Phoenix Imagining (Phoenix Prime Collection Book 1) Read online

  Dell laughed as he grabbed his briefcase and headed out through the door, on his way to his first meeting. Today was going to be a good day, he could feel it.

  His feeling of triumph carried him on his journey down the elevator and onto the lobby floor. Totally ignoring the greetings from the woman standing at the desk, Dell marched out to the front of the hotel into the swirling traffic of a busy city. Paying no attention to those around him, the businessman marched determinedly through the crowd, not even noticing when he knocked someone down.

  He could feel the weight of people’s gaze on them and thought of how they must be admiring him. After all, he was handsome, well-dressed, and obviously wealthy. I bet all of the men here and half the women want to be me. The other half of the women probably want to be with me. Once again, Dell laughed, and the sound of his amusement cleared the area around him.

  <<<>>>

  Feeling triumphant at the end of the day, Dell had returned to the hotel. Snubbing the hotel’s personnel, refusing to even acknowledge their pleasant good evenings, he had returned to his room very quickly. As expected, his assistant was waiting for him there. As he was brought up to date on the activities of his other ventures for the day, Dell filled Mark’s unwilling ears with a summary of his triumphs. “They will have no recourse but to take me up on the offer. No one else is going to offer them anywhere close to the same amount of money for their stupid little company. I could see the dismay on the old man’s face when I told him that I was cutting my offer by a third. He’s probably already got it spent, either for those kids of his or something else.”

  Pausing to review and initial a couple of contracts that were queued up for his decision, Dell was soon continuing, “A couple of times they even tried to derail me. Trying to tell me that I wasn't reasonable or fair. If they think they’re going to win an argument with me, they’re crazy. They have to get up a lot earlier in the day to throw me off in my negotiating.”

  Mark informed him that was the sum of the entire traffic of the day and there was nothing else needing his attention. Stretching his arms back to relieve of the kinks of sitting for so long, Dell’s expression shifted as he said, “The hotel had better have everything all set again. Dinner better be on time!”

  A smirk grew on his face as he thought about finally catching that sanctimonious manager off his game. “I expect it won’t be here and that will be lots of fun. At last, I’ll be able to tell him what I think of him and get money out of it too.”

  Turning to his assistant, Dell continued, “I hope you got the information to them this morning. After all, they have to be allowed a little bit of time to set things up.”

  Mark’s reply was rapid, “Yes sir, I told them this morning that you wanted dinner pushed back a half-hour and that you wanted specific dishes for that dinner.”

  “Well? What did they say?”

  “They said that it was fine and that everything will be ready on time and with the items that you requested.”

  “Well, I guess we are just going to have to see. But they are not used to working with someone as smart as I am. It is a different kettle of fish from the minor players with which they usually deal.”

  Looking at his watch, Dell headed for the sitting room of the suite. Slamming his hand against the door controls, the brown-haired magnate took two steps in the room before he stopped in shock.

  It is just not possible! he thought to himself. Once again, the meal was set up, perfectly on time. The waiter stood there by the side of the table waiting for Dell to appear. Instead of the one bottle of wine that he had ordered the night before, this night he had ordered a variety of drinks. Each of them needed a rare ingredient, and it was extremely unusual for a hotel to have more than two ingredients for this type of drink at any one point. However, all of the drinks he had ordered were there.

  Dell prowled around the table, examining the drinks, sniffing them and holding them up to the light. He didn’t address the server, the man was beneath his contempt. But he poked into everything like a magnifying glass looking for any possible flaw. Unfortunately for his own goals, it was a perfection of order and pattern. The dinner shone like a flawless diamond, unmarred by any failure or any shortfall. He was furious.

  Dismissing the server, he sat down at the dinner table. Stabbing his meal with the fork as if he were stabbing an enemy, Dell ripped more than cut his food into bite-size pieces. When Mark sat down with him to join him in in the meal as was their typical pattern, Dell found a target for his fury.

  “I did not tell you could eat with me. How dare you make that assumption. You have to eat on your own time because there’s too much to do. You shouldn’t even be sitting here. I expect you to give me an analysis of the Mercury deal no later than tomorrow morning at 8 AM. Go work on that, and make sure you don’t eat till after you’re done.”

  Dell felt a little bit better as he sent Mark scurrying from the room. Not being an introspective man, Dell didn’t wonder at all about how he only truly felt happy when someone else was being bullied. Instead, the frustrated and angry man wreaked what havoc he could on the meal in the room, creating a stupendous mess of spilled food, destroyed cushions, and broken pottery.

  His dreams that night were not quiet, and his sleep was fragmented. Dell’s rage interfered with his normal feelings of superiority and satisfaction. The situation was intolerable for him, and he knew he had to do something. But what?

  Chapter 3 – Strategic Approach

  Dell had eventually gotten to sleep the previous night, after plotting what he could do with the unacceptable hotel situation. Sitting down at his breakfast, the financier looked over the research that Mark had done over the night. “Acceptable. Not as much in-depth as I would’ve expected if I would have given you longer, but this will do. I guess everything’s fine.”

  The administrative assistant had obviously not slept the previous night. He was exhausted and desperately trying to avoid making an error. Dell didn’t bother to look at him. It was as if the man was a fixture or a piece of furniture. He simply wasn’t important to Dell.

  The arrogant man was explaining to Mark, actually bragging to the weary man, on what he was going to do. “I finally came up with an idea to show them that they can’t beat me. We are due on the fast liner, Spark Haven, in an hour. It’s the fastest ship around, and we are not going to tell them here at the hotel that we are leaving until we walk out the door. My contract with them says that they have to maintain the room identically here and on Araxis. If we take the fastest transport, they will have no way of getting the information there any faster than our arrival.” Dell laughed darkly at the thought of the consternation and problems he could create with this strategy.

  To Mark, that sound reminded him of a large trap with horrible teeth snapping on someone’s leg. Concealing a shudder, the beleaguered assistant continued to take notes. His eyes burning, his shoulders trembling in exhaustion, he focused with his entire ability on his job.

  Dell proceeded to list his demands for the hotel. Mark was appalled by some of the requests, but he obediently wrote them down. He knew it was worth his job if he got any of them wrong.

  <<<>>>

  The trip had been pleasant. The ultrafast liner had managed to get them to the new hotel in less than eighteen subjective hours. Dell had been in a relatively good mood for the trip, repeatedly explaining to Mark how he was going to catch the hotel chain in breach of contract. He described in detail the repercussions he was going to demand, especially those that would affect the manager of the Mesopotamia, Dexter. The possibility of wreaking havoc on other people and causing damage to the hotel company was exactly what Dell needed to maintain a positive mood.

  The staff on the liner were fawning enough for even Dell. They catered to every one of his whims, allowing him to direct and criticize their services and their facilities. Just having a wider staff to bully did not mean that Dell ignored Mark. The exhausted man wanted nothing more than to crawl into his small cabin a
nd fall asleep. However, Dell insisted that Mark check progress on a business deal that required him to spend the whole night on the high-speed communications network.

  The list of tasks and information that Dell would require to support contract negotiations on the planet that they were approaching was intimidating. Knowing that his boss expected everything to be done by the time he sat down to breakfast, Mark knew there was no possibility of sleep for yet another night.

  Landing on the new planet was a different experience, however. Dell was outraged that he was required to go through customs. When the routine sampling of arriving passengers tagged Dell for baggage search, the infuriated man blew up at the customs agent.

  “Do you know who I am? I’m Dell Howard. I make more money than your government. How dare you slow me up with some stupid ass inspection of luggage. I’m not one of your cattle. If I wanted to bring something into this planet, I wouldn’t bother to smuggle it. I would just bring it.”

  The hapless custom agent didn’t know what to do. The fury and power of the man’s tirade left him unsure. Looking around for help, he spied his boss coming toward them quickly across the floor. Inserting his body between the customs agent and Dell, the agent in charge drew Dell’s attention, “I am so sorry that you are inconvenienced by this, Master Howard. Be assured that the agent will be spoken to about this matter. Of course, you are welcome to go through. I hope you enjoy your stay on our planet.”

  Dell responded, “I certainly hope you fire him. He should know better. After all, I’m here to acquire a good portion of one of your industries, and that means that I’m going to be traveling to this godforsaken planet fairly frequently. I expect the next time that you will behave better and you will have informed your entire department. If you don’t, I will be speaking to your supervisor.”

  Without looking around to make sure that Mark had the baggage taken care of, Dell stormed toward a clearly marked exit through the people walking and standing in the area. Scrambling after him, the weary assistant managed to corral everything. Feeling a bit like he was being dragged by an invisible leash, Mark and the luggage porter hurried after Dell.

  <<<>>>

  The trip from the spaceport to the hotel had been fairly rapid. Dell used the time to review activities that were happening in the star systems where he owned and conducted business. He paid no attention to the scenery as they passed, even though he had never been in this city or on this planet before. He was totally focused on his objectives of the day and really didn’t care what a barbarian world had to offer.

  Mark, however, watch the scenery carefully. The city seemed to be open and vital with well-managed traffic patterns and brightly dressed business people walking rapidly from place to place. The pleasant looking environment only reinforced the despair that underlaid the exhaustion that Mark was feeling. He didn’t know how the hotel was going to manage. He tried to think of something he could do to help, but his options were limited.

  Coming out on the bad side of an argument with Dell Howard was a recipe for disaster, as he knew personally. Not something he would wish on his worst enemy, let alone people that had been nothing but kind.

  <<<>>>

  Pulling up to the hotel in this world gave Mark a sense of déjà vu. The tasteful and beautifully-built outside of the building was almost identical to the hotel Mesopotamia. Minor differences in accent colors and the shape of the cast figure beside the door were the most visual distinctions. A discrete sign announced the name of this hotel, the Hotel Babylonia. He knew that he had heard that name someplace before, perhaps in a dimly remembered history lesson. He wondered if it had any significance, but before he could think about that too much more his thoughts were rudely interrupted by the demanding voice of his employer, “Come on! Stop sleeping on the job or I will find a different assistant. And you know what will happen then.”

  Walking into the Babylonia created an eerie sense of duplication to Mark. There was the same general area feel to the lobby, even though the desk was manned by a male. The furniture and decorations were done in different color themes than the Mesopotamia. A nagging feeling made him hypersensitive and aware even though his exhaustion was pushing him to collapse.

  Dell had not gotten any further than ten feet inside the door when he was greeted by a distinguished looking man with a closely trimmed goatee. “Welcome to the Babylonia, Master Howard. I am the manager, Muranu. If you would be so kind to follow me, I will show you to your room.”

  Dell responded, head up and looking down his nose at the shorter man, “Well that’s marginally better. Your other hotel and its manager were definitely not up to my standards. I expect to be treated well and my needs satisfied.”

  “Of course. Please let me know if there is anything that is not to your liking. The Babylonia takes great pride in making the guest experience as pleasant as possible.”

  “We will see about that. Of course, I expect the room to be set up perfectly including those things that were requested just before our departure from Bredal. Any shortfall and that will result in my invoking penalty clauses on their contract.”

  Muranu nodded his head slightly and opened the elevator door for Dell to enter. The ascent to the private floor that Dell had reserved was rapid. The three men in the elevator had nothing to say to each other. The hotel manager was simply waiting for a question or request. Dell was lost in gleeful anticipation of being able to find an error or shortfall that would enable him to improve negotiations with this hotel chain. Mark simply fell into a half daze, the effect of three days of no sleep catching up with him.

  When the elevator doors opened onto the private floor, both Mark and Dell noticed that the general layout was the same. The short hall took them directly to a double door into the suite. However, this hotel had beautifully intricate mosaics on the floor with obviously expensive rugs resting lightly on their surface. The doors themselves were painted in beautiful panels that depicted hanging gardens. It was a beautiful and peaceful decorating scheme, one which Dell totally ignored.

  Jostling the manager out of the way Dell headed straight for the door of the suite. Obedient to the pressure of Dell’s hand, the door opened. Smiling anticipation, the magnate charged into the room, only to pull up short in the middle of the room.

  The room was identical. At first look, he couldn’t find anything that was out of place. This was intolerable! Rushing into the bathroom, Dell saw that the same personal items that he had left in the other hotel were laid out here. They even were in the same arrangement. Almost stumbling in his haste, he went into the bedroom. The special pillows and drapes, the imported water and the special risers under the bed that he had requested this morning were all there.

  Infuriated beyond his ability to speak, Dell rushed from area to area in the suite looking so closely that Mark almost imagined a magnifying glass in the man’s hand. Desperate to find a shortfall, Dell continued to check things. The hotel manager’s farewell failed to get through his focus. Instead, it was the assistant who thanked the manager and promised to be in touch if there was anything else that Master Howard requested.

  Offering a faint smile of commiseration, Muranu left the magnate to his inspection and the administrative assistant to the challenges of his job.

  Chapter 4 – Scrambling for Position

  Dell Howard was an unhappy man. There had been no fault to be found in the room setup. In fact, the multitude of adjustments and items that had been transmitted to the hotel right before he had gotten on the spaceliner to travel to this planet were all present. It was infuriating, and he was in an incoherent rage that they would not acknowledge his superiority. He had to find something that was wrong.

  Looking at the bathroom setup for at least the fifth time, Dell came out into the main room to find that dinner had been set up. Once again the presentation was perfect. There was the exact bottle of wine he had ordered, accompanied by another one labeled as a suggestion from the sommelier. The unusual requests he had made to adjust
the dinner were also present.

  Unable to enjoy what was admittedly a superb dinner through the thick taste of his rage, Dell ordered Mark to get the manager to the room. When Muranu requested admittance, Dell motioned Mark to answer the door. Before Mark could say anything to the manager, Dell interrupted, “I suppose you can let him in.” The grudging tone and Dell’s voice was intended to clearly tell the manager that he was in trouble. However, the slight brown-skinned manager had a serene look on his face and a pleasant smile on his lips. He didn’t seem to be scared of Dell at all.

  How dare he! thought Dell. He is acting as if he’s not a servant. And that’s all he is, another servant. Making nasty remarks and complaining about airflows and layouts and every possible thing he could think of, Dell was unable to shake the calm manager into emotional responses or unreasonable demands of his own. It was a totally unsatisfactory exchange as far as Dell was concerned.

  After Muranu had left the room, Dell turned in frustrated fury on Mark. “You have been lazing around this entire day and not getting anything done. I insist, absolutely insist, that you complete that list of tasks before morning.”

  “But sir, that will be the third night that I’ve been without sleep. I’m not sure that I will be able to perform well unless I get at least a small amount of sleep. Additionally, that information isn’t going to be needed for another two weeks and is not time-sensitive.”

  “None your whining. Stop acting like a frustrated little three-year-old. Do your work, or I will make sure that you suffer other penalties. Now get out of here and get to work. I expect all of that by breakfast at 8 AM.”

  Mark could feel the hot prickle of exhausted tears behind his eyelids. Tired beyond any hope, he plodded down the hall toward his own, tiny room. Focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, he almost walked into the hotel manager.

  Startled into speech, the assistant hurriedly said, “I am sorry, sir. I did not see you. Is there something that you need from us or from me? I don’t believe it would be a good thing to interrupt Master Howard right now, so if I can be of assistance, I will be happy to do whatever you need.”