Chapter 8: Owen

Sitting in my car, gazing at the house I once owned on Luna Avenue, I briefly considered breaking and entering. Considering Alex was probably too lazy to change the locks or move the spare key, I probably wouldn't even be breaking anything. The house was probably still half in my name after all, how could I possibly get in trouble for using a key and entering a house that I owned?

But again, such an action would be classless. Even if it was a dream, I still had to do things the way I always did, with style, smarts and class. Even if breaking into the house would garner answers much easier than spying and subtle interrogation, I couldn't risk even thinking about getting caught in the act or in any other sort of sticky situation for that matter.

Eventually, I decided that my little stint of espionage would have to wait for later. I knew my best weapon for surveillance was anonymity, and quite honestly, I looked too fabulous today to blend in anywhere. Instead, I revved the engine of my Audi and sped off towards work, taking the route I had taken every day I spent living in the house I was leaving behind.

Before long, I was once again parking in the V.I.P spot designated only for me, at the perfect place to make my entrance into the magnificent skyscraper that housed Gynecological Miracle. I decided that instead of going straight to my office like I usually would, I would go and get reports from the different offices myself. Perhaps I should have been doing more grunt work than I had been lately. I usually relied upon reports being sent to my office, and looking over them at my leisure.

If there in fact was something wrong with the research that I hadn't noticed before, maybe it came from faulty reports. God knows how long it had been since I'd actually set stiletto inside the research lab, let alone actually met with any of the PR people, the financial advisor, or even went into the cafeteria to chat with the people I used to work with, or the interns that had been promoted into full-time employees. It suddenly occurred to me that all the success with G.M I'd had upon my promotion to CEO along with being distracted by Alex, I hadn't really kept as firm a hand on things here was I used to.

“Good morning, Miss Devereux,” the secretary greeted me the moment I walked through the sliding glass doors of the building. I smiled a greeting right back at her, and mentally chided myself for not knowing the names of every single employee. I used to keep up with the ever changing staff of G.M, but I had stopped shortly after my ascension to the top floor.

I need to make sure to remember this, above anything else when I wake up, I mused, walking briskly towards the elevator. I really have lost touch with the rest of the company, no wonder I was having trouble figuring out what was going wrong. I only read reports and talked to a few people! I reached the elevator and pressed the button for the fiftieth floor.

My office was located on the eighty-ninth floor, the cafeteria on the third, miscellaneous offices and departments for housekeeping staff occupied floors four through twenty. From twenty-one up to forty-nine were the offices for PR, financial staff, various meeting rooms, space for office events, and all other manner of things of that sort. The fiftieth floor, the one that I was currently heading towards, was the first level of laboratories. It was where research primarily on the human genome took place, and where I also knew to first look for the head scientist so early in the morning. He usually did a routine walk through of each level before heading to whichever department he was scheduled to oversee that particular day.

“Stella, it's been a while since I've seen you in lab number one.” It seemed that I'd caught him right before he moved on to the next floor of labs. I gave the man a genuine smile.

“Hello Tom, darling,” I began in a drawl that most wouldn't expect to hear in a laboratory full of scientists. “It's been far too long since I've come down here to check on things personally. Not that I doubt the reports you send up to me at all,” I reassured him.

It wouldn't do to have him think I didn't trust him. Tom was actually one of the people I graduated with. We'd shared a passion for our research that carried us both to the same company. I trusted him entirely with leading the other researchers, which was why I accepted the position of CEO, promoting him to the seat of head researcher.

“I also thought that I was in serious need of a refresher course in all of our most recent advancements and setbacks.” Tom frowned for a moment before answering.

“Stella, you realize that it will take hours to go through all of those files.” His tone was only slightly discouraging. “You're free to access everything, of course. But aren't you busy with planning Christmas fund raisers and whatnot?”

I could sense that he was pointing out my late absence from the labs in a very passive-aggressive manner. It was really quite unlike Tom, and I could only wonder if it was my subconscious guilt using this dream version of Tom as a mouthpiece. However, the moment I stepped out of the elevator, I knew that I was on the right path. I could almost feel my stilettos tingling beneath my feet, urging me forward.

“There are five teams of event coordinators that can take care of Christmas for me Tom,” I said. “The most important thing is for me to stop neglecting my original job. I'm probably going to spend the rest of the day going over the past few months in the archive room. Tomorrow, I'd like to schedule a meeting with the heads of each department working on Project Miracle. If that's at all possible, that is,” I amended. I didn't know how busy the researchers were after the recent setbacks and roadblocks.

A strange look crossed Tom's face, as if he hadn't expected my resolution to get my hands dirty with research. “No, that's quite doable,” he said. “You'll need the updated password for the computer archive, and the new code for the cabinets with all the hard files and sample cases. Unless they gave them to you as well after the break-in.” I was so pleased that my meeting was going to take place that I almost didn't hear what Tom said about new pass codes and a break-in.

“Break-in!? When did this happen? Were files stolen? Why wasn't I called, or paged, or e-mailed or whatever?!” I didn't mean to lose my composure, but I felt a severe lack of trust for not being informed about any sort of problem like that. Tom just stared at me like I'd just grown two heads, or asked why the sky was blue.

“Stella, the break-in happened six months ago. Everyone was informed of it. It was on the news. Hell, they stole the first even remotely successful experiment we'd conducted in years!”

As Tom spoke, I began remembering what exactly he was talking about. Either the dream was supplying me with memories I didn't have in real life, or the blow to the head that knocked me unconscious and into the dream in the first place knocked them out as well. In any event, I remembered the break-in now, and I also remembered that it happened right around the time Alex began acting so strangely.