[Part 14]

Meanwhile…

The sky hung heavy and grey, and there were few people on the streets. Even if there were any, the people were rushing around, not wanting to get caught in the downpour that was about to come. No one wanted to be drenched.

Looming above the quiet and silent town was the one tallest building. It was an office building, with strong foundations. The outside was plastered with sophisticated tinted windows, looking every bit the professional building it had to be.

There were no words to proclaim the name of the building, but everyone around knew this building. This was the building every student dreamed to work in. This was the building that kindergarten kids got short tours around, to encourage the young minds to dream and aspire. This was the building that brought in the bread for the town.

Inside, the lobby was a never-ending mess. Like an internal city, there would be no time in the day or night where anyone stopped their pace. Countless of questions asked, countless of chatter filled up the lobby –almost like a marketplace. But it was a marketplace.

The lobby was a marketplace for many people. Businessmen took this building as a centre for making deals. They argued and played their tricks here. Here was where corporate tricks worked their magic. Here was where everything was money-orientated.

A few stories up, there was layers of offices and labs. This was where the technicians, the scientists tried out their new experiments. Then, at the fifth floor, the lights were turned off. This sector was led by one of the family members who made this building in the first place. This sector was closed –had been closed for the past one week.

“Mr. D still not here yet?” A worker that had been working in the fifth floor asked the woman at the counter on the first floor.

“Not yet. The company will send an email to all workers affected when we have news of them.” The woman replied with a sweet, condescending smile, and the worker grunted, walking back out the entrance. This was the seventh day of the week, and the workers were getting restless. Even though they were still paid, they loved their job on the fifth floor, and usually got restless when it wasn’t opened.

“Someone needs to hunt down Mr. D’s ass and drag him back here, man.” The same worker that had been at the building sat down at a café nearby with his co-workers, all of whom shared the fifth floor together.

“It was Mr. Kries’s job, but this time it seems like they’ve disappeared together. You think something happened to them?” Another worker asked worriedly. One week had gone without news of either of them, and everyone from the fifth and tenth floor had been affected. The tenth floor workers had been glad for the break, but everyone was wondering what had suddenly made their two bosses go missing.

“What about their sister? They have a younger sister studying in the University don’t they?” A third worker asked, sipping delicately on his cup of coffee. Working with Mr. D and the Kries family had given him and his family a comfortable life, and he thanked the day he met Mr. D, and managed to impress his boss enough to let him stay on the fifth floor.

“My little brother studies in the same course as her. She hasn’t been turning up in classes either. Something must be going on in the Kries family. It isn’t like her or Mr. Kries to up and leave like that.”

“What about the hot-soon-to-be-Mrs-Kries? Trish, the model?”

“I heard she’s missing too and putting back schedules for this month’s magazine. Something must be wrong.”

“But their parents are back, aren’t they? Mr. Kevin Kries and Madam Erica?”

Someone grunted. “You know Kevin; his head would be up in his ass trying to save his precious company rather than finding his children. Mr. Kries is way better than his father.”

“But Kevin did set up Kries Tech by himself.”

“Wake up, bro, and look at the sales. Ever since Mr. Kries took seat, we have been flourishing and been past countless bonuses and promotions. Ever since Mr. D. came into and had the entire fifth floor to himself, we have been having fun going crazy every single day.”

“True, true. Kevin’s sons are definitely way more flexible and fun than him.”

“Hey, do you guys think there’s a possibility they got kidnapped? Remember Mr. Kries got kidnapped for an entire year a few years back? Remember the celebration we had when we got him back? You think it happened again, but to the Kries twin and their sis?”

“Touch wood, man! You see how crazy Mr. D. is? No one’s going to try to kidnap him. Anyone who does will most probably die from puking too much blood. It’s really the eighth Wonder of the World to see how Mr. Kries stands his brother.”

“Wow, that’s harsh. Mr. D. isn’t that bad.”

“Says you. I saw him go crazy trying to create a flamethrower from a mere office pen. When I asked him what he was trying to use it for, he grinned at me and said he wanted to put it in his brother’s office up at the tenth floor.”

“He didn’t.” The workers’ eyes all went wide at the storyteller, their coffee forgotten as they anticipated. No one knew what their boss would do –to set his brother up or chicken out halfway. Mr. D. was never predictable –something which was both a frustration and a refresher for them.

The storyteller smirked at the face of shock from his co-workers. “He did try. But he got caught by Mr. Kries’s girlfriend. I saw when she crushed it beneath her heel. His face was like someone slapped him across the face –it was hilarious.”

The workers laughed in unison, just imagining the face their boss would have made.

Such was the likeness of the workers with their boss. They didn’t exactly love their boss, but they liked Mr. D. They liked Mr. D for his crazy antics, and he was a source of humor for them. He organized countless parties in strip-clubs, trying to get everyone extremely drunk. He was terribly popular with the women, and they always watched as he made his move on his targets. To them, he was no boss –no superior. To them, Mr. D. was their friend. Granted, a friend who gave them their pay –but a friend nevertheless.

Mr. Kries was also one of compliment. To them, Mr. Kries help lead the company to where it was right now. They thanked Mr. Kries for his quick wits, for bringing in deal after deal. Mr. Kries was no cruel employer either. He treated his workers well, and though he often saw them one run lower than him, he made effort to treat them well. He drew a clearer line between employer-employee than his brother, but no one was offended by it.

Yet, no matter how much they were loved at the moment, nothing changed the fact that they were gone. Missing. Kries Tech had been going on for a week without a lead, without a head, and people knew that it was going to fall on its knees if Mr. Kries and Mr. D. didn’t come back quick enough.

If only they knew… Mr. Kries and Mr. D. weren’t in this world anymore.

*****************************************************************************

While the workers shared their stories about their quirky boss, upstairs, on the tenth floor, in the almost-empty office, something else was happening.

The secretary sat alone in the office, sighing to herself as she plugged in her earpiece, putting on some Beethoven to calm herself down. The amount of mails and calls coming in asking for an appointment with Mr. Kries had been overwhelming, and coupled with calls from the local and foreign media services trying to know why such a high-profile man like Mr. Kries had disappeared all of a sudden; the secretary felt about to burst open.

She hated when this happened.

Mr. Kries had never really disappeared without a trace before, at least not while she had been working with him. Mr. Kries had a strong sense of responsibility, and every time he couldn’t turn up at the office, he would either mail her or send her a text telling her what to do for the day. He did, though, sometimes disappear with his brother without a trace for a day or two, and she would get all flustered.

Then he would come back on the third day, and express with utmost apology that his brother had played a prank on him, causing him to be unable to reach her. The most ridiculous she had heard from him so far was that he woke up one day in Singapore without knowing how he got there.

It had been true –for she had secretly checked his passport.

It was afterwards that Mr. Kries explained that Mr. D. had him drugged on the way, and somehow smuggled him all the way to Singapore, just to show the twin what a Merlion –the national icon of Singapore -was. Sometimes, she hated Mr. D. for playing a prank on Mr. Kries, because it affected her indirectly.

But still, she couldn’t exactly up and smack Mr. D. on the face and tell him ‘no’, right?

After at least the fiftieth email that she went through from yet another businessman wanting to know why Mr. Kries was missing and hadn’t turned up for their agreed appointment a few days ago, the secretary could not take it anymore.

She left her table, walking to the pantry to get some aspirin. Oh, how she hoped Mr. Kries would get back sooner. She didn’t even know when he was going to come back –so she didn’t know how to reply to these pissed-off businessmen.

She turned her back on her workplace, searching for her medication.

That was when a slice in the air appeared silently, just before her desk. There was no sound, as someone walked through the tear in dimension. He had perfect silver hair and a neat looking three-piece suit. His aquamarine blue eyes looked around carefully, and then leaned forward.

In his hand was a piece of paper, which he dug underneath the crazy stack of papers that was on the secretary’s desk. He slotted that piece of paper in, making a dog ear at the side so that it would be obvious to her when the secretary returned to her desk.

Quick as he came, he stepped back into the tear of reality and disappeared along with his portal –just in time as the secretary turned around, freshly medicated and with a hot cup of coffee.

She hadn’t seen nor heard anything. She walked back to the table, surprised to see a dog-eared note she hadn’t noticed that was sandwiched beneath her stack of papers.

She fished it out, getting even more surprised when she saw that the note was written with the hand of her employer.

‘Daniel’s trying to get me all the way to Japan tonight. He’s taking Marcy and Trish along, and he knows I can’t leave the girls along with someone as crazy as him. Settle things while you can. I won’t be back so early. I don’t know when Daniel will return me my passport. I’ll try to contact, but you know Daniel.

-Damon Kries’

The secretary cursed under her breath for not having spotted the note earlier. It had been dated a week before, and she hadn’t seen it. It was a stupid negligence of hers. But at least the note had given her a general direction of what she would be doing for the next few days, weeks, maybe months. Just keeping the company alive.

She picked up the phone, and pressed a single button.

She began to speak.

*********************************************************

Downstairs, at the café, a man wearing a fedora low to cover his face sat beside the bunch of workers who were exchanging their stories about their boss. It didn’t seem obvious, but he was tapping in on their stories, listening intently.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by a series of message beeps, and the workers all looked to their phones.

They looked up and caught each other’s eyes.

“Damn, Mr. D. is really overboard this time. Japan? That’s far!” One of the workers proclaimed, and the man that had been eavesdropping on them smiled to himself.

Having heard what he wanted, he stood up without taking any attention. He drained the rest of his coffee, walked out of the café and into a dark alley nearby.

He clicked his fingers in the darkness, walked into the tear of reality, and disappeared off the face of this world.

He proceeded back to the world where he came from.

Back to the world where ‘Mr. Kries’ and ‘Mr. D.’ were.