Seulgi suddenly stilled and made a strange face.

  “What’s wrong,” Detective Kim asked.

  “Want to see a magic trick?”

  Nonplused at the non sequitur, but still game, he said, “Sure.”

  To his bafflement, she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue. He thought that she was messing with him and would blow a raspberry at him, but instead, she reached up with her long, graceful fingers and started stroking her tongue.

  Completely baffled, he was unsure as to what her antics would accomplish. Then she stopped, looked satisfied, and then held up a single hair. It was a longish white hair. He had already noticed her long, bck locks, so he was slightly mystified.

  “This is one of the joys of being owned by a Siamese.”

  Him not being a cat person, she further expined that hair would show up in random pces, at random times, mostly when it is most embarrassing or inconvenient. Such as now. She leaned forward and said in the most mock serious voice that she could muster, “Do you have an evidence bag for this?”

  In an equally, deadly serious voice, he deadpanned back, “Yes, ma’am, please pce it here.” Then he handed her the trash bin. His opinion of her went up two notches.

  She then asked in an actual serious voice, “Do you need me here, or am I in your way?”

  “I don’t need you here, precisely. However, if you have things to do, don’t let me stop you. Also, just please be retively nearby in case something comes up.” He handed a slip of paper. “Please put your phone number on here, just in case.”

  “Ok. I’ll also put my second’s number on here because if you can’t get me, Jackso…oh.”

  She took a moment to write down her number. Looking down, she hid behind her hair both in embarrassment and consternation. “I put Nayeon’s number on here in case you cannot get ahold of me. She has nearly the same authority as I do.”

  Some of her people were still watching from the door. She took them all to the conference room. She even called Yeji back from whatever she was doing – you could never tell with that girl.

  Once everyone was in the conference room, she held an impromptu morning meeting.

  Once everyone was present, she called them all to order, silencing the few whispers. What she did not expect was that both Bhuwakuln and the Old Man stationed themselves on either side of the doors as firmly as sentinels. She ignored both of them for the moment.

  Clearing her throat, she started with “OK, Nayeon. Where are you with your project?”

  Nayeon, being smart, knew what she needed to do. So, she took a moment to organize her thoughts, organized what needed to be said, and then gave her daily report. She gave, like usual, the status, what was left to do, what she needed to do to finish the daily job. She also pointed out that she was having a problem with a single aspect that she just could not clear up. She asked for suggestions.

  She received a few suggestions to try.

  Next, Yeji took up the reins of the conversation. She did much the same things as Nayeon. Though, Yeji was a bit more concise and less frivolous. Yeji’s problem revolved around a person rather than a situation. One fool did not take the earlier hints on why it was a Bad Idea to mess with Seulgi’s people and was trying to be funny with Yeji as she was ‘just a girl.’

  Seulgi simply asked, “Do you need help?”

  Yeji gave a more frightening grin and replied, “And miss the fun? I got this.”

  Seulgi just nodded at this and then turned to Min-Jeong. Thus, the meeting continued. Everyone was up on what everyone else was doing. A few people needed some assistance with ideas so a mini secession of brainstorming occurred. Other than that, it was business as usual.

  The Old Man was fascinated as usual by Seulgi’s nearly irreverent and freewheeling style of managing her meetings. There were both jokes, jokes at the other's expense, and ughter by all. He was not sure if he would be able to work the same kind of magic as she could, so it was an experience to watch it in action.

  Once everyone else was done, Seulgi started her portion of reporting to her minions. The Old Man never understood why she would report to them, but he didn’t say anything. It was her meeting, after all.

  She brought up the current status of the various projects. She gave the directions as to what she expected them to be working on and when she needed results by. She apologized for not having printouts like normal, but there was someone in her office and she could not get to her computer or printer.

  There was a general weak chuckle at this.

  Now, Seulgi lost all the color in her face and looked a bit haggard under the white halogen lights. “So, I have good news and bad news. First, the good. Wendy’s parents are here, as you all know. They are by her bedside. She is starting to show signs of waking up.” Holding up a hand to stop the barrage of questions. “As soon as I know, you guys will know.”

  She continued, “Obviously, we have someone missing today.” There was a wet intake of breath. “We don’t know much right now. We have some basic information and that’s it. We don’t have enough information to begin to make a guess, let alone a hard conclusion. Everyone here, your job is to quell any rumors. This is not a grist for the normal rumor mill. Got it? If need be, feel free to tell anyone who continues to make rampant rumors that I will personally take an interest in them. Very personally.” Everybody present had a chill run down their spines as Seulgi is not normally that grim.

  No one noticed when the Old Man quietly exited the room.

  She finished the meeting with “Any questions? Comments? Concerns?”

  She got a negative response back and then she shooed them all out of the conference room and for them back to work with their heads clearer.