She approached the CX series assembly line, in the powered testing area, where four drones were connected to automated testing panels. She couldn't tell whether they were the same four as earlier or different ones. She was relieved to see that the drones were still powered up, testing panels flashing various colored LEDs. Their cameras were whirring and rotating while acquiring images of their surroundings.
She went to the first drone in the series of four, right about where she had stood earlier in the day, when the drone had locked its targeting system on her. This one's sensor array cameras whirred and buzzed for a few seconds. She moved around, and the main camera, trained on her, followed her every move. Then the targeting module, visible in the hoodless drone, locked on, beeped once, and a green LED lit up.
Alex was certain of one thing: this drone's targeting module recognized her as a target, and it locked on her immediately, preparing for an attack. If this would have happened anywhere else other than a testing environment, and the drone would have been flying above, carrying live ammo and not requiring human validation for each launch, she would have been dead.
"Hmm…" she muttered, considering the situations that would make this scenario even remotely plausible. She moved on to the next drone, down the conveyor belt, to see if this manifestation was an isolated occurrence, tied exclusively to a single particular drone. UAV number two trained its cameras on her, and within seconds, a beep and a green light confirmed this was not an isolated occurrence.
She repeated the almost dance-like approach to the third drone, which, without any delay, also locked on her. "Strange," she said to herself in a soft voice, "and creepy. Way creepy…" She approached, getting closer to the drone, and leaned over it to reach its modules, trying to see if any of the modules made a good candidate for a self-guidance module. There was a large, gray box installed amid the drone's modules, almost as large as the satellite dish installed next to it. She checked the gray box for connectivity, just as Josh had suggested, and found the self-guidance module. She leaned in a bit more, to figure out how she could remove the module without breaking it in the process.
"And what exactly are you doing here?" A woman's voice, coming from behind her, startled Alex. She jumped away from the drone, turning to see whom that voice belonged to. Recognizing the face, she couldn't contain her surprise. What the hell was Audrey Kramer doing there? Alex never thought she'd run into the CFO so far away from the traditional playing ground of all accounting and finance professionals — the corporate office.
"I am touring the plant," she said, innocently. "I was invited to visit, explore, and learn about the company's product."
"That was two days ago," Kramer said. "Try again." Her eyes were cold as ice.
Oh, shit, she's on to me, Alex thought. "I had no idea I was not allowed to come back. I was actually told that I am welcome here anytime. If I was wrong, please accept my apologies," Alex said in a heartbeat, hoping that would work.
"You're a piece of work, you know that, right? Always snooping around where you don't belong. Come on, you and I are going for a walk," Kramer said, in a voice that did not allow further debate.
"Um, actually, I have to run now," Alex said, "can we do this some other time, maybe tomorrow morning?"
Kramer pulled a gun from her pocket and removed its safety. She didn't speak one word.
"Guess not," Alex said, in a faint voice, turning pale. I am so screwed, she thought. No way can I fight her, not while she's got a fucking gun. "OK, I'm coming, if you insist."
"Smart lady, you figured it out," Kramer snarled. "We'll take your car. Move it!"
Alex started walking toward the side exit, the nearest one to her car, painfully aware of the gun barrel pressed against her ribs. They didn't run into anyone on the way; probably most employees were on their way home already.
Numerous questions whirled in her mind. Why Kramer? What was her motivation? Pulling a gun? Really? And how did Kramer know she was here, at the plant? She would have expected Walker, or even Sheppard, but she didn't see Kramer doing this, not in a million years. The absent-minded, always-tired Kramer, with her benign, non-threatening, almost deferential attitude during meetings.
"I am sorry I upset you so much by being here," Alex said, "I could leave immediately and never come back."
"Oh, you won't be coming back, don't worry," Kramer said, coldly, "I'll make sure of that."
"But why?" Alex said, suddenly changing strategies and starting to sob. "Why pull a gun on me? What have I ever done to you? I am so scared!" She was getting into the skin of the character she was trying to impersonate, to get Kramer to open up. The crying, scared, fragile girl she was playing was totally incompatible with someone digging through the insides of a drone on an assembly line. Nevertheless, she was hoping she'd get Kramer to feel overconfident and make a mistake. If this works, Alex thought, I am going straight to Hollywood from here.
"What have you done to me?" Kramer repeated. "Are you serious? You conniving, sniveling little bitch!"
Alex sobbed a bit louder, as if hurt by Kramer's comment. "But why? What have I done?"
"You nose around into a lot of things above your pay grade, instead of doing your job, keeping that infrastructure department running, and minding your own goddamn business. But no, you have to look into stuff that doesn't concern you, and then prowl for more. I have millions of dollars buried in this project," Kramer said, punctuating the words with a thrust of her gun in Alex's back. "Millions! And I don't have any other millions left, in case you screw all this up for me. Move," Kramer said, pushing Alex through the side door of the plant.
They were outside. Alex's car was quite far out in the parking lot. A couple of minutes of walk time, not more.
"Where's your car?" Kramer asked.
"There," Alex said, pointing in the direction of her 4Runner. "What millions? I don't understand," she continued, in a submissive, almost whimpering voice. The unlikely strategy was working; Kramer was starting to talk.
"When Barnaby retires and sells his shares, where do you think that will leave me? Huh?" Kramer's voice was filled with anger. "At the mercy of some venture capitalist or another, poking and probing into everything I have done in my career. Then they'd fire me just to get someone younger and cheaper in my place. Can't let that happen, I just can't — not to me, not to any of us. We're all in the same jam, you know," Kramer said, looking tired again.
"Who?" Alex dared to interrupt. "I still don't get it—"
"Walker, Prescott, Sheppard… all of us. Only Griffiths doesn't give a fucking shit. That asshole was born rich; he doesn't care about anything. He can afford not to care."
"I still can't understand how I upset you," Alex said, maintaining the same non-aggressive attitude toward Kramer.
"You're a stupid, ignorant troublemaker, who thinks she knows it all. You ask all the wrong questions, stir up trouble, and draw attention. This attitude makes more people ask questions. For years, I've been preparing for this… I've increased our expenses and kept the stock price under control, so when the fossil finally retires we can buy him out."
"Increased expenses? But everyone in the company is cutting costs like crazy," Alex said, not having to simulate confusion. What was Kramer talking about?
"See? See how you just can't help asking the wrong questions? You're such an idiot," Kramer said. "We're cutting costs, so that when we take over, we'll show an immediate increase in profitability. This will cause the market to react and increase the value of our stock. On paper though, for right now, we can't show too profitable, because that would raise the price of the stock before we get to buy it, and we won't be able to gain control of the company. We actually need the stock price to be quite low, to force that idiot Barnaby to sell more of it, to ensure we have enough liquidity to buy it all. We need the money to buy the stock… what did you think? That if I were rich, I would put up with any of this crap?"