Square One

Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, Daniel Ravers fixed his tie and thought ahead to the charity gala. Normally, he mightn’t even bother with these kinds of events; it wasn’t mandatory for Ravers Enterprise board members to attend, and his brother adored the spotlight more than he did. He often joked with his sibling that while Robert got the attention, he was the one who did all the real work. But tonight was different. Rather than a run of the mill charity gala, tonight was the night that Robert Ravers was going to announce his retirement, and that his newly discovered son, Zack Bishop, would be taking on the role of CEO.

The ceramic bowl rattled with the vibrations of his phone. Releasing his tie, still horribly crooked, Daniel answered the call without even checking the I.D., assuming that it would be Robert, or possibly Brooke. To his surprise, another male voice responded.

“Daniel,” Miles Zurbrugg greeted him gravely. “I’m sure you must know why I’m calling.”

There was only one reason that the Chairman of the Board would be calling him, less than an hour after an emergency vote where Robert recused himself and installed a completely, unknown teenage in his place. The attempt wasn’t even the issue, but the fact that he had succeeded, Daniel knew, had ruffled their feathers.

“I can guess,” Daniel admitted. “You’re upset?”

“As should you be.” Miles said, his voice breaking up slightly. “If Robert wants to take a step back from work, that’s all well and good, but appointing this child ahead of you, his own brother, is quite ludicrous.”

“Thank you for looking out for me,” Daniel noted with a hint of sarcasm. “But you know I stand in agreement with my family on all matters.”

“That’s what troubles me most. Were it just family support he received it wouldn’t have shocked me, but he wrangled the board to his cause. And not by honest means, I might add,” Miles told him, as if it should be news. Almost all whipping up of support was done by dishonest means in this business. “Mr. Besumer told me that Robert had him investigated.”

An investigation that must have dug something up, and something true, or else poor Mr. Besumer wouldn’t have agreed to give Robert his vote. Though of course, once the deed was done, Mr. Besumer probably sold his brother out to Miles before the ink was even dry on Zack’s appointment. “Disconcerting as that may be, what exactly is it that you’re getting at?”

“Only that there may come a time when you and your brother are not in agreement, and you may find that he’s the one who has all the support. He showed exactly the kind of absolute power that he wields within the company, the same that your father wielded, and it has irrevocably changed the relationship he has with the board,” Miles explained calmly. “The solution I propose is to name you CEO instead.”

“Robert won’t go for that,” Daniel said with authority, remembering what few details Robert had told him of the scandal he was facing, and how it could affect all with the Ravers name.

“That’s why we’ll have to remove him from the company,” Miles declared. “Or, failing that, cut off his support.”

In other words, Daniel’s head would be on the guillotine block if he didn’t comply. Brooke’s too likely. Miles’ position was clear, he was cleaning house, starting with the head of the snake, and Daniel was either to join the uprising or be swept away.

“Listen,” Miles continued, Daniel’s hesitation evident. “You don’t need to decide right now. I’m flying in to deal with this, in person. Meet with me tomorrow morning, just to hear me out, at least.”

With a deep breath, Daniel agreed.

-----------------At the Gala-------------------

As he made his way back to the table, an arm pulled him aside. Daniel Ravers gestured for him to follow and said, “We need to talk.”

Zack knew very little of Heather’s uncle, and perhaps he should have been a little bit more cautious in allowing the man to lead him into a side room where anything could happen, away from the eyes and ears of witnesses. It was quite possible that this man resented him for becoming CEO, perhaps it was a position he coveted, and now, he had Zack all alone. So, upon entering what looked like a smaller conference room, Zack remained standing, near to the door, ready to run.

“Robert and Heather seem to trust you,” Daniel began, continuing to eye the teenager, as if trying to gauge the answer to his question by looking directly into his soul. “Can I trust you too?”

“That depends what this is about,” Zack said as he wondered how to react. What would Heather do? Play hardball? Listen to her gut? Seduce him? Unfortunately, he didn’t think he’d have the same success as Heather might with that last option. Instead, he decided to draw his line in the sand. “I won’t betray Heather, or Robert.”

“Then you should know that the board are looking to expel my brother from the company,” Daniel revealed, scrutinizing the boy’s reaction. “And they want to name me as CEO.”

Zack swallowed, imagining that Daniel had brought him here to take him out of the running. Inching slightly closer to the door, Zack watched Daniel’s hands, waiting for any movement to draw a knife or a gun. What other reason would he have to divulge this information to him? He would have to know that he’d rely everything back to Heather and Robert. Yet, Daniel didn’t move.

“Why are you telling me?” Zack asked bluntly. “Go tell Robert.”

“There’s something you should know about me as well, Zack. I would never betray my brother or my niece either,” Daniel said with a smile, almost comforting, if Zack’s heart wasn’t still racing. “But when the Chairman of the Board called me earlier, he told me, in no uncertain terms, that if they can’t get rid of Robert forthright, they’ll cut out his support within the company until they can.”

“So, you’re looking out for your own job?” Zack assumed, rolling his eyes. “So much for never betraying your family.”

“Huh. They told me you were smart,” Daniel shot back. “Well, let me spell it out for you. Threatening my position didn’t make me fear for my job, it only made me realize the futility in fighting them. If I agree to their terms, I become their puppet, but if I refuse, and tell Robert now, it’ll only result in an all-out war. One by one, they’ll eliminate Robert’s support within the company, until they can push him out. Either option ends the same way.”

Zack folded his arms and tilted his head back in thought, no longer fearing for his life. He may have been a bit over-enthusiastic in that regard. All those mystery novels were getting to his head. However, as he thought about the real-life corporate thriller that he seemed to have stumbled into, he concluded that there was only one option to keeping Robert in control.

“What about this Chairman of the Board you mentioned?” Zack asked. “He’s the one rallying support against Robert, right?”

“Now you’re thinking,” Daniel grinned. “But Miles Zurbrugg won’t be so easily removed. I’m not sure if you know this, but before Robert and I took over the company, when my father ran things, there was an incident.”

“Oh, I do remember that. My grandfather told me about it!” Zack beamed. “He was a detective at the time and got called out to investigate an accident that had happened on a construction site belonging to Ravers Enterprises. A bunch of workers had been injured, although my grandfather said they were kind of shady anyway, and he couldn’t be certain they weren’t faking or exaggerating their injuries, but he ultimately traced the cause of the accident to some faulty material that your company hadn’t checked thoroughly.”

“That’s right,” Daniel admitted, a little surprised he was so well informed. “What you perhaps don’t know is what happened after. The board joined with Robert and I to push our father out. However, we were still contractually obligated to some bad deals that our father had made, with no way to buy our way out after settling the lawsuit. The only way was to take on another major investor. It had to be someone with a lot of money and impartial. Enter Miles Zurbrugg, who became the third major shareholder in the company, besides myself and Robert, and was appointed Chairman of the Board.”

“Ok, so he’s special. Are you saying the company can’t survive without him or his money?” Zack frowned and wrinkled his brow, trying to understand. “He’s just one man. If they think they can vote out Mr. Ravers, why can’t we simply vote him out?”

“That’s true. No one on the board is truly invulnerable, however Miles is shrewd and personable, which means he has a lot of friends and as soon as we start making moves, he’ll be quick to notice and quicker still to retaliate. So, we wind up right back at all out war.” Daniel explained, leading Zack towards the same futility in fighting the board that he himself had concluded. “With Robert’s retirement announcement, the last thing the company needs is a civil war.”

“So, you taking Robert’s place is actually the best, most sensible option for the company.” Frustrated, the teen shook his head and asked Heather’s uncle, pointedly, “What does any of this have to do with me?”

“Because, while they’re cleaning house, we’re going to clean them out, and take what’s rightfully ours,” Daniel revealed, “But, for that, I’m going to need your help.”

-----------------At Ravers Enterprises, the Next Day-------------------

The honey colored blonde slipped him a small square of paper, a username and password written in a confident, girlish font. As she turned to slide the paper along the table, her large breasts rubbed against his arm, an act that went completely unnoticed by the receptionist. And not for the first time. Every time she moved, to offer him a pen, to indicate where he needed to sign on a contract, tracing this or that line as she explained the meaning, she seemed to do so tits first, completely oblivious to the fact that she was doing it. If it was anyone else, Zack might have suspected the tactic of being intentional, but sitting with her, sorting out his logging details, it quickly became apparent how simple-minded Chastity Kupp was.

Simple-minded, yet deftly capable. She clicked through the Ravers Enterprise internal network with the accuracy acquired from years of experience, even though she was only twenty-three. When Zack commented on how impressed he was, she told him, with a giggle, that it was all skills that she’d learned from her mother, and grandmother. Even when the system threw up an error, she quickly sourced the problem and rectified it. The only person Zack had ever seen control a computer with such ease was his best friend, Gavin.

Yet, it was difficult not to be taken in by her beauty, especially when two of her finest qualities kept being pushed up against his arm, and Zack quietly wondered if there was some company mandate towards only hiring the hottest girls. But they must have been doing something right, since they seemed to be surrounded by not only the prettiest, and not just the most highly skilled, but also the loyalist employees Zack had ever heard of.

By the time they were finishing, Daniel had returned, leaning against the open door. “She’s good, isn’t she?” He called out to Zack.

“The best,” he agreed.

“Guuuuys, ssssssh.” Chastity covered her reddening cheeks with her hands. “It’s just clicking a mouse. Anyone can do it.”

It was adorable to Zack that she was able to reduce what she was capable of to simply ‘clicking a mouse’.

“Well, you make my life a lot easier,” Daniel’s compliments only embarrassed her further. “I mean it, for everything, you’re doing for me right now, thank you”

“Oh foo, for you guys, anything,” she dismissed his praise with a wave of her hand, simultaneously fanning the heat coming from radiant face. “You and Robert have done so much for my family over the years, it’s the least I can do now.”

“I think it’s us who are in your debt,” Daniel noted, turning his eye to Zack, waiting patiently nearby. “You done?”

“Yeah, Chastity was just about to walk me back up to the office,” Zack said, rising to his feet.

“That’s alright, I’ll take you,” Daniel said, standing back from the door to allow Zack out of the room.

“Bye Chastity, thanks for your help.” Zack waved goodbye.

She waved back. “Bye, Zacky.”

He almost choked at the cutesy name, but let it slide, seeing as Daniel was already beginning to walk away from the room. Lowering his voice to barely above a whisper, Daniel spoke to him while keeping his face, and eyes, straight ahead.

“The meeting went well. I acted resistant, but acquiesced in the end.” Daniel allowed his eyes a quick glance around, for anyone who might overhear. “Dare I say, Miles seemed rather confident, so I think he might already have the vote in the pocket.”

“Are we still good to go ahead?” Zack asked, keeping his voice low as well.

“I believe so. Even if they can proceed with the vote right now, they’ll want to wait until Robert is out of the building, so there’s no risk of him accidentally stumbling upon us. At least, that’s how I would do it,” Daniel admitted, as they arrived at the elevator. “In fact, Miles didn’t even meet me in his own office, because he knows Robert will get suspicious if he sees him.”

“Right,” Zack stepped inside and pushed the button for the top floor, Robert’s office. “So that gives me roughly a day to get everything I need.”

“I know, it’s less time than I anticipated as well,” Daniel concurred as the pair rode the elevator up. “But if Miles has the votes, he’ll want to strike while the iron is hot, which means we have to be ready to strike as well. We need everything ready by tomorrow morning. By that point. Robert will know he’s been ejected from the company, if Brooke doesn’t tell him sooner.”

“I won’t let you down,” Zack declared with determination as the elevator dinged open. “Though I can’t say that I’m confident Robert or Heather will feel the same.”

“At this point, we’re too far gone to turn back, even if we wanted to,” Daniel said, though Zack wasn’t sure if that fact was supposed to be comforting.

“I know, I’m not saying I’m having cold feet or anything. It’s just…Heather has put a lot of trust in me.” Side by side, they walked down the corridor towards Robert’s office. “Even if I’m doing it for a good reason, I’m still deceiving her.”

“Trust me, I feel terrible about it too. I don’t like lying to any of them either, but it’ll soon be done, and then we can tell them everything. So, keep your chin up, just for a little while long-” Daniel paused as he opened the door, their eyes falling upon the dark haired teen standing at the large panel windows, looking out over the town. “Heather?”

She knew his voice before she even turned around, excepting to see her father standing alongside his brother. It was a small surprise then that it wasn’t Robert and Daniel who walked through the door but Daniel and Zack, both looking quite shocked to see her there too. She could sense an awkwardness, as if she’d walked in on a conversation she shouldn’t have heard.

She looked between them as Daniel continued, asking, “Is your father here as well?”

“Mm-hmh,” Heather said with a nod. “He went looking for you.”

“I’ll find him in my office then,” Daniel said, leaving, pausing as his eyes fell on Zack. “We’ll talk later.”

-----------------Ravers Manor, Current Day-------------------

The Ravers Manor dining room had found a new purpose after all. Seated along one side, the rag-tag trio of Daniel, Chastity and Zack took turns recounting the details of the last day and a half as they’d experienced them, the truth behind their actions laid bare. Opposite, Heather and her parents merely listened, taking it all in without asking questions, saving those, of which there were plenty, for the end when every morsel of information had been divulged. And though the former felt a great weight being lifted from their shoulders, the secret finally out, it was replaced with an air of anxiety, their judgement at hand.

“The next time I heard from Daniel was this morning when he confirmed the vote had happened last night and told me to meet him here.”

Silence filled the room, and then they waited, but when no one picked up the story, they knew the tale was finished. And yet, neither Robert, nor Brooke, nor even Heather, knew exactly how to process the information, or how exactly to begin their response. It was several minutes before anyone spoke again, when finally, Heather said the one dominant, repeating thought in her mind.

“You say that you did this for us? How?” she asked, darting her eyes between all three to show that she considered them all as guilty as each other. “How does giving up the company help us?”

“We didn’t give up the company. We gave up a building, and a legal entity. The company always has been, and will be, you, and your father,” Daniel explained to his niece as simply as he was able. His eyes looked to Robert, who was somewhere between stunned and furious. “I like to think I’m pretty good at this business, but honestly, no one embodies the attributes of our grandfather better than you do. And I see a lot of that, unrefined and unpolished as it is, in Heather.” He looked again to his niece, a soft smile on his face. “There could be no worthier successor.”

“Without the two of you, all they’ve done is commandeered a sinking ship. The plan was never to take it for ourselves. The plan was to hang an albatross around their neck while we made off with the gold,” Daniel continued, as his gaze once more centered on his brother. “This is what we should have done when we took over from our father. Burnt it down and rose from the ashes, not built upon the cracked and crumbling foundations he left us. So, we let them think that they’d won, while we took everything we needed to secure our future, and give ourselves a little head start.”

Robert looked at Chastity. “The boxes…when you said they were my things, you meant…”

“Did I say something wrong?” Startled, she perked up, alert like a meerkat. “They’re your things, from the office, um…your papers…what’s the word? Contracts, projects, proposals, everything you signed your name to.”

Daniel corrected her. “Everything we need to start anew.”