Unexpected Guest.

Daniel was walking down a long corridor and stopped in front of the door of the study. "Is he there?" the man asked the secretary sitting across from the office.

"Yes, sir, Mr. Anderson came an hour ago and hasn't given any orders yet," the secretary replied.

"By the way, Harry, you look great. I'm glad you are finally out from the hospital, but why are you here? Didn't my brother give you leave to recover?"

Harry was Elena's secretary and spent almost two months in the hospital after Philip Carter's attack on a woman. The secretary was seriously injured, and the doctors fought for his life as best they could.

Elena asked Lina in secret to help the man restore his health, and although Lina could do it in a matter of minutes, this would arouse great suspicion. Therefore, they had to stretch this process for a longer period. It is a pity that Elena did not know that her demanding and pedantic secretary was in perfect condition and was already bustling about at his workplace.

"It's all right, sir. I am grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Anderson for their care. Although I am still tormented by remorse that I could not protect her then, although this was one of my direct duties," Harry answered bitterly.

"Never mind, the main thing is that everything turned out all right. Otherwise, you know Elena, what would she feel if you hadn't gotten out of this situation?" Daniel reassured him. Although Elena's secretary looked cold and restrained and was one of the best bodyguards, there was a soft side in him, so Daniel was sincerely glad that David could find such a loyal subordinate for his wife.

"Um, sir, I'm sorry to cross the line, but don't you know when Mrs. Anderson will be back? I was told it had been a month and a half since she was absent. Is she all right? I mean Mr. Anderson's outlook makes me feel nervous."

"Yes, don't worry, Elena is fine. She just had to leave for England for urgent family reasons. As soon as she returns, she will immediately arrive at the office. So tell other employees not to worry too. In addition to this, we have a bunch of important things that need attention, ok?" Daniel patted Harry on his shoulder, and making sure that the secretary understood him, he went into the office.

A light scent of female perfumes hung in the air, calm music played in an unobtrusive tone, and only the appearance of a gloomy man sitting at a large desk in the center of the room did not fit into this harmonious idyll.

"Brother, have you changed your passions? I did not know that you began to use women's perfumes. Look, a little more, and you will go to the dark side," Daniel snapped, but his joke did not cause the expected reaction in his younger brother.

"These are the perfumes of Elena, I gave them to her for Valentine's Day this year. Found it on her desk," David answered calmly, looking at the small blue bottle of fragrant liquid in his hands.

Daniel sighed heavily and sat on a chair opposite the table, "Listen, I understand everything, it's hard for you now. We are all worried about Elena, but at least watch your appearance. It hurts to look at you! Employees are already starting to worry that something is wrong. And you know very well the situation we are in now."

David's condition began to cause concern in his older brother, Daniel knew that David had not slept for almost a month and a half, from the moment Elena fell into a coma. An unexpected call from Nick found them in the office as they studied documents on Marс Technologies sent by an unknown person.

Nick said that he and Elena went to Mr. Lee's house because she wanted to pick up something there. He stayed to wait for her in the car, and when a lot of time passed, the young man decided to find what was taking her so long.

As a result, when he entered the house, he found a woman lying unconscious on the floor in the living room.To their luck, Lina was not far from Chen's house at that time and helped stabilize Elena's condition. But what really happened, none of them knew, just as they did not know why Elena needed the paintings, which she put in a pile on a table in the living room.

And although Lina suggested that it would take about a month to restore Elena and that her life was not in danger, almost a month and a half had passed since then, but the woman did not recover.

"Daniel, you don't understand how I feel. I know that I have to be strong and not give in to emotions, but I just can't. I'm scared, you understand?" David answered with a pain in his eyes, "After the birth of Sean, she was in this condition for two weeks. And now a month and a half has passed! Can you even imagine what it is like to be near her and not hear the beat of her heart? It works so quietly that I cannot hear it! Even Armand can barely hear it!"

"David, listen to me, everything will be fine. Lina said that your wife's vitality is slowly recovering, it only takes more time than we expected, and that's all."

"How much more? Another month, two, maybe a year? I hate this feeling of helplessness when I do not understand what is happening. I come to the office only because this company is dear to Elena, but even here things are going the way I am unable to influence on," David breathed, his appearance was exhausted and tired.

Over the past month, Marс Technologies has expanded around the world to a level that no company has reached. Their level of influence on almost all market segments reached ninety percent. Without a doubt, it could be argued that Marcus's company was the shadow ruler of the whole world, staying behind the governments of the countries and large corporations that took full responsibility for the decisions made, but in fact, were subordinate to the will of Marc Technologies.

Even with the data that David received, Lenali Enterprise could not achieve much. When they posted information about secret illegal transactions of the Marcus company through the Darknet network in order to hide their involvement, the rate of chipping of the world's population slowed for a while, but this effect did not last more than a week.

After that, Marс Technologies attacked the company of David with even greater pressure, which led to a сollapse of the stock prices of the latter by more than fifty percent.

To say that their business had serious problems would be like to say nothing. Most businessmen were generally amazed at how Lenali Enterprise was able to stay afloat after this and secretly admired David's abilities in crisis management.

But David did not care about these minor successes amid heavy losses. What was important to him, as before, remained unchanged. And that was Elena's condition.

"Brother, I want you to take a look at the latest research. It seems to me that the serum is ready for use," Daniel handed David a folder with the data of his experiment, which he had been conducting over the past five years.

After Elena fell into a coma for the first time, the man began to study this problem. The restoration of vital energy was different from the restoration of the physical forces of the body, moreover, this energy was invisible to most sensors, and this caused difficulties with its analysis and ways of usage.

"Hmmm, I never expected your research to go that far," David was genuinely surprised that Daniel had such phenomenal results, knowing his older brother's love for procrastination.

"Hey, who do you take me for? You already forgot that there is a Nobel laureate in medicine in front of you, huh?" Daniel said with a genuine resentment in his voice.

David raised his eyebrows, he did not expect the older brother to remember the award that he received six years ago. So much has happened since then that David completely forgot about it. Well, apparently, this was not a particularly significant event.

"You're not serious, are you? Don't tell me that you really forgot about this?" Seeing the skeptic expression on his brother's face, Daniel was shocked and offended.

"Okay, okay, I remember everything. You've done well, but apparently you also forgot who helped you in this. If it weren't for the documents that we stole in the Berne Group laboratory, this prize would go to scientists from Lee Pharmaceuticals only," David said.

He still felt guilty of the death of Professor Richards, if Brian hadn't got these documents through his channels and handed them to David, this would not have prompted Rick to decide to get rid of the professor.

And although David already had suspicions about Berne Group's connection with the affairs of his past life, the man reproached himself for being blind to the last and trusting Rick as his best friend.

Well, experience does not always come easily. Sometimes it takes a hard way.

"Well, what do you think? I'm sure that the serum is safe, but what effect it will cause, I can't say for sure. At least there shouldn't be any harm from it, but, as you know, I haven't tested its effect on people," Daniel said.

"Let's wait. I do not want to risk Elena's condition. Although the situation is unpleasant, but not critical," David answered after reflection. He trusted the knowledge of his elder brother, but Elena was not an ordinary person, and only God could know what would happen to her if they used the serum to wake her up.

"Mr. Anderson, sorry to bother you. The representative of Marc Technologies is asking for a meeting with you," the secretary's voice sounded through the communicator on David's desk.

The brothers looked at each other in surprise. "What time does he want to meet?" David specified.

"Sir, he is already here and is claiming that you will agree to see him now. What shall I answer?"

"Oh, it seems that someone forgot to add modesty and upbringing, that he dragged here without an invitation after all that their company did," Daniel could not resist the caustic comment.

"Harry, did he say his name?" David asked.

"Yes, sir. This man's name is Rick Stein."