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The following morning, I was sipping on a hot cup of coffee as I stared out my window at the foggy morning. The morning rush to the business district had already passed and I no longer had to look at my face plastered on the side of a bus. The streets were now relatively quiet so I could enjoy the way the long looming warehouses looked popping out of the fog.
Maybe later I could walk down the block to enjoy a glass of local wine and listen to live jazz at my favorite spot. I hadn’t been able to get out and enjoy myself ever since Via Mace had debuted. I was starting to get cabin fever, despite living in a big city. But when I turned around and saw an advertisement for Mind Lash on my screen, followed by a short segment on the possibility of a movie, I knew I didn’t have time to go out and enjoy anything. I needed to find a way to put a stop to all this madness or else I risked losing my job and any semblance of a normal life.
I knew what I had to do. Benjamin was absolutely correct when he told me that I needed to stay focused. So I got dressed, throwing on a headscarf and sunglasses, to head out to Hayden’s office. I was sure if I showed up I would be allowed into the building. My mind was too busy planning things to say to Hayden so the ride to the business district felt shorter than usual.
Maybe with a different approach, a more personal one, I could sway him. Braving the few fans loitering outside the office building as well as the employees who had gawked at me the last time I was there, I marched straight up to security. I pulled off my headscarf and sunglasses. His face remained expressionless, something I was thankful for.
“I’m here to see Hayden.” I said as I handed him my ID.
I covered my mouth to hide my wide grin when it worked and the guard stepped to the side, allowing me entry into the lobby of the building. What I wasn’t prepared for was to hear the secretary say, “I’m sorry, Mr. Dunn has already left.”
“He left?” I stood in front of the young woman, dumbfounded.
“Yes, Ms. McClane, he went on a business trip. I apologize, I was under the impression you knew about it,” the young woman said.
I smacked my hand on my forehead “Oh, I just didn’t expect him to leave so soon. I had been hoping to catch him for an important chat. Do you by chance know how long he will be gone or where he has gone to?” I said it in such a casual way that it was believable to the young lady, especially since it wasn’t my first trip to the office.
“I apologize, I don’t know how long he’ll be gone and I’m not allowed to disclose any information regarding his itinerary.”
“Of course,” I replied.
Thanking the young woman behind the desk, I turned slowly and made my way toward the elevator. I managed to sneak a quick glance toward his office to double check and see if it was truly empty. I wasn’t going to schedule a follow-up appointment with Hayden. I had a better plan than that; one that was riskier but would give me a higher payoff. After all, I was only following the wise words of my older brother.
I had to stay focused and do everything in my power to solve this problem. I had moved past the phase of whining over how unfair everything was, because it didn’t matter. I had been thrust into this mess of a situation and it was solely on me to find a way out of it. No matter how bad I didn’t want it to be true, I couldn’t change that fact.
I was smart enough to know that nobody would tell me where he had gone, so I needed to employ other tactics to gain that information. I walked out of the office and toward the elevator. But instead of pushing the call button, I sidestepped into the hallway and leaned against the wall to think. I made sure I was out of the secretary’s line of sight. I stood there for a moment, wracking my brain for a plan, when I noticed a janitor cart in the hallway.
There was a pack of cigarettes and a lighter resting on it, but no janitor in sight. Looking around the hallway, a plan started to develop much more efficiently than I could have imagined. That plan seemed a lot more like something suited to Via Mace rather than something I was willing to do. Dressing as a janitor and hijacking the cart didn’t exactly seem foolproof, much less for someone who had zero knowledge in pulling off that sort of maneuver.
“You’re being ridiculous,” I mumbled to myself.
I leaned my head back against the wall and took in a deep breath. There had to be a way I could find out where Hayden had gone. I looked forward and that was when I saw a large poster of Via Mace mounted on the wall just outside the Mind Lash office door. I had no clue how I had missed it before, but there it was, in plain sight, and suddenly a new idea formed in my mind. It wasn’t foolproof, but it wasn’t as involved as pretending to be a janitor with a borrowed cart.
I quickly wrapped my headscarf around my hair, but opted not to wear the sunglasses. I didn’t want to look too suspicious, I reached into the janitorial cart and grabbed the lighter. Then I quickly ran over to the poster, digging my nails behind it to tear off a sizeable chunk, right where Via Mace’s face was. I stood just out of sight, clicked the lighter on, and watched as the poster and went up in flames. Just as the poster engulfed with heat I tossed it on the floor directly in front of the Mind Lash office door and ran back to my hiding spot.
I carefully peeked out from behind the cart, waiting to see what would happen. On cue, the secretary came barging out of the office in a panic.
“Oh no!” she cried out in a panicked gulp, hands pressed into her cheeks and eyes wide. “What is this? What is going on? What do I do?” I stifled a giggle as I watched the young woman nearly jump up and down with panic. She awkwardly tried to stomp out the smaller flames with her foot, but to no avail. She needed help.
I however wasn’t going to wait around for her help to come. I only had a small window of time to pull off my plan. As the secretary continued to panic and try to stomp out the smaller edges of the fire, I snuck behind her into the Mind Lash office. Luckily nobody else was in the reception area. I quickly snatched the secretary’s ID card from her desk in order to scan myself into the main area of the Mind Lash office.
I looked around and saw only one person working on a computer, but I figured if I looked confident and inconspicuous, I shouldn’t be bothered. Quickly, I made my way to Hayden’s office. I shut the door quietly behind me and was glad the blinds were closed. Unless somebody walked in, there was no way they would know I was inside.
I made my way to his desk to scour for answers. There had to be some information lying around in the mess of papers he had left behind. I shuffled through a planner, but he seemed to have dedicated it entirely to press related meetings for the release of the game. The thought of all those press releases made my stomach churn a little more. It took all of my self-control not to flip through it and take note of some of the meetings, or even take pictures of the planner.
“Stay focused,” I reminded myself out loud. I moved to the other corner of the desk and swept away a portfolio labeled ‘In-Game Tactics’. That’s when I hit the jackpot. I found a copy of Hayden’s flight itinerary to Machu Picchu in Peru.
“Wow,” I mumbled, grabbing hold of the paper and holding it up to my face for a better look. I wanted to grab it and walk out of the office, but even in my novice mind I knew that was far too risky of a move. Instead, I took my mobile phone out of my purse and snapped a photo of it. Once I got a clear picture I smiled and pressed the phone into my chest, feeling triumphant.
Nobody had been willing to give me the information I needed so I did what I had to in order to get it—just like Via Mace. The irony wasn’t lost on me.
As I walked back into the lobby, I heard the secretary on the phone. I froze. There was no way I could leave without being noticed, much less drop the card on the secretary’s desk. Hoping for the best, I feigned confidence and stepped out.
“There you are,” I said, meeting the secretary’s gaze.
I had overheard her calling security about the fire, but the call was over and the young woman had hung up the phone. She looked at me in shock. “Ms. McClane, I thought you had left? What were you doing back there?”
“Oh, I had left but I needed to use the restroom. I mistook the janitor’s closet for the restroom and I decided to come back here to ask but nobody was at the desk. Luckily, the door was unlocked so I stepped in.” Spotting a basket with pens sitting at the corner of the reception desk, I made a hand gesture and conveniently knocked it off. As the secretary scurried to help clean up the mess, I dropped the badge where I had found it.
I smiled apologetically and placed my sunglasses on, “I really must get going now.”
I was out of the building and that was the moment I knew I had really pulled it off. I knew the bogus story I told the secretary didn’t add up, but the young woman was in such a tizzy over the fire that I doubted she had noticed. Besides, I had been smart enough not to leave any evidence of me searching Hayden’s office so there was no way I would get caught for that. Now knowing he was in Peru, I knew what my next move had to be, even if it seemed extreme.
For the first time, I decided to use my contacts in the travel business to book an immediate flight out to where Hayden was. I had never once used them for even one plane ticket, something I was teased about often. “Oh, you want to cash in all those frequent flier miles, do you?”
“You know it,” I replied, my patience wearing thin on the jokes. It wasn’t the fault of the person on the other end of the call, I was just in a hurry to catch up to Hayden. More than anything, I was in a hurry to get rid of Via Mace.
“Anyone else with your job would have a ton of those and then some,” Maureen chuckled on the phone as she typed away. She was looking for a deal to help me out, but nothing turned up. “Call Luke, I think he can help you out more.”
I ended the call and quickly called Luke. Although he was higher up in the chain of command and could pull more strings, I didn’t want to call him right off the bat. He was someone to call in case of an urgent matter. This was definitely an urgent matter, but he was more of a last-resort type of contact.
“What a surprise,” his droll voice sounded in my ear moments later.
“Luke,” I said with as charming of a chuckle as I could muster. “I’m afraid I’ve called in for a favor this time ‘round.”
“Not a problem Ali. What can I help you with?”
