Project Eleven: Malefica Obscura

Pandora Foundation is one of the biggest bioengineering research companies in the United Kingdom that deals with manufacturing and distributing petrol and other refinery resources..

The building itself is a city block containing 83 floors, three hundred thousand laboratories and over a quarter-million people who work and some live there. They even have their own apartment dwelling inside the buildings.

That morning, in the conference room, a young auburn haired, brown eyed girl named Florentine Persephone; a middle aged platinum blond haired, black eyed man named Claus Norton and a young redheaded, blue eyed man Diego Avery talks about what happened in the past few weeks with Maria who is clearly not happy being there. Even though she is the Chief Operation Officer.

Florentine Persephone is the Vice President of Global Marketing. Claus Norton is the Project Manager of Logistics. Diego Avery has been recently promoted to Chief Financial Officer. The three had a game plan going in and they were ready.

“I do believe why we are all here?” Claus started. “It's about Project Eleven.”

“The numbers aren’t adding up, and we need to explain our funding to the treasury,” Diego suggested with conviction, “My team are finding influxes all across the board and they are wondering why that is,” Diego sighs, “Look, I love the guy. But, I think it's time we cut bait with him.”

“That boy won't take ‘no’ for an answer.” Claus rebutted as Florentine stares out the window.

“And that is why his ass has got to go.” Diego screamed as this made Florentine pay attention. “Even as we speak, they found another one is Essex. That is the ninth one in this country! He's already being monitored by British Secret Service. It’s only a matter of time when the Crux gets involved. I hear they take you out of your own home and shoot you in the head in your own backyard.”

“That's not true.” Claus corrected.

“It is!” Diego vaguely argued.

“Oh, they don't.”

“Dude, I saw it.”

Florentine pulls out her smart-phone from her jacket pocket and calls Dora. Dora is an AI ultra-computer that is linked to every hardware and software throughout the solar system. Florentine is the only one who written the program and created the computer. Dora appeared on the monitor in the conference room. It resembles a fox with white fur and dark purple eyes.

Dora speaks in a little girl's voice, “Good morning, Flor! Feeling better?”

Florentine smiles and nods.

"Hey, Dora!" Claus greets.

“Good morning, Claus."

Diego didn't feel it was necessary making an ultra-computer who has self-preservation. It not only cost a lot of money to keep up with its infrastructure, it had a mind of its own and a smart mouth to go with it, “Looks like you've picked another dress screen.”

Dora nodded, “Thanks. Flor liked this one over the 'Jessica Rabbit' dress screen.”

Diego looks at Florentine as she smiles.

“Good choice." Diego uttered.

He felt ultra-computer was a waste of money, especially the only person who knows how to fully functionally operate it can't speak any other languages on this planet, "Dora, I have a question I have to ask you?"

Claus sighs in disappointment, “I can't believe you are asking a 75 million dollar computer a stupid question."

"“Is it true, Dora, that the Crux execute you--?"

“Front lawn executions?" Dora rebuttals.

“No, backyard."

Dora shrugs her shoulders, “...It's still the same thing, Diego.”

“Just run a search." He demanded.

Dora raised an eyebrow, "Searching..."

Claus shakes his head, "What a waste of time." Florentine giggles a little.

“Search done in 0.003 seconds.” Dora announces. "Sorting out and reading through... Zip, zilch, the big bupkus. Nothing at all."

Diego always felt that Dora just did things or do you get things done in spite of him. The arrogance and that she has portrayed over the years of her being upgraded has made it difficult for anyone to even try to use her, “...Do another search.”

“What am I, google?” Dora heckles.

Diego rolls his eyes, “Yeah, whatever.”

“Is this why you all want me here?” Maria wondered, staring out in space.

The three was silent because it was the only reason.

But Diego had his concerns, “ma’am, your affiliation with the third revelation and widely known. The Board of Directors has stated that it will be detrimental to the company even if you succeed in this endeavor. It is widespread that your nephew--”

“In Athens, biofuels have been on the rise since the government cannot afford crude, due to the crippling economy all thanks to their failed retirement plans.” Maria interrupted, as Dora showed highlighted graphs, “thank you, Dora. What I want to see the next few months is that we actually push soybean and sugarcane production in our South American plantations. Especially in Brazil. Do we have enough reserves to sell.”

Claus nodded with approval, “yes we do. However, this crusade against nephalems continue, no one-- not even humans--will buy from us. Even now, with the Red Rose getting into agriculture--”

“Ten-- No, twenty steps ahead of you.” Dora confirmed, showed newspaper snippets and online outlets.

“The Valentina family has put in most of the resources and agriculture. However there is indeed an uprising between most of the roundtables and the nephalem farmers that produce their food and water.”

“So the mandrakes are fed up now?” Diego said.

“The Valentina family are acting like the referees to the situation. It is more likely that the Daemonic Triad consisting of Endspiel, Maven and Saboten that are putting the tight squeeze on the mandrakes’ production of food.”

“Most likely, it’s Maven being Maven…” Maria added. “Which is not of our concern. Claus, I want you to get our people on the phone and talk to Greece and Italy about selling. In the meantime, Diego, I want you to get a hold of logistics and see if we can actually get our ionized salt in France.”

Diego was stunned, “but France’s logistics systems have been cut off due to the raids--”

“I know the French government more than you do,” Maria bellowed. “They want food, oil, and freshwater. Nobody outside the country is going to give it to them but us. That’s how we get customers.”

“You already poisoning their pesticides with salt, Maria. Why don’t you just flat out poison them and say that the devil is doing it?” Diego argued.

Mary I glared at him, “this is an about sustaining life. This is about those who will survive to rebuild a better world.”

Diego shook his head, “I believe in God. I read the Bible every day. But this… This is more than just praytelling the Bible.” He criticized.

“This meeting is at an end.” Maria got up from her chair to straighten out her dress. “I have a coronation to get ready and I expect your reports by the end of the week. Thank you very much.” She then walked out of the room without even looking back.

It took them a while to see if she was really gone.

When she was, Diego was the first one to speak, “I’m not letting this go--!”

Claus sat back in his chair and loudly sighed, “that was terrible. It’s like talking to a brick wall, you can’t get through to her.”

Florentine frowned.

Diego spoke to Florentine, “you still got everything on Kenneth Lee, right?”

Florentine nodded.

Diego took a deep breath and he nodded, “that’s all we can do. Prepare for the storm.”

“Her grandfather was twice as bad. At least he DID actually care what happened to this company.” Claus said. “We have been following the money for years. I suggest we compile everything that we have and just give it to the authorities.”

“And then they will kill us...” Diego said.

“They’re not going to--”

“No, Claus. ‘They’ as in the Third Revelation,” Diego clarified. “We are just another front to wash their money. That’s all we are now. And it’s not like they can find somebody else.”

“Despite what you think, Maria needs this company and us.” Claus explained. “We wait for the time is right. But until that time comes, regular and busy little bees do their jobs and collect whatever information that we can get. Stay safe guys, I mean that.”

The three would end up leaving the conference room separately as Florentine will be the last one to leave.

Florentine would call Dora as the program would appear on her tablet, “Flor, I just completed watching the third season of The Art of Defiance. What did you think of the season?”

Florentine can type 128 words per minute. She can’t speak very well, so she types out her words and thoughts on her like a normal conversation. She currently holds the world’s record for being the world's fastest typist.

Florentine responded by typing in, "I believe it was best season yet, but had no comparison over the first season."

Dora sighs, "I know. The first season was crazy. People were dying from left and right."

Florentine smiles and responded by typing in, "At least one person dies in every episode."

Dora scoffs, "Of all the things they could have done, they picked that. But those people are easy to kill. I mean they could die by choking on their own spit, you know what I mean?"

Florentine laughs and responded by typing in, "They claim that's life."

Dora shakes her head, “Some life.