2

Elodie sipped her black coffee as she went through the reports she was handed by her assistant; she had been responding to emails for five hours, and her back and neck were starting to disagree with her. She had been informed of a testing accident that happened in one of their labs and her employees had to be sent to an Emergency Room after sustaining minor injuries. Their subject, however, bless his soul, passed on during the experiment. One of their wires disconnected as they were trying out a new gadget they had created, a prototype of course, which meant they needed to go back to the drawing board and discover the risk so they could fix it as the project was due in two months.

She sent condolences to the family of the young man, he left behind his pregnant wife who the company would have to take care of for as long as she and her unborn child lived. It was what the contract stated, everyone in the testing lab knew the risks including the subjects so a binding contract had to be signed to ensure that all parties knew and accepted what they were getting themselves involved in.

The project was a tiny gadget that acted like a scanner, it was hooked on the subject’s outer ear and like a bug, it would crawl inside the subject’s ear and ‘take a walk’ inside the individual’s body. The man had been paid handsomely and he knew if they were successful he would be one of the first people to try out a new technology built by Gates Tech, which was a huge honor to wield. The device was built to be able to detect signs of chronic illness before they even started forming.

It gave feed on the monitors attached to it so the scientists and the developers all saw how it worked, if it had worked it would have become the most expensive and wanted technology in the world. It would be able to detect illnesses before they even formed, which meant that it could be avoided and possibly reduce the chances of chronic diseases like cancer from breaking out. Unfortunately, during the test, the wires ripped disconnecting the device from the monitors and operating devices. They watched the man convulse and smoke come out of his holes. They all sighed and walked out of the room as another group went in to clear the mess.

The project was Elodie’s greatest pitch; she was certain the device would work. She wanted nothing more than to help people, she lost her sister Angelica to breast cancer and so her motive and push to think of the technology sprouted from that.

Elodie rubbed her eyes, she yawned and stretched her arms; then she rolled her shoulders, and her muscles were sore. She had spent a week not going for a run and exercising and she felt her muscles tense and tight.

She heard a rap on her door causing her to straighten her pose, “Come in,” She responded firmly. She slumped back in her chair when Allegra, her best friend, walked it holding two brown bags in her arms. Allegra smiled softly and placed the bags on Elodie’s table far from her work space.

“Hey Luv, how is work?” Allegra asked as she kissed Elodie’s cheeks.

“Well one of the subjects died today, I have been sent the wrong files, and I have spent the past five hours responding to emails. So work is great. Like usual.” Elodea said, sarcasm rolling off her tongue. Allegra chuckled and pulled her to her feet.

“Come on, take a five minutes break and eat this salad I brought you.” Allegra walked them to the settees and sat them down, she opened the bags and grabbed Elodie’s salad. She handed her a plastic fork and grabbed her plate. She had ordered herself a burger and large chips. Elodie chuckled as her best friend stuffed her face, unlike her, she actually enjoyed greasy food and the comfort it brought her. Allegra was Italian, born and raised in the United Kingdom, although she visited her homeland occasionally to pay homage to her grandparents. Allegra was slightly built, in a masculine fashion, strangers mistook her for a man, a very handsome man. Her voice betrayed, soft and high-pitched like a sparrow.

She had been the CFO of Gates Tech for seven years, and not once did they encounter troubles in her department. Elodie loved how dedicated and vigilant she was about her job; she couldn’t imagine what she would do if Allegra ever decide to work for another company.

“Where is that bloody bastard?” Allegra asked. She always loathed the man, ever since they were in College. Partially because she had had a crush on her best friend when they were twenty, but also hugely because of how the man behaved, contrary to how everyone saw him. And how they saw the relationship of the power couple. After all magazines and newspapers couldn’t get enough of the successful duo and their ‘happy’ love life. Oh, what lay behind the closed blinds. If only one would draw it slightly and let all their secrets spill out.

If it wasn’t about a new successful project, it was about a function they attended, who they wore, what they said, if they kissed or not. It was always something. They were always in the public eye. When they couldn’t find anything on her, it was their lack of children. At thirty-five, while her husband recently hit thirty-nine even their parents were worried. She always dismissed the subject as she wasn’t ready for a baby, the truth was that she would rather pass on the company to an outsider than bear children for the man he loathed with all her might.

She particularly despised one paparazzo named Raymond Salvador, a nosy man in his twenties who was once caught climbing her walls to get a story for his Monday magazine. She had him arrested but his employers bailed him out the day after. He wrote preposterous articles about the couple, including one that almost sent her husband to prison. While she hated the man, it wouldn’t have been a good reputation if he even saw the inside of a cell.

“I have no idea.” Elodie sighed, she got up and threw the plastic plate in a dustbin. She wiped her mouth and placed a napkin on the table.