Huracio
“Have you gone through the documents?” Salvatore barged into my office and asked on a Monday morning, two weeks after the signing banquet.
“What documents?” I retorted without looking up.
“…”
When I got no response, I glanced up to see him glaring at me while chewing his jaws. Realizing that he was serious, I dropped my pen and huffed. I then opened my email to see that he had indeed sent over some files four days ago.
“Why did you send me this?”
“Have you read it?”
“I am just seeing it.”
“Huracio!” Salvatore glared, finally stepping into the office and closing the door.
“What?” I snapped back. “I just resumed work today. If it was so urgent, why didn’t you give me a heads up?”
“You are becoming more unreasonable.”
“Who is unreasonable here? You gave me a fake lead. You made me go round in circles for days, finding nothing.”
He walked over and sat in the chair facing me.
“Renald and I have collectively agreed to let you and Celine handle the first phase of the Malibourn project.”
I sat up, looking incredulous.
“What does that mean?”
“I have created the opportunity, it’s up to you now.” He stood up and wanted to start leaving.
“I am not interested.” I sneered angrily, making him turn around with a glare. The temperature in the room nosedived, but I wasn’t bothered. “You lied to me. The clue you gave me was nothing.”
“I didn’t lie. You just don’t know how to look. Your movement was too big.”
“…”
Well, that was true, but I wasn’t about to admit it.
“Celine will be here today. Play nice.”
He stood up and walked out.
Fuck!
I took two weeks off to follow Salvatore’s lead, but nothing came up. I did find signs that Katalina went through a border town, but after crossing to the next country, her traces disappeared completely.
Meanwhile, getting back to the office, I found my desk filled with responsibilities that threatened to submerge me in work for the rest of the year. Meaning that I have used up the time I can set aside to find Katalina. Yet Salvatore deemed it alright to add to my burdens. Isn’t it obvious that he didn’t want me to go look for her? I am beginning to feel like I should run away.
The Malibourn project is the first phase of the contract we signed with the Alkim group of companies. It is simple automated real estate. To facilitate our cooperation with the Alkims, Salvatore secured a corporation with the AirLoon networks.
AirLoon is one of the biggest telecommunications and tech companies in the world, fairly competing with the likes of Microsoft, Google, Samsung, Orange, and the rest. It was our affiliation with them that gave us an edge. It made us look good in front of the Alkims who are trying to smoothen their way into the European Maritime, where AirLoon also holds some prestige.
For the Malibourn project, I am supposed to work directly with AirLoon, and we are already making headways in designing a new code for the Automated homes. Meaning that I have absolutely nothing to do with any other part of the project. But according to this new file, Celine and I are to be in charge of procurement, and construction monitoring. In short, we are the project’s supervisor.
Salvatore must be going crazy.
And that’s exactly what I told him just before Celine stepped into his office.
“Came at the wrong time?” She asked in a sarcastic tone.
“Celine, you came just at the right time ” Salvatore got to his feet, sounding like a doting uncle.
He gave her a hand shake and gave her the seat beside me. “I was just discussing the intricacies of the project with Huracio when you came in.”
I could feel her gaze on me, and was going to ignore her until I heard her snorting. Turning my head, our gazes clashed. I came face to face with her unbridled contempt.
Looking her over, I almost rolled my eyes. Pretty, but got nothing on Katalina. That haughty look in her eye only made her look aged.
“Uncle Sal, are you sure he is right for this job? Won’t his drug problems cause us issues along the line? You don’t expect me to babysit a druggy, right?”
“What?”
I felt myself growing hot from the inside. I turned to Salvatore for an explanation, but all his attention was on this bitch. He was even smiling.
“I can assure you that what happened was an accident. He is not an addict.”
“Really?” She raised her left brow and gave me a contemplative glance.
Restraining the urge to strangle her, I stood up, ready to leave.
“I am not done, Huracio.” Salvatore growled. He reached out, grabbing my hand.
“I am. Let go of me!” I snapped back.
“Hoo, that’s hot!” Celine cooed beside me.
“…”
Salvatore twitched. She was getting on his nerves too, but he was dedicated to kissing asses. Something I am not used to seeing. If anyone ever told me that he could kiss an eighteen year old ass, I wouldn’t have believed it. Yet, here we are.
I took that time to snatch my hand back and I made my way out of the office, but guess who walked into my office a few minutes later.
Yeah, Celine Alkim.
“What do you want?”
She rolled her eyes, drew out one of the chairs in front of me and sat down. She crossed her legs and gave me a leveled look. “Huracio, stop throwing tantrums.”
“…”
Arrrgh!
I haven’t wanted to kill a person so badly.
Couldn’t kill her, couldn’t beat her, couldn’t reprimand her. Never felt so restrained in my life. So, I just sent Stone a text. A few minutes later, he barged into the office with an earnest face.
“Boss, something turned up. Something really turned up!”
“Follow me.”
I stood up and walked out of the office.
When I sent Stone a text, I asked him to come call me for a fake meeting, but getting outside, I found out that something really came up. So, a fake meeting turned real.
“According to one of our CIs, her name is on a ship ledger. The ship leaves tonight.”
“What?”
My head started buzzing.
“Where is it going?”
“The last destination is India, but there are many stop overs.”
“Let’s go. Call the airport. We are taking the copter.”
“Boss. I don’t think we can make it. We need…”
Shut up and just do what I say!” I snapped at Stone.
He was right.
By the time we got to the coastline, the ship was long gone. I wanted to follow it with a speedboat, but nobody would release theirs to me. It wasn’t our turf, and for some reason, the Don wouldn’t give Salvatore’s name any kind of face.
I was so frustrated that I cried.
It was my first time since Dante’s death.
But I got one piece of information. Katalina now has a baby boy, and they seem to be doing well.
I am a father.
I have a son.
I have a son.