Chapter 2 - Forty-Two Minutes Before War
Thirty-eight minutes remained.
Marin stood at Lucien's desk while pieces of his missing agreement began arriving from departments throughout the building.
"Seven goes before Eight," she said.
An executive placed it incorrectly.
"Not that Seven. That's the previous revision."
He stared at the pages.
"How can you tell?"
"The footer."
He checked.
She was right.
Lucien remained several feet away, watching.
Marin could feel his attention, but she refused to perform for him.
There was work to do.
"Legal needs to replace Twelve."
The attorney frowned.
"Twelve wasn't revised."
"Yes, it was."
"No."
Marin looked at him.
"The copy I saw had an amendment marker."
"I wrote the amendments."
"Then you missed one."
The attorney's face reddened.
Lucien spoke quietly.
"Check."
The man checked.
His expression collapsed.
"She's right."
Twenty-nine minutes.
Security had found no binder.
That confirmed Marin's suspicion.
Someone hadn't misplaced it.
Someone had stolen it.
She reconstructed the index from memory while department heads delivered duplicate pages.
Some sections existed digitally.
Others had controlled physical copies.
Three contained handwritten modifications that had to be confirmed.
Marin remembered where she'd seen every colored flag.
Every signature line.
Every replacement page.
At nineteen minutes, the binder was nearly complete.
At fourteen, one appendix remained missing.
Lucien approached.
"Can we proceed without it?"
"No."
The answer came so quickly several executives stared.
Lucien didn't appear offended.
"Why?"
"Because whoever stole the binder knows exactly what you need."
She pointed to the empty section.
"If this appendix is absent when your negotiating party arrives, they'll know the disappearance succeeded."
Lucien studied her.
"What does it contain?"
"I didn't read it."
"But you remember it."
"I remember its cover."
"What was on it?"
Marin closed her eyes for one second.
"Property transfer schedules. Department code R-E-Seventeen."
Lucien turned.
"Real Estate."
An executive immediately called downstairs.
Eight minutes later, the missing appendix arrived.
The reconstructed binder sat on the desk.
Complete.
The attorney checked every section twice.
Then he looked at Lucien.
"It's all here."
Nobody celebrated.
The room was too stunned.
Lucien looked at Marin.
"You saw the binder for how long?"
"Maybe thirty seconds."
"And remembered all this?"
"I remember patterns."
"Why?"
Marin almost laughed.
"I don't know. Why are you tall?"
One executive looked horrified.
Lucien merely stared.
Then something unexpected happened.
The corner of his mouth almost moved.
Almost.
He opened a desk drawer.
Inside was a printed policy.
Marin recognized the heading.
PRIVATE OFFICE STAFFING POLICY.
Lucien held it between his hands.
Then tore it in half.
The ripping paper sounded absurdly loud.
He placed the pieces beside the reconstructed binder.
"You're hired."
Marin blinked.
"Excuse me?"
"Executive assistant. Three-month probation."
"You told me you don't hire women."
"I changed the rule."
"Because I saved one meeting?"
"Because everyone I've employed for years panicked, and you didn't."
The office door opened.
Security announced the Rossi delegation had arrived.
Lucien picked up the reconstructed binder.
Before leaving, he stopped beside Marin.
"Be here tomorrow at seven."
"I haven't accepted."
Lucien looked genuinely surprised.
Marin folded her arms.
"You rejected me before interviewing me. Now you're hiring me without discussing salary."
The executives looked fascinated.
Lucien said, "Name it."
She did.
His eyebrows lifted.
"That's twenty percent above market."
"You need someone who remembers twenty percent more."
Silence.
"Ten."
"Eighteen."
"Twelve."
"Sixteen and an annual performance review."
Lucien stared at her.
"Fifteen."
"Done."
He extended his hand.
Marin shook it.
"Seven tomorrow."
"I'll be here at six fifty."
He walked toward the conference room.
Marin looked at the torn policy.
She should have felt victorious.
Instead, she noticed something else.
One of the executives wasn't staring at her.
He was staring at the reconstructed binder.
And he looked afraid.
Someone inside Devereaux Holdings had stolen the original.
Someone had expected Lucien to fail.
Marin had just ruined their plan.
May you like
Which meant her first day hadn't even begun—
and she'd already made an enemy.
