21 - Busy

Chad dropped his head in his hands and tuned out the noise of the conference room for a few moments. It had been a long night, and he was starting to feel the effect of too much caffeine pounding on his nervous system.

'I need some air,' he told his father, who nodded and patted his shoulder gratefully.

The businessman Adam was had insisted he took part in the discussions. He'd always praised Chad's cool head and rational thinking, and his ability to say the right words at the right time. Chad, for his part, couldn't say no to an attempt to fix such a crisis, even though it wasn't his battle. It had been a while since he'd taken part in anything like this though, and he'd forgotten how taxing it was.

'Are you ok?' his father asked.

'I'll be fine,' replied Chad. 'You want me to bring you back anything?'

'I'm good, thanks.'

Chad stood and left the conference room quietly. The hallway was just as loud as the room, but at least nobody was yelling in his direction any more. There was a cafeteria somewhere down the hall to his left, but the thought of food made his stomach unhappy, so he went the other way, to the staircase. The key to the roof door had to be in the set of keys he'd swiped from his father moments before. Sure enough, after a couple of tries, he found the right key and walked out into the smokey atmosphere of the city.

To his left, the power plant had finally stopped burning. Fire trucks were pulling away, but the press was still there. His parents had made more statements than he could count, but the press still wasn't satisfied. He knew the right people to bribe in order to get some quiet, but he wasn't going to waste his resources on a matter that would take more than his best efforts to silence.

He leaned against the wall next to the door and let out a sigh. All he wanted to do was crash somewhere and sleep for an indefinite amount of time. He remembered his phone, switched to silent the evening before, and checked the screen. There were several missed calls from people who could wait, and a text message from someone who couldn't. He hit the 'call' button and waited.

'Hey, Chad,' said the voice at the other end, and he felt relieved to hear no hints of distress, anxiety, or panic.

'Hey, kid,' he replied. 'How'd you sleep?'

'Great,' said Jubilee, 'Rutherford has nice and comfy floors.'

'I'm sorry,' said Chad. 'Rough night?'

'Fell out of bed twice before I figured I should just sleep on the floor. There's no place to fall to from the floor, you know.'

He smiled.

'Good strategy. Any nightmares?'

'Nothing I haven't seen before. I'm good. How about you? You don't sound so peachy.'

'Rough night, Jay. I spent the past many hours helping Dad reason with unhappy people.'

'That sucks. How are things at the plant?'

He let out another sigh.

'That bad, huh?' she asked.

'Yup. Mom and Dad are working their magic, but it's going slow. So many people are unhappy.'

'Well,' she said, 'if anybody can pull this off, it's them.'

'Yeah, that's true. But this is going to take so much more effort than anything they've done in the past. People are very angry here.'

'I bet they are. Then I should let you go back to getting yelled at by people. Call me later?'

'Sure, kid. You take care.'

'Yeah, will do.'

Chad ended the call and was about to put the phone back in his pocket, when a familiar number flashed on the screen. He contemplated not answering, but they had called earlier as well. He might just get it over with, whatever it was that they wanted.

'This is Hall.'

'Good morning, mister Hall,' said the voice at the other end. 'You're having fun, I see?'

'If an organizational crisis is fun, then yes, mister Kane, I'm having enormous amounts of it. What can I do for you today?'

'I understand young miss Hall is now at Rutherford, conveniently close to DC, and to us, and I was considering the option of...'

Chad balled his free hand into a fist, and made an almost superhuman effort to sound calm.

'How about we let her grow up a little more?' he asked, keeping his tone as neutral as he could manage.

'I'm sure I don't have to remind you that by our standards, she's a bit late in the game, mister Hall.'

'And I'm sure I don't have to remind you that she doesn't fit into anybody's standards, mister Kane. She's not included in any official plans you have, and if the rules can be bent to accommodate her, then I'm sure another year or two won't be making any difference. Surely you haven't changed your mind about-'

'No, no, certainly not,' said Kane quickly. 'I do remember our agreement.'

'Good. Then you won't mind postponing anything you may have planned for another while.'

Kane paused for a moment, and Chad knew he had upset him. Fine, let him be upset.

'No, I won't mind,' he replied eventually. 'But please keep me in the loop regarding her development. We all are most interested in how she evolves.'

'I will, mister Kane.'

'Good. We'll be in touch then.'

Kane ended the call before Chad could say anything. That man always liked to have the last word. Chad had fantasized about punching the living daylights out of him for years, and if it hadn't been for his sister, then maybe he would have done it too.

'They're not paying me enough for this...' he said to himself, and switched his phone off.