Chapter 201 - Room 412 (1) (1/2)
Next day at the office, Sophia found on her desk letter from Mark requesting a leave of absence for personal reasons for an unknown amount of time. Sophia didn't want to inquire about it as she could already guess that it's related to the incident. She approved it and let her secretary handle the rest.
Good news for Sophia: her personal assistant, Leah was back from vacation. Sophia excitedly told her about Felix and promised that one of these days all three of them will go for lunch together. After a friendly chat with Leah, it was back to work for Sophia.
She was in New York for two months, and besides her regular meetings, all directors wanted to meet with her individually so that they can give her in person a status report and to discuss future plans.
...
Next Tuesday afternoon, Sophia had a meeting with Jeffrey White, CEO of White corp.
They know each other for some time, and have a good business relationship, so the atmosphere was quite relaxed. On top of that, Sarah and Aiden are dating, so besides business, there is an additional connection.
Sophia noticed that Jeff does not look too well. After they finished business related talk, Sophia took the liberty to talk casually with him. ”Jeffrey, if you don't mind me prying into your personal life... you look like you could use a vacation. Are you getting enough rest?”
Jeff faintly smiled and shook his head. ”I'm just tired. I crammed number of meetings in last week. I just arrived from Beijing, China, and before that I was in Bangalore, India, and before that Munich, Germany. After this I plan to go back to Los Angeles, but I don't have time for vacations at this time.”
Jeff's birthday celebration is coming, and his parents arranged for him on this occasion to meet his future wife, the one they arranged for him years ago for business reasons. He never cared about this, but as the day approached, he was getting more and more anxious. All these meetings had a purpose of distracting him.
Sophia noticed that he is by himself. ”Where is your assistant?”
”At last minute he told me he is sick. I didn't have time to find a competent replacement, so I decided to go by myself.” Jeff explained.
Sophia offered him to stay back at least one day, and even to be his guide through Seattle, but Jeff politely refused saying that he has a lot of work. He left shortly after. As he exited Orion Enterprise HQ building, he felt dizzy and collapsed.
Sophia got a phone call from head of security. ”CEO Hill, we have one young man collapsed in front of the building. He has a visitor pass for our HQ, so it seems he was just exiting.”
Sophia held her forehead and rubbed it in frustration. ”Did you call an ambulance?”
”My subordinate is on the call right now.”, head of security confirmed.
Sophia thought how it could be anyone. Employees can have visitors, and also people who come for a job interview get visitor passes. But whoever it was, it was visiting their HQ building. She needs to make sure they are taken care of properly. It will be good not to damage company image.
Sophia didn't think much before instructing: ”Please arrange that the man is taken to Franciscan Medical Center. Company will pay for any expenses.”