Leighton’s offices were usually more organised, silent save for the sound of papers rustling, keys on a keyboard being pressed repeatedly and rapidly with the occasional clicking of shoes and heels across the floor. Now, Zoltan noted a large increase in the office’s entropy. The silence was still there but under an air of tension, desks were empty and messy.

He had to walk five floors up after the lift was too packed to accommodate the colonel; a mistake on his part after he got off at the wrong floor for the meeting. Nevertheless, he wasn’t late owing to his need for punctuality; you were either early or late, coming on time was a sign you weren’t managing your time well and thus, you were late.

 Zoltan arrived twenty minutes early to an empty meeting room, it's black swivel chairs feeling more uncomfortable than when he sat in them ten  years ago. He chose Lauren’s, she definitely didn’t need to use hers at the moment. In fact, she wouldn’t ever be using one for the rest of her life.

 Still, it was good for his feet which demanded some sort of respite from standing, following climbing up five floors in a suit; he wasn’t young anymore and it was starting to show.

When the rest of the board members did arrive, most of them seemed intimidated by the sight of him in the chair. No doubt the rumours of government intervention had put them on edge; some of them remembered when heads rolled the last time Zoltan had to pay them a visit.

 “ Is everyone here?” Zoltan asked, ticked by their tardiness. He didn’t want to spend too much time here, he had other pressing issues that needed settling.

“ I believe so,” a tall African-American man spoke up. He was dressed in a tailored suit, likely from some high end establishment and from the sheen of the suit, Zoltan guessed it to be cashmere; too expensive for his tastes.

“ Bradford is it?” Zoltan inquired, he remembered him being slimmer; his cheeks were puffier and a paunch had grown on his stomach , where his shirt buttons engaged in a strenuous battle against the ghastly gut. .

“ Oh you still remember me, General?” Bradford remarked, a grating smirk on his lips.

“ I do, I definitely remember people who get on my nerves and I see that hasn’t changed about you.

“Now,” he barked, turning his eyes to the rest of the gathered.

“ You all know why I’m here,” Zoltan flashed a smile which added to the unease felt by all the board members.

“ Your boss, Lauren authorized an attack on Jessica and because of that, it led to Miami. I’m sure all of you must have been surprised to see your project out there, running wild and causing panic,”Zoltan said, his displeasure growing steadily more evident in his voice.

“ The public reaction to her has been...mixed, to say the least.”

Zoltan stood up and paced around the room while he continued to speak.

“ Either way, the people in power have decided to let her be for the moment. You lot on the other hand,” Zoltan jabbed his thumb at the group.

“I can’t leave you alone,” he slammed his hands hard against the oak table, causing any knick knacks on it to jump a little into the air. So did everyone in the room, scared by the sudden movement.

“ Since Lauren’s committed treason, the government is launching a full investigation into Leighton. A top down investigation so expect a call from us in the coming days. I’d keep my schedule open and avoid any sudden trips out of the country. You wouldn’t want to give the wrong impression would you?”

There were whispers as the group reacted to his words, some with concern and fear, Bradford wasn’t one of them.

“I see what you’re doing, General. You want Lauren’s job, don’t you?” He accused him, convinced in his hypothesis.

An asymmetrical  smirk creeped across Zoltan’s face, the general very much amused by the accusation.

“ I don’t, I get better benefits with the USAF than I do as a company man. Plus, why do I want to be the captain of a sinking ship? Your stock is plummeting faster than a lead balloon, and that’s what you think?”

He chuckled mirthfully, genuinely tickled by the thought.

“ I’d rather play Russian roulette with a fully loaded revolver than do that.”

“Now I also need all the files you have on Jessica, hopefully you do actually have those files and didn’t put them in the shredder. Also, I’ll need someone to get in contact with Dr. Chen, the big girl’s father. He hasn’t been seen since the Miami Incident and it's very important I speak with him.”

“We already tried that,” a petite chubby woman in her forties at the far end of the room spoke up.

“ You did?” Zoltan replied.

She nodded her head, “ He hasn’t shown up for work for about two weeks now. Even Dr. Ravi can’t find him and they’re best friends.”

“ Really?” Zoltan approached her, even his best friend? He didn’t know Wallace very well, he was distant but exuded a paternal aura. Zoltan was thankful, at times he seemed to be the only person Jessica would listen to.

 “ Get Dr. Ravi up here; the rest of you may leave. Just remember, we’ll be in touch.”

No one in the room felt like staying, as evidenced by the quick shuffling of feet and general uneasiness in the air.

Six minutes passed before a sleep deprived Dr. Ravi emerged, a ubiquitous lab coat on his shoulders. His curly dark hair was a mess and upon seeing Zoltan, he froze on the spot. His pupils dilated, heart flushed with adrenaline.

“ Calm down Ravi, you’re not in trouble. I just want to ask you a few questions before I send you on your way. Have a seat, or stand if you like. Either way suits me,” he spoke gruffly to him. Ravi chose to sit in a chair facing Zoltan ,separated by the table.It felt more assuring if there were some sort of barrier between them.

“ What do you want to know?” His voice carried a telltale trace of an Indian accent, a vestigial link to his South Asian roots; if the earthy brown skin wasn’t a big enough hint of it.

Zoltan leaned in just a bit, the hairs on Ravi’s neck standing tall.

“ A few things. First, where is Wallace?”

“I-I don’t know,” Ravi stuttered.

“ Wallace didn’t call me, he didn’t even tell me anything before he disappeared. I thought he was with your guys. You know, since Jessica got out you’re probably rounding up everyone involved. Am I right?”

Zoltan leaned back, snorting amusingly at the question.

“I can tell you that’s not happening. However, I do want you and all the other Project Hercules eggheads to get me all the files you have on Jessica.”

Ravi breathed a sigh of relief, the knot in his stomach feeling a lot less Gordian.

“Everything?”

Zoltan nodded, “Everything. Even if it's just a folder with a diner napkin with some math equation on it, I want it. You have twenty four hours to give them to me, be it hard or soft copy.”

“Is that all?”

“I do have a question, a hypothetical one. Has Jessica ever been trained? Anything really, obedience, cognitive tasks, anything of that sort.”

The knot in Ravi’s stomach unravelled a little, less than when he found out Zoltan was not having hauled off to some secret government facility but enough for him to notice.

“ That’s not my area, training of any kind was left to the military. I recall being told that, by you of course. Why are you asking?”

“Classified, it's classified,” Zoltan answered.

“ If you’re worried you wasted billions of government cash, don’t. Jessica is the biggest achievement since Dolly.”

“She’s certainly stronger than Dolly,” Zoltan replied before getting up.

“ Now, I have to be somewhere else. You have my number and if you do not have the files or at least call me to explain your failure to complete the task, you’ll be paying me a visit.”

***************

 “ Enjoying the life of a free man?”

 Michael wiped his wet, messy hair with a military green towel , glancing at Zoltan who had dropped by unannounced.

“ I am, thanks for asking.”

“Remember, you’re only free because you’re still useful . If you weren’t, you would be in jail with Lauren.”

 Michael’s shoulders jumped at the mention of her name, the few days he spent in a cell next to hers weren’t exactly the best of times.

“ I’d rather go to Guantanamo than be neighbours with her. Did you know she doesn’t shut up? Not even after lights out.”

Michael leaned back into a hardwood chair as Zoltan spoke.

“ I have a job for you, make sure you do it right or you might be moving back in.”

Zoltan took out his wallet and pulled out a dog eared, yellowing business card.He passed it to Michael who read it, puzzled by what he saw.

“Kevin Crowley. Never heard of him or any reporter who has a business card but hey, what do you need him for?”

He crossed his arms, the bottom corner of the card clasped between his second and third fingers.

“ Collecting a debt he owes me. Go to his office and tell him to call me. I need him to dig up some dirt for me.”

“Oh, something to use against the big girl huh?” Michael smirked, the gears in his mind turning and forming theories about Zoltan’s plan.

“ You going to sue her or something? Maybe blackmail her?Might work,” he commented.

“Everything I need to say, is in here,” Zoltan pulled out a folded piece of A4 paper from his wallet and passed it to Michael who immediately opened it.

“ A bit low tech don’t you think? I kinda figured with the whole mad science thing going, you would at least have given me a flash drive. This is-” Michael was cut off by a ticked off Zoltan.

“I’m not going to say too much , everything you need is in it and you’ll do everything in your power to get the message across. Just,” Zoltan raised his finger up.

“ No violence because the nature of this task is-”

“Classified. I get it, but for how long? Jessica used to be classified but then she showed up like Godzilla in Tokyo and now the whole world knows about her!” Michael tittered at his own sense of humour, a feeling not shared by Zoltan who glowered at him.

“ Just get the message to him,” Zoltan shot back.

************

 “ So, how does this go?” Jessica asked, looking pensively at Jack. She had weighed up the pros and cons of the modelling job, spending hours after Eva left lying in her tent and giving it some serious thought.

 Jack sat in her palm, Jessica adopting an Indian style sitting position.

“ We’ll go out there, listen to Eva’s offer and you decide if you want to take it. We can always negotiate.”

 “ I’m a little nervous, I’ve never done this before,” she chuckled nervously. She forced a smile but Jack could see the tension bubbling beneath the surface.

“ What, getting a job? I can imagine, there aren’t many openings in the 200 foot girl category.”

“Yeah. Well, let's go out and hear her offer.”

The pair emerged from her tent, going to Jack’s backyard where Jessica placed him on the floor to join Eva and a jumpy looking bald lawyer; jumpy because Jessica noted he seemed to jump when he saw her. She had to remind herself it was not polite to laugh at his reaction, that would have been rude.

 “ Hello again Eva,” Jessica flashed her friendliest smile at the former model.

 “ And hello to you too, Jessica. I hope you considered my offer, I was not exaggerating when I said you could go far, and that is not just in modelling.”

“I believe you,” Jessica sat just beyond the hedge, or she would have risked cratering the courtyard with her feet.

“ But I just want to work out the details of my er...contract,” Jessica said.

“ Of course, Brian here will help with us that,” Eva referred to the man beside her who immediately took out a soft cover file and handed it to Jack. Jack opened it and perused through the contract , it was only about ten pages, hardly anything when he remembered the mountain of terms and conditions his father used to go through whenever contracts were being drawn up.

 “Well, it looks like it's set at about half a million for her first ever job,” Jack spoke out loud, for the benefit of Jessica.

“ How long is the contract?”

“A year,” Jack replied, it was good for any model but from the look of indifference of Jessica’s face, it seemed she wasn’t too keen.

 “ Five hundred thousand dollars spread over a year, I don’t think that really covers my expenses. I could hardly afford any clothes for myself and I will be wearing real clothes, not this tarp I ‘borrowed’ in Miami.”

Jessica could only imagine the look on the owner’s face when returned and found it missing, only to find out she was wearing it.

“ That’s a lot for a first time model, especially for a client who has zero training in modelling,” Brian answered.

 “ I agree,” Eva added on. “ However, we can always negotiate. I pride myself on being flexible.”

“ I want two million, that should cover expenses.”

Her offer was met with stunned silence, even from Jack who was looking over his shoulder, mouth hanging at the figure she just quoted.

 Eva didn’t seem to know if Jessica was being serious at all.

“I-um...that is a lot. I’m going to be honest here, it is a very big sum to ask for. I….”

She leaned in, whispering to Brian ear while covering her mouth. Brian nodded.

“We could afford that but it's risky for me to accept. How about we meet in the middle? One million, you’ll be in the same league as Adriana, Gisele and Kate. They get seven figure sums even if it's only for a few days.”

 Jessica grinned, even if she did not really know those names.

“I assume they’re at the top of their game.”

“They are and what we’re offering is what they get. I honestly believe it's a good deal. You should take it,” Brian insisted curtly.

“ It is if I were as small as them. I’m not, I eat as much as an entire military base, maybe two if I’m really hungry. I cannot live on that amount. You wouldn’t pay Adrian minimum wage would you?”

“ I see your point there. I wouldn’t pay Adriana peanuts,” Eva chuckled at Jessica’s mistake.

“ You weren’t joking when you said you knew nothing. If we do work this out, remind me to tell who Adriana is. You might even meet her.”

“ Maybe, I could do with more friends,” Jessica smiled down at Jack, noting how he looked extra handsome today; that thought made the butterflies in her stomach flutter.

A thought came into her head, something she had not considered.

“Is it normal for models to keep the clothes they model?”

“Usually no but-oh I see what you mean,” answered Eva, having her own eureka moment.

“ You want them don’t you? The clothes, to keep and wear everyday?”

Jessica nodded, her heart pumping with excitement. It would definitely get her out of the rags she was in now and it wasn’t as if there was another giantess around to sell them to. Yes, she would wear them.

 “ I have to tell you though, for now it's mostly bikinis and lingerie-”

“I want them, it wouldn’t cover a lot but it is a start. Maybe in the future if I do get to wear a nice dress or even a T-shirt and shorts,” Jessica insisted. She leaned in a little, feeling this would be the deal she wanted.

“A million dollars and I get to keep whatever I wear on these shoots.”

“Deal,” Eva immediately answered.

“Oh and um…” Jessica suddenly thought of something.

“Jack gets to come to my photoshoots, if he wants to,” she shot a hopeful look at him. Jack chuckled, it was a nice gesture.

“ Oh? Sure, we’ll formalise it in a few days, need to get something a girl like you can actually sign,” Eva said, much to the amusement of Jessica who chuckled at thought of signing a piece of paper the size of a house.

“ It was a pleasure doing business with you,” Jessica extended her hand into the yard, her index finger hovering a few feet from them. Both Eva and Brian held it lightly and shook, the tree sized appendage swaying from the little movement Jessica imparted.

“We’ll be in touch,”Eva gave Jack a warm hug before leaving. Brian did not do the same but Jack wasn’t offended by it.

“ Well,” Jack smiled up at her, hands on his hips.

“That was pretty good, you have a knack for this kind of thing.”

 “Oh please,” Jessica guffawed.

“It was nothing, I think Eva was playing nice. She really couldn’t pass up a chance to get me in one of her swimsuits.”

“Not that you’ll fit into one of hers,” Jack joked.

“HEY!”