Carolyn had received instructions the previous day to make contact with Gerald again after avoiding his telephone calls since their first meeting. She was still not sure how she would be able to face him. She had said she didn’t want to see him again, but the disembodied face on the computer screen had merely pointed out that she had a simple choice to be the hunter or the hunted. The telephone call she had made to Gerald had not left her feeling any more confident.
“How nice to hear from you, again,” he had said. “I had thought you were giving me the brush off.”
“Not at all, Gerald. I really enjoyed the time we spent together and have been looking forward to seeing you again but things kept coming up with my business and I didn’t want a fit you in between jobs.”
Carolyn loathed lying but once committed she had to make it work.
“I wanted to keep our time together special and at long last I’ve got a window of opportunity right the way through the weekend until Monday.” She heard her voice waver and her stomach contracted for she knew what she was saying.
There was a pause at the other end as Gerald took it on board.
“I have been busy too,” he replied. “There have been some problems and already had plans for the weekend but perhaps it would be possible to combine them.”
Carolyn continued:
“I just feel like getting away somewhere to feel the sand between my toes, somewhere romantic where I can feel looked after. I’ve had enough of this harsh world for the moment. I was just dreaming that someone would whisk me away from this mundane world and take me to paradise, then suddenly, Gerald, I thought of you.”
“And I’m glad you did, Carolyn,” said Gerald, “and I think I can oblige you with the sand. How do you fancy a weekend in the Canary Islands? I have some business meetings there but I’ll be staying at a place that is absolutely perfect.”
“It sounds just like what the doctor ordered,” replied Carolyn, “you are a dream, Gerald.”
For five minutes after she had put the telephone down, she was still shaking.
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By late afternoon and Mr C. was in a good mood. He sat comfortably behind his expansive desk and contemplated the weekend ahead in pleasurable anticipation. Business had been going well and this weekend would be an opportunity to share the news of his success with the others in very convivial surroundings and to gloat.
“The problem with my line of business,” he thought, “is that you never get much of a chance to talk about your successes.”
This weekend was going to be different. Shipments were up in quantity and in value, the long arm of the law was nowhere to be seen and a stream of new clients was simply begging for him to make a profit.
The only inconvenience was that he had to arrange his own transport to the meeting. At the last moment, Gerald had said it would be inconvenient for them to travel together. So it would have to be a scheduled flight and this meant that he would be arriving a day later. But this was a small cloud in Mr C.’s clear blue sky.
More difficult was the question of who to take with him. He leaned comfortably back in his executive chair with hands behind his head and commanded his computer to listen and display his personal photo album. The new voice operated software was wonderful. He still preferred a secretary to take dictation because he could forget about the grammar and the detail. If they were young, male and good looking, of course, that was an added bonus. But the voice-actuated software had its advantages for some situations. It was more private.
He browsed through the pictures on the screen. Many of the photos had been taken by himself at his flat or at friends and were extremely intimate. He stopped for a moment to examine the photo he had taken the other evening. The man from the dating agency had been nervous but attractive in a defenceless sort of way. Perhaps he should have courted him more gently. It was rare for him to be unsuccessful with a date these days and he was tempted to rendezvous with them again. Sometimes when dates played hard to get, it made the chase more interesting and the inevitable surrender more satisfying. Mr C.’s massive wealth and whirlwind of social contacts rarely failed to impress and eventually seduce. Perhaps he would give the fellow a call on the mobile phone that he had won from him and offer him the chance of winning it back.
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The telephone purred, breaking his train of thought. He flicked the switch to put the phone on broadcast. The sound of an extremely harassed and a nervous courier filled the room.
“They came at us so fast,” he stammered. “We were only 2 miles off the coast when they hit us. Two fast launches suddenly appeared in the dark on either side of ours. There were about twelve of them and they wore wet suits and had night vision glasses. They took out three of us immediately - completely … terminated. The rest of us never even got a chance to get our stuff out. They hardly said of a word and knew exactly where to go for the cargo.”
Mr C. drummed his fingers on the table in irritation.
“You’ve done this run often enough, what made this different.”
“Nothing was different, we had all the precautions in place. The journey was straightforward we cleared customs like a dream. Everything was fine until they turned up.”
“So you’re saying that they got everything, the pharmaceuticals and the equipment.”
Mr C. knew that this telephone call was being encrypted but was still careful with his words.
“They got everything.”
“How come they didn’t get you,” said Mr C., grimly.
“They had the drop on me and if Id resisted, they wouldn’t have cared either way, boss. I’d have gone like the rest. It was like a military operation, they were really fast. They left us tied up and drifting. If the weather had been worse, we would have been done for too. As it was, the boat got a bit smashed up when it drifted onto the beach.”
“So you bust up the boat as well,” seethed Mr C.
“It’s got a bit dented, boss.”
“Phone Max and tell him I want an investigation of every step on the route to find out where the leak occurred.”
Mr C. used Max rarely these days. His name reflected his approach in these matters. Famed for his clean up investigations, Max interrogated to the limits and then beyond. A Max investigation got results if they were there to be found.
“Are you sure, boss?”
“Deadly sure! And if I find anyone I’ve relied on has let me down, they will suffer… for a very long time before I terminate their employment.”
The courier gulped. “Sure boss…” And then rang off.
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Mr C. immediately put in a telephone call to Max.
“I’d got some work for you. A shipment got shafted at sea. They probably won’t have had time to find the tracing transmitters yet so you can pinpoint where they’ve got the stuff stored. Call in any help from my people that you like. You have carte blanche to get results. You’ll be contacted by one of my men. If you are not, let me know and you can deal with him too.”
“I’ll give it the Max treatment, Christian.” His voice was smooth, like a snake’s. In the past, he had been a close friend but Max liked inflicting pain too much and this had driven them apart.
“Love to you,” said Mr C., letting his voice descends gently into camp now he was talking to an old personal friend.
“No gain without pain, Christian.”
“And their best pain is our gain, Max.” And Mr C. reciting their well-worn and favourite mantra then rang off.
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He felt better now. Max would deal with it. It would be an isolated event the crackdown would be severe when the weak link would be found. Hopefully, the shipment, which was worth millions, would be recovered. He didn’t think any more could be done now so he turned his mind again to the weekend ahead and reached over to ring a bell on his desk.
He fancied a challenge for the weekend but with somebody who ultimately couldn’t say no.
The young sales executive appeared with his clipboard and his ready smile.
“I’d been thinking of giving you a pay rise,” said Mr C. “Also, how would you like to go away for the weekend and catch some sun.”
The young man appeared disconcerted.
“I had planned something with my girlfriend,” he said. Then after a pause said “but I suppose I could rearrange it.” He seemed flustered.
Mr C. smiled. This weekend’s challenge was going to be fun. Aloud he said “you do that and also arrange two airline tickets to get us to this address in Lanzarote.”
