The Rise of Damien Whitlock

Chapter3

Breaking the Mold

To his horror, it was perfect—better than anyone had come close to achieving. His face was drained of colour. He knew that if this got out, not only would Damien be hired on the spot, but his own reputation as the "unbeatable" staffer might be threatened.

"Well?" Damien asked, standing up. Jaxon cleared his throat, his mind racing for an excuse, fumbling for words. "Uh… It’s.. not enough," he stammered.

"I’ll need to run this by the CEO." He hurried out of the room, heading for Ethan's office, trying to compose himself. Meanwhile, Damien could sense something was off.

The tension in the room had shifted, and he noticed a few workers whispering to each other.

"The CEO will review it, but don't get your hopes high." Jaxon’s tone was clipped, but Damien could sense the lie. Something much larger than a simple internship was coming for him.

In a few minutes, Ethan had ordered Jaxon to offer Damien an employment letter, this time, not as an intern but as a permanent staff member.

Not only that, he's been nominated automatically to represent the company in the upcoming “Tech. Championship Award” where different tech moguls and prominent people would be seated. That would be a chance for “Top Innovators” to move forward.

The following week, Damien started working as a staff at Top Innovators.

“Welcome to the company, Mr. Damien Whitlock.” Ethan greeted him, giving him a handshake.

“Here's your workspace; these are the files you'll be working on; that is the refrigerator if you need chilled water, and during lunch, there are cooks who bring in our lunch.”

On a normal day, this is the work of Jaxon to a new staff, it was a big surprise to the staff that the CEO could stoop so low. He wouldn't even take a little of his time to explain anything regarding work to an old staff, let alone the petty ones. How much more to a new staff.

“It's my pleasure, Sir; I'd be glad to work with the company.”

All gaze was on Damien. Some were happy for him, while others, most especially Jaxon, almost bit himself. The attention that was usually given to him would automatically be shifted to someone else. Not only that, someone he didn't like from the beginning.

Ethan Caldwell gave Damien an assignment to be submitted to Jaxon. This same assignment has been given to other members of the staff a week before his arrival. All staff, including Damien, were asked to submit before the end of the day's work.

Immediately, he left, not taking much time, Damien began his work. The female staff, as usual, had started whispering to themselves, talking about Damien.

“He must be good at what he does, for Mr. Ethan to have left his office. Uh…” Vivian said, surprised.

“He might not be, maybe he's just lucky enough to be in the CEO’s good books.” Rose Lawson replied with a hint of jealousy.

“That reminds me, I've not gotten the final result of the assignment given; I don't think Jaxon himself knows how to go about it; I had met him to give me a hint on it, but the results weren't correct. Maybe I will meet with the new staff, he's sound, I guess, and he might help.” Vivian said, sashaying off.

“Hi Mr. Damien, I'm Vivian Shaw. You're welcome to the great tech. Citadel” Vivian said coolly, flashing a warm smile.

“It's my pleasure,” Damien responded, returning her smile.

“ I'm sorry to distract you. Can you please help me see through this assignment?”

Vivian bent, dropping her laptop on Damien's table and searching through her work. Damien, on the other hand, tried to pause what he was doing, then focused his gaze on her laptop.

“Yeah, here is it,” Vivian said.

“How else do you think I can solve this? I've drafted the outline, used different methods, yet…..” She cried out.

“Let me see.”

Damien moved closer to her laptop, going through the content.

“Oh! The best and easiest way to deal with this part of the project is using “Zinn’s method.”

“Zinn’s method? This is the first time I've heard of this.” Vivian said, her face tightened in astonishment, wanting to know more.

Damien brought out a piece of clear paper and did some rough workings on it, explaining thoroughly to Vivian how to go about it. In less than fifteen minutes they were done.

“Understood?” Damien asked.

“Oh my Goodness! I couldn't believe it could be this easy. It's been five days that I've been battling with it. I did understand now. Thanks so much.”

It was a few minutes to the closing hour when Jaxon ordered everyone to submit their work. Every staff member was standing in front of him while he was sitting, going through their work one after the other. When it got to Damien's part, he clicked on his work, and in a few seconds, he shouted.

“What rubbish? Whose work is this?” Jaxon said annoyingly, his voice harsh, frowning at his laptop as if he could smash it on the ground.

All the staff were shocked, looking at each other in surprise as to whose work could have made Jaxon that irritated. No one has ever seen that part of him.

Everyone except Damien moved closer to Jaxon to see whose work it was and what they'd done. In not less than a few seconds, all of them except Vivian laughed out loudly.

“Who's it? I can't see clearly; you all blocked the screen,” Vivian asked anxiously.

“It’s your friend, the new staff member,” Rose said, bursting into laughter as she pointed at Damien. Her laughter was contagious, and soon the entire office was filled with laughter.