“Who’s the big cheese?â€ Megumi whispered. Akiko shushed her, but she also wanted to know the answer, sneaking peeks over her shoulder as he was shown into Mr Kanayama’s office.

“Taro Wakabayashi,â€ Satomi whispered. “President of Wakabayashi Construction, and head of the Wakabayashi Group.â€ Akiko looked blankly at her.

“Never heard of him,â€ Megumi said, saving Akiko the trouble.

“No, well, it’s not like Mitsubishi or anything. It is, however, the biggest construction company around here, by a significant margin. If Mitsubishi were building something here, they’d probably contract with Wakabayashi for it. The other companies in the group cover a wide range of businesses.â€

“And he’s a potential new client?â€ Akiko asked.

“Right,â€ Satomi agreed. “Hence all the bows from everyone.â€

“Ah.â€ Nodding in understanding, Akiko risked another glance at the office. Mr Wakabayashi had seemed to pay attention to every employee when he came into the office and they were all lined up to bow to him, which certainly suggested that he was taking them seriously. “Here’s hoping he brings us lots of business.â€

“And pay rises!â€ Megumi added. Akiko shushed her again, but couldn’t help smiling. A pay rise would, certainly, be very nice.

The meeting went on for a long time, which Akiko supposed was a very good sign, and she was soon concentrating on her work again. It was supposed to be simple data entry, but the spreadsheet was telling her that the company had lost billions on one contract, and that was clearly not the case. She started chasing the calculations back from cell to cell, trying to find the mistake, but there were no obviously superfluous zeroes. She started working a few bits out by hand, deciding that the error was likely to be in one of the formulae, and as she did so the screen saver kicked in, leaving her monitor dark.

Lightning from outside flickered in the reflection of the windows, but the thunder was inaudible. Akiko finished her calculations, without finding the error, and looked back at the monitor, reaching for the mouse.

Through the windows, she could see a cloudy sky with patches of blue, darkening towards rain, while the reflections of the window in the monitor were dominated by the black clouds and lightning flashes of a major storm. She glanced over her shoulder; very different weather in two parts of the sky was not impossible. However, although the clouds were darker, and starting to rain, there was no storm. She looked back at the monitor.

The rain in the reflected windows was heavier, and she could see motion in the distance, glimmering with every flash of lightning. The glimmers came closer, and she could see that they were the reflections off a churning wall of water, a tsunami rushing towards her, buildings collapsing as it passed over them.

<em>Tsunami don’t get that big,</em> she thought, <em>or some this far inland.</em>

The wave in the reflection reached the windows of their building, shattering them as it struck.

The lights went out.

Moments later, they flickered back on, accompanied by the sounds of computers restarting and muttered curses from the other workers. The windows reflected in the monitor matched the direct view, but Akiko realised that she couldn’t stay any longer.

Claiming illness, she hurriedly left the office.