Chapter 2 II

"That is not my terminology. Everyone else refers to him as such. I simply refer to him as the boss."

The helicopter descended abruptly as he manipulated the controls.

Elsa briefly shut her eyes to prevent herself from feeling nauseous or losing her nerve - she had never been good with roller coasters. "I am certain Mr. Walsh is a reasonable individual."

"Are you?" He concentrated on something far beneath them. "Evidently, you have yet to meet him. Prepare yourself! We are descending."

"Are we descending?" Elsa inquired, startled, with her concerns about sickness and Kyle Walsh's potential danger momentarily overshadowing the disconcerting statement. "Do you mean we are crashing or landing?"

However, the pilot remained silent. As he tinkered with the controls, he narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw. For a moment, it seemed like they were headed straight for the trees, but at the last second, a small landing pad came into sight, and he deftly maneuvered the aircraft, landing it like a colossal insect in a space that seemed impossibly tight between the trees.

"Oh, not crashing," Elsa breathed a sigh of relief, her smile unsteady. "I had a vision of bloodshed."

"If you encounter Walsh, there will be bloodshed." The pilot flipped a switch in front of him. "Even fully grown men have wept after spending five minutes with him. Take my advice and hold your ground. Cowards are the boss's greatest pet peeve, without question. Miss Smith, welcome to the Celtic rainforest, one of the smallest and most endangered ecosystems on our planet."

"Are you abandoning me here, in the middle of nowhere?" Elsa spun around to examine the window and saw the lodge for the first time. It was a building constructed of smooth, weathered wood and glass domes that blended flawlessly into the forest, giving it the appearance of a natural outgrowth. "Oh." She gazed at the elevated walkways that meandered high above the forest floor. "It is awe-inspiring. Unbelievable."

The pilot chuckled to himself. "Walsh is an angel." He wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead with his hand, still chuckling. "Just step out and keep your head down until you are clear of the blades. I am departing for Galway to collect a package before returning to Cork."

Elsa sat firmly in her seat, unwilling to relinquish her final connection to civilization. "Are you planning on waiting? He explicitly told me that I would only have a ten-minute meeting with him." she asked, with a sense of urgency in her voice.

Though it seemed absurd that she had traveled such a long distance for such a short meeting, she had no other choice. Giving up was not an option, and Elsa knew that ten minutes would never be enough time to extricate herself from the hole she had fallen into. Therefore, her only hope was that the person she was waiting for would agree to give her more time.

"I'll come back and collect you if you're still breathing when he's done. But regardless of what you do, stay on the path and take the left walkway. This isn't a theme park; it's the jungle. Keep an eye out for the wildlife," he warned, his tone grave.

"Wildlife?" Elsa had been too focused on the meeting to consider the animals that could be lurking in the dense forest that surrounded her. She looked around dubiously, noting that some areas were shaded while others were bathed in sunlight that filtered through the thick canopy of trees. Was everything moving, or was it just her imagination?

"You mean insects?" she asked tentatively, hoping that the answer would be in the affirmative.

The man's smile was wicked, and Elsa felt a knot form in her stomach. "According to the latest estimates, there are over 2,000 different species. And those are just the ones we know about."

Elsa smoothed down her skirt and wished she had worn pants. She tried not to think about all the legs scurrying towards her. "What about snakes?" she asked, a tremble in her voice.

The man's grin widened, and he pointed to her woefully inadequate shoes. "Oh, yes, there are snakes. And then there are the giant anteaters, jaguars, and the-" he trailed off, leaving the rest unsaid.

"Okay, I think I've heard enough," Elsa interrupted him, her voice shaking. She clung to the man's arm and wondered if she should beg him to fly her back home. "If it's that dangerous, why does Mr. Walsh live here?" she asked, hoping for a logical explanation.

The pilot laughed and rolled his eyes. "You're completely clueless about him, aren't you? He lives here because it's dangerous. He has a low tolerance for boredom and likes to live life on the edge," he explained, his tone amused.

"Doll child?" Elsa was irritated by his careless reduction of her to nothing, but she managed to forget her nerves. She had been undervalued and treated poorly her whole life. People had misjudged and dismissed her, but she had disproved them time and again. She had fought hard to get where she was and was in danger of losing everything she had worked for.

But Elsa refused to let that happen. She was going to win this fight, the most significant one of her life. She couldn't lose, and she needed to forget that she was probably the worst person to be talking numbers with the Irish billionaire with the computer brain. She had to forget everything except for the consequences of losing and the people who depended on her. If she failed, they would lose their jobs.

With a deep breath, Elsa stood up and prepared herself for what was to come.