Ten ◑ The Meeting

Lucille only had two hours of sleep, but she was as alive as ever.

Britney Spears was blasting on a loop in the car as Lucille drove to Paradigm Publishing. Not even the drizzle of rain and heavy traffic could dampen her spirits. She was singing along, drumming her fingers against the steering wheel, and basically bouncing on her seat. She just couldn't keep still.

Well, this could be attributed to the five cups of coffee she'd consumed at home, but she liked to think that it's because of the upcoming Zoom meeting.

Or rather, what she'd planned for the upcoming Zoom meeting.

God, just thinking about it made her giggle.

However, she forced herself to be serious and focused as she arrived at the building. She'd purposefully come at a very early time (quarter to eight—Agnes had been baffled), but she still prepared for the possibility of a crowd in the lobby. After all, given the whole Martin debacle, all of the employees would probably be waiting to see if she'd still show up.

So imagine Lucille's confusion and delight when she'd arrived at a perfectly empty space.

Crickets. Just crickets everywhere. The entire lobby was free of whispering and staring people. And although Lucille knew that there must be someone somewhere, she still nearly skipped in joy. Smiling at her own luck, she headed towards the elevator.

Only to get startled by Justin, who'd busted out of the conference room with cords slung on his arm.

Lucille wanted to smack him for making her jump, but she dissolved into a smile. "Hey, Justin."

"Lucille," he said in surprise, his face lighting up. "You're early."

"So are you," she deflected.

"Yeah." Justin scratched the back of his neck. "Cade asked me to set up the equipment for the Zoom meeting with the big guys. It's really early, but he seems to be keen on making this as perfect as it could be. I just finished. You're joining that meeting, right?"

She blinked rapidly. She couldn't believe her ears. And her luck. "Yes, I am," she replied, recovering her smile. "I'm still quite nervous about it. Do you mind helping me run over some important points?"

Lucille batted her eyelashes in her charming manner, and Justin nodded vigorously. "Sure. Come on, let's test out the setup."

He led her inside the conference room, where surely, a laptop was connected to the television, a speaker, and a couple of tiny microphones. The door closed behind them, and Lucille summoned a bit of her magic to lock it.

She also extended a bit of that magic on Justin, deliberately injecting him with all the elements that would make him as slow as he already was. Or at least slow enough not to realize that she would be using him to fuck up Cade's presentation.

Meanwhile, Justin seemed to be having the time of his life, smiling and bobbing his head to nonexistent music as he fiddled with the wires and cords.

"There we go." He cheerfully turned to Lucille. "Now try speaking into one of these mics and I'll—"

Lucille decided not to waste any more time and grabbed him by his collar.

"Look at me," she told him firmly as his eyes flitted around in panic. "Justin, look at me."

"Lucille, what are you. . . ." He faltered, his eyes glazing over. Now he was looking at her like she was the only thing he could see, and he was enjoying it. "Yeah, baby? I'll do whatever you want, baby."

Baby? Lucille wanted to gag, but she kept her magic placed upon him. It was bad enough that he'd come up with that term, but did he really have to say it twice?

Still, this only meant that the spell was in place. She shouldn't complain, but damn.

A genuine shudder racked her body, but she knew that she was left with no other choice. The opportunity had presented itself, and she'd already begun to unfold her plan. This was the only spell that she could perform to get him to do her bidding and forget everything about it later.

And there was only one way to seal that spell.

"Baby?" Justin drawled, swaying on his spot with a giddy, stupid smile on his lips. "Baby, baby, baby—"

Lucille shut him up by pressing her lips firmly on his.

God, this was bad. Not only the kiss itself, but the fact that she had to do it without his permission. Despite having intended to do this for a cause, she felt horrible, so she decided to end it as quickly as she could. But of course, even in his dazed state, Justin saw the opportunity and extended it for a couple of seconds, holding her gently on the waist, but Lucille was just done.

She pushed him off, held him upright with one hand, and rummaged through her purse with the other.

Her fumbling fingers found the small, compact case of her flash drive, which came in the most pathetic black and red striped design. She pressed it into Justin's palms, grabbing his chin and making him look into her eyes.

"Connect this to the laptop and install the file into the desktop," Lucille recited, not breaking eye contact. "Then, destroy the flash drive and throw it in the trash. Understand?"

"Yes, baby," Justin mumbled, staring at her lips and puckering his. "Let me just—"

Lucille gave him one quick peck and started towards the exit. "Now go and make me proud, darling."

◑≡◑≡◑≡◑

". . . Those are our plans until the end of the year," Cade was saying into the microphone. "They're yet to be executed—"

"How about the launch?" William interrupted, his sharp, serious face prominent in the view of the Seattle office's conference room. "You know that's more important than anything. All the reviewers will be—"

"Yes, we're working on that," Cade replied, eyeing Erin and her sterner-looking companions. "Actually, I've been thinking. . . ."

He began stating more of his ideas, and it took all of Lucille's power not to yawn. Jesus Christ, this was dull. The actual purpose of the meeting—which was to talk about the curated list—hadn't been discussed yet. It had been nearly three hours. Lunch had already been served and consumed. Clifford and Jamie were bored now. Even Cade looked like his own voice was putting his face to sleep.

Lucille couldn't blame them. After all, the only reason she'd agreed to join this meeting was to watch the virus do its thing.

Yes, the virus. The computer thingy virus that Lucille didn't really understand. The one she'd spent about a thousand bucks for, anyway. One of her former clients, a man who worked as an IT expert, had created it for her at the right price. Agnes had been on board for the project, and she had been in charge of the spectacle to be witnessed today. This technological wonder would bring about the downfall of Cade Linden.

That was, if Justin had succeeded in installing it in the laptop.

Well, Lucille was pretty sure that Justin had. For one, there was no sign of the flash drive anywhere near. Secondly, he was already back at the front desk, blissfully clueless about the things he'd been hypnotized to do. Such a spell left her with a bit of a weak, detached feeling, but it would be worth it.

And the only way to find out is to have Cade test it out himself.

"Those ideas seem . . . nice," Erin said, her uncertainty visible even through a screen. "So, uh, shall we move on to our next and last agenda?"

Cade's jaw tightened in disappointment, but he managed to say, "Of course."

With that, he leaned across the table, towards the laptop.

All the cells in Lucille's body froze in anticipation. This was it. It was finally happening.

Because of utter excitement, she grinned widely. Cade glanced at her, mistook her mischief for encouragement, and smiled back. Then, he clicked on his presentation before sharing his screen.

However, instead of his presentation taking up the view on his screen, an image of five naked men and one woman invaded his screen.

Unfortunately for him, it wasn't just an image. It was a video, one that played almost immediately. With amplified sounds.

The people starring in the video began to do . . . things. The men were fiddling with each other's bodies, and then the woman joined in. Soon, the conference room was filled with an orchestra of moans, groans, thumping, and a whole lot of abnormally loud squelching.

Cade stared wide-eyed at the screen, his hands frozen against the keyboard of the laptop. Jamie yelped and tried to cover her eyes and ears at the same time, to no effect. Clifford looked like he was stuck between a cackle and a whimper. William, Erin, and the others in the Seattle office were all open-mouthed, staring at the video as though it had just revealed to them the biggest secrets of mankind.

And it kind of had.

Needless to say, everyone was spooked. So much so, in fact, that they all stared in stunned confusion for about fifteen seconds.

It was the longest, most delightful fifteen seconds in Lucille's life. However, all good things must come to an end.

Cade broke free from his statue-like state and began to click on the exit button.

The problem was, it didn't work.

"Shit," he mumbled, which in Lucille's opinion, summed up the situation quite nicely.

Frantic now, he tried to leave the meeting, but no matter how many times and how aggressively he clicked, the meeting went on. So did the video. He tried to turn it off, to no avail.

Speaking of the video, the actors in this fantastic visual were still going at it like gorillas. The woman was bent into a pretzel shape, while the five men arranged themselves around her, brandishing their disturbingly huge appendages. More guttural sounds escaped their mouths as they started to pile themselves on top of one another.

This effectively punctured the bubble of numb shock at the Seattle office.

"Cade," William said, his voice firm with cold warning, "What are you doing? What the hell is going on?"

"This isn't my—" Cade stopped short and slammed his fingers against the keyboard. The sides of his head were glistening with sweat despite the cold weather. His face was taut with worry, confusion, and rage. He was typing in some kind of a code, but it didn't do anything but to freeze the entire screen. The video was still playing, though.
No amount of Cade's cussing, typing, and pressing got rid of it.

When he ran out of tricks, he wheeled around on the others inside the room and yelled, "Are you just going to watch?"

Lucille shot to her feet. Deciding that Cade already got what he deserved, she yanked the cord connecting the laptop to the TV. Clifford rushed to Cade's side and miraculously managed to mute the video. Jamie kept bobbing up and down on her seat like she was itching to help, but she ended up staying in her spot with a look of terror on her face.

It was pure chaos. Everyone was filled with so much panicked energy that even Lucille's heart was pounding.

But maybe that could be attributed more to the thrill and excitement coursing through her body. She didn't really know. All she knew was that her plan had worked, and now everyone would think about orgies whenever they see Cade.

"I can't deal with this," William said in disgust, and with that, he left the meeting.

Now the entire Seattle party was gone. To everyone's surprise, the video had disappeared with them. The moment William clicked off, it just vanished. The only trace it had left was Cade's red face, Clifford's grimace, Jamie's bulging eyes, and Lucille's heart swelling with pride.

"Shit," Cade suddenly exploded, raising the laptop in an attempt to smash it onto the floor.

However, Clifford blocked his hands and stopped him. "No, don't—"

Cade faced him abruptly. "Why the hell not? This fucking thing just destroyed what little credibility I have!"

He lifted it again, but this time even Jamie stepped in and prevented him from doing it. "Sir, you need this to find the culprit!" she said breathlessly. "This is evidence, sir."

"That's right," Lucille agreed to come off as less suspicious. "You can use this to trace the source of the video."

Good luck with that, she thought.

"Right." Cade exhaled and set the laptop down. "Who's the one who handled this before the meeting?"

"It's Justin, sir," Jamie answered. "Justin was here first."