Prologue

‘Langman!’ Jane Greer yelled in her usual high pitched tone.

‘Yes, boss.’ Langman was a tired twenty eight year old man. He was tall and normal sized for a man his age but his face looked like that of a middle aged man. This was partly due to the fact that he had the boss from hell.

‘How is the Bridge project coming?’

Langman paused. Bridge project? He didn’t even recall that ever being on his agenda.

‘Erm…’ he begun cautiously. ‘I’ve been working on the Clause project of recent because Christmas is coming soon, so I thought…’

‘You thought?’ Jane’s hawk-like eyes narrowed. ‘Langman…I try to put in good words for you with Mr. Schmidt but at this rate you are really leaving me with no choice…many people would kill literally kill, for your job.’

‘I know, boss…’

‘You are lazy and you never do your work. How did you ever get hired into M&Z’s? Who is the fool who hired you? Tell me.’

Langman’s mouth fell open. He really thought he was doing his best. Why wasn’t this just coming across the way he felt?

Jane crossed her hands and stared intently at Langman, as if she had reached wit’s end with him.

‘What am I going to do with you?’ she said after a while. Langman watched her face drain from exhaustion and her eyes closed slowly. She was really exasperated with him.

He wringled his hands nervously.

‘If I may, boss…ma’am…’ he added as an afterthought. ‘May I have another chance? Just to prove myself. I am sure I can do this.’

Jane whined. ‘How many other chances do you need? I’d say you were a bloody cat with nine lives but even you have surpassed that amount of chances Langman.’ She groaned then. ‘What have I done to deserve such a P.A? All the other directors don’t work as hard as me and they get P.As who are reliable and smart.’

‘I can do this!’ Langman tried not to yell. He needed this job really badly. Recently, he’d begun thinking of settling down because his girlfriend of five years had fallen pregnant. It wasn’t something he’d seen coming at all. They’d had a romantic dinner to celebrate their fifth anniversary and things had gotten a little out of control.

Langman had forgotten to use protection and Shirley, his girlfriend, wasn’t on the pill because she’d always trusted Langman to be the responsible one.

Everyone wanted him to be the responsible one.

All the responsibility was beginning to hurt.

‘Fine. You’ve come across feisty and strong. That’s what I’m looking for in a P.A. I’m also looking for someone who isn’t an idiot. Mind you, Langman, I have tons of applications flooding in the post. If you let me down one more time, I’ll make sure it’s the last time.’ She warned.

Langman nodded and started arranging his table quickly, sorting out files under alphabetic headings while Jane looked on in mild but irritated amusement.

‘What are you doing, Langman?’ she asked quietly.

Langman stopped for a bit. ‘Erm…’

‘Are you trying to get sacked sooner rather than later? Damn it, you give me a bloody headache every single day! Look, I’m going to be looking at new P.As to replace you. If you do this job well…I may reconsider and retain you…but I guess that’s too much to hope for.’

‘I won’t let you down ma’am.’

‘Shut up, Langman. Let me finish. Schmidt has this new project in London. He’s recruiting different pop star wannabes from around the world and he’s going to make them superstars. Now Langman…’ she dropped her voice a notch. ‘This is top secret. Hell, I don’t know why I’m putting this in your care but I figured how much more can you screw things, eh? The press is not to be aware of this. No one should! If this works out, Schmidt can get more than half a billion bucks under his belt from being their manager.’ She slid him a brown envelope marked CONFIDENTIAL.

Langman thought a bit. He still didn’t know where he fit into this.

‘I completely understand, ma’am. What would you have me do?’ that seemed like a safe way to voice his uncertainty.

Jane just stared at him. ‘Really, Langman? Really? Do I look like your lecturer? Get your things ready for London in a fortnight.’ with that she walked out.

Langman looked from the envelope to Jane Greer frantically. He couldn’t leave for London now. Shirley was already 7 months along and she needed his support. Jane Greer would have his head for dinner if he didn’t go.

He rubbed his head and felt it throb uncontrollably.

The worry lines on his forehead deepened.