Fire And Flame

They soon reached Maple Inc. main office. The staff greeted the good looking couple, as they assumed them to be a real life couple, they looked so compatible. But that wasn't the case. They simply dared not to spread rumors about them being a couple, as they knew how scary their CEO can be at times.

Both Laura and Brandon greeted the staff before heading to the private elevator. Pressing his thumb on the touch screen which was a fingerprint scanner, he pressed on the button 9. Reaching his office floor, he gave a quick call to Gabriel to come to his cabin along with some other employees; the employees with whom Laura had a meeting with.

Gabriel still didn't have any hint.

They all reported to his office and seated themselves properly. The head of the marketing department had carried his laptop and tablet along with him. Others only had their phones with them.

Laura was seated to the left of Brandon and he, being seated on the main seat. Gabriel seemed happy as Brandon noticed.

"Is there any emergency, Boss?" Gabriel asked in a serious tone, only pretending to be serious.

"Yes, I have a very important matter to discuss. James, are you ready?" Brandon asked the marketing head, James.

"Yes, Sir. Let the countdown begin?" James seeked permission before taking actions.

"Caitlyn, do the count." He ordered Caitlyn, his assistant as he received a nod from his boss as a sign of approval.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1."

"Announced!" James squealed in happiness and then quickly shut his mouth as he realised that he is in a formal meeting.

"So, here we are announcing the launch of our new product, the new M series of mL.a.p laptop." Brandon stood from his seat and clapped, followed by Laura and other employees. Gabriel was shocked listening to what happened just now.

"What!?" He was so shocked that he blurted out words without even thinking.

"What do you mean? Aren't you happy, Gabriel?" James commented with a sarcastic smile.

"Yes, I am v-very ha-happy." He stood up and clapped. But it was too late.

All of the sudden his phone started to ring. He was scared looking at the caller ID.

'Why did he have to call me now?' he cursed himself for being ignorant. This time, he had

forgotten to keep his spare phone on his desk.

All the employees were given the latest model of smartphones to them. If they needed a spare, they had to apply for an application in order to get one. But, Gabriel had a spare phone of another brand.

The whole universe was conspiring against him!? He thought to himself as he quickly tried to switch his phone to silent mode. But it was too late now…

The call got automatically received and turned on speaker mode.

'THE HELL!?' Gabriel panicked as he heard the person from the other end scold him.

He tried to disconnect the call but all his efforts were in vain. His phone got automatically locked all of a sudden. All he could see was the blank screen of his phone… with someone screaming at him from the other side of the call.

"You lied to us? HOW DARE YOU?! I had given you enough money and all you did was betray us, Gabriel? You have to pay for this. You said Maple won't be launching anything except for the announcement of the recent update and see! Arial had just launched our new phone!" the man who was scolding was the CEO of Arial mobile and CashCredit, Mr. Paul Kirk.

Gabriel's forehead broke into a cold sweat as his fingers started to shake tremendously. He was gone. Surely gone.

The call was abruptly ended.

"Bother to explain?" James was fuming in anger, slamming his hands on to the table.

"I-I… I-" Gabriel was terrified. His mind went blank. He looked at Brandon who was calmly looking at him; emotionless.

"Let me explain it for you, Gabriel." Brandon gave a small smile which vanished soon. His eyes gave a hollow stare.

"First of all, let me ask you a question. Would you like to get arrested or expose Arial in front of the whole world and declare yourself as a traitor?" The question thrown at his so-called assistant was straight and simple. No chances of argument was offered.

"B-boss..." Gabriel's mind still needed time to process what exactly happened and how would he process words in his blank mind.

"Fast, Gabriel. I have a press meeting to attend." Brandon looked at his watch and then looked at him, his fingers softly tapping on the glass table.

"Boss, give me a chance to explain." Gabriel had two choices, none of two choices allowed him to be set free after what he did.

"Let me do that for you." Brandon took the remote from the stand and pressed a button.

The wide screen in front of the table switched on and what they saw was so shocking which made Gabriel think of digging a hole and get himself buried in it.