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“We’d invite all our major customers and anyone else who’s interested, show off our products, have a few educational seminars and some big rah-rah speeches from the executives. The idea is to let everyone see what’s going on with the company and maybe hammer in a few marketing messages cleverly disguised as education along the way.”
“Do we want to let everyone know what we’re doing?” protested the head of Verification, Gregor. He’d very briefly been my boss, and he was a real ogre. By that I mean he was really, truly, literally an ogre when he got angry—horns, fangs, and all. “We don’t want to show our hand to the competition.”
“But we do want to show our customers what we’re doing,” I pointed out. “That’s the general idea, to give them more confidence in us.”
The gnome who headed the accounting department conjured up an abacus and began clicking beads. “It would be expensive, and our revenue is significantly down. Do we want to throw money at something like this?”
“It’s worth considering,” Ramsay said. “If you don’t spend the money now, you may be even more behind later, and unless you’ve really been squandering cash since I’ve been away, you should still have hefty reserves.” I noticed that Gregor and several other people around the table relaxed at Ramsay’s endorsement.
“I think it’s an excellent idea, Miss Chandler,” Merlin said. “I’d like to see a plan for that, along with some budget figures and a proposed schedule. We should stage this event as soon as possible—at Midsummer, perhaps?”
I took a sip of coffee to stave off a coughing fit. It was early May, which meant Midsummer—if he was actually talking about the first day of summer the way it was referred to in the magical world—was less than two months away. We’d spent most of the year planning my old company’s customer conference and had a whole staff devoted to it. “Let me see what I can come up with,” I said when I was sure I could talk without gasping. On the upside, we did have magic to work with.
Merlin adjourned the meeting. People rose to leave, but Merlin motioned me to stay seated. Owen gave me a slight wave and a nod as he left, and Rod Gwaltney, director of Personnel and Owen’s best friend, shot me a grin along with a thumbs-up. Once everyone was gone, Merlin said, “Now, about your new position.”
Finally, a chance to clear things up. “What new position?”
He frowned, then said, “Oh, I suppose you didn’t get the news yet.”
“Apparently not. I only just got in the door before the meeting started.”
“Dear me, you must have been confused,” he said with a rumbling chuckle. “You’re our new director of marketing. That will be your full-time responsibility. The job is too big to be done on the side. You’ll be reporting to Mr. Hartwell in Sales, and you’ll have an office there. Of course, there will also be a commensurate salary increase.” He named a figure that I’m sure made my eyeballs pop out. It was a real, professional salary, nearly twice what I’d been making before joining MSI.
“Thank you, sir,” I said, trying not to show my shock. “I’ll do my best.”
He stood and ushered me toward the door. “I have every confidence in you.”
Mr. Hartwell was waiting for me in the hallway. “I’ll walk you to your new office,” he said. “I’m looking forward to having you in our department.”
The sales department was pretty much what I remembered from my first day at MSI. Compared to the executive suite, it was noisy and chaotic, with voices coming out of all the individual offices up and down the main hallway. Most of them appeared to be talking on the phone or into the crystal ball communicator devices the magical world used in addition to phones. Mr. Hartwell walked me all the way down the hall, almost to where his office was, before opening a door for me. There was a small outer office with a secretary’s desk and a door leading into an inner private office. Considering that I’d spent my last few months in a broom-closet-sized office behind the counter at a farm-and-ranch-supply store, this would be like going to work in the Taj Mahal.
“Here you go,” Mr. Hartwell said. “I’ll leave you to it. Let’s meet this afternoon to talk about your customer conference idea. Say, three?” He was gone before I could respond, but I didn’t have anything on my calendar to conflict with the meeting, unless there was something else they’d neglected to tell me about my new job.
My pulse quickened as I stepped across the threshold into my own office. I had moved up in the world in a big way. But my executive chair was already occupied by a redheaded elf woman. Her long legs were stretched out and propped on the desk, and her fingers laced behind her neck. She was staring into space, her eyes unfocused.
Apparently, I had the wrong office, which wasn’t the most auspicious start to my new job. I turned to sneak out and find Mr. Hartwell, but before I made it out the door there was a high-pitched squeak behind me.
Chapter Two
I whirled to see the woman sitting bolt upright in the desk chair, one hand covering her open mouth, her eyes wide with horror. “Oops,” she said. Then she jumped out of the chair and faced me. She was built like a teenage model, half a foot taller than I was and with legs that seemed to go up to her pointed ears. “You must be Miss Chandler. I’m your assistant, Perdita. Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to invade your space or anything, but I wanted somewhere quiet to think and you weren’t here and I didn’t know when you’d be here, so I didn’t think you’d mind.”
It took a second or two for my ears and brain to catch up with the rapid-fire flow of words. When I was sure I had everything straight in my head, I said, “Hi—Perdita, was it?”
She nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, Miss Chandler.”
“You can call me Katie, please.”
She nodded again. “Okay, Miss—I mean, Katie.” Her mouth then moved silently, as though she was repeating my name several times to herself. “Is there anything I can do for you or get for you, Miss—Katie?”
“Not right now, thanks. I just want to get settled in.”
“Okay, let me know if you need anything. I’ll be right outside. And I don’t mind if you want to shout through the doorway. Or you could call me. My extension’s on the list beside the phone. I made a list of important numbers for you.”
“Thank you, I’m sure that will be very helpful.”
“And your computer’s already set up. The computer guy said it was your same e-mail address and password and everything.”
“Good. Thanks for letting me know.”
