Jigsaw Lovers (8 page)

On his last day of work for the company he arrived at the office earlier than anyone else. He had with him three packets of disks of the brand that the company used. He went around to everybody’s desk and put one of these disks in amongst their working disks. He put a seemingly new unopened packet, that he had carefully resealed into the stationery cupboard. When the disks were used it would seem as though they had no information on them. However, he had written an undetectable cloaked virus program that would transfer itself to the host computer, once the disk was inserted in the drive. It would then sit on the computer’s hard drive until two days before the end of the following month, when it would activate itself and proceed to destroy all the data on that particular computer. Backups were only made at a departmental level at the end of the month. Not paying his bonus would cost the company at least one month’s lost work and quite possibly a lot more if they were slack in isolating it.

With this happy thought he entered the world of the freelance consultant.

Peter Knight was intrigued to receive an invitation to lunch from Ackermann Public Relations, especially since Dan Ackermann himself had telephoned to ask him, and had mentioned that there might be some mutual ground for doing business. When he arrived at the impressive headquarters building in St James’s he was conducted up to the twenty-third floor by someone who only introduced himself as James. There he met Dan Ackermann who offered him drinks from a very well-stocked bar.

For the first time that day he thought that things weren’t as bad as he had perceived them to be, in relation to what had happened to him that morning.

When Colin Hurd had telephoned him to say that he was putting the account up for tender, and a straight tender at that, ‘I’m sorry Peter but … ’ he was dumbfounded. He had asked him what the problem was, but had received only an evasive reply, that ended with Colin being very abrupt and putting the telephone down on him. When he had tried calling back, each time he was told that Mr Hurd was unavailable, in a meeting and, finally that he had left for the day.

He had tried to be positive and look on the bright side. He hadn’t actually lost the Amalgamated account yet. He was still going to be allowed to quote, it was just that things weren’t going to be as easy as they had been. But then why had Colin been so indirect and formal with him on the telephone? Maybe someone had found out about their arrangement and Colin was trying to distance himself from it.

He decided there was no point in worrying too much about the matter. He would wait and see what transpired. There was still plenty of work in progress from Amalgamated and to the outside world the situation would appear no different. No one apart from him and Colin would know that anything had changed.

And now lunch with Ackermann. Maybe this would be a new source of work that would fill the gap that would be left if he did actually lose Amalgamated.

Ackermann’s executive dining room had a splendid view over the London skyline. The food and wine that were served were quite exceptional and would have put many of the better restaurants to shame. During the meal the conversation was non-business revolving mainly around the latest dismal performance by the English cricket team. It was over a glass of port that Knight was first apprised of the real reason for his invitation.

‘Peter, you probably realise there was an ulterior motive for inviting you here today,’ began Ackermann.

‘I thought there might be.’ Knight replied knowingly.

‘How’s the market research business going?’

‘Can’t complain too much. We seem to scrape by each month,’ he said deprecatingly.

‘If the bills that we pay for research are anything to go by I imagine you’re doing a little bit better than scraping by,’ Ackermann chuckled.

‘But then you do use one of the most expensive outfits in town. Perhaps if you were to give my company the opportunity to quote, you might be pleasantly surprised.’

‘Really?’ Ackermann looked at his guest, and then added almost under his breath, with a slight smile on his face, ‘I’m sure I would be at that.’

‘Most of our clients seem very happy with our rates, and keep coming back with new business. For instance, Amalgamated Magazines has been with us now almost since we started. We handle most of their work.’ No harm in putting a brave face on the matter. After all this was strictly speaking true.

Ackermann offered
Knight a selection of Davidof cigars and waited whilst he chose one and had lit it before he continued.

‘I’ll get straight to the point. I’m glad your business is doing so well, because we want to buy it.’ He gently exhaled a cloud of smoke and examined the pale grey ash that was forming on the tip of his cigar.

Knight was completely taken aback. This wasn’t what he’d expected. Needing time to think he said the first thing that came into his head, which wasn’t particularly original under the circumstances.

‘It’s not for sale.’

Ackermann ignored the remark. ‘We’re prepared to offer you five hundred thousand pounds for it.’

Knight
laughed. ‘I assume that you’re joking. I don’t know what its worth exactly, of course, but I’d say its at least ten times that figure,’ Knight countered. ‘So if you’d like to try again and make me a realistic offer, I might consider it.’

‘I think under the circumstances that is a very realistic offer indeed. In fact I think its quite generous.’

‘I don’t know what you mean by under the circumstances, but I can tell you that the account with Amalgamated Magazines alone brings in four million a year. Then there’s …’

Ackermann raised his hand to cut him short. ‘Rumour has it that that might not be the case for very much longer,’ he said languidly, looking him straight in the eye. He was pleased with the startled reaction that appeared on
Knight’s face.

‘How do you know that? I was only told … ’ he stopped himself.

‘We know. We also know that it’s highly unlikely that your company would ever win a contract from them if you quoted fairly. Without being able to bribe Colin Hurd you don’t stand very much of a chance of ever getting any more work out of that group.’

‘That’s a lie. You can’t prove anything.’
Knight tried to sound indignant. ‘I’m not going to sit here and be insulted. Unless you apologise immediately I’ll sue you for that remark.’

‘No you won’t.’ Ackermann said matter-of-factly.

‘I damn well will.’ he rose to leave.

‘James, would you do the honours?’

James pushed a button on a hand-held remote control unit. Over concealed speakers came Knight’s voice, ‘
… it was
expected to make a payback to whoever was handling the account. This wasn’t the case with everyone, but my biggest client Amalgamated Magazines was certainly one … . He’s had the benefit of considerable amounts of cash, skiing holidays, Caribbean cruises and a house that would be way beyond what his salary could command.’

‘Where did you get that?’ He tried to remember when he had said that. ‘You can’t prove anything.’

‘Maybe, maybe not. But we don’t intend to try. Sit down Mr Knight.’ Ackermann pointed with his cigar. ‘There’s something we would like to show you.’ Ackermann nodded at James.

James pushed anothe
r button and the nine flat screens, that occupied most of the wall in front of Knight, came to life. A video began to play. To Knight’s horror he realised it was himself, almost twice life size, in bed with Diana in her hotel. It suddenly dawned on him. That was where he’d said those things about bribes, over dinner with her about a month ago.

He’d taken her back to her hotel and she’d invited him up for a nightcap in her suite. One thing had led to another, and he hadn’t left until dawn. He remembered she had been a fascinating lover. He had certainly enjoyed himself, but what was the price he was now going to have to pay for those five hours of exquisite fun?

He’d clearly been set up by someone, probably Ackermann himself. It was a very professional job, the room obviously had concealed cameras and microphones. There was no doubt it was him. In fact he would have been impressed by the clarity of the images, under any but these circumstances.

‘This goes on for several hours. You’re quite a performer, Peter. You notice the date on the newspaper? You can’t deny it by saying that it happened a few years ago.’ Ackermann paused to refill his glass.

‘What do you intend doing with this?’ Knight asked.

‘You’re getting married soon. She’s very pretty and very wealthy. Such a match should make your life very comfortable. I understand she’s not averse to paying your gambling debts from time to time.’ He registered the look of surprise on
Knight’s face. ‘I imagine this might interfere with your wedding plans, if it were to get out.’

Knight
was going to protest further, but he suddenly realised there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t afford not to get married.

They had found out about him and Hurd and they had the video of him and Diana. If either of these things were made public he would stand to lose everything he had. At least if he sold now he would be a reasonably rich man, and when he married he would be secure for the rest of his life. He knew, ultimately, he was beaten, but he felt he should at least try to get the price up and retain some dignity.

‘Make it a million and I’ll sell.’

‘You’re hardly in a position to bargain, but I like your spirit.’ Ackermann was genuinely impressed by his attempt to regain face. ‘Shall we agree on seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds?’

‘I think I could bring myself to accept that.’ Knight raised his glass in mock salute.

‘Then we have a deal. Excellent. Have another glass of port and I’ll have our lawyers bring up the contract for you to sign.’ Ackermann rose. ‘It’s been a pleasure doing business with you, Mr
Knight. If you’ll excuse me now, I have matters to attend to. James will look after you.’ He shook his hand and left.

Ian Hamilton found being a freelance consultant running his own business very much to his liking. People that he had worked for on and off when he was employed full-time, readily gave him plenty of work, so almost from day one he was up and running.

He liked the freedom to work the hours he chose, often electing to spend the days on the beach, or taking long lunches, and then working late into the night. The work was always finished on time and on budget.

He designed a variety of customised software for his clients, ranging from simple financial accounting packages for small companies to highly sophisticated production control and management systems for large corporations. He was widely acknowledged to be one of the best programmers around.

Although he was very good at devising time-saving systems for other people, his own accounting and administration were a little ramshackle. It was an example of how people in a specific trade never manage to get round to organising themselves as efficiently as they organise their clients. They feel, as it represents them that it has to be so much better than anybody else’s, as this is, after all, their line of business. Also since it
’s a non-paying job it always gets put off for a quiet period, which, of course, never comes.

It was partly because of this that Hamilton began having problems with his cashflow towards the end of his first year. Two projects for which he had allocated time, and had even turned away other work for, were delayed by a couple of months at the last moment. This left a vacuum
that was not possible to fill at such short notice.

It also meant that his anticipated income for those months was virtually zero. Normally this wouldn’t have been a problem, as he had had until recently, enough money saved to cover unforeseen events for a month or two. However, on the strength of the anticipated contracts, he had just taken delivery of a new computer system, for which he had paid over most of his available spare cash.

He had a number of monthly financial commitments which had to be maintained, such as the mortgage bond on his flat, with the breath-taking views of Table Mountain, his car repayments, medical aid contributions, and payments to a number of long-term investment schemes, not to mention day-to-day cost-of-living, satellite TV subscription, and his maid’s wages.

He decided to discuss the situation with his bank manager and arrange a short-term loan to see him through the next few months. In the last year he had only met his manager, John Smith, once, and that was just to introduce himself and outline his intended move into self-employment. He made an appointment and arrived in his office the following day.

John Smith, his current manager, was very different from Michael Winder, his previous manager.

‘The Bank is not in the business of paying salaries to its customers.’ Smith was quite fond of that line. He had used it on many occasions to quell the aspirations of people who thought they could run their own businesses with the Bank’s money.

‘I’m not asking you to pay me a salary,’ Hamilton tried to remain calm and not sound too irritated or condescending. ‘I’m merely asking you to give me a facility for a month to cover a temporary shortfall.’

‘Do you think you work for the Bank? Is that it?’ he said with a supercilious smile on his face. He enjoyed putting these supposed up-and-coming entrepreneurs in their place. Why should he take any risk with the Bank’s money. If they defaulted, which invariably they did, then it would reflect badly on him. It would affect his chances of promotion. ‘It’s not for a capital asset purchase,’ he said in his pompous, patronising manner as though he were talking to a child.