Chapter 476 Speaking Truth to Power
"Al-Ra'ees Al-Khalidi, we can't keep using the economic crunch as an excuse for downsizing or the company will face major delays in important projects," Youssef Al-Mutairi said. He was a tall, distinguished looking middle-aged man with a neatly trimmed salt-and-pepper beard, dressed in a white thobe and red-checkered ghutra.
(Ed note: Al-Ra'ees roughly translates to "president", Al-Khalidi is a Saudi Arabian surname, and the thobe and ghutra are traditional Saudi apparel. It's the ankle-length white robe [thobe] and the headscarf [ghutra] that you see them wear on television or in movies. Ghutras are secured to people's heads by a black cord called an agal.)
"How old will you be this year?" Suleiman Al-Khalidi asked. It was a weird deflection of the issue Youssef had raised.
Suleiman was a trust fund baby that got parachuted into a leadership position far too young. He was the very definition of the phrase "hire them while they're young enough to believe they know everything" and felt that he could take his company to new heights by getting rid of all the dead weight. And to him, "dead weight" was synonymous with "old", so he had been purging his company since taking over. This content originates from n0v3lbin•
"Forty-two, Al-Ra'ees," Youssef politely replied, despite not seeing the correlation between his age and the issue their company was facing.
"Do you want to remain in your position until you retire?" the much younger man passive-aggressively asked.
"What am I supposed to tell Samira?" he mumbled to himself after getting in his car, thinking of the upcoming awkward meeting with his family when he got home.
However, before he could think any further, his AR glasses flashed with a golden priority notification and a figure appeared directly in front of him, wearing the flashy gold, red, and black dress uniform of the Emperor's Aegis.
"Is this Youssef Al-Mutairi?" the man asked.
"Who are you and how did you force my display like that?"
"Are you Youssef Al-Mutairi?" the man repeated.
"Yes," Youssef grunted in frustration. "Now tell me how you-"
"I am Huzeyfa Thabit of the Emperor's Aegis. Please standby for extraction."
Moments later, a sleek shuttlecraft painted in white with red and gold accents rocketed from the sky and came to an abrupt stop in front of Youssef's car, silently hovering a foot and a half off the ground. A gullwing door hissed open on its side and a ramp extended to the ground before a man wearing the dress uniform of the Emperor's Aegis stepped out onto the ramp and dropped to the ground.
He walked over to Youssef's car and tapped on the window. "Mr. Al-Mutairi, your extraction vehicle has arrived. Please exit your vehicle and board the shuttle, there is little time to waste."