Chapter 66_ War

When Arya got to the office and entered the building, she stopped in her tracks when she finds the place in a total mess, like a battlefield. Papers were littered around the floor everywhere, and files were placed unevenly atop each other.

“What the hell is going on here?” Arya boomed, her eyes darting between the three managers.

“What do you mean? We are working." Lewis replied, making Arya frown at him as she took a deep breath.

“Our client — Mr. Al- Hakim is coming here, and this office looks like a pigsty.” Arya said, and Lewis shrugged.

"That seems a little excessive." He said, and Arya raised her brows at him.

“You think? I feel bad for my poor shoes.” She said, and Victoria who had just entered the room with some files in her hands walked up to them.

“What's going on?" She inquired, looking between Arya and Lewis.

“Nothing. The client is coming." Lewis responded.

"We need to clean up the office, that's what is going on.” Arya said, and Martina who had been quiet all along butted in.

“Cleaning? Who is going to clean?” Martina said with furrowed brows.

“Not me. That's beneath a blue blooded noble like myself. We should wait for the cleaners to arrive.” Lewis said, and Martina scoffed at him.

“Noble? The only blue thing your ancestors had were their fisherman's pants. You can quit the charade.” Martina said,

"At least my ancestors weren't snakes in the grass like yours.” Lewis retorted, and Martina glared at him.

"I will give you a snake.” She said, grabbing a binder and threw it at Lewis, scattering papers everywhere.

Arya facepalmed herself as she mused silently, ‘This is quickly spiraling into madness. If I don't handle this now, nothing will be ready when Al- Hakim arrives.’ She quickly went outside, took a big garbage can and brought it in, putting it down with a loud metallic noise.

CLANG!

Everyone turned to her, momentarily stunned as they looked at with widened, and curious eyes. Arya was satisfied with the sudden silence in the office, and put her hands on her hips as she addressed the group, “Here’s the situation, ladies and gentlemen. I saw the Nicholas group of company concept cars, and to be honest, it was kick-ass. I would love to say this will be an easy sale, but it won't. This will be a hell of a war, and —- noble or fisherman, we will all have to fight.”

Lewis nodded, his gaze suddenly filled with determination as he said, “Well, I definitely can't back out from a fight.”

"That's right, Lewis. And, Martina, If those snake ancestors of yours had poison, we will need that too.” Arya said with a teasing voice, and Martina smiled at her.

"Maybe there was a little poison.” She replied back, with a giggle.

“Good. It's to glory together or down in flames by ourselves. So, what do you say?” Arya said,

"Let's clean up this fucking mess." Martina said, and Lewis nodded at her.

“I will go get a mop." Victoria offered, and like in a Christmas miracle story, the whole team started working together and cleaning everything up to showcase the best result possible. In twenty minutes, the office was so clean that Arya thought she could eat off the floor, and be happy about it. Everywhere was sparkling clean.

‘I'm starting to like this manager challenge thing.’ She mused silently.

Shortly after, Al- Hakim showed up and walked towards the team, “Good morning to all. Are we ready to take a look at those drawings?”

"Of course, Mr. Al- Hakim. Here, you will find all you need.” Victoria said, as she placed a file in front of him.

“Thank you very much.” Al- Hakim said,

"I also have a presentation with all the rendering of the possible variations and customizations available.” Lewis chirped in, and Al- Hakim nodded, impressed by their teamwork.

"I didn't know there were so many degrees of liberty with the interiors.”

“We provide only exceptional features for our exceptional clients.” Martina said, with a small smile on her face.

“I’m very impressed. It's an honor and a true pleasure to be your customer. I’ll be honest with y'all, I’m very impressed, and the only other company that could rival this level of perfection would be the Nicholas group of companies. It will be between you and them.” Al- Hakim said, and Arya who had been standing on the sideline, as she watched her team delivered, spoke up.

“I’ll be honest too, Mr. Al- Hakim. It really seems like you want to pit us and Nicholas' group of companies against each other.” Arya said, and Al- Hakim nodded at her.

“I just want to see which one of you will go the extra mile to grant the Sultan the car he deserves.” He said, and Arya gave him a nod.

“I see." She drawled, and after some talks here and there, Al- Hakim left the office. Arya felt her phone vibrate in her bag, and she brought it out, and pressed the answer button when she saw that it was Marco.

“Hi. We just —-”

"Whatever it is, it can wait. Come to the garage, it's an emergency.” Marco cut her off, and hung up immediately. Arya didn't waste another moment in the office, and hurried to the garage. As she got there, she smelt smoke, and saw the place polluted with air.

“What happened here?” Arya asked, as she looked around. The garage floor was all wet, and there was a black circle on the concrete all around the concept car.

“By the look of it, someone wanted our concept car out of the picture. Thank God we have a good fire extinguishing system.” Marco explained, and Arya widened her eyes slightly.

‘This competition is getting very ugly quickly,’ Arya thought, and said to Marco, “Let’s get outside please, I can't handle this smell anymore.”

Marco nodded at her, and they came out of the garage, turning to Arya, he said, “I will have to deal with the security for a while here. I want to know what happened. Can you please oversee all the daily operations for me?”

“Sure."

“I will let you know as soon as I have some news." Marco said, and Arya gave him a nod as she left the garage with more questions than answers.


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The day finally goes by very quickly with all the work that has to be done to prepare the car for Al- Hakim, and Arya had just plopped on her chair when Marco called her to his office, and she headed there immediately, as she couldn't wait to hear what he has to say about the incident.

“Close the door, please. We have a lot of important things to talk about.” Marco said, when Arya entered his office. "So, security confirmed that the fire wasn't an accident. Someone was trying to fuck with us…. And in my book, this means war.” He said, with clenched teeth.

Arya nodded, and met his gaze with serious eyes, “I think we read the same books.”

"Good, but before we head toward the battlefield field together, there's a question I need to ask. Why did you break into my safe?” Marco asked with a frown, as he narrowed his eyes at her, and Arya felt beads of sweat formed on her face at his interrogation.