The Painting

#60 New Era - Re Nua

"Lyle?" I whispered for the second time that night, though this time there was fear laced in my voice.

Pocketing the flash drive Lyle took one look at the contents of the drawer and shut it smoothly. Then taking my hand she carefully cracked the office door before peeking out. I could hear faint voices and I felt my breath catch in my throat. More than one someone was on floor thirty-two.

"On three run under the secretary's desk." Lyle whispered to me cracking the door an inch more so I could see the long oak desk that sat just a few feet away.

With her ear to the door Lyle raised her free hand with a countdown and once she lowered her index finger I sprinted out of the office and underneath the desk. Lyle followed suit quietly shutting Monroe's door. I scooched my body into the innermost section of the half moon shaped desk finding a secure shadowed place behind a swivel chair where Lyle joined me.

Whipping out her phone she immediately turned the brightness off and began typing. When she was finished she showed the message to me. It was to Frankie detailing that we got what we needed but required him to check the cameras to see who our unwanted company was.

Almost immediately we got a series of texts back from Frankie warning that two men were making their way up to floor thirty two. The messages predated Lyle's and she ran her hands through her hair in frustration as we both shared the thought that the signal must have been blocked in the office. Frankie's rapid-fire text explained he didn't know who they were because of the poor lighting but that they were not the regularly scheduled guards.

Just then the voices resurged after a moment of quiet. One of them distinctly brash and confident talking high above the other more docile voice.

Monroe.

I shot Lyle a look of terror as I mouthed his name. She took my hand in an effort to calm me down while with the other she updated Frankie who she instructed to move the car up a block.

"Where is the key?" Monroe's sharp demand cut through the quiet room.

"I haven't been given one, I don't move in until next-"

"Never mind I have one here," Monroe cut off the other man.

Lyle and I held our breath, simultaneously realizing neither of us had the chance to lock the door. There was no way to see either man, but from their voices I could tell they were directly on the other side of where we cowered underneath the desk.

The door clicked as Monroe pushed it open. "Did you leave this open?" He paused but not long enough for the other man to answer. "I tell them every time to keep my door locked, stupid janitors. It's just too much to ask them to multitask."

Soft footprints on the heavily carpeted floor faded as the men entered the office. I looked to Lyle wondering if this was our chance to escape but she shook her head. It was the right choice because no sooner had she done so then footsteps approached our hiding space. I felt my entire body tense as the stomps neared the stem of the 'J' shaped desk. Lyle and I folded our bodies into the curve of the desk blowing out all of the air in our lungs in an attempt to retreat even more into the shadows.

"Next week I will be out of this ugly broom closet." Monroe proclaimed in contempt. "The board room is twice the size of this dump, and shouldn't the president of one of the most influential businesses have the biggest office?"

"Of course sir, but where will we hold the meetings?" The other man asked, his voice somewhat hesitant as he posed the question.

"I don't give a rats ass. Out here, over there. You're the new Vice President, you figure it out. Those idiotic meetings are just a glorified space for complainers. I think my first order as president will be to do away with them." As Monroe ranted he leaned of the counter of the desk and rifled through the papers.

His head was down as he looked through the well organized stacks. Strands of his dark close cropped hair fell from their combed formation and he swiped them back into place absently.

Lyle tightened her grip on my hand as we watched Monroe start at the end of the desk going through stack after stack of papers getting closer and closer to our hiding spot.

"Did you get The Big Ten to come down for the announcement?" The other man – apparently the new VP - who was still out of view asked. His tone was conversational and I assumed he meant to change the subject after his bosses' outburst.

The Big Ten I recognized as a popular news outlet so called because they controlled ten of the most viewed news stations in Maine and across the country. So Monroe really was hyping his company takeover. I tried to imagine all of the news media in Maine converging on X-Enterprises and bit the inside of my lip. It was practically a dream for Monroe, to be nationally recognized for his power and prestige at the pinnacle of his career. A career Lyle, Frankie, and I knew was built off fraud and intimidation.

I caught the gleam in Monroe's eye as he edged his way along the desk until he was only a few feet away. Both my hands were clenched tightly, one around Lyle's and the other around my locket. I hoped and hoped he couldn't see us as he came closer and closer.

Just as he neared the chair we were crammed underneath Monroe produced a packet from the stack a few feet diagonal of our heads. Glancing over it he grinned again and then turned away.

I let out a quiet sigh only to suck it back in as his footsteps trailed around the desk until they were directly behind us. The wooden backing of the desk was the only thing that separated Lyle and I from Monroe.

"Everyone will be here to witness a new era for X-Enterprises." He boasted. "This company will soon be run with an iron fist."

"The company is lucky to have a man like you in charge." The new Vice President, and not coincidentally Monroe's 'yes man' chimed.

"Let me give you some advice Steven," Monroe said his voice hushed but not devoid of the braggart tone he seemed to inhabit. "Don't let anything or anyone get in your way."

His words shot an arrow into my heart and I felt my limbs slack. Steven, Monroe's yes man may not know exactly what Monroe was referring to, but I knew. First hand, I'd experienced his amoral efforts to get what he wants.

I didn't listen to anything after that as I melted into Lyle's side while we huddled underneath the desk. It could have been hours but as I watched Lyle text Frankie on our way down to the lobby I found it'd only been twenty minutes. Twenty excruciating minutes that we spent waiting for the 'okay' from our eagle eye to tell us the coast was clear.

Lyle and I collapsed in the back seat of the hatchback with barely enough time to put on our seatbelts before Frankie sped off.

"Fries?" Frankie shot us a grin as he glance back at the two of us. Quickly he turned back to the road but kept his right arm extended as he pushed a carton of French fries at us. Lyle took it and in exchanged dropped the flash drive into his hand.

"All yours."

Turning is full attention back to the road before him Frankie switched on the radio and sang softly to the songs he recognized -which turned out to be every song - as Lyle and I caught our breath. 

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