Chapter One
Opal
Opal set aside yet another of one her delicious lunches, having barely had enough time to touch it. She was working through lunch for what felt like the millionth time in a row, and taking more than a few minutes to eat something seemed impossible. Wiping the crumbs from her desk, she frowned at the thought of that scrumptious quesadilla going to waste. But there would be plenty of time for relaxing lunches and more, once this big job was finished successfully.
She peaked over to Judith, her work friend. "How are you doing on those concept sketches, Judith?"
Judith came to attention "I knew you were going to ask me that, just like I knew you were going to skip out on lunch, again. Sweety, you really need to let yourself take a proper break. At least eat something substantial for once." Judith had such a graceful way about her, even when she was being bossy. Her peaceful, delicate features never matched up with any of her more forceful words.
"Hey, I'll make you a deal," replied Opal with a slight smirk showing on her face, "We can go to an all-you-can-eat buffet and I'll shove down buckets of chicken wings and potato salad until you're satisfied. How does that sound to you?"
"You really have a mouth on you," said Judith with a soft shake of her head. "It's a good thing you're my best friend, or I'd think you were being a smart ass." It didn't quite suite Judith when she swore, not by the look of her. She was so seemingly innocent, petite, straight brown hair, doll face. But she certainly had a wild streak in her. That barely ever showed while they were working though. Judith had started out as Opal's assistant, but had worked so impressively that Opal had pushed to have her as her lead illustrator at the marketing agency where they worked.
Opal glanced over at Judith "You may have everyone else at the agency fooled, but I've seen your bad side. Don't make me share the pictures of last weekend."
Judith chuckled "So, I had a few cocktails and danced like an idiot? Isn't a twenty-eight-year-old woman allowed to have a bit of harmless fun?"
"There's nothing wrong with that at all. Still, I bet you wouldn't want anyone else you know seeing your funny dancing," said Opal with a chuckle. She was enjoying stirring up her friend, even if they were both frantically working as they exchanged the spirited banter. It was one of the few things that really kept their morale high, when they knew they had yet another terrible deadline looming over their heads.
"We've got this, don't we?" Opal said to Judith after some quiet time at their respective desks, clicking and pressing away to try and get the workload done before the end of the day.
"Hey, we're the best, right?" said Judith. She always had a way of motivating Opal, even when they were stressed to the limit.
"Oh yeah!" shouted Opal. They both buried their attention completely in their work, working their computer drawing tablets, scrolling through pages of notes and images for the upcoming marketing campaign that needed to launch very soon.
"Are you alright in here?" came a voice, and the two women noticed that their office door, usually shut for privacy and focus, was slightly ajar. It opened farther and there stood their boss.
"Oh, hi, Alfred," said Opal. Judith tucked her head down a little as soon as she heard Alfred's voice, never eager to speak with him. It wasn't that the guy was mean, or even rude, but Judith was shy around certain people, especially people with too much confidence and power.
"I'm going to need to speak with you in private, Opal," he said with almost no tone to his voice. The guy was usually energetic and passionate, even if he did step on people's toes in the process sometimes.
"What's wrong, Alfred? We're really swamped getting these sketches out in time. I mean, we were ahead before they shifted the deadline of the final demonstration forward a week and then—"
"That's okay, Opal. We're going to get a freelancer to help finish it off. You won't have to worry about it. Judith, can I count on you to take over?"
"Yes, Alfred. Don't keep her for too long though," she said with a smile. In her mind that was probably meant to be a joke, but she was not great with small talk or fake jokes. She was just too genuine of a person, an artist first and a business person second.
In Alfred's luxurious office with multiple windows on three sides, Opal took a seat across from his desk. He sat down and leaned forward, hands on top of the expensive wooden surface. There wasn't much on his desk apart from a laptop, which was usually closed, and an intercom unit that went directly to his secretary. The guy didn't seem to get his hands dirty with too much real work, but was more of an observer and an office politics wizard. "So …" he said.
"Look, if Grobble's Chicken wants to make another change to their logo design, I'm going to need more time," said Opal with some fire to her voice.
"No, no, that's fine. You won't need to worry about any of that." The way he spoke was so final.
"You don't need to bring in outside people, Alfred. This is our job."
"It's not your job any more, but you probably knew this would come eventually. I have strong evidence that you've been 'misplacing' money from your department's funding accounts. Here are the print outs." He took some stapled pages from a desk drawer and floated them over the desk to Opal.
"What? That's not true, you know that. I'm one of the most loyal people you have."
"I thought so too. I'm sorry, Opal. Even if I didn't believe the evidence, it would still be out of my control."
It was true though, someone had been skimming from her department's account, and only she had the authority to make those changes.