You know, I'm starting to get how those people in those old sitcom shows feel. You say something, and it immediately comes back to slap you in the face. It's not fun. I don't get how having your words thrown back at you could ever be funny to someone. Speaking of having your words thrown in your face, I have very soundly found the rest of my day has brought suffering. I mean, sure not physical suffering outside of the imminent carpal tunnel, but emotional suffering. I've done this job for years, but usually the summary is the easiest part of my job. I really just compile what others have put together so I can do the real majority of my job. Now though? I have to gather most of the remaining records myself and sift through them to make sure they are legitimate and that there aren't any mistakes. I needed accurate information to know where to go from here.

"Even if we somehow ran at a deficit this year, we'll still have more than enough money to expand our development sector. Smith doesn't have the excuse of being 'low on funds' for it anymore, and we need to keep pushing to stay ahead of competitors. The only question is how far we can expand."

I was mostly talking for my own benefit. Despite technically being one of the top positions in "Steel-Smith" I just worked in the same cubicles as most of the lower level workers that we had going over finance…

Had being the operative word. I still don't understand why they would embezzle. They got paid better in this company than they ever could elsewhere, were they expecting to just get away with it forever? What if the company had gone under, then where would they get their cash. It's stupid, short-sighted, and…. Just gave me an idea of what I should be doing with this money.

"We need immediate returns. Expansion and hiring qualified people are all well and good, but we should be picking and choosing our battles. While it's technically money we would have already had, this still counts as a windfall for us. This money should be used for temporary measures, there's no guarantee we'll make this amount of money next year so we shouldn't be investing in something so long term with money we might not have to capitalize on potential new revenue. While I definitely want higher level jobs filled to ease the pressure on me, we don't need experts in the field just to know how much it cost to buy plastic."

I was gasping for air by the time I finished, my mind more occupied with the revelation than breathing. By the time I had caught my breath I was already back at Amanda Smith's door, knocking as politely as possible.

"Who is it?"

"It's Michael, I think we should probably discuss more in depth how we go about sending offers out."

For a few moments I heard nothing, before a quiet 'click' and the electronic lock on her door turned from yellow to green.

"Come in Michael, knowing you it's important."

What's that supposed to mean, exactly? Whatever, just stay formal. Though this is important, but she says it like that's weird. She's my boss not my friend. Well, technically we're somewhat closer to co-workers at this point. But still, there's nothing wrong about remaining professional.

Disregarding whatever hang ups my C.E.O may or may not have been holding against me, I opened the door. I saw about 4-5 different computer screens facing Smith. I didn't actually need to see the screens themselves to know she was using all of them. The dim light hitting her face from multiple directions told me enough, and my past experience seeing her at work left no doubt she would have no issue continuing her work while hopefully listening to me. Even without a mouse or keyboard she had an intuitive control over the computers like no one else. While empowered weren't quite rare anymore, you'd still be hard-pressed to find one, much less an empowered that had a power as potent as Smith's while remaining in a 'civilian' identity. Technopathy could cause havoc in our modern times, she was basically a walking threat to anyone who had anything to do with technology. She'd proved it too, years ago before she got acquitted. Spilled the dirty secrets of those in power, revealed conspiracies, and turned the world on its head. Now, she was one of the few business owners in the city who didn't break the law.

It's still weird to think about the difference in occupations she chose. Even though she's been nothing but amicable, I still can't help but think about who she used to be when I see her.

I moved my thoughts away from the past, it wasn't helping anything and I already had plans for the future.

"I think we might have to rethink how we invest the money gained from uprooting those involved in the recent laundering scheme. While I understand having competent people is important, we also might not be able to afford those people when the extra money runs out."

"you're the…..first person to bring up that potential problem. However don't forget that most of this money came from either paychecks we aren't paying anymore, or from profits we made."

As she said this, she seemed to take a look at one of her monitors which, when I looked, showed the progress I had made so far on summarizing what had been embezzled from us that we got back. Seemingly satisfied with my progress she turns to me, waiting for a response.

"I can see how that would be enticing, but these were profits from mostly the previous fiscal year from what I've seen. We don't know for sure how much we will make for this term, and considering we had some….."

"leeches?" She supplied the words I was unwilling to use.

"Yes - exactly that, with those deficits that held us back from making as much as we could there might not be enough to keep the momentum we are trying to start."

Smith seemed to mull over my advice, her pace of interacting with her monitors slowing down

"Well, if I shouldn't be doing long term investment, what should I be doing? I doubt you would want to be a one-man financial division for long. You must have something in mind as a workaround."

"Well, I'm not saying we don't hire people. I just think we should focus on hiring lower level people. Just book keepers for now. People to keep track of what we buy, how much we make, and expenses on development-"

"Development? You aren't trying to suggest an increase to our R&D budget again, are you?" She looked very skeptical, no doubt remembering our last conversation on this very topic.

Trying to put more into developing new materials to create and sell was probably the area we had the most difficulty coming to an agreement on. I felt we should push for more to keep an edge, she was ironically satisfied with where we were. Luckily that wasn't what I was here to talk about.

"No, actually. I came to the conclusion on my own that it would do more harm than good right now. What I do want to invest in is improvement and refurbishment. You might be satisfied with older technology, but not all of us are technopaths-" She flinched at my comment.

I guess that's a sore spot, mental note to avoid that in the future.

"- and there's always going to be something that needs fixing. It would allow us to make use of the extra money without locking us into an obligation to put more money in later, along with the obvious bonus of better tools to work with. It would make work a lot easier in many areas. Unfortunately I don't exactly have all the details on what we lack and what needs repairs…. I was hoping you could get that to me by sometime this week. "

By now the C.E.O was paying total attention to me, whatever she was doing on the computers long forgotten. She hummed and seemed to mull something over, before realizing she was being silent and coughed.

"I…. See. As long as we still have enough left over for hiring new members I think that's a great use of our extra funds. I will want a report on what you're using it for, though. I'm not having a repeat of what happened with our EX-Chief Accountant."

From there we went over mostly minor inconsequential details of what exactly the order of prioritization we would take in terms of repair and replacement. By the time we finished it was 5PM, otherwise known as the end of my workday. Normally this would be great, but unlike mornings- my end of day commute sucks. It's a choice of convenience against safety. I would have to choose either to wait an hour until after 'The Rush' and get stuck in the foot traffic of both empowered and civilians alike, or risk dying as I move through the street while multiple battles spread people-crushing debris everywhere.

Yeah, I'm way too tired today for the acrobatics required to get through a rush. I'm just going to wait.

And so I waited. And waited… and waited some more. Finally I got tired of waiting. I realized that while the 'Rush' might not technically be over, most probably wouldn't actually fight until the tail end of the allotted time before harder legal repercussions applied. I decided to take my chances, I was beyond exhausted and the time doing nothing but twiddling my thumbs didn't help much either.

Finally, my day was actually over.