[Neoxenon]

In every high level deal that the Gang of Five closes, Queenie always made the presentations to the clients. As the deal progressed past the middle management, the C-suite became involved in the approval process and the stakes would get higher. If Queenie sensed deliberation on the part of the male clientele that cannot be resolved by sheer negotiation strategies, she would send in her “sex-assassin” to take out the objection. There had never been any evidence, but rumours were rife that Claire used more than her charms to secure the deals. But so long the deals were being closed, the bosses’ eyes were too. Everyone secretly joked the bosses would never kill the ‘chicken’ that laid the golden eggs.

As I turned the corner of the meeting room towards the copier, I nearly ran into Frey rushing back to the meeting in the dark office. She was clutching a stack of papers, and held them tight to her chest as she shuffled past me back into the meeting room. Of all the ladies in the Gang of Five, Frey was without doubt the most academically competent. She came from Suzhou since 5, and stayed with her uncle in Singapore. She was brilliant in her studies, and majored in statistics and mathematics in university. She was the human calculator in the team, crunching through tons of data to find opportunities for sales growth and expansion when nobody else could spot them.