"We cannot afford mistakes." Mr. Lockton said.
Emma, the team lead, along with her four other co-workers, stared at the head of the conference table. The meeting was to brief them on the upcoming trip. Emma was one of five members selected at Lockton Consulting to finalize the deal with a major potential client. It was a delicate situation. She wanted to be involved because the rewards were great; however, if she fucked it up, the consequences were far worse. Mr. Lockton didn't believe in outright firing, but he did believe in sending the failure back to the bottom to work their way up again.
Lockton Consulting worked in many industries, and had a division of models and PR that helped with corporate events. Emma did her time as a model working booths at shows until she finally made a formal suggestion to Mr. Lockton that blossomed into a viable business opportunity. Many of the women in higher positions had similar career trajectories. Many felt he was sexist in his hiring approach, but no one could deny he didn't reward the women who contributed significantly. The men also started at the bottom, but usually in thankless clerical and data entry jobs. Comparatively, modeling, although it paid less, was a lot more fun and educational. The networking done at different events across every industry was invaluable and something the men starting out never got a chance to do.
"You are dismissed." Mr. Lockton said.
He left the room immediately. There were never any questions. That would suggest his presentation or speech wasn't thorough enough. If any member had a question, they needed to ask another member or figure it out themselves. It wasn't the greatest leadership style but it evidently pushed everyone to take the initiative and develop better judgment as decisions came up. Emma herself had one such case a year ago. Mr. Lockton failed to mention the price wasn't a definite on the client's side, but the way he presented was with the assumption that it was the price set on their side. During the follow-up meeting with the clients, price was brought up for debate. Emma knew the price couldn't change despite threats from the client. She ended up giving other concessions to maintain the price and keep the client happy. The concessions given up were never discussed by Mr. Lockton in his presentation and he rewarded her for maintaining the price. He commented on each concession, some positive, some negative and that was the end of that. Since then, Emma had been added to many teams for new clients until she was finally made a team lead. She showed she could adjust strategy on the fly and Mr. Lockton knew that was an asset on a team trying to win clients. Nothing ever goes the way you want it.
Emma, Kayla and West walked together down the hall.
"I heard we're staying at the Kollar Resorts." Kayla said.
"The client does their background checks, Mr. Lockton didn't want to seem cheap." Emma said.
"They have some cool shit in their rooms." West said. "Like robots and VR. It's going to be awesome."
"Three amigos." A voice called from down the hall.
The twins Francis and Lyla, the other two members on the team approached their group.
"We're taking lead on this. We need anything, we'll let you know." Lyla said.
West shrugged his shoulders and Kayla nodded. The twins looked to Emma. It was ultimately her call.
"Listen Mr. Lockton's pet, we need a little room to shine too. So back off."
"You're fuck-up is my fuck-up." Emma said. "I want to see it prior to the real thing. Better me poking holes in it than Mr. Lockton."
The twins looked at each other and then back at Emma as if they communicated telepathically.
"Fine." Lyla said.
"Deal." Francis added.
They walked away together and disappeared around the corner.
"Do you think they fuck?" West said.
Emma and Kayla shot him a look.
"What, I literally never see them with anyone else."
Emma and Kayla continued walking.
"Wait so does that mean we can just party on this trip?" West said and ran to catch up.
***
Emma spent her last night at home relaxing with a glass of wine and a warm bath. Ever since she broke up with her long-time boyfriend, she opted to focus on her career before trying to find love again. Kayla and West gave her plenty of support and she appreciated their friendship. She had the 'just friends' talk long ago with West after he confessed his love during a night out drinking. He didn't take it personally and their friendship strengthened after that. He briefly dated a few younger women before having a one night stand with Kayla. After she heard about it, Emma expected it to be awkward at work, but to her surprise it turned into a healthy relationship. She was happy for both of them and from time to time contemplated if she missed out on West.
****
Emma plopped her luggage down. Mr. Lockton put them up in the best suites Kollar Resorts had to offer. The bed and en-suite were more than enough for two people let alone one person and the extravagant balcony overlooked the lake next to the hotel. The sun set at the end making it a picturesque view.
On the amenities side, the kitchen was fully stocked with alcohol and snack items, all-inclusive of the bill. Emma never much took advantage, but her ex was never one to shy away from a free trip. Near the television, there was a chest with multiple new Kollar Tech items, including virtual reality devices, drones and small robots. She had seen several humanoid robots walking around the hotel with cleaning carts and wondered if they were robots or humans. Their figure was that of a female with the ass and breasts prominently outlined in their latex uniform. But their heads were covered with a mask. The front of the mask was like a mirror with the person's face reflected back to them. It was a weird look, but no one ever talked about it. The rest of the staff were dressed professionally. Males in tailored suits and women in tight dresses from Sexie, a provocative clothing company. Their appearances were flawless. Much like Mr. Lockton, Mr. Kollar liked to run a tight ship.
Before closing the chest, Emma noticed one last tiny shelf at the bottom. She pulled it open and found four different circular objects. Judging by the diameter of the circle, they appeared to be collars. There were no descriptions or instructions, but the sleek modern design and colors flashing underneath enticed her to pick it up. A beep in the closet interrupted her. She returned the collar and closed the chest.
In the closet was one of the weird cleaning robots. Her face reflected back at her as the robot stood patiently at attention.
"Hello?" Emma said.
"Good evening Emma, I am Kollar Bot number 44 at your service. My listing of commands and automated activities can be found in the brochure on your desk." The bot said. The voice sounded like a modern text to speech program where it sounded more human than machine, but still easily identifiable. It was a flattering female voice, no doubt more for the man than the female. Better they boss a robot around than their wife.
Emma reached out to touch the mask, but the bot quickly grabbed her hand.
"Please do not touch my mask." The bot released her hand and stood back at attention.
Emma shut the closet door. The aggressiveness of the robot made her uneasy about it standing in her closet the entire night. There was no way she could sleep with it in there. Not after watching so many evil robot movies over the years. She checked her phone and realized it was time to get ready for dinner with the group.
