A Strange Thing In The Office

DeletedUser31931

Eldwood
The door swung open to reveal the lined face of his boss, James McMarnan, a man in his late 50's who had age considerably, his gaunt face showing the amount of nights he had spent up recently working. "Come in Eldwood." James said as he stood back from he door, Eldwood entering the sparsely decorated office, only a picture of James with his wife and daughter stood on the desk next to his computer monitor, the rest of the shelves filled with work related things. "Take a seat." James said as he sat down. And then he spoke properly "As you may or may not know, David Smith, one of our senior partners is going to retire on Monday, he's kept this as secret as possible, however, we have been looking for a replacement partner in the company since he announced his retirement. After due consideration we have decided we would like to offer the title of senior partner in honour of your recent good work. Do you accept? Also if you do accept, he has a junior attorney who he is tutoring/ using as a personal assistant, if you accept then you will have to carry on tutoring this person, Patrick Kimble is his name I think, until you deem he is good enough to become a professional lawyer (by that I mean that he would be able to do jobs by himself and is trusted to handle all less important mergers). With that out the way, do you accept?" Sitting there Eldwood began to think, it would mean a significant pay-rise but his responsibilities would also rise. What could he do?
 
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DeletedUser13682

“Any way the wind blows!” The sound of a gong echoed throughout the tii, and Patrick and James smiled. This was one of their favourite songs from the 70s, and every time they went anywhere together, they would play it and sing along to it. “Alright, James, here’s your stop. I have to head back to the office.” James got out of the car, and started walking toward a local deli. “You should stop working for the man,” James said, turning around long enough to give this advice, “and come work with me at the deli. Think about it, Patrick. See ya.” “Later days, my wango man.” Patrick drove off with a wave and Slade playing in the car.

His email had been responded to, and he was to be at the meeting tomorrow at 11:00 in the A.M., which really meant 9:30 A.M.. It was custom to be early, and if you weren’t, then why should you be trusted with anything? So, everybody followed the custom of being at work an hour and a half earlier than they were asked to be. For now, though, lunch was over, and it was time to go back to work. The dash clock said it was 2:30 in the P.M.. There would be just enough time to make it back to the office before the 3:00 P.M.

The tii skidded into the car park space, as Patrick noticed he had only a few minutes left to get to the office. Patrick grabbed his briefcase, locked his car, and ran to his workspace, a small cubicle with the bare necessities of junior attorney work. He made it to his desk just at the clock struck three. Pocketing his aviators in his breast pocket, Patrick got back to reading that manual just as a supervisor walked past him. “Keep up the good work, boy,” he said to the space near Patrick, an absent look on his face.

After the reading was complete, Patrick sent an email to his esteemed boss. Here’s the skinny, man. No bunk in this thing. You’re welcome. Catch you on the flip side. With a send, Patrick waited for more work to do. In the meantime, he was going to look for deals on Aston Martin DB6 Volante, a dream car of Patrick’s.
 

DeletedUser

Eldwood sat and listened to his boss, talking about a possible promotion.
He sat and thought as his boss asked him the big question.
It would mean he would have more responsibilities, and he'd get a personal attorney. And a lot larger paycheck. Hell, why not? What was there to lose?
"Sir I am very pleased to tell you that I, uh, accept this offer of promotion." Eldwood replied.
 

DeletedUser31931

Eldwood
"Good for you then." James replied with a smile before saying "I would appreciate it if you could of course keep the news secret until it is announced officially, we aren't going to announce your promotion until the day after David has officially announced his retirement, which he is planning to do on Monday. We hope you can appreciate the need for secrecy. Do you have any questions? If not then I'm sure you have things to do, I certainly do."
 

DeletedUser

"No sir, I don't have any questions." Eldwood replied, shaking his boss' hand, he nodded before standing up, turning and moving out of the room, heading back towards his desk.
Yes! He'd only been with the corporation for two years, and already he was being promoted to a senior position.
Perhaps another three, five years and he'd be head of department, six figure salaries, bonuses even if he screwed up the system, then early retirement with a massive pension.
Oh yes, life would be easy.
Sitting down at his desk he booted up his computer and set to work, trying to keep a smirk off his face.
 

DeletedUser31931

(OOC: This RP will have various time gaps, I'll just fill these in with paragraphs explaining what happened in that time.)
(One Final note: Since the accountants won't have much else to do they will also either be computer experts or computer experts in training, LikeaSir, since you are the only accountant character (apart from myself) you can choose what you want to do, just PM me.)

Eldwood spent the next several hours working as did Daniel, Samuel and Patrick. Jessica finished her essay and spent some time surfing the internet, looking at the news. Kyle played La Noire completing several levels.

(OOC: And now the aforementioned thing happens)

Six O'Clock

Jessica

She glanced at the clock in the bottom right hand corner of her laptop screen. Slinging a coat on and putting her hearing aids back in she exited the flat and began to make her way across the city. She was about fifty metres from the Car Park when the explosion happened.
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Kyle

He glanced at the clock on his wall and swore. Switching the Xbox onto standby he grabbed some money, his travel pass thing and a coat. He made good time and was following one of the other cleaners down the street (OOC: this is Jessica) hoping to catch that PA outside the building, he had about half an hour before most people left the building. As the explosion happened he threw himself to the ground. He saw that the cleaner had fallen to the ground and that her hearing aids were scattered across the ground along with quite a few of her other things. What should he do?
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Eldwood

He was working when the explosion happened, it was on his side of the building. Rushing to the window he saw a blazing shell down on the ground in the car park. A car bomb... he thought Hope there wasn't anyone in there. Then the tannoy in the building came on "There has just been a large explosion on the car park on the east side, leave all your personal belongings and evacuate the buildings now." Turning to his computer Eldwood saved his work before putting it to shut down and then turning out onto the fire escape, beginning to make his way down the fifteen flights of stairs.
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Patrick

He carried on working as David passed by his office, swinging David said "I'm going early today, but I'll see you tomorrow. Keep up the good work. Ok?" Patrick nodded and watched as his mentor turned around to leave. As he went to leave Patrick got a very strange feeling, almost a gut instinct "I'll..... I'll see you on Saturday, ok David?" he suddenly blurted out. Turning round smiling David replied "Of course." Patrick's office was an office with a window (this had broken all the strictest conventions of office hierarchy but David had said that it was his old office and that was a perk of having David as his mentor.) and so he watched as David walked across the car park, just a small speck from this height. David's car was at the other end of the car park and there were no cars parked around it. He watched as David opened his trunk, checking something, and then got into his car. Then, the car exploded. Patrick jumped back, David's car had just blown up with David inside, thankfully none of the other cars or anything had caught fire/blown up. He sat in shock for about half a minute registering that his mentor was possibly dead before he heard the tannoy. Saving his work and putting his computer on to shut down he hurried out of the room and onto the stairs, he only had about 10 floors to make.
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Daniel

He spent the rest of the afternoon deliberating on how to deal with this missing money, should he go to his boss, or should he go and confront the person directly or what? He quickly crossed confrontation off the list, too risky and he wasn't even sure who was taking the money! He had no solid evidence either, just fifty pounds vanished in the paper trail and his suspicions. The boss wouldn't accept that, there was nothing for it, he'd just have to find out who'd done it and get some evidence to back his theory. When the explosion happened he jumped, he didn't know what had happened but he'd heard it. For a small explosion it had certainly made a lot of noise. He made his way out of the building quickly and assembled with all the other accountants as they began to read off a check-list of all those who were signed in with being inside the building at the time of the explosion.
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Samuel

As he finished his project on stock market predictions etc. he received an email from one David Emnal who needed a favour. He wanted the account to run over these numbers and then figure out if some of the stuff he was doing was legally possible. He told him to do his work, and if he needed a lawyer he should go to Patrick Kimball. Having revised the spreadsheet he saw the numbers were all right but he needed some legal explanations as to what some of the stuff meant. As he began to type up and email to Patrick the explosion happened. Sam was on the wrong side of the building but he still stopped and then, as he heard the tannoy, saved his work as a draft and began to move, quickly, out of the building.
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David Smith

He left Patrick's office and took the elevator down, he strode briskly across the car park. Opening his trunk he saw that there was a briefcase in there. He opened it, and saw it had the money as promised by his client. He put it back and shut his trunk. It is a shame he never considered to check under his car, or he would have found the large amount of C4 wired to the underside of his car set to blow when he turned the ignition on. He got in, none the wiser and his thoughts turned to Patrick, he would make a good lawyer, if he would lean to obey his seniors and be polite. Then he turned the key into the ignition and David Smith died.
 

DeletedUser

All normality was gone, but not greatly missed; like the period after Dr. on a can of Dr. Pepper. Standing outside, the chilly air flapping his white shirt, his brain was utterly flamboozled; he had no idea of what had just happened. A sick feeling in his stomach told him it might be worse than he expected.
 

DeletedUser

It wasn't something he would later be proud of but the first thought that went through Kyle's mind was; 'I wonder if this gets me out of work?'

The second thing he did was quickly crawl forward and scoop up as much of what the other cleaner had dropped as he could, focusing mainly on retrieving the hearing aids. 'HERE,' he yelled at her as he passed them back, 'YOU DROPPED THESE.'

Kyle spoke very slowly and very loudly with exaggerated lip movements. He didn't do it out of rudeness but out of his own ignorance. As far as he was aware, that was the right thing to do.
 

DeletedUser

Eldwood swiftly moved out of his office and through the corridors towards the fire escape, joining the stream of other workers, all trying to stay calm, and moving in an orderly fashion, as the fire drills had taught them.
There had been an explosion in the car park, someone had bothered to place a carbomb in the middle of the car park, then detonate it, why?
It couldn't have been a terrorist attack, like the ones the news constantly warned him against. If it had been that they would have attacked the building, which meant that either it was a random attack, or more likely, there was something in the car which the attacker didn't want people to see. Or someone.
But why blow it up? Why not just sneak up, break into the car and take the item/kidnap the person? It would have been a lot quicker, and wouldn't have caused the building to be evacuated.
Or maybe it was just an elaborate diversion. Eldwood looked behind him, scanning the stream of workers for anyone trying to slip away.
 

DeletedUser31931

(OOC: everyone else can look after themselves for now.)

Eldwood

As he scanned he noticed a man walking through the car park, trying a bit to hard not to be noticed. The man was in a cleaners uniform, and some people paid for the cleaners to was their cars (the cleaners did this as a personal side business) he turned out of the car park and just as Eldwood went to follow him there came a shout. He'd been spotted by a co-worker who came over and made conversation. Meanwhile the man slipped out into the crowds and into the street, it was too late. He had vanished. With a sigh Eldwood went and stood at the roll call, however, he had been able to do one thing. He had memorised that man's face. If he showed his head around the neighbourhood any time soon then he would sure as hell know it.
 

DeletedUser13682

It was close to the end of the work day for Patrick, relatively speaking. He still had a few hours left at the office, predictions stated he wouldn’t be getting off tonight until ten. Presently, patrick was finishing up a document, a review of a minor legal document involving a nondisclosure agreement for all accountants. Patrick was making sure that the document contained just enough layman terms for an accountant to get the gist of the agreement, but enough lawyer speak that any accountant wouldn’t want to really read it very hard, and if they did want to, they would have to go to a lawyer. The real purpose of the document was to get rid of a few slackers without having to pay them severance packages, according to David.

Speaking of the devil, David popped into the office, saying he was getting off early (the lucky man), and to keep up the good work. Maybe it was the good work comment, or maybe it was something else, something you couldn’t quite put your finger on, unless if you were religious, that made him say it, but instead of a usual goodbye, Patrick blurted out that he would see David tomorrow. This made David turn around, and for a moment, Patrick was worried that he would receive a taunting, but nothing of the sort came. Just am of course, and that was it.

Looking out of the window that replaced an entire wall of his office (a strange perk for a first year assistant, but thanks to David, he had a pretty nice view of the city, helping relieve some of the stress), he watched David walk over to his car, a 2011 Acura TSX, and get into it, after checking something in a briefcase that was already in the boot of the car, something very green. Patrick also watched as he got into the car, and could barely hear it turn on for a moment, before hearing the explosion, and seeing the fireball. After a few moments, the fireball subsided, leaving behind a burning wreck of twisted metal. In an instant, Patrick’s mentor was literally up in smoke.

Patrick jumped back on instinct, then stood there, stunned, unable to do anything but look at the spot where David used to be. What exactly happened? A fault in the wiring maybe? Or maybe it was an assassination. Patrick didn’t know, and he couldn’t think about any of that for more than a moment. All other thoughts kept getting pushed out by the thought that David was dead, no more. And that thought kept him immobilized until the tannoy announced an evacuation due to car bomb. Patrick slowly saved his work, turned off his computer, and headed outside, forgetting to put his jacket on.

He was lucky, in a way. Patrick didn’t have to go down the nearly 100 levels to make it to the ground floor; he only had 10. He walked down, ignoring the other people trying to rush out. This caused him to nearly get trampled a few times. Eventually he got out to the car park, where the entirety of the building was beginning to gather. Patrick’s first instinct was to walk to where David’s car used to be parked, toward the far end of the car park, where nobody else dared to park. As he got closer, the heat from the burning wreckage was still too great to get too close to the thing. Walking back to the crowd, which had grown considerably, Patrick looked around for familiar faces. The first one he saw was another lawyer, an Eldwood Priesmayer, a laywer three years younger than Patrick, but already higher up on the corporate ladder, due to very influential parents. He didn’t even have to attend law school. That fact made Patrick resent the man, but in times of crisis, that resentment had to be forgotten. Patrick walked over to Eldwood, and tried to put a casual tone on. “Eldwood. There you are. Heavy thing that happened, isn’t it? What do you think happened?”
 

DeletedUser

Eldwood turned at the sound of Patrick Kimball's voice; “Eldwood. There you are. Heavy thing that happened, isn’t it? What do you think happened?” Said Eldwood's attorney, well, he'd be his attorney once David Smith retired.
"Not sure, do you know if anyone was hurt? I reckon that was just a diversion for someone else doing something, now that everyone is out of the building, it would be easy for the perpetrator to sneak in and obtain whatever they needed." He replied.
He stood silent for a moment, before speaking again. "Do you know if anyone was hurt in the explosion?"
 

DeletedUser13682

“Do you know if anyone was hurt in the explosion?” Eldwood had asked that question twice, Patrick not expecting it either time. Maybe it was this question that caused Patrick to break, to allow the trauma to take its effect, maybe it was just a coincidence. Either way, that was the time the shock of the event decided to remove its protecting layer of suspension of belief, and the full force of the event took that opportunity to rush in and fill Patrick with some horrible sense of dread. This caused Patrick to fall silent, and allow the question to hang in the air, while he looked thoughtfully at his office window.

After a minute or two of this, he slowly turned to Eldwood, his eyes displaying that famous thousand yard stare that was the characteristic of those who had suffered extreme trauma. After a moment of staring at Eldwood, Patrick slowly worked his mouth, but for a moment more, no sound came out of it. Eventually words came out of it. “Yeah,” Patrick said, the tone of his voice very low, and his words drawn out. “I know. My mentor, David Smith. That was his car, and it blew up when he started it. I saw it out my window.” Patrick looked back up at his office and pointed at it, allowing the hand to stay there a moment before the arm supporting it fell limp at Patrick’s side. Patrick’s eyes, however, were still locked on the office, the point exactly opposite from the burning wreckage that was David Smith’s tomb.
 

DeletedUser25825

Jessica was hurrying toward the building, and was literally knocked backward as it erupted in a tremendous explosion. She lay crumpled on the ground, and much like her counterpart, probably had an inappropriate thought first. It was mainly, "I am NOT cleaning that up." She tried to regain her bearings and did a personal faculty check to make sure she wasn't injured. She looked around and coughed as she saw Kyle nearby. He was shouting, but she couldn't hear him. She raised her hands to her ears, and discovered why. She returned her attention to Kyle, and then looked at his outstretched hand. She nodded and took the aids with a muttered, "Thanks".

Jessica tilted her head to each side as she inserted the hearing aids into each ear. She frowned and looked around. She saw people running around, obviously screaming, but the aids were not transferring those sounds. Must be blown. She stood up slowly, and looked at the building and then at Kyle. She asked, "What happened?" She made sure she watched his face for the answer.
 

DeletedUser

Kyle shrugged. He spoke normally now though, assuming that with her aids, the girl could now hear him.

'No idea. Some kind of explosion. I think it gave me whiplash.' Kyle rubbed his neck for emphasis. He was actually unharmed but it was always a good idea to have a witness to any injuries he might 'aquire' later if there turned out to be some kind of compensation.

'Are you okay?' This question was out of genuine concern.
 

DeletedUser31931

Jessica

Thankfully her hearing aids were working fine and so she could hear everything the man said. She felt alright, her leg had fallen at a funny angle but luckily it wasn't injured. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and stood up. Then she stretched her legs out and replied "Yeah, I think I'm good, if you really think you have whiplash then you ought to see a doctor but I doubt you do, you were further back from the blast."
 

DeletedUser

Eldwood blinked as Patrick informed him that David Smith had been killed but moments before in the explosion. The man he was due to replace, murdered a short while before his announcement of his retirement, why?
He'd probably find out when he was promoted, Eldwood's brain mused. There was more to this than met the eye.
 

DeletedUser31931

The next three hours passed in a blur. Paramedics, fire-fighters and police all arrived on the scene very quickly. The paramedics took one look at David and declared him dead. The police quickly interviewed everyone, with about fifty officers methodically doing five minute interviews before sending the employees home. The cleaners who arrived on the scene were made to sit and wait around as the fire-fighters combed the building with police before declaring it safe and the cleaners got to work. After all, there was a party on tomorrow and so business must go on as usual. Jessica and David got to work, the events weighing heavily on the minds of the cleaners, especially Kyle, since they meant he had missed that PA! With a sigh he carried on. Meanwhile Eldwood had a short interview with the police, he didn't mention he was about to take David's job, he didn't know why. Patrick had the same interview, "Did you know him? How? Who do you think might have done it?" etc. he answered truthfully and to the best of his knowledge and then left and drove home, however, that had set him back slightly as the police had checked all the cars for bombs too. None were found. So the night passed.

Patrick
His alarm clock buzzed and Patrick groaned, his hand following along the surface of the table until it found the alarm clock. Hitting it on snooze he woke up and saw he had an e-mail on his work provided blackberry (which David had recently informed him was his life blood and he needed to start using more.), it read "The party is still going ahead, David informed me that you were going to come so instead you shall be helping his successor, Eldwood Priesmayer." He checked the time, he had a few hours until he'd have to leave.
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Eldwood
He checked his blackberry before getting into bed that night to see an e-mail (from one of Eshan Serser's deputies, so it must be important). It read: "In light of the current circumstances, we have decided that you shall take the role of David Smith at this party, please read the briefing attached as to who will be there and what you need to know. See you there tomorrow." Eldwood skimmed over the document before realising there was some real in depth knowledge he would need to know, it appeared being a partner wasn't going to be all fun and games. He finally finished doing it all at about just gone midnight. He shut down his blackberry and promptly went to bed. He awoke with about five hours prep time and began to run through the document again having had some breakfast.
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Jessica
She sought out her boss quickly and begged an hours leave to find some replacement hearing aids. Her boss nodded his consent and she rushed off, searching for the nearest place. She found one not far away, got there, got the replacements and got back to work. She spent the night working but she (along with all of those who had agreed to work tomorrow) was let off early to go get some sleep. She made her way back through the city and slept in her clothes, too tired to change. She awoke with about two hours to spare, she booted up her laptop and started to do some coursework.
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Kyle
He spent all night long wondering about that note again and as he entered David Smith's office he wondered about David. The explosion, was that related to the note (of course he had no idea that David was dead, and would not until the next morning)? One side of his brain said he should just hand the note in, whilst the other said that it would just drag him into events that his life did not need nor want at this particular time. He decided to keep the note until he found someone he could trust. He smiled as he left early, leaving those who had said no still working. He arrived at home gone midnight, and (for once) was too drained to play Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, instead he just went straight to bed. When he woke up he had three hours before he had to leave, turning on the Xbox he began to deliberate what to play.
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New York Times

Financer's Trust Partner Killed in Car Bomb Attack!

Last night, just before workers were due to leave Financer's Trust and head home, a brutal blast was set off in the car park. Financer's Trust have confirmed in an official statement that the car was that belonging to David Smith, a high ranking official in the company who it is rumoured was going to officially announce his retirement from the firm this Monday. Financer's Trust have also stated that they will be aiding a full police inquiry into the matter, however, the company will still keep running as usual. More on P4
 

DeletedUser13682

“Now go over it one more time, without the slang. As if you were writing one of those legal briefs.” Patrick cleared his throat, and recited again what had happened, this time with no slang. “I was looking out my window, then suddenly, I see what appears to be David’s car explode. After we are evacuated to the parking lot, I walk over to where I believed the explosion happened. It is where David’s car was parked. I cannot get close, because there is something burning, what appears to the remains of a car. David’s car was an Acura TSX. The heat was too intense to get close to the burning object. I returned to the group, dazed.” The police constable nodded. “How did you know David?” Patrick sighed, and responded. “He was my immediate supervisor and mentor.” “And who do you think might have done it?” “I cannot speculate on that matter.” After a while more of this questioning, they let Patrick leave, after checking to see if his car was bugged.

Driving home, Patrick received a call on his car phone, an original model retrofitted for modern wireless systems. “Patrick, hey man. Wanna stomp tonight?” “Sorry, Dave. Heavy stuff happened at the office. Gotta go.” Patrick hung up, and went to his apartment. Looking at his clock, he saw that he was right. He didn’t get home until 10:30. He went to sleep almost immediately, not bothering to take off his suit.

In the morning, he woke up to the sound of his alarm clock chirping out its annoying tune of beep beep beep. He hit it off, then groaned as his Blackberry chirped, indicating that he had an email. He read it, and found out that the party was still going to happen. Worse, he was going to assist Eldwood Priesmayer, a guy one year his junior who only got to be a lawyer because his father rigged the system. Great, just great. Well, there was a few hours to kill until he had to leave. Might as well get ready.

Patrick got dressed in a black tie suit. This party was going to be a fancy occasion, and Patrick needed to look his best, even if he did have to work for a cheat and even if he didn’t want to go to it, especially since he had just seen his mentor get blown to bits yesterday. As the time came for him to leave, Patrick puzzled on the car he would take. He decided that tonight would be a good time to drive the Merc.

Patrick arrived at the office, and walked up to the meeting area for the party. Eldwood was already there. Patrick noticed that a waiter was collecting the champagne. Grabbing a glass, Patrick thanked the waiter, and then downed it. Feeling a bit better, Patrick walked over to Eldwood. “What It Is, Eldwood,” Patrick said. “Heard you’re my boss now. Mondo cool.” Of course, Patrick didn’t really mean that, but you never let the boss know you don’t like working for him. “So what’s the skinny?”
 

DeletedUser

Kyle laid the note carefully on the kitchen worktop and regarded it one last time before turning away and retrieving two man sized bags of crisps, a four pack of mars bars and a can of Monster Ripper.
He then sat down to a game of Red Dead Redemption and the next thing he knew he was waking up looking at a pause screen with a nest of empty packets.
 
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