Chapter 81_True Leader

“I can assure you, I’m just fair. Would you hand me the binder with the presentation? I want to make a final check before the meeting,” Marco said, and Arya nodded as she walked to her desk.

“Of course, it's—” Arya trailed off when her eyes went to her desk, where she had dropped the binder in the morning, and it was no longer there. “It's gone."

“What?" Marco exclaimed, and Arya frowned.

“It was on my desk this morning, all done and ready. Lewis, have you seen it?” Arya asked.

“I saw it this morning, but I haven't touched it,” Lewis said, and Martina nodded in agreement.

"Same here.”

"Last time I saw it was when I gave it to you,” Victoria chimed in.

“Al-Hakim will be here any time now, and no one touched the binder. So? Where the hell is it?” Marco said, raising his voice slightly.

“Believe me, I wish I knew,” Arya said, and took a look at the clock; they still had some time to work something out. She glanced back at Marco, “Don’t worry, Marco. I will handle it.”

Arya turned to everyone in the room as her voice boomed across, "Listen up, everybody. As things are right now, we're in deep trouble. But it's not too late to put things right.” She said, and turned to Lewis, "Lewis, scrub through all the emails; I want the final technical details.”

"Alright,” Lewis said, as Arya turned to Martina to give her orders, “Martina, same thing with the marketing data.” Turning to Victoria, she continued, "Victoria, as I revise all the documents, I’ll tell you what to retrieve from the archive, understand?”

“Yes," Victoria nodded.

“Good, let's get a move on then. The clock is ticking,” Arya said, and for the hours that followed, the only sound in the office was the clickety-clack of keyboards and the paper going through the printers.

Marco soon came out from his office, almost running as he walked to Arya and asked with a raised brow, “So?"

Arya put the last papers in, closed the binder, and handed it over to Marco, “It's done."

"Unbelievable! Have you managed to retrieve everything?”

Arya shrugged, “Everything important. I would have liked a bit more fluff, but we’ll make do with what we have.”

"Amazing,” Marco praised, and right at that moment, Al-Hakim entered through the door.

“Good morning. I heard you might have a car for me,” Al-Hakim said, and Arya greeted him with an adorable smile and handed him the binder.

“If by ‘car’ you mean a dream on wheels, we have exactly what you're looking for,” Arya said, as Al-Hakim browsed through all the documents in the binder. Despite his best efforts, he was having a hard time not showing how impressed he was.

“Well, this looks like a good dream to wake up from. Too bad it was so short,” Al-Hakim said, as he ran his thumb through the stack of paper to show it was quite thin.

“I know, but worthy cars don't live on paper. It's all about seeing them on the asphalt,” Arya said, and Al-Hakim nodded.

“I completely agree. I have very high hopes for tomorrow’s test drive,” Al-Hakim said.

"You’ll hate driving your current car back home, I promise,” Arya promised.

"I hope so.”

"Can we offer you a good cup of coffee, Mr. Al-Hakim?” Marco, who had been silent in the room with them, chimed in.

“With great pleasure," Al-Hakim answered, as he walked, satisfied, towards the relaxing area of the office, and Marco turned to Arya with a smiling face.

“You’ve just saved our butts big time. Thank you, Arya,” Marco said, and Arya glanced at the others in the room.

"Don't thank me, thank the team. They were great.”

"It was under your guidance. You are a true leader," Marco said, and Arya beamed a smile at him as she mused silently, ‘Thank God I was thoughtful and came here early, or it would have been a tragedy.’

They all sat together in the relaxation room, and while they waited for the coffee, Al-Hakim had an additional request to make of them. He looked at Arya and said, “About the test drive. I want a really good pilot behind the wheel. I need to see what this car is really capable of.”

"Of course, we can—" Arya trailed off when the coffee arrived, and all of a sudden, she became very aware of its smell as a wave of nausea hit her. ‘Oh, God, this is bad,’ Arya thought as she ground her teeth and took a deep breath, holding tight as that sudden dizziness faded.

‘That was a close call. If it weren't for Martina’s pills, I’d have ended up puking on Al-Hakim's lap,’ Arya mused, as she cleared her voice and smiled as if nothing had happened. “As we were saying, we’ll make sure to provide a world-class driver for the test.”

Al-Hakim nodded and took a sip of his coffee before he stood up, shook hands with Arya and Marco as he bid them goodbye. After he left, Marco looked between everyone present in the room and said, “So, Al-Hakim wants a proper driver for the test, and we must give him the best we can. Any ideas?”

“I will drive it," Lewis offered, and Arya gave him a doubtful look.

"Are you sure?” She asked.

"I know that car inside and out, and I know the track like the palm of my hand. Believe me, I’ll blow his mind. It's a promise,” Lewis assured, his tone confident.

“Okay, Lewis will lead the show. Let's get some rest and be prepared for tomorrow,” Marco said, and everyone nodded as they dispersed to their desks.