It was none of the above. He remembered how uncertain she'd looked, and she said she was seeing the guy on and off. If Sam told Zane that, he'd go wild with the idea and drive him even crazier than he already was.
"She's taken, Zane. End of story. Doesn't matter what category she fits in. Besides..." Sam took a moment to think. Even if she wasn't taken, and he did like her, which okay he admittedly did - but then he always had - it wasn't the right time for him. He wasn't in a good place in his mind. Being in San Francisco was a big step for him, but this was different. "I'm just not ready for anything like that now."
At that revelation, Zane's expression softened, and understanding filled his eyes. He looked like he was going to offer some kind of pep talk, but Sam intercepted it.
"And we have serious work to do." Sam pointed out resting back into the sofa. It was best to talk about work. That was the pressing issue now. Now that he'd browsed over a few things he wished he'd spend more of last week doing more research. He should have gotten movers to set up his apartment while he got on to working and research. "I think we need to liaise with the St. John's team on this."
He had his team of experts back in Chicago who assisted him with complex cases. Since he was a little out of his depth on this one, he thought his father would understand if he drew on their resources.
"What have you seen?" Zane knew from the mention of the team that the job was going to be hard.
"Too much."
"Anything stand out to you?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
Sam smiled. Zane knew that question would always be who when it came to him.
"The former chief finance and the accounts manager. We need all their account reports. Not just from the database but paper files and all dealings in the finance department. I want everything, and we need to go back as far as we can and investigate anyone else who worked closely with them. Honestly, right now everyone in that finance department is under suspicion."
"Damn Sam, we haven't even been here a full week yet. But I agree, my suspicions lay with them when I heard they'd left."
Sam nodded. He didn't directly set out to suspect people on a whim, he went with deep gut instinct first and then tried to prove himself wrong. He'd never been successful in proving himself wrong, so he always went with gut instinct first.
"The next big thing is company expenses," Sam stated. From what he'd seen so far, the investigation was going to be the easy part. Big changes had to be made, and generally, people don't tend to like change. Especially where they'd been given various privileges and benefits for a long time.
Simon was a nice guy, but Sam felt the man had allowed too much free reign of everything, he was also too trusting.
Zane bit the inside of his lip. "I was going to mention that."
When he hadn't been trying to ask Sam about Lexie, Zane had busied himself with going over the company expense reports.
"What have you found?"
"I guess you know they have no money." Zane tilted his head and reached for the file he'd thrown down earlier. "But their spending like they do. And when I say spending I mean spending."
"How much?"
"It's not hundreds."
Sam brought his hand to his chin. He'd been looking over the general reports as well and saw that they were surviving on investor money. Only on investor money. For all, they did as a company the profits had been going to pay staff and maintain the facility.
He didn't want to make a start by cutting costs and making drastic changes, but he was going to have to if he wanted the company whipped in shape. He promised the investors a strong company they could put their trust in, and he was going to give it to them. He needed everyone working together to find a way to make money again, and capitalize on what they already had, even in its simplest form. When things got better, then they could talk about allowing some flexibility. Sam might have been good at spotting problems, catching thieves and rebuilding fallen companies, but what he could never guarantee was getting back money that was stolen. That was something that was out of his control. Most times the thieves would have spent it on lavish homes and other things.
"Do you want to know who the biggest spender is?" Zane looked a little uneasy and again Sam's gut instinct kicked in.
"Please don't say Lexie."
Zane nodded.
Great.
Zane opened the file and flicked to the sheet showing bioengineering's expenses. When he held it out to Sam, he saw that the figures branched into the thousand-dollar mark. All of them, and there was a lot.
"What's their department like in comparison to everyone else?" If everyone spent the same then that could be justified. But Zane's expression told him differently.
"They spent the most. Pharmaceuticals is second."
"Have you seen anywhere where costs can be cut?"
"No but I have an idea, and I'm going to suggest that you tread softly on this."
He'd never done that before and couldn't treat Lexie any different to anyone else.
"I can't tread softly because I know her." Sam shook his head. That just wouldn't be fair.
"I get that. But that's not what I meant. Bioengineering is the department that makes the most money, and I mean serious amounts of money. Their work alone pays the majority of staff."
Sam's mouth dropped.
"Look at this other file here." Zane passed him a green folder.
Just a glance over the first page revealed that Zane wasn't exaggerating in the least. Their synthetic limbs project alone had brought in just over a billion dollars from customers like rehabilitation centers, other research labs, and the government.
Close to that was their artificial organs project of whom their biggest customers were the armed forces.
As he scanned over the page, he became further impressed, but pride swelled within him for Lexie. She'd done so well for herself and wasn't kidding about changing the world and saving people's lives. This report told him she definitely had. He was happy that she'd gotten the chance to accomplish her dreams and have such a remarkable impact.
Now for the hard part. They had to cut cost somehow or balance it.
"See what I mean?" Zane stated. Sam looked up at him.
"Costs have to be cut."
"They do, but we can't piss them off." Zane rested back against the sofa. "If you think that file was impressive wait till you see the file on their prospective projects. The money that could come from that department alone is unimaginable. We can't pee on people like that. They'll leave. Then we'll be screwed."
"Okay, I'll try not to pee on them." Sam laughed. "Any further suggestions?"
Zane nodded. "Their Prometheus project is a signature away from getting FDA approval. It's going to be the first use of nanotechnology by anybody in the world in the human body. It looks good to go to me, but their doing further tests and trials. I suggest trying to find a way for them to speed things up. FDA approval means sales. Those sales could fix everything. Maybe we could meet with them and discuss it all. We can also go through all the files and agree on what costs can be cut. Then we can talk to them about that too."
Sam nodded, that was a terrific idea. He thought it would be good too to meet with all the heads of department on a one to one basis.
"Let's schedule in meetings with each head. I'll start with Lexie first."
"Oh, she gets first pickings does she?" Zane gave him a cheeky smile.
"The occasion calls for it." Sam shook his head at him. "How many more files do we have?" He changed the subject back to work quickly.
"Those boxes, and a few spreadsheets." He pointed to the boxes in the corner. There were five of them, and they were big.
Sam sighed. It was going to be a long weekend. And, possibly a very long week.
* * *
It was Monday. Finally, it was Monday.
Lexie had set her alarm for six a.m, but she'd been awake since about four thinking about Sam.
When her alarm event
ually went off, and the radio clicked on with Stevie Kane's Feel Good Hour of power songs she got out of bed, deciding to get breakfast. She didn't need to leave the house till after eight, but she wanted her mind awake and ready for the day.
She ate whole-wheat cereal, toast with grape jelly, and a stack of pancakes. And then had some more cereal. It was nerves. She tended to eat more when she was nervous. She was wondering what today was going to be like, and what it would be like to work with Sam. She tried to get in professional work mode, but her head was filled with him, and she was looking forward to seeing him again.
Instead of her usual shower, she opted for a relaxing bath where she soaked in Hayley's zingy lemon zest bath formula that chilled her right out. This was perhaps more of an evening thing, but it hit the spot perfectly giving her the zing to start the day.
Feeling light and revitalized, she changed into a simple black business dress, chose her favorite pair of heels and left her hair down, loose and wavy.
It was eight forty when she got to the lab. Tim and Gina were already there.
"Hey, we missed you Friday night." Gina smiled wide on seeing Lexie.
Lexie had completely forgotten to message them about Friday.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Something came up," Lexie replied. On a normal basis, she told them everything. Apart from her sisters Tim and Gina were her very best friends. However, she'd never been comfortable enough to tell them about her past, and all that had happened to her. Telling them about Sam would lead to that, and she wasn't ready to venture down that path yet. Maybe one day, but just not yet.
Tim ran his hands through his hair. It was black today. Just normal black, and he too looked very businesslike.
"Your hair looks so Average Joe Tim, are you okay?" She smiled at him.
He returned the smile and propped himself on the edge of the desk by his workstation.
"I figured we won't give the new boss a shock with my ever changing color spectrum," Tim commented with a curt nod. "I'll ease him in gently. Then get back into my old colors."
"I don't think he'll mind what color your hair is." Lexie gave a reassuring smile. She didn't think Sam would be like that.
"Well from the emails we got this morning it's probably a good thing."
"Emails?"
Tim nodded.
"Yes... emails." Gina widened her eyes and sat next to Tim on the desk. "The new guy wants to meet with each department and get more information on the work we're doing. Changes are going to be made in line with the new budget." Gina leaned into Tim and reached for a lock of her curls to twirl the ends.
Lexie shuffled out of her jacket and logged on to the nearest computer. "We're not normally included in the budget." They couldn't be because of the kind of work they did. They had to have whatever funds they needed at their complete disposal whenever they needed it. It was why they'd done so well over the years.
Of course, she could understand the need to get more info and make changes, especially with the situation the company had just come out of, but projects like theirs, Prometheus in particular, couldn't be budgeted. Budgets caused delays.
"It's kind of looking like we're included now," Tim answered. He bit the inside of his lip when Lexie looked over at him.
She sat down and found the emails in question. There were two, both from Sam. The first was an introductory email introducing himself, Zane, and some other people from St. John's & Co. He went on to further explain that aside from the investigation taking place certain changes would have to be made and a new budget put in place to bring them back to the successful company they once were. He then explained that he'd be meeting with each department today to discuss everything. The next email was a schedule. Bio-engineering was first on the list, and they were scheduled to see him in an hour.
Lexie got this odd, almost uneasy feeling as she finished reading and looked over again at Tim and Gina.
All the excitement they had last week seemed to have left them, and she understood why. There was something that felt off. In the wake of all the excitement, they hadn't considered what sort of changes could be made to their own department. She just thought because they were the best at what they did, things would pretty much stay the same.
"Any thoughts?" Tim asked.
"It's my lack of thought that's actually worrying," Lexie replied, sitting back in the chair and allowing it to bounce under her weight as it curved to accommodate her posture.
"Here, here," Gina smirked. "I wish there were more said, but I guess that's why he wants to meet. I think we're in for some changes we might not like."
Lexie nodded agreeing. She ran a tight shift as it was and she was down by eighteen people. The first thing she was hoping to ask for is more staff. Before the whole crisis happened, they were all set up to make the adjustments to the Prometheus trials to increase the dosage on the severe patients. That would take time and require keen observation. They would be out of the office a lot and at the care facility.
"Should we go grab some coffee."
She needed hot chocolate. Coffee would make her jittery and send her nerves through the roof.
They decided on the staff café due to limited time and stayed there for a while discussing what they were going to say in the meeting. They did their best to preempt the issues that could be discussed. However, the combination of seeing Sam, and wondering what changes he was going to make made her thoroughly anxious by the time their meeting began. Accompanying Sam was Zane, thankfully Simon, and Janine. Lexie groaned inwardly at the sight of her. She was one of the secretaries here, but on first glance, anyone would think she was a stripper, or something, with her tacky dress sense, over the top makeup, and super platinum blonde hair. Not to mention that if there was any kind of gossip going around, or office romance talked about, her name would always come up.
Lexie guessed Janine was Sam's secretary. Of all the one's available she wished he'd chosen someone else. Somebody like Mags would have been perfect. Mags was in her late sixties and on top form with her job would have been more suited, in her opinion. But then that was Lexie's opinion, and she could have been biased because Janine was young - early twenties young - and very beautiful, despite the over the top makeup and everything else. Compared to Janine, Mags was ... well, she had that grandma look with a massive beehive do, wore linen tunics and orthopedic shoes. Maybe Sam picked Janine for obvious reasons.
Lexie took them to the meeting area where they sat around the table. Sam straightened in the chair and focused on her. Straightaway she noticed that he wasn't looking at her the way he normally did, or rather from what she'd grown used to in the times that she'd seen him. He just looked very businesslike and looked at her as anyone else would in a business meeting.
"I've heard a lot of good things about this department. I know you're pretty much the backbone of this company. This meeting is just to go over a few things and discuss areas where we need to make changes. Before we do that. I'd really like to hear more about you're plans for your Prometheus project. I understand you're very close to getting FDA approval."
Even his voice sounded different. At least he was cutting to the chase. Lexie tried to compose herself as she looked at him, and tried not to notice how good he looked in his ash gray suit and white shirt. Or, how the specks of green in his tie matched his eye color.
She drew in a mental breath, pushing aside her thoughts on him and started explaining how Prometheus worked and the plans she had for the increased dosage trials. Talking about the project eased her nerves because this was her thing, her element. The thing that she did best, without question. When she noticed Tim relax next to her, she realized she'd done a good job.
Sam appeared impressed too. She couldn't tell what Zane was thinking because he kept looking at Gina. Simon as always seemed proud. Janine, she didn't bother looking at because Lexie didn't really care what she thought. Besides she appeared to be doing her job of taking the minutes for the meeting.
"That all seems fantasti
c. From what you've described it sounds like the project could get approval now. Is that not a possibility?" Sam asked.
Lexie felt her eyes widened slightly as the question worked its way into her mind and realization dawned on her. She didn't know why she didn't see it before.
Their department was indeed the backbone of the company, so if they could make money of Prometheus, then that would be the aim. The company obviously needed to make money so it made sense that the push would be on looking at what they could make money on.
Lexi noticed the uneasiness in Simon's face. He looked like that because he would have never asked her something like that. He trusted that she'd planned everything the way it was required. When Lexie didn't answer Simon cleared his throat, turned to Sam and said, "if I may, we often allow more time in accordance with what the project needs."
Sam glanced over at him. "Of course. I understand that completely but it just looks like it could be ready for approval now. That would be a massive benefit to us in the way of sales. I just want to understand what the holdup is." He looked back to Lexie.
All eyes were now on her. She and Tim had had this discussion months ago, and when they checked everything out, they agreed that it was best to wait a bit longer so they could get the maximum benefit of the current trials.
"We need to see how the patients will react to the increased doses of the nano bytes and if any potential problems arise. At the moment the dosage is quite small but effective. Trials at a higher dose, at a steady rate, is in our best interest," she explained. "I estimate that we should have full FDA approval in eight to twelve months with the plans we have."
"The higher dosage you're proposing doesn't seem to be that much outside of what the FDA are willing to approve. It's just five percent more."
The FDA were willing to approve ten percent more than the dosage they were currently using in the trials to allow them flexibility in their research. Sam had no doubt seen that and thought why not capitalize on it. Lexie, however, actually wanted the FDA to approve fifteen percent more. She didn't have any results or definites yet, but she had her own theories which she had always drawn on. Every scientist wanted to know what could happen if certain boundaries were pushed, and nanotechnology had done exactly that. There were all sorts of research that was being conducted around the world, and they'd been successful in achieving great results. This wasn't something that needed to be rushed because the company needed to make money. It was delicate and sensitive, taking the time they needed now to figure things out would far outweigh the need to make money. Besides they had other projects that could be used to drives sales.
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