then I'm ready to face it. I just don't want my family to get hurt in the way.
It's been too long already, they've other lots of thing to worry about and adding another pain would be an unbearable burden.
Last night, I couldn't sleep. My thoughts revolved around Samuel's words and the letter.
The letter.
If it wasn't about the letter, I would have been completely hopeless. I would have died out of worry, thinking about the possibilities I was going to be in from now on but the letter seemed to ease my turmoil. I was somehow at ease but it still didn't stop me from thinking.
As soon as I changed, I went outside and bid my goodbye to Sabrina whom Samuel basically told that he was taking me on another franchise survey with him. She told me I was very lucky to be somehow related to Samuel which had its own perks.
She wasn't in my shoe actually. She could never realize about how much of luck I was lacking with.
I waited outside. I was wearing my long coat with a headscarf on my head when I hear an engine roaring just beside me and when I look in that direction, I find a very stylish, sleek metallic car that screamed money itself. I have only seen such cars in pictures being a country girl I wasn't very much aware of technology.
"Get inside the car already!" Samuel's head popped outside from the car's backseat window and I walk awkwardly beside the back seat door, he opens the door for me and I get inside.
"Let's go, driver."
Throughout our ride, we didn't talk to each other. I look outside the window as my view changes from commercial and residential area to an abandoned area where there was no sign of car passing or another soul. My heart starts beating ten times faster. I was scared but I didn't let it get noticed.
After a long ride, we finally stop at a warehouse. The guy at the entrance opens the grill gate and the car moves inside. The car halts at the porch of the warehouse, letting me and Samuel out and then rushing out from the other way.
Samuel motions me to follow him and I do as he says, my body trembles with the passing time. He leads me inside and we cross several doors until he stops at the lounge where he turns and then faces me.
"So here we are. Ask your questions?"
"Where are we?" I ask, looking at my surrounding.
It was a large room where a table was set in the corner, surrounded by a sofa set. The other side of the room consists of- I don't know some kind of game? There were long separate cabins each having a target board at the end attached to the wall which was to be viewed from a large open wall within the cabin. It seemed more like a shooting game.
"I am going to tell you that in a while." I avert my gaze back to him.
"I think you owe me an explanation," I say blatantly.
"Well... Give me a way to start." He scratches the back of his neck.
"What do you mean by that?! You freaked me out yesterday, I couldn't sleep because of you- well, not because of you but the things you said and you are asking me to give you a start! You freaking acted like you own my life and you want a start! You better start talking right now I say!" I shout while eyeing him.
"Sarah... You have to listen carefully okay? And don't say anything until you hear everything, all right?" he pleads.
"All right." I give a slight nod, not convinced at all about what he was going to say.
"I knew at the time when you were hiding in my office searching for files and the reason I didn't show it to you was that I wanted to test you also-"
"How did you know? I was so careful?" I eye him curiously.
"You don't know how much in observation you are and didn't I tell you not to speak in between?" he says, moving towards the sofa set and sits down while I follow him and sit on the opposite sofa. I stare at him in such a way that makes him continue.
"So the thing here is... I also know that you went to the library the same day to research more over things that you had found in my office which was actually the purpose... for you to find more that is. All this time you were under a test, you can say." He huffs out a sigh and continues.
"I was observing you. I knew you'd get down to a decision and I knew you'd get scared but the thing is you passed the test actually." His lips tugging upward from the end. "I was expecting you to back away more than you did. I thought you'd cry out loud and get more frightened but you talked with me in the eye, not a sense of any fear. You didn't go haywire when I told you that you must do it, choice or no choice. You didn't lose it. Your reflexes were strong. You had hope and courage. Deep inside you were scared I can say scared to death because of the time I have come to know you and understood you but from the outside, you fought against that urge." His eyes focused on me. "And most of all... your spirit to do things, to fight and I have witnessed it when you thoughtlessly followed me when you searched my office."
"Ehmm." I clear my throat, as I feel embarrassed by the revelation.
"I know you have many questions like why'd I do that and what not but I'm getting to it." He slides his hand to the table in the center and observes dust on his finger and I just continue to look at him.
"Sarah, here's the deal, I'll give you what you wanted, I'm letting you in that building as an employee and you get to find the guy you were looking for however it's not that easy as it sounds you'd have a proper training about how to work there, what you'd be represented as and who are you going to deal with." He pauses for a while. "The training is going to last for five weeks." He leans back to his chair when he finishes it.
"What's in it for you?" I ask him, arching my head. I'm sure he isn't doing this just for me.
He props an arm on the armchair then looks at his other hand.
"You are going to report everything happening inside the company to me." He gives me a sideways look.
"How am I going to do that?" I scrunch my eyebrows in confusion.
"That is what the training is all about." He says, smirking at me with an amused brow.
"What if I refuse to do the job?" I deadpan.
"You can't because I've already found you to be perfect for the job. My team is involved in this so you can't back away beside there's nothing dangerous about it."
"How do I know that?"
"Consider it a big help, this job will pay you a good amount. You alone will be enough to run your family house, all expenses I guarantee. And no one will dare to hurt you because I'm at your back."
"What is the job about?"
"You are going to be employed as the assistant to the CEO. This position isn't public only a referred person is prioritized which is a plus point for you and us"
"How so?"
"No one's going to suspect you. You have a good back up and we have an easy access to their documents."
"Am I being used for the wrong cause?" My voice a bit hesitant.
"That is no concern of yours." He gives me a sharp look but I don't flinch.
"It is totally my concern. Whichever involves me is my concern." I respond with determination.
"From here you need to get this inside your head fixed. You cannot question anything that is being ordered to you. You have to just trust and comply or else... it's going to get hard for you." His eye deprived of any emotions. I clench my hand into a fist and try to control my anger boiling inside of me.
"Don't worry we'll work on every part of you. You'll get used to it once you start your training."
"Why me Samuel?" I say lowly. As my mind works on to finding a reason, something to hold onto and something to calm myself.
"There is more than one reason for that but I'll tell you this one, it was way easier to maneuver your information. The place you came from is merely nonexistent to this world. We can manage to change all your data and it'll be not an easy task for anyone to get to your original data, more like impossible." He winks at me as he stands and moves towards the glass door which leads towards the shooting game, I stand up and follow him.
"What is this place?" I ask as I look between the targets on the end and the stalls separated by a small wall.
"This is the gun range." He smirks at me.
"Gun range?" I ask, still confused. He moves towards a stall which reads 3 on the top and drawls a weapon from behind his coat.
Weapon!? A gun!?
"You see this revolver." He says, pointing a finger at it and I back away a little in horror. He turns back and nears to the edge of the stall.
"You stand here and point its head to the target with an eye closed, aim your target, hold the gun firmly from under and fix your aim, mount the hammer and pull the trigger and-" The hall echoes from an ear-shattering boom, I shut my ears as soon as the sound vibrates through my ears. I curse under my breath and open an eye to see what happened.
I see smoke coming out of the head of the gun, a satisfied grin plastered on his face as I remove my hands and focus my vision to where his eyes were. I see the target and found a whole, few inches away from the center. My mouth drops nearly to the ground. I gulp a little inwardly and immediately clear my throat, I move closer to him and his smirk widens.
"So what do you think?" He asks.
"Why are we here?" I say, trying hard not to show how scared I was right now.
"It's because we are training you, right?" A gasp escapes my lips as his smirk widens in a way which didn't even seem possible.
~~~
It wasn't easy for Samuel to stop me from not running away on my heels instantly. He said it was a necessary part of the training to know about self-defense so I needed to learn how to fire a gun. I even asked him that if I weren't supposed to be in any danger then why was I to learn it but he said that the position I was going to hold requires a tough experience so it was a part to actually qualify for the position.
I had many questions some of them weren't obviously answered. Some others I couldn't understand better but he said that I'm going to learn it all along the pace of my training so I need not rush with everything.
He also asked me that why I had changed my mind after reading all those papers. I guess it was natural for anyone who'd read it.
It all seemed such a mess. Obviously, to me, three big deaths for a company weren't supposed to be something ordinary. I also read some articles in papers and magazines, questioning these deaths but there wasn't a single evidence to support them but still, these deaths weren't mere incident to me and on an instinct made me withdraw.
Samuel explained me some things about SILLA, according to him which were more refined rather than added up stories that I had read in papers.
SILLA is owned by his relatives, it's supposed to be a family business running for a long time since his grand dad's grandfather and his father. The industry started originally from a small business of carpets later which were exported worldwide, the business grew and thus diversified. The business split among the brothers and then among their sons and then their sons and so on.
Mr. Robinson, the ninth heir, was his uncle but not everything remained the same after that. Robinson and Francisco were brought up together since they were young. They had no blood relation but a relation more than that. They were more than best friends.
Their friendship grew with time and when Robinson was made the CEO, he soon changed the history of SILLA. For the first time, anyone other than a family was appointed to the post of head business line but no one opposed Robinson's decision as major share holder's votes went with Robinson's decision and it was not just because of there friendship but Francisco had already done a lot for the company in building major clientele. At the same time, Mr. Garrison who was the stepbrother to Robinson wasn't given the concern. It wasn't Robinson's fault as according to Samuel, Mr. Garrison was a very much introverted person. He never spoke at family dinners or other occasions, he was always found alone and to himself.
At one time Mr. Robinson and Mr. Garrison, on a family dinner, fell into heated discussion. Robinson accused him to be a very useless and pathetic person of the family and after that Mr. Garrison and Robinson never met but only at family occasions or business meetings.
Mr. Garrison was chosen to work under Robinson, everyone considered it for the best and Francisco came upon as the MD (managing director) for the main business line. He was a well qualified and experienced man in business, well known in the market for his services and sources which was good for SILLA. Francisco with his experience was also the legal adviser of Robinson and it was him who suggested appointing Wizawoski in position for the MD for the cafe chain as he was the more reliable and trustworthy person. Being the best friend's brother he was immediately accepted.
Later Francisco was given authority to main leads. He was open to taking bigger decisions. The greed for the money caught him and eventually, Francisco started exploiting the company, it wasn't noticed until the damage reached to the roots of the company. Soon after his crime, he was arrested but it came as a shock to Robinson, he couldn't handle it and passed away with the grief.
Wizawoski was also questioned of his sincerity against SILLA. Being the brother of the corrupt, he was also suspected to be involved but nothing was proved against him.
After Robinson's death, it was found that he willed his position to Garrison by giving him all his shares. According to the law, it seemed appropriate as he was the legal heir however it caused chaos within the family, no one believed it as Robinson hated Garrison. It was difficult to accept it but everyone had to. Under his orders, he again filed a case against Wizowski and was determined that both the brothers were involved in the company's bad health. Wizaowski knew that this time he couldn't hide his crimes and before the final trial, he suicides.
Garrison as a CEO soon proved to be beneficial. Garrison wasn't at all the person as he seemed, he brought the company out of the debts and gave a new life to it. Now he's the hero that no one knew existed among them.
He also told me that not everything about the company is public and if it was then they wouldn't have been able to continue the business in such a competitive market.
Hearing all this about the company somehow lessened my doubts but my troubles were just about to begin.