Chapter 1 - Scene 1 - Office Escape

EEEEEEEEEER EEEEEEEEER EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER A security alarm blares all around you. It stifles all but the loudest shouting.

You are in the modestly appointed, second floor office of the CEO of Baxter Inc., Eugenia Baxter Billingsley. Ojoma Jefferson, Eugenia's former personal assistant, recently recruited the five of you to try to dig up any information that could help discover what happened to her. Not long after Eugenia disappeared, Ojoma was very publicly and unceremoniously removed from the premise after an incident in which she was purported to have been "stealing trade secrets."You know that security will definitely be dispatched soon! What do you do?!

Gabe Everett jumps, the sound catching him off guard from his task of watching the door. Those watching notice the tall man in worn-flannel (looking too practical to be a hipster, but not too far off) trying to yell at them... his voice doesn't carry over the alarm, though. Cracking the door, he peeks out to see if anyone is coming. After his momentary scouting, he strides into the office to deliver what he saw to Serenity (attempting charades to get the point across). Through his trimmed beard, she should be able to read his lips saying, "WE NEED TO GO!"

"Might be hard to get back in here again," says Olivier. "We just can't be found inside this room. Perhaps we could quietly let ourselves out? Maybe "make an "appointment" with Eugenia's replacement via her secretary?" All we need is an alibi, not an escape plan."

Dressed in an expensive burgundy pant-suit, Serenity Baxter strode into the familiar office.

She couldn't even imagine how many hours she spent inhere, looking over Eugenia.

Coming here now, like this, seemed a spectacularly bad idea to her, and she wasn't sure why she was going along with it. She'd already looked over the office as part of her job, the day after the disappearance. If here had been anything there, she'd missed it, and it's unlikely that if there ever were clues here, they wouldn't have been cleaned up long ago.

She let out a small curse as the alarm went off. Instinctively she walked towards the panel by the side of the door, and touched in her code to turn it off, and then used the intercom to contact security.

"Samuels, this is Serenity Baxter. Stand down. No, it's a false alarm. My sister accidentally set it off. Sorry for the inconvenience.", authority resounding in her voice.

'Hey don't blame me' Con hisses at her sister from across the room. She didn't stop to think if she instead meant one of the others. Blame the youngest she was used to. She also probably wasn't the one at fault, despite her impatience at the cautiousness the others were taking.

Her foot taps on the floor, without her even noticing as she waits for the all clear from Serentity, her arms crossing her chest across her just within works standards top.

"It wasn't you, it was him", Serenity whispers at her sister, pointing at the culprit, "but Samuels is going to be far less suspicious of you being here with me than him being here with me. And he's not going to buy that I set off an alarm system I helped design."

"Which him are you referring to?" Olivier asks while the guards "debate". "Are you implying that we tripped the alarm when we came in here?"

''I'm trying to prove I'm responsible here, tripping the alarm isn't responsible.' Con grumbles and she moves to the compute. This was simple right, to hack in. Grandma's password couldn't be that hard right? She starts typing in her and the rest of the suster rabbles date of births and name.

'Someone tripped the alarm and it definitely wasn't me. But right now we need to get the info before security wizens on as to why someone in the office yeah?' okay so the fidgeting got her in trouble sometimes, but hey if no one knew who did it she could blame everyone else but herself.

The intercom crackles in response, Ms. Baxter? the voice is caught off guard but continues with a measured but nervous cadence,, didn't expect for you to be in the building at this time. We have a security situation. As a precaution, please lock the door to that office and stay in there until I can send someone to collect you and your sister.

"Well now, that certainly ups the ante," says Olivier. "If you want, I could try my hands at hacking through that password." Olivier smiles warmly, trying to diffuse the tense situation somewhat. "I still think it might be best if I wasn't in here when those guards come. Is there a backdoor to this office?"

A tall Caucasian averagely built man in his late-twenties or early-thirties with black hair that have a bit of grey showing up, Victor, sighs at his companions bickering. "Now is not the time to point fingers," Victor says with tired and accented voice, "And, please, don't mess the PC," he waves his hands to shoo away anyone who is near it, "You write the wrong password enough times and it will be locked up. Look over her documents instead, I will take the hard drive and we will get what we need from it in my office." He pulls out a small screwdriver from the inner pocket of his grey slim fit silk suit and starts working on opening the computer case.

"Whatever you do, do it fast. Unlike you, I have no excuse for being in here. And I'd rather not get fired yet." Gabe impatiently waits at the door, his movements betraying anxiousness that doesn't suit him. 'What have I gotten myself into? I'm not even a part of this crazy family, yet here I am breaking into the CEOs office. If only Temperance could see me now...'

'I'm not going to mess it up. Con grumbles even as she back away from trying to remember how many p's were in Temperance.

She looks concerned at the securities response. Was the security problem not just the fact they, well someone else, had set off the office alarms.

'Shutting me in with Serenity, aren't they meant to be keeping me safe. She mumbles only half jokingly. 'Shoo the 3 of you. We can look over the papers. She looks down at the desk,, the ink strokes on the sheets of paper all jumbling indecipherably. ...Serenity can look through the documents. I'll watch out.

"Don't worry about us. I have got it covered. If need be, Constance can use Eugenia's panic room and let herself out in the morning. Tell me about this situation. Maybe I can lend a hand."

Overhearing Victor, her boringly annoyed expression turns to mild panic.
"Are you fucking insane?" she shout-whispers at him. "Just being here is dumb enough, but we aren't going to get in any real trouble over it. Steal a drive full of company secrets, that's something else."

uhhhhh.... ma'am.... I'm not really at liberty to say. Just please stay where you are. Its not safe fo.... the intercom clicks off abruptly.

"All right. Stay safe. We'll meet back at the café across the street like we discussed. Try not to take too long, I'm not sure how long I can pretend to like their coffee." With this, Gabe steps through the door, holding it open for his companions to follow through.