“Jasper,” Claire Manning continued when it became apparent no one else was going to offer up their services. “You’re closest to this. You know the technical side of things. Start drafting out an official statement of – what do we want to call it? Apology? Regret? Whatever,” Claire shook her head, “just draft a statement telling the truth about what’s happened. Do we have anyone from the marketing department up here with us?”
Jasper, Graham and the few others in the room shook their heads. “Don’t think so,” Graham replied, “no one has heard from Samuel.”
“Have you tried calling him?”
“Straight to voicemail.”
“Hmm,” Claire didn’t really know what to say. She wondered how many people were already dead across the city as a result of this disaster and how many more would join them in the coming days. She hadn’t spent more than a few seconds thinking about it, but she knew everyone’s lives would change dramatically now, and almost certainly not for the better. If a few people wanted to avoid that and end things early, who was she to judge?
“Keep trying,” she suggested half-heartedly. “Buzz me when you’ve got a first draft. I’ll be in my office.”
Without waiting for confirmation that anyone was going to do as she’d asked, Claire pushed her chair back from the table and stood up. She had too much on her mind. She needed some time away, a bit of space to think and clear her head. Walking out of the meeting room and toward the stairwell at the back of the large, open plan room – the only way up to the twentieth floor due to a design signed off by her great grandfather – Claire fled the chaos of her dissolving company and made her retreat. Alone at last in her office, she closed her eyes and tried to wrap her head around what had just happened.
Trident was done for. Claire knew there was a bigger picture and that the whole of the United States was going to suffer as a result of this, but to her the most important thing was her company. She had fought tooth and nail to claim her position as CEO. Her father had wanted to give the position to her younger brother when he retired, despite Claire being top of her class in business school and proving herself to be better suited to both finance and business than her brother was.
Now it looked like all of that fighting, all of the late nights and things she had missed out on to climb to the top had been for nothing. Claire Manning was thirty-eight years old and she’d never had a relationship that had lasted longer than four months. She’d never travelled outside of the States for pleasure, seeing a great deal of the globe on work trips but rarely leaving the hotel lobbies or business suites. She had sacrificed having a life outside of work so that she could make a name for herself and prove herself worthy to her father. She could picture his face now as he sat in his armchair, a flurry of heart attacks forcing him to step down from Trident but not changing his perception about her. He was disappointed. He always had been. Claire Manning had never been good enough and now everything that she’d done to try and prove that she was, had been a waste of time. Her entire life had been a waste of time.
Pursing her lips, Claire rose from her seat and walked to the door of her office. Exiting it, she made her way over to the small kitchenette that was located in one corner, housing a couple of pots of coffee, bottled water and an assortment of snacks. Selecting one particular bag of peanuts that was on offer, Claire ripped it open and let the salty, nutty aroma drift upwards and into her nostrils.
With a quick glance to the stairwell and around the floor, Claire nodded softly to herself and walked back to her office, closing the door quietly behind her. She had lived with a severe nut allergy all her life, always the reason why the treats weren’t allowed on planes or in confined spaces. In reality, they shouldn’t be allowed in the office, but as she was there so infrequently it wasn’t something she’d ever clamped down on. A fact she was now very pleased about.
Sitting back in her plush, leather desk chair, Claire allowed herself to feel the soft embrace of the fabric against her skin. With her eyes closed, she poured out a handful of nuts into her palm and exhaled. She thought of everything she’d done in her life, everything that had led her to be sitting where she was at that very moment. She had given everything to this company and now there was nothing more left to do but go down with it. Like a captain on a ship, she belonged at the bottom of the ocean with her vessel. On the count of three, she lifted her palm to her mouth and forced the handful of nuts into her mouth, never to surface again.
Chapter 7
Doing his best to block out the yelling that was coming from the thugs in the stairwell, Samuel tried to figure out what to do. There were only two ways down to the ground floor, via the stairwell which was now compromised, or the elevators on the other side of the building. Up to this point he had deliberately been avoiding using them, even though he
