The Problematique: A favor
Oct. 11th, 2011 04:37 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsDoug goes over to the Frost Enterprises office to ask Emma for a...temporary donation to the rescue effort for Vanessa.
It being midafternoon, Doug knew that Emma would be in her office at Frost Enterprises' NYC location. He had changed into more formal attire than he generally wore around the Snow Valley Centre offices, a carefully crafted 'business casual' outfit that would let him blend in and not stand out to any of Emma's lower-level employees. He sipped at a travel mug of coffee as he waited in the reception area for Emma to be free.
Emma didn't need her telepathy to be aware that the man in front of her had reached the limit of his capacity to take on information and instructions. There was a point in a glazed expression where you had gone past "I'm struggling to keep up but paying attention" to "my neurons have handed in their notice". She did a surface tap just to check what he had absorbed and then sent him out to start organising the numerous international meetings she had to complete to resolve Frost Enterprises' latest acquisition with a brisk, "And check back with me before you agree to anything that you haven't written down."
Her next appointment was not supposed to be for another fifteen minutes and she felt a wash of irritation when she saw someone waiting for her in reception, but it broke apart into warm delight as she recognised her Knight. "Mr Ramsey," she almost purred. "What a pleasant diversion. Come in. Hold my calls, Sandrine," she said to her EA as she closed the door and sat back down at her desk. "To what do I owe this pleasure, Doug?" she asked.
"Good morning, Auntie Em," Doug greeted her with a smile as he sat down and leaned back in a chair. Knowing Emma and her tight schedule as he did, he got right to the point. "I was wondering perhaps if I might persuade you to let me borrow one of the Frost Enterprises jets." Frost Enterprises kept a few lavishly appointed Gulfstream jets, primarily for Emma's use. "There's been a lead in the search for Vanessa."
Emma's let her eyebrow arc up in something between questioning and surprise. "Borrow?" she asked mildly. "A jet? I'm fairly certain that may invalidate the insurance. Unless one of you has a license to fly a Gulfstream that I'm unaware of?"
Doug's smile widened to a mischievous grin. "Well, I was rather hoping that I could borrow a pilot as well. God forbid I drive your insurance rates up." He shrugged minutely. "I suppose I could ask Warren if he has a license, but I think he'd be the only one who might. And I think it would be easier all around if we had a pilot." Having a Frost Enterprise employee handling the dotting of i's and crossing of t's involved in even the more casual sort of paperwork a private airport engaged in would leave all of them free to pursue the people who had taken Vanessa.
"How much danger are you likely to put them in? And the jet?" asked Emma. "And how discreet do they need to be?" She smiled suddenly. "They're certainly all discreet, but some are more discreet than others." #Some of them let me encode them - if they're interrogated, I can wipe them remotely# Emma added silently. Emma had been juggling Frost Enterprises, the Hellfire Club and Snow Valley long enough that her back-up plans had back-up plans. And the end point of all those back-up plans was scorched earth.
"Low danger. Mostly we need a quick and under-the-radar way to get to Prague." Doug pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Medium discretion - the hope is that we get in, find Vanessa, get her out, ideally a day or less on the ground." There was always the possibility that something could go wrong, but Doug believed that this was the lead they had been waiting for.
"I wouldn't suggest under-the-radar to any pilot," smiled Emma. "They get tetchy about that sort of terminology. But on-the-radar and blandly uninteresting they can certainly do. Give me a time, a date and what airfields you want to fly between and I'll make sure a plane and a pilot are waiting for you. Now, I hate to be rude to you, my darling Knight, but international mergers call right now. Perhaps a drink sometime soon, somewhere quiet and dimly lit? It's probably time we discuss a range of matters."
"Simply give me a time and a date, my Queen," Doug replied, combining his standing from the chair and a bow. "Good luck with the mergers." Hopefully he would have similar luck in his own trip.
It being midafternoon, Doug knew that Emma would be in her office at Frost Enterprises' NYC location. He had changed into more formal attire than he generally wore around the Snow Valley Centre offices, a carefully crafted 'business casual' outfit that would let him blend in and not stand out to any of Emma's lower-level employees. He sipped at a travel mug of coffee as he waited in the reception area for Emma to be free.
Emma didn't need her telepathy to be aware that the man in front of her had reached the limit of his capacity to take on information and instructions. There was a point in a glazed expression where you had gone past "I'm struggling to keep up but paying attention" to "my neurons have handed in their notice". She did a surface tap just to check what he had absorbed and then sent him out to start organising the numerous international meetings she had to complete to resolve Frost Enterprises' latest acquisition with a brisk, "And check back with me before you agree to anything that you haven't written down."
Her next appointment was not supposed to be for another fifteen minutes and she felt a wash of irritation when she saw someone waiting for her in reception, but it broke apart into warm delight as she recognised her Knight. "Mr Ramsey," she almost purred. "What a pleasant diversion. Come in. Hold my calls, Sandrine," she said to her EA as she closed the door and sat back down at her desk. "To what do I owe this pleasure, Doug?" she asked.
"Good morning, Auntie Em," Doug greeted her with a smile as he sat down and leaned back in a chair. Knowing Emma and her tight schedule as he did, he got right to the point. "I was wondering perhaps if I might persuade you to let me borrow one of the Frost Enterprises jets." Frost Enterprises kept a few lavishly appointed Gulfstream jets, primarily for Emma's use. "There's been a lead in the search for Vanessa."
Emma's let her eyebrow arc up in something between questioning and surprise. "Borrow?" she asked mildly. "A jet? I'm fairly certain that may invalidate the insurance. Unless one of you has a license to fly a Gulfstream that I'm unaware of?"
Doug's smile widened to a mischievous grin. "Well, I was rather hoping that I could borrow a pilot as well. God forbid I drive your insurance rates up." He shrugged minutely. "I suppose I could ask Warren if he has a license, but I think he'd be the only one who might. And I think it would be easier all around if we had a pilot." Having a Frost Enterprise employee handling the dotting of i's and crossing of t's involved in even the more casual sort of paperwork a private airport engaged in would leave all of them free to pursue the people who had taken Vanessa.
"How much danger are you likely to put them in? And the jet?" asked Emma. "And how discreet do they need to be?" She smiled suddenly. "They're certainly all discreet, but some are more discreet than others." #Some of them let me encode them - if they're interrogated, I can wipe them remotely# Emma added silently. Emma had been juggling Frost Enterprises, the Hellfire Club and Snow Valley long enough that her back-up plans had back-up plans. And the end point of all those back-up plans was scorched earth.
"Low danger. Mostly we need a quick and under-the-radar way to get to Prague." Doug pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Medium discretion - the hope is that we get in, find Vanessa, get her out, ideally a day or less on the ground." There was always the possibility that something could go wrong, but Doug believed that this was the lead they had been waiting for.
"I wouldn't suggest under-the-radar to any pilot," smiled Emma. "They get tetchy about that sort of terminology. But on-the-radar and blandly uninteresting they can certainly do. Give me a time, a date and what airfields you want to fly between and I'll make sure a plane and a pilot are waiting for you. Now, I hate to be rude to you, my darling Knight, but international mergers call right now. Perhaps a drink sometime soon, somewhere quiet and dimly lit? It's probably time we discuss a range of matters."
"Simply give me a time and a date, my Queen," Doug replied, combining his standing from the chair and a bow. "Good luck with the mergers." Hopefully he would have similar luck in his own trip.
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