Chapter - 66
The weekend was over, and it was Monday, time to get back to work.
Alex spent his Saturday with Rachel while his Sunday was packed with his commitment to playing FIFA on his PlayStation.
Enjoying his weekend, Alex finally understood why his father hated Mondays. Leaving his home, instead of heading to Theation, Alex straightaway reached the site of the project. Amber and Alex had decided to meet there instead of 'Theation'. By the time Alex arrived there, Amber was already there waiting for him. Alex picked her up, and they arrived at the nearby marketplace.
Parking his bike near a convenience store, Alex and Amber finally got to do some work. They hurriedly pulled out a bundle of sheets given to them by Karen. Both of them looked at the bundle in their hand with helplessness. This was so old fashioned, time-consuming and distressing. Karen was clearly trying to make it difficult for them.
Listlessly they started off with their work. They would stop passerby's and hand out the sheet of questionnaires to them, asking for them to fill in their response.
Initially, Alex got a great response. Girls would come and surround him, and they would actively take part in filling up the questionnaire and even add their own thoughts and suggestions.
But as time passed by and the sun rose high up in the sky, the people began to ignore them. The elderly passed by without even hearing them from the get-go. The girls were hard to be found walking around in the middle of such a hot day. But some of the guys did gather around Amber as she asked them to fill up the questionnaire she had with her. The guys were ready to wait for their turn around Amber, but they chose to ignore Alex. So Alex had basically nothing to do after two hours of working.
When Amber was finally done, she hopped over to where Alex was brimming with happiness.
"I am done," Amber said, waving the papers in her hand.
"All of them?" Alex asked.
"Yup. What about you?" Amber asked, peeking at the sheets Alex had in his hands.
Alex tried to hide the sheets, "Almost."
"Hehehe... Liar," AMber smiled and walked to the nearby bench under the shade of a tree, "Let's take a break. After that, I will help you get done with them."
"Really? Thanks bro..." Alex hurriedly walked up to Amber, put the sheets on the bench, got behind Amber and started massaging her shoulder.
"Yeah... Right there. I am all stiff standing for so long," Amber said and relaxed.
"No problem," Alex said, smiling. He didn't mind slaving over her. The sooner they are done, the sooner they get to be back home.
"How much salary was credited in your account?" Amber asked. Her eyes were still closed.
"It was 1200 bucks," Alex said, "And yours?"
"Same," Amber said.
"Did you get anything else?" Alex asked.
"Anything else? Why would I get anything else?" Amber said.
"No, I mean maybe like something from Hazel, Ellaine and the others," Alex asked weakly.
"What did they give you?" Amber opened her eyes, and leaning on the bench, looked back at Alex in doubt.
"I..." Alex stammered under the suspicious gaze of Amber.
"Don't I... me. Come clean with me," Amber turned around and leaned forward towards Alex and asked while looking straight into his eyes.
"About woh udrd gugs..." Alex mumbled as such no one could understand.
"Alexx!!!"
"Two hundred bucks," Alex finally said.
"Two hundred bucks? What for?" Amber asked. Two hundred was not that much, but still, why would they give him something over his salary?
"There was a message along with the separate 200 bucks deposit, 'Thanks for running our errands all this while. This is our appreciation for you 40 bucks from Karen and the rest from everyone else.' Alex told her.
Now that Amber knew the reason, instead of getting angry over the unfair treatment, she rather smiled and sat back again in peace, "Since you got the extra 200 bucks, now today's lunch is on you," Amber declared.
"Absolutely. I had already decided it when you promised to help me," Alex said, "Wait, let me get something for you," Alex said and went to the convenience store across the road to buy snacks and cold drinks for them.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"This is the recent request," A man wearing spectacles sitting on the far end of the table said, "The highest bounty offered this year."
"Who is she?" One of the men on the table asked, pointing at the picture in front of them on the projector.
"Jessica Wilson. She is the CEO of a company named Theation," The man with the glasses said, "The other details about her are in front of you on your tablets. But the thing we need to pay attention to the most is that she is a member of the Wilson family. And from the details we have gathered, she is the least favoured among the others of her generation. Only the head of the Wilson family, her grandfather, favours her, but with the Wilson family undergoing a turmoil of succession, no one is paying attention to the unwanted child of the family."
"Theation, the company she has founded, is doing pretty well for something only three years old. Other families would be fawning over such a child. So why is that she lost favour?" Another man on the table asked.
"From what I feel from going over the details, it's possibly because of the marriage agreement she broke with another family. It was a huge dent on the family's reputation." The man replied courteously.
"Is it a family member or someone else who put the bounty over her head?" Someone on the table asked.
"It's..." The man in the glasses wanted to answer.
"Since when have you been so nosy?" The man sitting at the head seat on the table opened his mouth. He was shrouded in darkness, and nothing could be made out of his features, but the moment he opened his mouth, everyone else shrunk back in. He was most likely the one running everything here, their boss.
"Deus, I just..." The man wanted to explain but was stopped by just a gesture of hand by the man named Deus.
"I want this to be an open contract. Anyone can try their luck on this one," Deus said, looking at the man in the glasses, to which the latter nodded.
"I feel this is going to be interesting," Deus said, looking at Jessica's picture.
* * * * *