Page 16 of Marcellus: House of Drakos

Marcellus entered his suite of offices, an office he only visited once per month, and didn’t bother to speak to any of his staff as he whiffed right past them.

Not that they wanted his attention. They didn’t.

They were terrified of him. They all stood up when he first walked in, and they all tried not to give him any eye contact to avoid getting fired on the spot.

But he didn’t even look their way. Because as soon as he opened the double doors that led to the suite just outside of his office, his inner sanctum, he slowed his walk. A group of men were standing on the side of his office door. Olivier and Freddy hurried around their father.

“What’s this?” Marcellus asked them.

“These are the heads of our engineering and design departments,” Olivier said.

“This is our brain trust,” said Freddy. “These are our top engineers and design specialists ready to answer any questions you may have. They have been working tirelessly to get us some answers. I’m sure you know our father and the founder and chairman of this organization, Mr. Drakos.”

They all nodded or said that they did.

“Dad, this is Mike Edison, Lyle Bender, Zorbo Lay, Chuck McCalister, Bojangles Creed, and Arnold Rodrigo. They’re all legends in aviation and they all work for us.”

“What are they doing for us?” Marcellus asked.

“Everything we possibly can, sir,” said Chuck McCalister.

Marcellus looked hard at Chuck. “You think that’s going to satisfy me? Like hell,” Marcellus said and flung open his office doors and hurried into his office.

Olivier and Freddy looked at each other and, behind Kalayna, they hurried inside too.

“Close the door!” Marcellus barked out and Freddy quickly closed them inside their father’s office and the corporation’s technical brain trust outside. Those men, offended, looked at each other as if they couldn’t believe the disrespect, and then they headed back to their respective departments.

But inside the office, Marcellus sat behind his desk as Olivier, Freddy, and Kalayna stood in front of the desk.

He leaned all the way back in his chair.

He felt agitated, as if that Alex Drakos comment was still simmering beneath the surface.

But his company’s problems were simmering more.

“Is it the same mechanical failure on every plane that’s been involved in these crashes, yes or no? ”

Freddy and Kalayna didn’t look at Olivier. They knew he was under enough pressure. But when he hesitated before answering, Freddy stepped in. “We don’t know that yet, sir. It’s still being investigated.”

“Still being investigated?” Marcellus yelled out. “By who? That so-called brain trust you and Ollie paraded in front of me?”

“Yes sir,” Olivier said.

“Are you fucking kidding me? That’s not good enough! I don’t wanna hear that we’re working tirelessly bullshit. I want answers.” Then he settled down. “Where’s Scottie?”

“He’s at the crash site, sir,” said Olivier. “He’s gathering as much intel as he can to compare to the other crashes.”

“Not good enough!” Marcellus roared again, nearly lifting off his seat. “Those other crashes didn’t just happen. Why are you talking to me as if they just happened? This has been going on for three months straight and you’re telling me he’s still gathering intel on those crashes?”

“He’s been gathering it all along,” Freddy said. “He’s at the latest crash site, that’s all we’re saying.”

“What the fuck have you been doing all this time, Freddy? You’re an MIT-educated aeronautical engineer. Why isn’t your ass at that crash site? And you too, Ollie? What are you doing? You’re my CEO. Why isn’t your ass at the crash site?”

Neither men spoke up because both of them knew, had they not been in place when he arrived in town, that would have been a bigger issue for him. “Scottie has a team of engineers with him,” said Olivier. “We would have just been in the way.”

“They’ve been doing their jobs, Daddy,” Kalayna said. If anybody could sway their father, it was her. But even her influence was minimal. “They’ve barely slept a wink since this all happened. We’ve all been living in this building since it all happened.”

“If the results of all this dedication is this nothingness you’re presenting to me then shame on you. You got nothing for me? Not even preliminaries?”

“It’s coming, Dad,” said Olivier.

“That debris field is enormous,” said Freddy.

“As soon as one disaster happens, we got another one to deal with,” Olivier added. “And it’s not just happening on American soil either. We’ve got crash sites in France and Greece too. It’s tough.”

“If it’s so gotdamn tough then why are you in charge?

If you can’t do your jobs, why do I need any of you?

I’m already taking flak for putting you in these positions.

I can’t micromanage you, this company, and everything else I have on my plate.

That’s why I educated and trained your asses!

But what has it gotten me? Our stock is tanking.

They want me on Capitol Hill to give me a good grilling, and I have nothing to say?

Nothing?! One of those reporters had the nerve to ask me why am I making American skies unsafe.

He asked me that! Me! When I put my entire career on the line to make certain Drakos Aeronautics was the safest aircraft manufacturer on this planet.

And that’s exactly what we were for decades.

The safest. Until now. What the fuck changed? ”

They couldn’t answer him. They all looked at each other trying to see if anybody could answer him. And then Kalayna’s phone buzzed the buzz designed only for emergencies. She quickly answered it. “Yes?”

“I hate to disturb you, Miss Drakos, but there’s a woman downstairs claiming to have some disturbing news.” It was her secretary.

“Disturbing news?” Kalayna’s asked, which caused her family to look at her.

“Put it on Speaker,” Freddy said.

Kalayna placed the call on Speaker. “What disturbing news?” she asked her secretary.

“There’s a woman downstairs claiming to be Nikolas Drakos’s secretary. She says he’s in grave danger.”

This was news to his father, as well as it was to Kalayna and Freddy too. But it wasn’t news to Olivier. “That’s just Savannah,” he said. “Hang up.”

“I’ll call you back,” Kalayna said to her secretary. “What do you mean that’s just Savannah? Who’s Savannah?”

“She’s Niko’s secretary.”

When Marcellus heard that name first, and then her title, he felt a tightness in his chest. He thought for certain she left Niko’s employ years ago. He never asked about her, but he assumed she didn’t return after she left that morning. But she’d been with Niko all that time?

But his children didn’t see his shock. They were too concerned about that phone call. “Why would she say Niko’s in danger?” Freddy asked Olivier.

Marcellus was leaned back, staring at his children, and his heart squeezed. He didn’t know if he could take any more surprises. And Niko was in danger? Why would she say that?

“She called me twice already claiming that he’s missing,” Olivier said. “I told her I spoke with him and he’s fine.”

“When did you speak to him?” Kalayna asked.

“After the first time she called. Then I called him again after the second time she was claiming he was in danger.”

“With evidence?” asked Freddy.

“No. That’s the thing. Her gut’s telling her that. She’s a whack job if you ask me.”

“Call him now,” Marcellus ordered.

Olivier frowned. “You know how he is, Pop. He has the same reclusive bug you have sometimes. He disappears. He don’t want to be bothered. That’s Niko.”

Marcellus looked at Olivier. “What did I say?”

Olivier was upset. Their empire was crumbling, and once again they had to worry about Niko. But when his father ordered him, he knew he had to do it. He phoned Niko yet again.

And just like the other times, Niko answered in typical Niko fashion. “Why do you keep calling me for crying out loud? I told you to leave me alone!”

“Pop is here, and Freddy and Kalayna. Savannah’s downstairs claiming you’re in danger.”

“In danger?” He sounded shocked. “What is wrong with that woman? She knows what I’m doing. She knows I’m making these Saudi connections for a merger. And why would she care anyway? I told you I fired her ass.”

“Okay, no worries. Pop and Freddy wanted to make sure.”

“I’m fine. How many ways can I tell you I’m fine?”

Olivier motioned his phone toward his father, to see if he wanted to ask Niko any questions.

Marcellus knew it was his son’s voice. But he also remembered Savannah as a straight shooter. Something didn’t jive. “Put him on video.”

“Pop!”

Marcellus gave him that look again.

“Pop wants you on video,” he said to Niko.

“Video? What for?”

“Because I said so!” Marcellus yelled out.

There was an audible sigh. Then the sound of rumblings. And then there he was, on Olivier’s screen, walking with the phone to his face. “Satisfied?” he asked him.

Olivier showed the phone to his father. Freddy and Kalayna looked too. Niko looked perfectly fine. Just like Niko.

“So you aren’t in danger?” Kalayna asked him.

“No, Kalayna damn.”

“Where are you?” Kalayna asked.

“None of your damn business. What’s wrong with y’all? I’ll see you when I see you. Now will you please leave me alone?” And then Niko ended the call.

“I hope that’s enough convincing so we can move on,” Olivier said to the family.

“You didn’t tell us she’d been fired,” said Freddy.

But Marcellus pulled up his computer to the lobby monitors downstairs.

“And why would she keep insisting he’s in danger if he’s not?” Freddy added. “Is she some kind of stalker, or some nutjob?”

“She says her gut is telling her something’s not right. That’s all she can tell me.”

“Even after you tell her you’ve spoken with him numerous times?”

Olivier nodded. “Even then.”

Kalayna looked at the monitors too. “Which one is she?” she asked Olivier.

But Marcellus recognized her right away. He was zooming in on her even as Olivier and Freddy were coming to view the monitors too.

“That’s her,” Olivier said. He was surprised that their father was already zooming in on her. “That’s Savannah.”

Marcellus had to lean back when he saw that face and heard that name again. Savannah Smile. That song returned to his head as if he was listening to it for the very first time.

Marcellus zoomed in for a closer look at her face. And her eyes. She hadn’t changed one bit.

“She doesn’t look like a nutjob to me,” said Freddy.

“She could be a stalker though,” said Olivier. “You know how those women love them some Niko.”

“That serious sister is no stalker,” said Kalayna. “Not her. She doesn’t play games.”

But Marcellus, who was staring unblinkingly at her eyes, said nothing. He didn’t know if she was a nutjob or a stalker or neither. He didn’t know her like that. But what happened to her? Why was she so insistent on something that had no basis in fact?

He knew it couldn’t have anything to do with her trying to get next to him again.

There was no way. That was eight years ago.

And just the thought of it, and how her ass never even phoned him to explain herself, changed his fascination with seeing her again into that irritation he felt when he realized she was gone.

“Kalayna?”

“Sir?”

“Call your secretary back. Tell her to take Security with her and escort that lady out of my lobby. Tell her to make it clear to that woman that she is to never show her face in this building again.”

Olivier and Freddy glanced at each other. It sounded rather harsh in their view, although they dared not tell their father that.

It was harsh to Kalayna too. Too harsh. Because she knew that look on that woman’s face. A sister like that didn’t play games. She was strictly about the business. “I’ll go down and tell her myself,” she said.

And before Olivier or Freddy or especially her father could object, she left the office and went downstairs.

But Marcellus was too concerned about the reputation hit his corporation was taking to bother himself with some fired secretary. Especially one that played him for a fool. He got back to business himself.