The Upside Down

A shiny blue sedan passed through the gates to Ravers Enterprises and parked at the foot of the sixty-eight story tower. Raising a hand to shield his eyes from the sun that ignorantly peeked out around the corner of the building to blind him, Zack Bishop stepped out of the car and anxiously glanced around himself. He felt like an insignificant hobbit standing before the dread ramparts of the Black Gate, and silently cursed Gavin for having made him sit through the extended additions of those films. This was the last place he should be, and yet, here, of all places, Heather asked to meet him.

Inhaling deeply through his nose, he made his way to the front doors, passing by a security guard on either side into the entrance lobby. Teeth set tight against themselves, and swallowing hard, he **** himself to look straight ahead and not to rush, even though every fiber of his being wanted to run right past the two watchmen. Maybe it worked, or maybe they just didn’t care, but they ignored him completely. It wasn’t until he was definitely inside, that he allowed himself to breathe again, and his rational mind kicked in, realizing that they shouldn’t have any reason to stop him if they didn’t know about the coup. But just being in this building put that all at risk.

Heather was standing in the middle of the lobby waiting for him, not even trying to hide, despite the fact that she was the former CEO’s daughter and her father had officially been fired, as he heard on KARZ-NWS. Even as he approached, he noticed others glancing around at her, taking note of the beautiful Heather Ravers. Even if she wasn’t so well known in Azure Rocks such an attractive woman wouldn’t go unnoticed anyway. So, he grabbed her by the arm, and pulled her over by a large stone column, out of direct sight.

“Heather, what are you doing?” He hissed, glancing over his shoulder as they came to an abrupt stop. “Why did you want to meet here?”

“Nice to see you too,” she replied and yanked her arm out of his grasp. “I asked you here because there’s something I need to show you.”

“Do you need to stand out in the open though?” he asked, folding his arms. “You do understand a coup is supposed to be a covert mission, until we’re ready to spring the trap.”

“Yes, I do, thank you very much,” Heather retorted sarcastically, as she gestured to the room around her. “But, you should know that a lot of businesses rent space in Ravers Enterprises. It’s only the upper forty floors or so that are designated for Enterprise business only. There are people coming and going through this lobby all day that don’t have anything to do with Ravers Enterprises.”

“Maybe, but you’re not just anybody.” Zack reminded her. “People will notice you, and I don’t think anyone is going to think you’re here for anything other than Ravers Enterprises.”

“Aw, are you trying to tell me I’m special?” Heather teased him, flashing him a smile that could make even the toughest men weak at the knees and hard in their pants. “I appreciate that you think I stand out in the crowd, but now isn’t the time to be flirting.”

Hanging his head with a sigh, Zack gave up; he wasn’t getting anywhere with this conversation. “Can we just do what we came here for and quickly? What was it you wanted to show me?”

“For that, we need to take a ride,” she said, turning and heading towards the lift. Zack followed her closely, trying not to look at her swaying ass, but the very intentional swing of her hips with every step she took along the marbled floor made that a herculean task. But it did prove informative as well, for he noticed, in her hand, by her waist, a keycard grasped tightly between her index and middle fingers.

“What’s that for?” he asked, his voice low, stepping faster to move closer, so close his words danced upon her neck and sent a shiver down her spine.

“That, um, ahem…” she cleared her throat as she followed Zack’s eyes down to the card in her hand. “I had Chastity make me a visitor’s pass. I’m not a Ravers Enterprise employee so I don’t have my own, and, as you pointed out, this is a clandestine mission, so we can’t risk using yours.”

“What are you talking about?” He asked, glancing over at Chastity at the reception desk, her large tits bouncing deliciously as she rose out of her seat to help a lost man with directions. “I don’t have a pass like that. And what is it even for? None of the upper floors required a keycard when I was here.”

“Of course, you have one. The Ravers Enterprises ID they gave you?” Heather waited for Zack’s nod of confirmation. “It doubles as a keycard. I guess no one explained it to you because you wouldn’t need it, because it doesn’t take you up.” She stepped into an empty elevator with Zack by her side, and swiped her card against a scanner beneath the floor numbers. The doors closed and the machine rumbled into action immediate, but even Zack could tell it felt different than normal. “It goes down.”

“Down?” Zack staggered off his feet, the surprise causing him to step back, a movement that the motion of the lift exaggerated, sending him into the side railing. “There’s a down?!”

Heather let out a soft chuckle as she leaned casually and coolly against the side of the elevator, but didn’t explain any further. She wanted to see his face when the doors opened, which didn’t take long. Within a minute the lift had dropped to its destination, and the doors slid apart, revealing a long chrome corridor, lit by bright, powerful LED lights that ran along both the ceiling and floor. Along the hallway there were several doors, all strong, reinforced steel, requiring a keycard for entry, with hazard panels surrounding the frame. She giggled again when she saw his dumbstruck face, frozen just like his body, his breath held as he contemplated whether what he saw was truly real.

“Heather…” he finally spoke, stepping out of the elevator only after Heather had done so, proving it was safe. “What is this place?”

“These are the Ravers Enterprises’ laboratories. They make up a large part of the Enterprises’ Research and Development department,” she explained as she walked down the corridor, glancing over at Zack as he cautiously eyed the yellow and black hazard paint around the doors.

“And it’s safe for us to be down here?” He said, looking at his own breath as it clouded in front of his lips. It was cool down here, artificially, uncomfortably so. Not quite freezing, but the air felt crisp and chilled, a stark contrast to the warm, sunny day outside. “Scratch that, what are we even doing down here?”

“There’s a person I need you to meet who works down here,” Heather answered the latter question, before backtracking to the former. “So, you see it’s perfectly safe to be down here. People work down here all the time. But obviously there are materials and machines that are sensitive, so there needs to be a higher level of security and warning. One of the main functions of the labs is for us to do our own testing and analysis, of things like soil samples, water or air pollution.”

“I see,” Zack said, relaxing slightly as he came to understand the purpose of the place, though it made it no less creepy. “If you’re submitting a planning application, you can check all those things to make sure it passes before you go ahead.”

“Right. Most companies already do this. The soil composition affects what and how you can build on it, and if the water or air are contaminated, obviously it would be a danger for people to stay in the building for any length of time. But whereas most companies have to hire in someone to do this job, we have the whole thing inhouse, or rather we did, before we formed the new company.” Heather continued her explanation, turning a corner and leading Zack further down the single hallway. “It saved us a lot of money, and our lead researcher was so good we could predict any independent environmental tests by inspectors down to a margin of less than one percent.”

“That’s amazing,” Zack admitted, though he frowned, still unsure of what any of this had to do with him or the company. “Is that why we’re here? To poach someone away from Ravers Enterprises to do the testing for the Amusement Park?”

“Oh, um, no, that’s not it. The reason we’re here has nothing to do with the RBC. Well, maybe that’s not strictly true, I guess, but it doesn’t directly concern the RBC, and I sincerely doubt anything will change with the company because of it,” She looked over her shoulder at him with a smirk. “I’m still number one, got it?”

“Of course,” Zack agreed. “Why are you being so cryptic? Can’t you just tell me why we’re here?”

“Because you won’t believe me until you see it for yourself,” Heather replied off-handedly. “The truth is that the research department does more than just testing. Their purview also extends to the development of new technologies to help us design modern, future-looking properties while remaining a national leader in innovation and architecture.”

“Explain to me then why are aren’t trying to poach some of these researchers?” Zack asked, coming upon some glass windows that showed the rooms inside, lab coat wearing men and women typing at computers and poring over microscopes. “Is it just a matter of money?”

“Partly. There’s only one researcher worth poaching, the lead researcher, and quite frankly, as the company is now, we couldn’t hope to maintain her salary and turn a profit in the next twenty years,” Heather said, with a shrug, having already accepted the fact. “She’s the one who developed a new air filtration system that cleans the air on the way in as well on the way out, recycling the air while being cleaner for the environment as a whole. It’s twenty-five percent more efficient than anything else in its competition. We fit it into every new property that we develop, and had it retroactively fitted into the Palace Hotel just last year.”

“Wow, I wasn’t aware how much Ravers Enterprises actually did,” Zack mused, scratching his head.

“Very few people are. Additionally, the patents, because they were developed through Ravers Enterprises brought in money as well, so it’s lucrative for the company to be innovative while also making us a more competitive company…if you have the overflow to invest in it. This is why we set up the Ravers Technology Grant that awards people for their skills in programming and innovation; to highlight the potential creators and pioneers of the future. Though that one came back to bite us on the ass,” she admitted, thinking of Grace Smith, it’s last winner. “Have you heard from Gavin lately?”

Zack shook his head. “Not since yesterday.”

Frowning, Heather had hoped to find out about whether the video of her sucking her father’s cock had been purged from the Earth entirely, but she hadn’t heard anything about it since yesterday either, when Gavin went off to confront Grace and came back black and blue from the beating he’d received from Shawn.

Finally, just as Zack was beginning to wonder how long this corridor was and how deep they had to go, Heather stopped at a door. It looked like all the others, steel, reinforced, with hazard paint lining the frame. And in truth, it wasn’t even the end. The hallway turned again, leading further in, but it was at this door that Heather swiped her card. The crosslocked steel made a sound like steam being expelled as the teeth unlocked, and slid out of sight, revealing a laboratory with metal counters and metal tables, filled with beakers and microscopes, and a singular scientist in the center, marking down her observations.

“Kathryn,” Heather greeted the red haired woman cheerily, bounding up next to her.

“Heather. I’ve been waiting,” Kathryn replied, her voice authoritative and confident, though casual towards Heather whom she’d knew for a long time, having seen the Ravers’ heiress mature during her long tenure with the company. “This is the one?” She clarified, looking to Heather while extending her hand to Zack. Heather nodded, and Kathryn continued, “Zack Bishop, it’s good to meet you. I’m Kathryn Miller.”

“Yeah, I mean, um, yes, I know,” Zack said, taking her hand in his as he glanced down over the woman’s full figure, her medium breasts and tight ass and an aura of superiority floating around her. She gripped his hand tight, her handshake strong and controlled. “I’ve seen you about the school, at Award days and, um, events.”

“Yes, I do attend those, though I’m so often disappointed by my daughter’s performance. But it is good for a mother to attend, and show support for her child, but thus far it has failed to encourage Sharon at all,” Kathryn confessed, her face settling into a perturbed pout as she released Zack’s hand.

“Um, Isn’t Sharon…” He turned to Heather and directed the question to her, rather than argue with the mother. “Isn’t Sharon top of our year…in like every class?”

“She is,” Kathryn answered swiftly, putting her hands into the large pockets of her lab coat. “But public school testing is designed to assess, not to challenge. As smart as my daughter is, she could be utterly demolishing the grading curve if she put in just a little effort. She should be taking Advance Placement courses in every subject. But instead, she’s developed a rather unproductive attitude, and prefers to dance around in dress up.” Kathryn cast a frown in Heather’s direction. “No offense.”

“None taken. I’ve heard a lot worse said about cheerleading,” Heather laughed jovially. “It’s true that Sharon prefers not to try than to fail. Even in cheerleadering, I can’t count the amount of good ideas she has, but she was resistant of me even making her vice-captain because she simply didn’t want the accolade. But, if I may say,” Heather paused respectfully before continuing, “she only feels that way because she views failing as being unable to match how incredibly smart you are.”

“Well that’s nonsense. I was always bright, just as Sharon is bright, but I only made it to where I am through hard work and determination. She could do just as well if she put in any effort. But she ignores academics entirely, and spends all of her time focusing on her inconsequential social life. I certainly didn’t get to where I am because I was particularly close with Robert Ravers.” Kathryn shook her head, her long wavy hair bobbing along as she jounced away the thoughts. “You aren’t here to discuss my relationship with Sharon though. The results are over there.”

Zack’s eyes followed her arm, pointing in the direction of a metal desk by the corner. Gulping down his anxiety, he walked over to the table. It was laid out neatly, everything in order with the center bare except for one sheet of paper. It looked familiar even upside down, but the young man lifted it and analysed it closer, eventually coming to a rather simple conclusion.

“This is fake.”

Heather shook his head. “No, it’s real.”

“I did the test myself to keep it off the books,” Kathryn assured him. “I tested it twice. It’s legitimate.”

“But this,” he held up the sheet and brandished it at Heather, as if they could have been discussing a different test that concerned him. “This says that you are my sister.”

“Right.”

“But the test that was released yesterday confirmed that Gregory was my father,” Zack reminded them, again pointing out the obvious amidst his own confusion. “So, this is impossible, unless my dad got your mum pregnant…but that’s…”

“That is a fallacy,” Kathryn interrupted. “You are drawing that conclusion only because you believe everything that has already happened is true. There is a much simpler conclusion, and in fact, it was the conclusion you already drew, though your target was faulty.”

“In other words,” Heather translated. “We didn’t fake this result. Your dad faked the other one. We know that your mum had sex with my dad. There’s nothing to suggest my mum and your dad were ever together.”

“But…” he blinked rapidly as his mind struggled to find reason or logic, his whole face lighting up when he remembered. “The party. The sex party my parents attended after Taylor was born to spice up their love life. It was one of Robert’s sex parties at the manor. It was a swinger’s party. Your mum could have been there. My mum hooked up with Robert but I have no idea who my dad ended up with.”

Heather and Kathryn shared a look. “Okay, it’s possible. I can’t say for certain that my mum was never involved in those kinds of things, but, to my knowledge, it was mostly after I was born and they were married,” Heather told him softly, like talking a man down from the ledge. “You’re not thinking straight, Zack. If you just stop and think about it for a second, there’s a much more logical conclusion. You are Robert Ravers' son.”

“Why would my dad fake a paternity test?” Zack demanded from people who couldn’t answer that question. So, he asked one that they could, “How did you know to do this?”

“It was because of your dad actually,” Heather explained cautiously. “Remember I told you that your dad came to the Manor. He beat down the door and punched my dad and he kept shouting that you were his son. He said it with such conviction. I found that strange because the results hadn’t come out yet, but yet he didn’t seem insecure at all. He wasn’t worried about the results of the test, he was confident that you were his son. And not in some abstract, he’ll always be your dad way. He knew that it was true.”

Zack slapped his own forehead. “That damned coffee cup.”

“Right. I got suspicious, so I got my dad to stop for coffee. I didn’t tell him anything about it because I didn’t think he’d believe me, and he already thought we should respect Gregory’s wishes. So, I got us two coffees, and then brought the cups down here on my way out. I had no way of comparing your DNA sample to my dad’s, so I did the next best thing. I had Kathryn here compare it to my own coffee cup, since I knew that there would be enough genetic markers to reveal if we were related or not. Unfortunately, the other paternity test got leaked before Kathryn could complete her own analysis.”

“Fuck,” Zack grabbed at his messy, dark hair. “And you think my dad leaked the test?”

“Yeah, that’s what I believe happened,” Heather confirmed.

Zack dropped into a nearby chair, hunched over with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Too much of it made sense. When his mother showed up at Ravers Enterprises last night the first thing she had done was to check the copy of the test was still in her handbag. Whoever leaked it hadn’t stolen it from there. Then, earlier today, he’d found a copy of that same test in his father’s study. His mom had said it wasn’t impossible for him to have requested his own copy, but did he have it because of another reason…the reason that Heather and Kathryn were presenting to him right now…that he really was Robert Ravers' bastard son.

“While he takes a moment to deal with that, there’s something else I have to discuss with you, Heather,” Kathryn said to her daughter’s friend and occasional rival. “Just before you arrived, there was a memo sent down from the board of directors.”

“About my dad’s firing?” Heather sighed and frowned. “Yes, I’m afraid it’s true. I heard they made a speech outside the building. It was reported on KARZ-NWS.”

“No, not that one. There was another memo sent out after that announcement. They had another board meeting this afternoon,” Kathryn revealed. “Your mother and your uncle have both been fired from the board as well, for breach of contract.”

“What?” Heather’s eyes widened as her body went stiff. “When was this? Are you sure?”

“Positive. Here.”

She led Heather to her computer and quickly brought up the company memo that had been mailed to her employee inbox. Heather quickly read it, but it clearly stated exactly what Sharon’s mother said that it did. There was only one reason that Ravers Enterprises would have done this, Heather surmised; they knew about the plot to start the Ravers-Bishop Corporation. Grabbing Zack’s hand, she yanked him to his feet, no longer able to let him deal with the barrage of revelations in his own time.

“Come on,” she ordered him, pulling on his head weight. Turning her head to Kathryn for a moment, she said, “Thank you. I know you risked a lot telling me this.”

“A risk,” she admitted, allowing herself a small, powerful smile. “But a calculated one. And you should know me well enough by now, Heather, that my calculations are never wrong.”

Sharing her smile, Heather pulled harder on Zack, more determined than ever.

“Come on!” she growled again. “We have to get Chastity and get back to the Manor to warn the others!”