Clara's Mystery

Clara Johnson was adding the last advanced RFID* sticker to the last post in the room. She had finished the first three earlier and noticed that she had an audience since she got there. Max and Jeremy finished with this room a while ago. They changed all the cameras, replacing them with the new motion sensor, nocturnal, night vision security cameras with a wide range view. It was now her turn to add the finishing touches and wake up the security system.

She noticed him watching her from another desk. This man would either be the head of security or the President himself because people around her avoided him like the plague. She had not looked at him yet, so she had no face to associate him with. For now, she will call him 'Peeping Tom.'

She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of thinking that he was unnerving her. 'It doesn't matter,' she thought, 'I know what I'm doing, even with my eyes closed.' This technology, developed in their own facility and the software, engineered right in their labs, could last for years and years as long as nobody tampers with it.

Max Johnson, one of her brothers, came to San Diego to pitch their product to the Security Department and the CEO. So she never met them personally, but Max said they seemed to be very professional and knew what they wanted. Having Navio International on their list of customers could help jumpstart their business.

Navio International was renowned all over the world. They could open all the doors to the other shipping companies in the country. And hopefully to the larger companies that had been ignoring them because they were small fry.

It surprised her when the project got approved. But of course, there was a condition, they were to install their technology only on the two floors with the most foot traffic. One was the main floor, which housed the lobby, the cafeteria, the patio/break/smoking area, and some pockets where people could be alone to think or contemplate. The other floor was the one that housed the planning and logistic departments. They were in charge of all the cargo shipments coming in and out of the country. It was the bread and butter of their operation. Not that the other departments weren't as important, but these floors had the most visitors.

Their system, software, and hardware are all going to be under evaluation within the next six months before SST (Security and Software Technology) can proceed with the installation on the other ten floors of this massive building. They needed one good break to help win more future clients and ensure the stability of their company.

If they do not pass the six-month mark and evaluation from Navio, then all the cameras and any hardware they've installed will need to be removed. They would have to eat the equipment and installation cost. It wasn't a big price to pay for the next six months if they land this deal, but it would surely be expensive, tedious, and time-consuming to uninstall all that hardware. SST would have to do its best to make sure Navio does not back out of this deal.

Clara was wearing her standard installation uniform, black skinny work pants, and a white button-down shirt. Nothing fancy or showy, but her pants usually highlighted her ass, which made most men think of it as an invitation to harass her.

Aside from "Peeping Tom," she was getting annoyed by this "ogler" that was following her for the past 15 minutes. He keeps on inspecting her work, or her ass, whichever it is he fancies at the moment. She could feel the hair standing on her neck. 'What is peeping tom doing, anyway? Why is he not telling his employee to buzz off? Is he just going to let this man get away with this?' she was getting more incensed by the minute.

She pretends to stand up to stretch, to get a better look at her ogler. In case she needed to file a report later. She turns away, but he sees this as a signal. He smiles at her as he walks closer. On the other side of the room, "Peeping Tom" stands up.

'Hey sweetheart, do you want to work with us? In our company, you won't be doing all that hard work. Maybe a little bending over, but only after work,' he winks at her and laughs.

She tries to ignore him. 'He's just another prick that thinks he can talk to women this way,' she thought, 'Just don't come near me, and we will be okay. I just need to finish this room, and hopefully, we never see each other ever again.'

Everywhere around them, the women were giving him sneers and evil stares. They've been at the receiving end of his unwanted advances before, and it disgusted them he was showing his lewd behavior to a visitor. This did not escape her attention, but she knew why they couldn't say anything. His staff was made up mostly of women, probably of his own choosing. As she looked around, she could see them giving her a sympathetic look.

He touches her hair and tries to tuck a loose strand behind her ear when he finds his arm twisted behind his back. 'Agh... Agh... Agh... no need to be so rough, baby,' he hollered.

'You do not touch me, or any woman in this department ever again, or I will take out your fingers, and I bet you'd like to keep them? Am I right?' she warned into his ear.

'Yeah, yeah, yeah, let me go,' he screamed, 'I was just trying to help.'

Clara was no pushover and made sure nobody would hurt her ever again. She was trained in self-defense since she was in high school and was not afraid to unleash her might when necessary... The project may damn well go down the train if they find her at fault because of this.

"Peeping Tom", had just put down his phone when she noticed him staring at her. Clara gives him the 'What are you going to do about this?' look. But she didn't have to wait long. After a few minutes, security arrived to tell the ogler to pack up his stuff. They lead him towards the elevator. Later, she will learn that security escorted him to the Human Resource department. They let him go because of his inappropriate behavior against his staff, which had been a daily occurrence.

-=-

RFID - technical term - Radio Frequency Identification, a wireless non-contact use of radio frequency waves to transfer data.

In this story, it is part of the security system installed by the company headed by Clara, which will have a more thorough explanation in the next chapter.

'Hmph! That was impressively fast,' Clara thinks and smiles to herself. When she got a good look at him, she learned she was right. He was the President, Sebastian Colfer. And he was still staring at her, very intently and with a sinister smile on his face.

She stuck the last RFID inside the room she was working and noticed a pair of feet right in front of her. 'Here's another pervert I will need to take care of,' she thought. Looking at the man's shoe size, he was probably around 6 feet tall. It will be a bit harder to ward him off because of his height, but she knows she can easily block him off.

'What was that sticker for?' The man asks. She looks up from the floor. 'Dammit, it's the President.'

'Sir, we have explained all the installations on the docket that were handed to you this morning. We will finish the installation in two hours, and it would be better if I showed you what our technology does in your office than explain it here.' Clara stands up and looks around the room. 'I would think that you wouldn't want everybody here to know what it does, either. Am I right?' she asked with eyebrows raised. 'I know you are tech-savvy and all, but it will be worth it if you can wait until we reach your office. The visuals are very nice,' Clara explained.

'I have all the visuals I need here,' his gaze raked its way from the toes of her feet to the top of her head. 'Plus, I doubt you'd finish in 2 hours. You and your 2 guys have been here since 8 am, and for the last 2 hours, you haven't even managed to finish half of this floor. I think you should have brought in more people so you could finish faster. Are you even up to the task of providing the security equipment for our shipping company?" He mocked, trying to rile her up. He heard about her reputation for having a very short temper.

'If you hired us to do the entire building, then I would have brought in more people, but as you stipulated, you only required us to cover the two main floors. We will finish in two hours, but if you leave now, we might even finish faster,' she clenched her jaw. 'Relax, Clara! You need this project.'

Clara, Max, and Jeremy should not be here today, but their assistant mistakenly double-booked their technicians, and now they were the only ones left. They built this technology and software from scratch, and there was no doubt they could do it themselves. Plus, she was here because she enjoyed being on-site for the initial installation, anyway. The last thing she wanted to do was to get all sweaty and grimy when she had hired hands available, but since the situation called for it Clara wasn't one to back down from a challenge.

Maybe it was better they are handling this installation after all, especially if Mr. Colfer had any snarky comments about their product. Then they would be here to answer him directly. This didn't change the fact that she felt uncomfortable talking to him while currently hunched down on her knees. She was already short enough that people usually disregarded her stature in the company.

She had to bribe Max and Jeremy to come with her today. This was not how they had expected spending their Friday, but she told them that dinner was on her, at the most expensive restaurant in town, and they gladly agreed. Food always motivated these two, and she knew how to manipulate them.

They finished at 11:30 and took a much-deserved break, having forgotten how much work it took to install their systems. The good thing was that she shaved thirty minutes off of the installation time, otherwise, they might have missed the promised deadline. She had to compose herself and pretend that she enjoyed being here. Talking to people was not her cup of tea, they had Max for that. He was a genius when it came to sweet-talking their clients. But being the President meant she had to be cordial and charismatic from time to time or when the citation called for it. She preferred working with computers over people, but she was here today, as an act of solidarity.

At exactly 12 noon, they arrived in Sebastian's office. Max was showing him how to operate the cameras. One of the conference rooms was not in use, and it was the perfect place to test the night vision mode of the cameras they just installed.

Sebastian was nodding, but he didn't seem to be too interested in what Max was saying because he kept on stealing angry glances at Clara, or that was what she thought.

She could feel him throwing daggers in her direction, but she was busy ignoring him. She was biting her lower lip to prevent herself from laughing or even smiling. This whole scenario was amusing to her, and she didn't even know why. 'I guess we're going to find out soon enough. This guy is playing a game, and I'm not sure I want to be part of it,' she thought.

Shaking her head, she went back to setting up for her demonstration, half of her attention was on Max, so she wouldn't lose her cue. The advanced RFID mapping system she had set up was very impressive, and she wanted to wow him, so he wouldn't say no to signing up with them in the future.

Jeremy, having lived with Clara almost all his life, knew when she was up to something. She bit her lower lip when she was either amused or angry. And at this time, she was not frowning, so it couldn't be the latter. He was looking at this silent exchange between her and the President and was wondering what was happening.

The RFID mapping was their next line of defense in case the cameras got shut down or sabotaged. It shows an outline form of the digital maps. Not as accurate as the cameras, but still a useful tool to monitor the areas in question. This technology is not susceptible to hacking or sabotage, and the only people who had access to it were the head of security and the President of Navio.

Sebastian was impressed. The new technology SST developed was unproven, but it looked very promising. He was glad he signed up with them. Having the motion sensor control, and wide-angle lens for the cameras was a big improvement over the old security system.

He received a call from SST earlier that there was a last-minute change on the crew of people assigned to perform the installation. He didn't really care who came to do the work, as long as Clara would be there, but it was a lucky coincidence because he had all of the SST executives at his behest and ready to answer all of his questions.

Sebastian was surprised that they were doing the installation themselves. You would think that they had people for that, but it showed how knowledgeable they were about their own product, and how dedicated they were to a job done right. Clara piqued his interest, and he couldn't wait to know more about her.

'How much would it take for you to transfer to my company?' he asked after her presentation.

'Are you poaching me right now?' Clara asked, flabbergasted.

'Let me tell you, we come in a package, all three of us. So it's not going to work,' Clara added.

'Not them, just you. I will give you a top-of-the-line research facility with highly trained people at your disposal,' he challenged.

Max looks at Jeremy, waggles his eyebrows, and grins. His eyes seemed to say, 'Ooohhh.. Look at these two. Something is happening, and I cannot wait for Clara to kick his ass.'

'You can't afford me, I already own 30% of this company,' she stared at him, her jaw clenched.

'How do you think we came up with this technology? I already have that top-of-the-line research facility you are talking about. Plus, I am not for sale,' she smirked.

'Damn! This girl has the balls to call me out like this. Are you issuing me a challenge?

Who are you, Clara Johnson?' He was intrigued. He pretended to rub his lip so he could hide his smile. His plan to cajole, or confront her wasn't working, and now it was time to take the gentler route.

'My bad! I apologize for my indiscretion. I did not think you were for sale. I just wanted to see how dedicated you are to staying in San Jose. I was thinking, maybe I could entice you to move to San Diego? This city can use someone like you, and I'd rather you worked for my company than anybody else's,' he stares at her pointedly.

'Why did it feel like he was not talking about work anymore?' she shuddered and looked away. 'Still not for sale,' she adds, now pissed off more than ever, "Don't you know when to quit?" she said a little too brusquely.

Max stepped in before Clara blew the deal for them, "What Clara, Uhm... Ms. Johnson meant that she really loves our company because she helped build it from scratch. She is not thinking of going anywhere in the near future."

'Fine, fine! I'm sorry. It's just that some people just need the right price, and they're willing to do anything,' Sebastian replied.

Smoke was coming out of Clara's ears, and Jeremy knew that her temper could probably break their deal if Mr. Colfer did not stop talking soon. Jeremy squeezes Clara's hand very tightly under the table, lending her his strength and self-restraint. This was one deal they could not walk away from.

'Not Ms. Johnson. She's very loyal to SST. So, Mr. Colfer, we'll leave you to play with the new system and let us know if you think we missed anything,' Max folded his laptop, ready to head out before Clara exploded.

'Again, I apologize. Why don't we throw this conversation under the rug? I would like to invite all of you to join me for dinner to compensate for my mistake,' he said apologetically. He wanted to rile her up to pay attention to him, but he did not know she was this dedicated to her company. It was funny because he suddenly felt so attracted to her right now.

'I was thinking of bringing all of you to the "V". I'm not sure if you are familiar with that restaurant, but I heard that they have the best steak in town. I haven't been there lately, but this is a good occasion to celebrate, don't you think?' Clara still had that stony-eyed look on her face and knew that he should not have pushed her too much, 'Please say you'll come,' he invited.

'No!' she says. 'Yes!' says Max and Jeremy in unison. That was two against one. She rolls her eyes at them. Such sellouts, she thought, just because of food.

Max raises both his eyebrows at Jeremy and smiles sheepishly. Mr. Colfer was confusing him a little with his remarks, but why were they all directed at Clara? He wondered if there was something about his intentions they needed to explore further. Jeremy narrowed his eyes, as he looked at Sebastian.

She was sitting across from them on the table, and she was shaking her head and mouthing to them, 'No! We'll just go by ourselves,' she pursed her lips together and frowned.

Max pleaded with her to go, 'Please, please, please, you promised we were going to have dinner somewhere fancy.' She glared at him.

Jeremy forgot his suspicions for a moment and followed with, 'Yeah, please, please, please. Plus, weren't we....' She widens her eyes at him to shut him up. They were supposed to eat at the same restaurant before they left, and now Mr. Colfer invited himself to rain on their parade.

'Fine! We're going! Such a bunch of kids. You're getting it from me later,' she said, annoyed that they had to spend more time with Sebastian. 'Why do they have to go anyway? Who wants to have dinner with this pretentious prick? He thinks he's handsome, and he can just hit on anybody.'

'We'll meet you there at 7,' she said, looking at Sebastian and turning to walk out the door pushing Max and Jeremy out with her. 'You guys are in big trouble,' she mumbles to them.