Risk

Chapter LXVI

Office Politics

After Carly gets her password to the computers she enters her CD-Rom but secures access to it to only her and Nikolas. The reports generated from the Risk-Deception game would go to all of the management team but Laura didn't need to know the way she was thinking. The map is world wide with all the resources of Deception outlined on it but it also lists all the major markets in North America where Deceptions focus had been so far. Inbetween trying to get ideas for future campaigns down on paper, since meeting up with Nikolas in Milan and forging their deal, Carly has been trying to identify the scents in competition with Deception.
Interesting that Nikolas had been focused on the midwest, but Carly doesn't see how they are going to break the strangle hold Jabot has on the midwest at least not right away. The most they could hope for there was a niche market. But Jabot was making the same mistake the other perfume companies were making, going whiter than wonder bread. She'd read all the demographics and there is an increasing share in the urban markets where the only place for wonderbread is on a PB&J. The same dated marketing strategy that would have Elizabitch Webber as their spokes model.
The latest version of Risk-Deception had all the other perfume companies as the different players on the North American map based on their sales figures. There were some companies that were just too huge for them to be even playing on the same field but Carly has them on the map anyway. There is no crime in thinking big. But first up after taking back Deception (check) is going after Enchantment. Hence Elton's recon trip to Pine Valley. Now she just had to sell Nikolas on the idea. What ever Elton came up with would help in the sale.
Still stewing on that since marketing hadn't been her focus in the last months, Carly unzips her brand new black leather portfolio embossed with her initials that she'd received just that morning once Kris and Michael returned from shopping. She takes out the sketches she'd made for the next shoot and starts tacking them to the far walls of the room so she can step back and look at them. The sketches are rough. The guys down in the art department could do it better but it's a starting place.
Thats where Nik finds her. Staring at the walls totally still. He wasn't surprised to see his office looking like a hurricane hit it. He'd already made the mental adjustment to do most of his work in the mornings before Carly came in. It would be about the only way they'd ever be able to share. That and getting an agreement from her to clean up her mess before she left at night whatever time that was. He grins and shakes his head and talk about taking the war to the office. Carly is dressed in a black business suit, with her hair french braided back. If there was a way of screaming Cassadine at a glance Carly had found it. He watches as Carly sheds her jacket and beneath it is a bright red silk top that compliments her frame. okay Cassadine with a Spencer twist. Since it's his office, he doesn't knock but walks in to stand next to her. "You've been busy."

Carly frowns still staring at the wall and answers absently. "Yeah, but focusing on the midwest is a mistake."

Nik groans. "It starts already."

"We're not marketing something that is going to be bought by some dairy farmer. Well at least not for every day use... some farmer's wife might pick it up to celebrate her wedding anniversary or something. But not the repeat customer, signature scent customer we want. Signature scent in the midwest is cow dung."

"Carly, that is a stereotype. There are plenty of population centers in the midwest... people population centers: Chicago, St Louis, Minneapolis." Nikolas protests.

"Jabot has them locked." Carly dismisses.

"Jabot is marketed all wrong for urban areas. People are buying it out of habit. Because it was the only game in town."

Carly turns to Nikolas and grins. "Something we agree on."

Nik groans. "Where you were leading me you mean."

"Let me show you what I have been working on." Carly goes over to the desk and calls up a screen. "You seem to do just fine with these." She lifts up the huge marketing reports. Heaving and grunting as she does so for dramatic effect. "But I hate spread sheets. Thanks for the highlighter though, saved me a lot of time." She drops the reports satisfied with the deep thump they made as the hit the desk from height. "I like looking at the big picture at a glance." She switches the computer to the North American map. "Check this out." Nik takes the seat and Carly leans over the back of it.

Nik is already familiar with the model and the way Carly thinks thanks to playing Risk with Michael that weekend. Taking in the map at a glance, he takes the mouse from Carly and clicks on one of the armies. All the information for Enchantment pops up. "Why do I feel like this is where you're heading?"

"Cause you know it's the next step. But we need more information. Hey if you want the midwest..." Carly shrugs. "I can work on that too."

"Inbetween doing the updating for my father, taking on Enchantment you'll get up to speed on the midwest. Right." Nik snorts.

"Yeah, it would be too big for one person... that's why you're going to do part of it. I didn't say I was going to do it. I said I'd work on it." Carly starts searching thru the papers on the desk top. "Didn't I see something in here about you wanting personal appearances for Gia in the midwest, populations over 100,000?"

"It's there." Nik stays her hands before she can make more of a mess. "Elton is working on the appropriate schedule."

Carly winces. "Well Elton is going to be out of town for the next few days, maybe a week."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I gave him the time off to get over the wedding."

"Carly."

"And it gets him out of any crossfire."

"Carly."

"Tell you what. I'll go down to promotions and give them a list of specifics on what you want. Elton shouldn't have been worrying about the groundwork anyway. Back in ten... maybe twenty." Carly leaves abruptly.

"She's up to something." Nikolas mutters. "What am I saying. She's breathing-- of course she is up to something." Just then a phone call comes thru. "Nikolas Cassadine. Irregularities? What do you mean? Irregularities? I'll be right down." Nik blanks the computer screen and goes out to Reception. "Elton, Carly is down in promotions. I'm going down to accounting."

"Stavros, I'm bored." Michael looks up from his computer to where Stavros is sitting behind his. Kris is reviewing a print out of one of Michael's journal entries.

"How could you be bored? We just got here." Stavros replies.

Michael looks out the window and sighs. Then sighs again.

Kris shakes his head and his face is seriously grim. "I believe that Michael is coming down with an ailment."

"Oh?" Stavros looks at Kris. "Do you think it serious?"

"Very."

"I'm okay." Michael looks from one man to the other. "I'm not sick or nothing."

"Anything." Stavros corrects Michael before asking Kris. "If you have diagnosed an ailment then you must surely have an idea of the cure?"

"There is only one thing to do... only one cure for the dreaded spring fever."

Michael's eyes go wide. "What's that?" He asks with baited breath.

"Field trip."

"YEAH!!!" Michael leaps to his feet and grabs his coat and the guys'. Hauling them all over to the table, he throws their coats at them and shrugs into his own. "Lets go."

"I haven't said where or what."

"Is it outside?" Michael asks. Kris nods. "Then lets go"

"What will we be seeking?" Stavros asks willing to play along. He rises to his feet and puts on his jacket.

Kris thinks about it for a moment. "Evidence of spring." He hands Michael the digital camera. "Think about it for a moment. Do you understand what you are trying to prove?"

Michael nods seriously. His eyes glow at the challenge, this was way better than sitting in front of a stupid computer. "I can do it."

Stavros looks at the cell phone and completes the function to forward the phones... to Carly. "I am ready."

Monica scrubs furiously at her hands. She is always thorough but today she is rubbing them to the point of raw. Bobbie comes into the scrub room from the OR. Everything is prepped there. The patient is there and had fallen out at about 88 in the backward countdown. When he wakes he'll have a nice new triple bypass to go with the matching diet the nutritianist would be recommending to avoid future cardiac surgery. "Mr Walker is prepped and ready." Bobbie tells Monica before going over to grab one of the protective gowns to put over Monica's scrubs and ties them up for her and then assists her in gloving up.

"She's not going to get away with it." Monica snarls at Bobbie as the last glove is put on.

"What are you talking about?"

"Your daughter may think she's finally slept her way to the top. But all that proves is what a slut she is, and what a lousy parent. She isn't going to keep AJ from seeing his son! From gaining custody! Full Custody!"

"What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Don't play stupid, Bobbie. You know all about the little meeting Stavros called yesterday threatening the whole family with dismantling ELQ if AJ didn't play along."

Bobbie puts together all the clues from the weekend. Michael's comment while playing risk. Carly showing up because Stavros had business and winces. "I didn't know about any meeting, Monica." Bobbie shakes her head denying that part of the accusation.

"I don't want you in my OR. I don't want you on my team. I don't want you anywhere near me. Like Daughter like Mother. Isn't that what Carly is doing... pulling another page out of your book? Not happy with the father of your child so you go running off to a Cassadine?!"

Bobbie recoils. She sees the end of a decades long friendship right there. She keeps her voice cool and professional but damnit this hurts. "Of course, Dr Quartermaine. I will make sure the schedule reflects your wishes. Fact, I'll take care of it right now." Bobbie reaches up and takes off her cap freeing her hair. Then she turns and walks out of the OR and back to the nurses dressing room where she dresses in her covering for Audrey management suit. Her face is pale and her jaw tight as she walks out to the nursing station where the schedules are kept. She picks the best possible replacement for the surgical team and then schedules herself as far away from Monica as she can.

"What do you mean there is $30,000 missing?!" Nik demands of the accountants, both Deceptions and the hired guns that he'd brought in.

"Well it's not exactly missing... it's unaccounted for." The Auditor replies.

"That was less than helpful." Nik says coolly. "I want answers. Now."

"There is a certain amount of money that is set aside for building upkeep every year for the whole entire year." The Auditor flips to the relevent portion of the company budget, showing it to Nikolas. "All of it was pulled out the first week the previous owners took control."

The head of the department says unhappily but quick to correct. "The current owners. Both of them are/were major shareholders: your mother and Mrs Corinthos. And I have receipts."

"The receipts only account for 5,000 dollars." The auditor snaps at the accountant. The guy had been an obstructionist from day one.

"So it's not $30 grand." The accountant snaps back. "I have the receipts."

"Let me see the receipts." Nikolas demands.

"Of course, sir, but I really think that I should discuss this with Mrs Spencer."

Nik's face gets grimmer at the mention of his mother's name. He turns to the auditor. "Get me the receipts... and the cancelled checks. There are cancelled checks correct?" The auditor hands them over. "I'll handle it from here. We will not speak of this again. Thank you for your time and discretion. Please send your bill to me directly." Nik dismisses the auditors. After they nod and leave he turns back to the accountant. "You do understand that there has been a two signature rule applied to all Deception accounts."

"Yes sir. From the day you came on board." The accountant nods.

Nik glances at the cancelled checks all of them signed apparently by his mother. "And I understand that there is/was no reason for you to question these expenditures at the time."

"It's not my place to question Mrs Spencer. I'm sure she has the receipts up in her office."

"I'll handle it from here." Nik repeats. "In the future, if $25,000 leaves this office without two signatures on it we will have a problem, no, you will have a problem. Is that clear?"

"Of course, sir." The accountant agrees in a hurry glad he is wearing a suit jacket to cover the sweat stains under his arms and down the middle of his back.

Nik leaves to go up to the management floor. I'm sure Laura has the receipts. He tells himself but he is already getting a knot in the pit of his stomach. He had a sinking suspicion where that money had gone and it wasn't into new chairs in the company cafeteria. He knows Carly had complained about the way Laura had decorated her office and then stuck Carly in a refurbished broom closet. Exaggeration but not by much.
What Carly probably didn't know since she and Laura didn't get along was that Laura had redecorated her house about the same time as she'd done the office. And from the looks of them both by the same designer. "Damnit, Laura." Nik snarls. Changing his mind, about going to the management floor until he could formulate a plan. Nik punches the floor for the art department where Lucky kept a dark room.

Michael lays on his stomach in the middle of the park. He's zoomed in as much as he can with the digital camera to get the picture he wants. In the midst of the matted down dead grass revealed by the melted snow is the picture he wants. Tiny little green shoots coming out of the earth. He'd already gotten pictures of the little yellow flowers. Crocus was what Kris called them. And the picture of the bird with a piece of twig in it's beak... building a nest was a spring thing right?

"Michael, you are getting filthy. Despite the warm weather the ground is still too cold to be laying on." Stavros comments from behind Michael.

"Gimme a second." Michael squints thru the view finder. There is a tiny water droplet on one of the new blades of grass. He holds very still even holding his breath and then clicks for the picture. Once done he hops to his feet. "Look." He holds the camera up to Stavros.

Stavros takes the camera and with the magic of the digital age doesn't have to wait for negatives and prints to see Michael's handiwork. He hands the camera back to Michael. "Next time we will bring a tarp so you won't risk a chill. What are you going to take a picture of next?"

Michael looks around the park. "That." He snatches the camera from Stavros and goes racing toward some of the trees.

Kris comes up to stand beside Stavros both of them keeping a close eye on the boy. Stavros keeps his voice low and his eye on Michael. "Michael needs a better camera. His vision surpasses his tools."

"He's got his mother's eye for color." Kris nods. "I can take care of the camera or the art supplies but you need to get a specialist in for lessons to really explore Michael's talent."

"I'll speak to his mother. She is more familiar with the town's resources."

The phone in Carly and Nikolas office rings. "This is Carly."

"um... Mrs Corinthos there is a call for you but the person wants to talk to Stavros Cassadine... they were really... testy. What do you want me to do?"

Carly sighs. "Kill him."

"Excuse me?" Elton squeeks.

"Stavros fowarded his phone to me." Carly sighs again. "So much for holding my calls so I could get some work done. He's probably out having fun with Michael and doesn't want to be disturbed. I'm going to kill him. The least he could have done was warn me. Fine. Fine put it thru." Elton hangs up the phone and Stavros' call is on the other end of the line. "Stavros Cassadines private line." Carly listens for a moment and then goes over to the computer and opens up the word pad. She types some notes about the call. "The Prince is occupied with something important. He'll get back to you at his convenience. Email him your recommendation." Carly hangs up the phone. Then she growls.

Half an hour later, Nikolas walks to the open door and knocks on it before entering. "Back from promotions?"

"Yeah, long time." Carly looks over at him. "Where have you been?"

"Hiding in the dark room with Lucky."

"Smart guy. How big is it again?" Carly snorts and then the phone rings. She glares at it. "I hate your father." Then picks up the phone and snarls. "Carly Corinthos." She starts typing notes again. "The Prince is occupied with something important. He'll get back to you at his convenience. Email him your recommendations." She says by rote. The person on the other side of the line starts screaming at her. "You just shut the hell up! You take that kind of tone with me... wait a sec. Just wait a sec... tell me do you have a window in your office?" Carly says in a sweet reasonable tone. "Why? Cause you seem to need some fresh air. So why don't you just step over to the window, open it, take two deep breaths... AND JUMP!" Carly hangs up the phone. "Damn Attorneys."

"I thought my father had the cell phone."

"Some nimrod taught him how to forward the phones. Why he can't just turn the damn thing off and let the voice mail pick up..."

"Some nimrod?" Nikolas starts grinning but then covers his mouth with his hand. When he takes the hand away the grin is gone and his face is studiously serious. "Carly, did you teach my father how to forward the phones?"

"He asked. It was a moment of weaknesses and extreme stupidity for which I'm paying."

"Get up."

"What."

"Get up. I'll take the phones."

Carly leans back in the chair. "You're feeling guilty about something."

"Do you want to answer the phones?"

"On no. It's all yours." Carly jumps out of the chair and with a flourish offers it to Nikolas. Then she leans over the desk. "But I'll find out what you're feeling guilty about anyway. Trust me." Carly blows him a kiss and then drags her stuff from promos over to the couch where she curls up and starts working.

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