In the end, I got used to the incessant
loudness and quite lost myself in it.
Though I was still peeved for it was played
in the dark, which meant we could have easily gone to the same one
as Josette and Glover and done this without detection.
But Noc had no time for my pique, ordering
rather firmly, “Just let her enjoy herself, Frannie, and keep out
of it.”
It was hateful to admit, but I had no choice
but to do just that.
Now, we were in a vehicle sitting at the curb
outside the building where Dax Lahn had his office, and our time to
see to what needed to be seen to was short.
“Right, good, thank you,” Josette said to the
driver and looked to me. “We can go.”
I threw open my door and stepped out.
Josette followed me, slammed the door and
wasted precious moments being friendly and waving at our driver as
he drove away.
I took her waving hand and pulled her with
me.
“Come. We must make haste. This staff meeting
they have has already started. It can last upwards of an hour but
I’ve no idea how much time we need, though I fear the more the
better and it’s ticking away rapidly.”
“All right, all right, I’m coming,” Josette
murmured, flipping and flopping behind me while my high heels
clicked on the pavements, my thighs straining the most becoming,
but quite tight skirt I was wearing that hit me at my knees, my
filmy blouse billowing with the swiftness of our gaits.
I had hit on the perfect plan, for when they
had this meeting, all working there attended so the office was
practically deserted, save the big room where they sat, and we
could easily reach Dax Lahn’s office without them seeing us.
As we entered, I did not take time, as I had
done often, to admire the fact that Dax Lahn had selected an older,
rather handsome building in which to house his offices.
No, guiding Josette with me, we quickly moved
to the elevators, called one, it whooshed us to the appropriate
floor and let us out.
Outside the elevator I took in a deep breath
and let it go, turning to Josette and advising, “Deep breath,
Josette. Calm. Serene. The key to being somewhere you aren’t
supposed to be is behaving like you have every reason to be
there.”
She nodded.
“Deep breath,” I repeated, noting she hadn’t
taken one.
I watched her do that, gave her a small,
reassuring smile, and turned in the direction we would need to take
to get to Lahn’s office.
Since I was very good at this, we had no
issues entering the rooms that housed Lahn’s business nor getting
to his office. It was as I’d known it would be, deserted with
everyone in the meeting. We hadn’t seen a soul all the way to our
destination.
We entered his personal office and went
immediately to the large desk that was carved attractively and made
of beautiful wood.
I stood at its side and looked to Josette,
sweeping an arm toward the contraption lying closed on its top.
“There it is, Josette, let us find his
schedule quickly so we can just as quickly leave.”
She looked to me then to the contraption then
to me.
“It’s closed,” she stated.
I examined it even though I’d just seen
it.
“It” was called a “laptop.” Noc had one. I
had requested he show me how to use it just last night, but he’d
grinned and shaken his head asking, “You know I’m not stupid,
right?”
My reply had been a heated, “Of course! How
could you ask such nonsense?”
He’d simply shaken his head again and said,
“We’ll get into computers after Lahn bumps into Circe on the street
somewhere and they fall in love at first sight.” And after
delivering that, he’d walked away.
Most irritating.
Though, he’d walked away to get the wine
bottle and refresh my glass so my irritation couldn’t last long
without it becoming mulish.
Which was also irritating.
In Lahn’s office, I turned back to
Josette.
“It is, indeed, closed,” I confirmed.
“On TV, when they close it, that means
turning it off,” she explained. “Always when they’re finished doing
something of great import on it, they slap it shut and sit back
contentedly.”
“Well, we shall open it as we have yet to do
what we need to do that’s of great import. We’ll shut it again when
we’re done.”
“No, I mean, if I open it, it’s like turning
it on. And a lot of the time, when people on the television are
doing what people like us are doing now, they open the ones that
have been closed and they’re immediately foiled in their activities
because they have to get by the password.”
I stared in shock at the computer, asking,
“Does it speak?”
“Not that I know,” Josette answered.
I looked to her. “Then how can it ask for a
password?”
“You tap it in.”
Of course.
I’d seen Noc tapping on his own.
“Right, well, we—”
It was then, I sensed it.
I stopped speaking and froze, not including
my eyes which I felt grow big.
Then I stepped close to Josette and
whispered, “Keep quiet.”
“What the—?” A deep, perturbed voice came our
way. “Can I help you with something?”
Josette made an “eep” noise as she turned to
face the door.
I was already facing the door and thus I saw
Dax Lahn walk through it and stop.
I had forgotten how large he was.
Oh balls!
We were going to be arrested before we’d even
managed to open his laptop and now Noc was going to have to
retrieve us from jail.
He’d said he’d spank me if this was to occur
and I might not be averse to a spanking from Noc on certain
occasions, but I suspected the one he’d wish to deliver after
liberating us from a cell would not be the kind I would like.
“Again,” this came as a growl as the large
man took a threatening step toward us and stopped, “can I help you
with something?”
This was what I did and did well.
So this was what I needed to do.
“You can indeed,” I declared, lifting my
chin. “You can explain to us why you’re so late for our
appointment, Mr. Lahn.”
His head tipped slightly to the side and that
was threatening too.
In Korwahk, the sight of Lahn doing this
might cause someone to relieve themselves immediately and maybe run
for their lives.
The repeated “eep” Josette made gave me the
understanding this same reaction could come on this world too.
“Sorry?” he asked.
I stepped forward. “Franka Drakkar. We were
to meet at ten. It is not ten. It is,” I looked at my watch
irritably, “twenty
passed
ten.”
“I’m sorry, Ms. Drakkar,” Lahn stated,
glancing at Josette then back to me, “I didn’t have a ten o’clock
appointment today.”
“You certainly did and it was with me,” I
retorted.
“I’m afraid I didn’t,” he returned.
“I’m afraid you did,” I rejoined.
He took in our positions in the room and
again caught my eyes.
“Is there a reason why you’re standing so
close to my desk, Ms. Drakkar?”
“Since we weren’t even greeted, we’ve hardly
been invited to sit,” I snapped in full affront.
He seemed to examine the top of his desk
before again returning his attention to me.
“If you weren’t greeted, how did you make it
to my office?”
“I
do
know who you are, since I made
an appointment with you,” I declared. “I also know you’re the
founding partner of this firm. When we were not seen to upon entry,
where else would we go and look for you but the biggest office? I
can’t imagine you’d give it to an underling,” I noted with disdain
and finished, “And I see I was correct.”
“All right then, you’re Franka Drakkar, may I
ask who this is?” He tipped his head to Josette.
“Josette Aubuchon, my assistant,” I told
him.
“And maybe you’ll explain to me what our
appointment was to discuss,” he pressed.
I sighed with impatience but answered, “My
donation to First Mother House.”
That took him aback even if I could only
barely see the slight jerk of his chin.
“First Mother House?” he queried.
“Yes, as I explained over the telephone, I’ll
be donating one million dollars to it and you were going to assist
me with this as their legal counsel.”
I was hoping that was a dramatic enough
amount to take his attention from finding us in his office, and I
was hoping I was using words I’d heard while observing him
correctly.
“One million dollars?” he asked low and
disbelieving, answering my question about the amount of my
donation.
“Yes,” I confirmed.
“First, Ms. Drakkar,” he stated, moving a
step further into the room but doing so, I noted with some alarm,
still blocking the door. “My assistant would not make a meeting
during this day or time because this day and time is always
blocked. Second…”
He took another step and I felt the fear
start wafting from Josette.
I wished I could put a hand to her or give
her a glance to calm her but I needed to remain in my play, for if
I did not, I was afraid the results would be disastrous.
Lahn continued speaking.
“I would remember any possible meeting with a
woman who intended to give one million dollars to First Mother
House. And last, your donation does not require legal counsel.”
Drat.
I needed time and sought it.
“If the fullness of our meeting was
communicated to you, you would know this was not true.”
“The fullness of our meeting
wasn’t
communicated to me so perhaps you’ll explain how I can assist you
in giving a donation to a charity when you can simply write a check
and put it in the mail?”
How could he assist me, indeed?
How could he assist me?
How?
Blast!
“The donation needs to be anonymous,” Josette
piped in.
Excellent!
I fought the urge to give her an embrace.
“This, too, can be done without legal
counsel,” Dax Lahn stated.
Bloody hell.
“Do we have attorney-client confidentiality?”
Josette asked, sounding authoritative.
I looked to her and saw her staring right in
Dax Lahn’s eyes.
Ah, my Josette. Such the clever girl.
And a brave one.
“You aren’t a client,” Dax Lahn pointed
out.
“Yes, of course we’re not,” I snapped,
jumping on Josette’s track. “Because we have not yet
had our
meeting
.”
“I must admit I’m getting impatient,” he
shared, appearing just that and it was unfortunately quite
frightening, even for me and I’d been caught in a variety of
delicate situations I’d had to talk my way out of. “And I have
things to do. So now you’ve got one minute to explain to me why
you’re in my office. If that explanation doesn’t satisfy me, I’ll
be phoning the police.”
I glared at him.
He held my glare.
Then he said, “Fifty seconds.”
Gods.
There was nothing for it.
I raised my hands to the buttons of my blouse
and started to undo them.
“Frannie,” Josette hissed.
Dax Lahn lifted a hand, his face now carved
in stone.
“Do not make another move,” he ground
out.
I turned my back to him, lifted my blouse and
dipped it over my shoulder, feeling it fall down my shoulder blade
and partially down my back.
I raised my other hand and swept my hair to
the side.
The air in the room went still as I heard
Lahn’s shocked, “Jesus Christ.”
I pulled my blouse back up my shoulder
instantly, redid the four buttons I’d undone and turned smartly to
him.
“I am from somewhere else,” I proclaimed.
“This somewhere else is far away. In order to leave that place, I
had to do terrible things. The man who did this to me…” I drew in
breath through my nose and straightened my shoulders. “I have a
good deal of money. It’s not strictly
legal
money, but it’s
mine
. I
earned
it. I have quite enough to care for me
and Josette, who looks after me in a variety of ways and has done
for some time, and I have more.
Much
more. I wish for it to
do good. However, I need to use great caution when I use that money
so certain people cannot locate me and certain governmental
departments don’t…”
I trailed off, drew in another breath and
shook my head in disgust, looking to Josette.
“Come,” I demanded. “It’s clear we’ve made an
error in our selection of worthy organizations.”
Both Josette and I began to stomp past him,
for my part demonstrating openly the height of the insult I felt
had been delivered, when I saw his arm come out and heard his, “Ms.
Drakkar…Franka, wait.”
I halted and turned my head to the side and
up (and this up was
up
, Noc was tall, Dax Lahn was a
veritable giant).
“My apologies,” he murmured. “Something must
have been missed.”
“I fear it was, however—”
He gestured to the rather smart leather
chairs in front of his desk. “If you’ll take a seat.”
I lifted my chin further for a different
reason. “I’d rather not.”
“Perhaps we can start again,” he
suggested.
I turned fully to him, feeling Josette close
to my back.
“I fear this would not be wise on my part. We
do not have this client confidentiality as we’re not clients of
yours, but I do hope with the part you play with First Mother House
you’ll understand there are women with certain needs and I am one
of them so you’ll do me the respect of behaving accordingly.”
“Of course, you have my word, but—”
I interrupted him, my thoughts on Noc’s
future employment and what he might do in it.
Therefore, I said, “We shall not
start
again
for it’s without doubt you’ll be setting someone on
investigating the veracity of my statements and when you do, you’ll
find that I exist. Josette exists. And yet, if your investigator
probes deeply enough, you will find we do not. I think you
understand my meaning with this. Thus you’re likely to feel that
the reliability of my statements isn’t exactly reliable. However,
one does what one has to do and Josette and I did just that. I
shall not share who I was in a previous life or where I lived it.
And I’ll not invite further verbal misuse, or other, at your hands
should we speak again and you doubt my story.”