Chapter 17: Mr. Annoying makes a request

On the 5th call, Dominic answered.

"Good afternoon Mr Klauss" he said in a formal tone, while showing subtitles on the screen for Raven's delight and amusement. He was now replacing all 'Mr Klauss' words in his conversation, with Mr. Annoying.

"Madam is currently in her lab, and she asked not to be disturbed. Mr. Klauss can I take a message?" every time the words were replaced Raven chuckled. Dominic winked at her and she was now rolling on the floor laughing. Her assistant was brilliant, and learning so fast. She should let Mr. Annoying call more if Dominic would develop a sense of humour from that.

Raven could hear the conversation on the other side, and after a few minutes of torture, where Mr. Annoying was trying to get through to her, she signalled Dominic to put the call through.

"Mr. Klauss" -the subtitles replaced this again with Mr. Annoying- "Madam is now able to take your call, would you like to be patched through?"

She could hear the annoying grumble of Mr. Annoying and she was now definitely in a better mood, even if he interrupted her very special and important experiments.

"How can I help you Mr. Klauss?" Raven answered in a glacial tone. She really disliked the man. He was mousy, and had an evil look on his face all the time. She knew he was a power tripping coward who's only concern was climbing up the inexistent ladder of his organisation. What was even more ridiculous about him, was his total oblivion to the fact that he would never get promoted. He was too annoying to everyone around him, thus after she first met him, she nicknamed him Mr. Annoying.

"Lady Vaughn" – he tried addressing her by her formal title, in a polite yet sarcastic tone – "I am calling with an emergency and I would appreciate it in the future if you could prioritise our relationship more". The man clearly didn't kow his place. Irrespective of it being an emergency, she would never tolerate this kind of tone. He was alluding to the fact that he was kept waiting but he really wasn't important. To anyone.

"Mr. Klauss, I would be very mindful of your tone with me right now, or we might really part on bad terms this time." Raven said, in a cold menacing tone. She would not have any of it. Normally she would be polite and listen to what the man had to say, out of consideration for the organisation he represented, but she most certainly did not have any respect for him, or his time, just like he didn't have any for hers. 'Miniscule, insignificant man don't provoke me, or I'll make you cry' she thought before continuing the conversation.

"Speak" she said when the silence on the other side indicated her tone had the desired effect. He was probably trembling in fear at her next actions. He overstepped and now was probably regretting it.

Raven had no time for idiots with big egos. She could take them down with a click on her screen, all of them. The only reason all of these annoying, buzzing flies still had a life, was because she did not have time to deal with them. 'Just wait until Dominic would develop his attachment and protective nature, and then the fun would begin.' Raven thought with a slight smirk on her face.

When prompted to speak, Klauss Verr realised he had made a big mistake and pissed her off. He had just been shouted at and humiliated before he placed the call, and was in a very bad mood. He momentarily forgot who he was talking to, because he was desperate and impatient, and knew she was purposefully delaying taking his call. Even so, when she replied, a chill slithered down his spine and he was terrified. Would this be his last day?!

"Please accept my apologies Lady Vaughn, I did not mean to come across as rude. We have an emergency and I'm hoping..."he paused " we are hoping" – he accentuated the last part to signal that he would be making a request on behalf of his organisation – "we're hoping that you can help us."

"Mr. Klauss, if you don't hurry up and explain quicker I will hang up, I don't have all day." She applied pressure to the tiny man. He was so annoying and pompous. He called for a purpose, yet 3 minutes have now passed and he still hadn't gotten to his point.

"Lady Vaughn, our systems are under attack and we can't seem to stop whoever is doing this. Our team has not been able to locate the perpetrator either, and we cannot take physical action against them. Our accounts are currently being drained and we need your help."

'Ah' Raven sighed, so this was about money. That she could understand. As a successful business woman herself, she valued financial resources and completely understood why they called her.

"Fine, this will cost you. The usual. Warn your team I will be taking over, and they should focus on reinforcing whatever is left of the security system behind your offshore accounts. I will take care of the rest."

"Understood Lady Vaughn" Mr. Annoying replied with a reverent tone. He could now release the breath he was holding in since he had made that rude comment. He really thought he was over, luckily he escaped to live another day.

He always dreaded calling her, but all his co-workers refused. They were doing this to him on purpose because they all knew Lady Vaughn did not like him one bit. For the life of him he could not figure out why, but she had dubbed him Mr. Annoying and always tripped him up. Maybe one day he would be brave enough to bring that up with her, if only he could get through the screening of that annoying assistant of hers. Who in the world could give birth to such a beautiful domineering man?! The cherry on top was that he somehow ended up working for the world's biggest control freak who could terrify an army with just a look. He admired Lady Vaughn, but she terrified him so much he also hated her.

Just as he was about to continue the conversation and ask her to patch through to their team, she hung up. Clearly that was the end of the conversation.

Raven got up from her experiment table and sat down in front of one of the computers that had an emptier desk in the lab. The task seemed easy enough and she did not need to power up her more powerful machinery. Actually she didn't even really need to get involved herself but she thought it would be safer to check the situation first before assigning resources to deal with this issue.