The Billionaire's Assistant

Chapter 20

Two weeks later not much progress had been made, and everyone in the den was beginning to grow frustrated with the uselessness of the information Kat had found so far. She'd studied the security sections of the handbook first, discovering little other than the fact that the guards are armed with glock 22s and civilian issue SIG Sauer MCX-SPEAR XM7 Rifles, a fact that had astounded and impressed Brent and Conner while making Andy wince.

Large swaths of the guard handbook were written in the same shorthand as the master copies' title and the papers in Jove's desk drawer, small groups of acronyms with random words dispersed in between, most of them entirely unintelligible to her. After the security portion proved unyielding, Kat moved on to operations, discovering much about the companies preferences surrounding 6 Sigma project management methodologies and nothing about how it could help her reduce their pollution. Every section she'd been through so far had been only vaguely helpful, giving her a better sense of how things work specifically at headquarters, but telling her nothing about how the business as a whole operates.

The one bright spot of the uneventful past few weeks had been the discovery of their target; the companies pharmaceutical production and processing facilities. Tillibeneton inc. had their finger in every money making pie in the country, but the vast bulk of their wealth came from their involvement with pharmaceutical companies. While these companies didn't exactly operate as subsidiaries of Tillibenton, they may as well have, with the larger company funding pharmaceutical industry lobbyists and then turning around and overcharging those same companies for the use of production and manufacturing facilities that, after buying out all competition, only Tillibenton owned. Any prescription medication produced in the United States was made in a Tillibenton facility, facilities whose impact was worsened by the conglomerate's environmentally devastating business practices.

The group learned that the production of pharmaceuticals typically takes far less of a toll on the planet, and that nations like Switzerland had perfected processes that slashed energy consumption, although admittedly were more costly. The volatile nature of pharmaceuticals meant that the bulk of the energy overconsumption stemmed from temperature regulations safeguards, often energy conversation assets like microgrids, but in the case of Tillibenton, a singular distributed energy system.

The Tillibenton distributed energy system allowed for backup generation with battery storage, a protection set in place in order to maintain optimal conditions in the event of a power failure. The corporation that created the uninterruptible power supplies that Tillibeneton used to reduce its costs was called Grenger, and much to the delight of FES, had gone defunct nearly 6 years prior. Tillibenton was the largest purchaser of Grenger distributed energy systems, and outside of Tillibenton's pharmaceutical processing facilities, not many of the wasteful iterations of the energy system still existed. Certainly not enough to serve as replacements in the event that something were to happen to Tillibentons current stock, which would force them to purchase updated, microgrid systems from newer suppliers.

In terms of energy reduction the plan was perfect, it would drop Tillibenton from the countries top polluter to the 37th, it would have long lasting energy reduction effects that couldn't be undone, and best of all it would hurt no one, the only people suffering being the Tillibenton stockholders. In terms of practicality however, the plan was severely lacking.

The facilities were spread all across the country and she had no physical access to them, on top of that, she had no idea how she'd go about the process of their destruction without getting herself arrested. If they were able to disrupt each plant's singular energy distribution system, even for just a few minutes, the resulting destruction and cost would force Tillibenton to make the pricey, environmentally friendly switch to a more modern solar powered microgrid. But how to do that?

Kat had no idea, and she was beginning to lose hope that the handbook contained her answer. Her daily fruitless slog through 30+ pages of wordy, overly detailed descriptions of each role was taking a toll on her moral, and on top of the anxiety of her assumed identity, she couldn't ignore the creeping feeling that she'd made a mistake in the first place.

Kat sighed as the elevator warbled its tuneless ding of ascension, then yawned. She studied herself in the mirror, the stress she was feeling thankfully unaccounted for in her countenance. She had finally stopped by her mom's to pick up the 'much better' formal wear that her mother had insisted on buying for her, and she had to admit that her mother's taste was better than Andy's. Instead of an 80's era skirt suit she wore a slim black blazer, white button up, and streamlined black pencil skirt that kissed the tops of her stocking adorned knees. Her flat shoes and low bun remained the same, but she fit in much better, appeared less like a relic.

She hadn't been sleeping well but at least she didn't look it, not that it mattered as the only people that she ever saw were in the lobby. Spending the majority of her day alone was something she was entirely unaccustomed to, even before joining FES and the close quarters of the den. It was uncomfortable but not unbearable, and she passed the time as best she could, forcing herself to stay focused on the stupefyingly boring text of the handbook.

Today was Energy Allocation Dispersion Officer, Class B. Class A had seemed promising but yielded nothing, and she had no high hopes for its counterpart. The doors opened to silence and Kat filled it, humming as she crossed the floor's seating area towards her own desk. Kat sat, sighed, and let her forehead drop gently to the cool metal of the desk's surface.

You can do this. She thought. Just one word at a time. Kat booted up the computer and began her daily scroll to the section where she'd left off, her elbow on the desk and her chin resting snugly in her palm.

Principles of Corporate Communication Best Practices and their Application to Digital Intra-departmental and Interdepartmental Communication, Part 1.

The validity of the department liaison's communication prowess is born of a well tuned acumen for the understanding of...

The door burst open and Kat yelped loudly, startled at the first sound she'd heard in the space in weeks that wasn't a product of her own movement.

Jove was striding towards her, smirking, and she froze, her heart pounding as he examined her.

"Don't scream," He instructed. "What are you doing here? C'mon."

Before Kat could process what was happening he had grabbed her wrist and pulled her to her feet, turning towards his office before she was fully out of her chair.

"W-what," Kat stuttered, but he turned back towards her and held a finger to his lips, the look on his face playful.

He pulled her into his office and shut the door behind them, releasing her wrist only for her to realize she'd been holding her breath.