And then they were racing to the elevator, downstairs to the first available taxi. She was desperately trying to keep up with Red, as he was in his own world now, walking at such a fast pace that she practically had to run to stay with him. He glanced at her once and asked if she was all right.
“I’m fine, please don’t worry about me today,” she said.
He nodded as if that’s what he needed to hear. And then they were in the taxi, Red speaking German, and the taxi was racing down unfamiliar streets. The landscape outside the car windows was beautiful, so different from everything Nicole was used to. She wanted to appreciate the strange architecture and the amazing buildings of Berlin, but her heart was in her throat.
She didn’t know exactly what had gone wrong this morning, but she knew it was bad, and that was enough.
They arrived at their destination, a squat white building with sloping walls that looked like a funhouse version of a “normal” building. Red kept up his fast paced walk into the offices and they arrived at the front desk, hosted by a strange looking woman with tiny glasses and a nasally, high-pitched voice.
“I’m Red Jameson, and I need to see Lucas Bauer, please.”
She spoke lightly accented English. “Yes, we’re expecting you, Mister Jameson. So lovely to have you here.”
He gave Nicole an exasperated look. “Lovely for me, also. Thank you.”
“I will let Mister Bauer know you’ve arrived.”
Red backed away from the front desk and checked the time on his phone. He shook his head.
“What’s going on?” Nicole asked.
“You don’t want to know,” he told her.
“Mister Bauer will be down in just a moment,” the birdlike woman told them.
“Can I just go up?” Red asked.
She cocked her head. “Visitors typically are met by an employee, sir.”
“I’m not a visitor, I own this company.”
She nodded. “He’ll be down in just a moment, I assure you.”
Red grit his teeth and blew air out through his nostrils. Nicole could tell he was a millimeter from blowing up. She wanted to say something to calm him, but this was now a professional, work setting, so she kept quiet.
Lucas Bauer arrived through a set of glass doors at the far end of the hall. He was tall, smiling, with a blond head of thick hair and a mustache that seemed almost fake, it was so bushy and sculpted. Like a movie mustache, Nicole thought. He greeted them with a level of politeness that also, like his mustache, seemed phony.
“So wonderful to have you here,” he told Red. “We are so pleased.”
“Great,” Red replied in a clipped voice. “Shall we?”
“Of course, right this way,” Lucas said. As they walked through the glass doors and into the offices of the ad agency, he kept up a running commentary. He explained that the architect who’d designed this building was one of the most famous German architects of the modern era, and how they’d been the top agency in the EU for nearly ten years.
Everything was white inside. The hallways, the offices. They walked through a cavernous white room that had no cubicles, just rows of tables and chairs with computers and people working away at them, reminding Nicole more of a factory than an ad agency.
Finally they arrived at a conference room.
Inside the conference room were two more employees of the company. A short, heavyset woman that reminded Nicole of a bulldog. Her name was Helga, which Nicole thought appropriate. She looked exactly like Nicole pictured a German woman named Helga should look. And then there was a young, dashing brown haired man named Alric.
Everyone exchanged greetings and handed their business cards out to one another (although Nicole had no card so she just shook hands).
“We have coffee and scones,” Lucas said, gesturing to the trays at the back of the conference room. Nicole and Red made themselves coffee. He gave her a quick smile but she could tell he was very preoccupied.
Nicole grabbed herself a scone, too, and then she and Red took seats next to one another at the large table occupying the center of the room.
The German employees sat down and Lucas took over the meeting. “Once again, we thank Red Jameson for coming all the way to Berlin on short notice.” He nodded and smiled at Red. “The circumstances are a bit difficult at the moment, but we are determined to come out stronger and better than ever.”
Red stared at him, and slowly Lucas’s smile faded.
“I heard through my CFO that you’ve had five executives leave the company since Jameson international acquired you.”
“And a sixth today,” Alric said.
“Who?”
“One of our art directors,” Lucas chimed in. “It’s a big problem. We can’t compete with the salary that Kane Wright is offering our people.”
“Kane Wright?” Red said, and if his gaze had been intense before, Nicole thought, it was now burning with the brightness of a thousand suns. The German ad agency executives wilted beneath his glare.
“I thought you’d been told,” Lucas peeped.