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We quickly set off along the street. Sue carried on talking as went.
"What do you know about the situation?"
"Next to nothing," I replied. "I was told to come to this conference this morning. Before I left, I found an answering machine message from Rob telling me to look at a file of his. I found the file – it had a few e-mails in it, a list of contacts, and a floppy disc."
"What was on the disc?"
"I’m not really sure I should tell you. It’s highly confidential information."
"Oh don’t be ridiculous," she snapped. "I think Rob might be in serious danger here, and you won’t tell me something I probably know anyway!"
I hesitated, then said, "There were two files: one was his letter of resignation, the other was a press release."
"What was in the press release?"
"Listen," I replied. "If you tell me why you’re so interested in all this, then I’ll tell you what was in the press release. If you don’t tell me, I won’t tell you anything. Is it a deal?"
"Alright – you’ve got a deal. First, because it’s a good story. I’m a journalist, and I ‘m always in search of a good story."
"I’m not sure that’s a good enough reason for me to pass on confidential information to you!"
"Second, because Rob and I are a couple. We’ve been seeing each other for nearly a year now. It’s been difficult, because of our work schedules, but we were even talking about getting married. And now I’m really worried about him."
"Why are you so worried?"
"Rob found out some vital information, information which could ruin the company and some of the top people in it. That’s why I need to know what was in those documents."
"There was a takeover bid. The company was about to be sold."
"Yes, I knew that. There’s been a rumour going around for months. What nobody knew is why Alpha was going to be sold. It didn’t seem to make sense, a big, prosperous company like Alpha should be buying other companies, not selling itself out. That’s where Rob came in. He found out that the company was actually losing huge amounts of money. The next annual results announcement would have been a disaster!"
"But I don’t understand. The company was doing really well. We were expanding into new markets, taking on new people, launching new products…"
"That’s how it seemed to you. But some people can build empires on thin air."
"What do you mean?"
"Rob was European Operations Manager so he had a lot of access to company accounts. He found that most of Alpha’s accounts were pure fiction, about as realistic as Alice in Wonderland!"
"I admit that I never was a good businessman, but I still don’t understand how that’s possible."
"I suspect that one of the possibilities is that your Vice-President, Tom Werner, wasn’t acting altogether ethically."
"You mean he’s been taking money from the company?"
"Huge amounts."
"Are you sure?"
"No, I’m not sure. But it’s possible. And I’m worried that Rob found out it was true."
We carried on walking until we arrived back at my hotel. There was still no sign of Rob. We went into the bar to get a drink and stayed there talking until very late. Sue told me lots of stories about Alpha Telecommunications – I learnt a lot of things about the company I had worked for ten years, and I didn’t like a lot of the things I learnt. Eventually, Sue said she was tired and had to go.
"I’ll give you a call in the morning," she said as she left. "Goodnight!"
"Goodnight!"
I didn’t sleep well that night. I was too worried about Rob, and still confused from all the events of this crazy day. I dreamt about takeover bids and corrupt company bosses, about newspaper headlines and so-called ‘creative accounting’. I woke up early in the morning feeling terrible. I had drunk too much the evening before, and I hadn’t slept well. But I didn’t only feel physically bad – the events of the previous day and the things that the financial journalist Sue McGovern had told me had made me feel bad about a lot of things – about the company I worked for, about some of the people I worked with. One of my colleagues was still missing in mysterious circumstances.
I called for a taxi to take me to the conference centre and as I was sitting in the taxi, watching the Parisian streets go past, everything became clear to me. I had to do something. For the last ten years I had sat at my desk pushing a pen and tapping away on a computer, becoming increasingly unhappy and frustrated. I had kept quiet in the hope of earning a promotion which I felt I deserved - but now it looked as if any promotion was impossible anyway!
When I reached the conference centre, I had made my mind up. I knew what to do. I walked in, stopped to register and pick up my pass, then went straight to the press office.
"Hello, my name’s Don Jenkins and I’m from Alpha Telecommunications. I know this is unusual, but we have some important news to announce, and I wondered if it would be possible to organise an impromptu press conference."
"Well Mr. Jenkins, I’m afraid I’m not sure that we can organise that immediately."
"How soon could we do it?"
"The press suite is booked up all day, I’m afraid. We have one very small room that’s free between eleven thirty and twelve, or if you can wait till after lunch, you could have ten minutes in the main conference hall. Would that be enough?"
"Ten minutes will be fine!"
"I’ll announce your speech during the lunch break. Would that be OK?"
"That would be great, thanks."
I still had a couple of hours before making my appearance, and decided to take a look around the exhibition centre. There were the usual stands there, all displaying new products. There were a lot of people I knew or recognised around. I said hello to lots of them, and we chatted a bit about nothing in particular.
I saw Françoise Mauriac, the conference organiser, and Bernd Friedmann from our German office. They were both surprised to see me. They were very polite, and asked me why I was here, and said that they hadn’t been expecting me. I could see that there was something they weren’t telling me – they both seemed to know something that I didn’t. But I thought that I probably knew more than them.
As I was wandering around, mentally preparing my speech at the press conference, I saw Tom Werner in the crowd. He looked worried, anxious and tired. He was talking to somebody I didn’t know, and you could see that although he was trying to be polite and pretend to be interested in the other person, he wasn’t really paying any attention to them at all. He was preoccupied and distracted, and kept on looking around as though he was worried that somebody was looking for him. I wondered what he was hiding, or what he was thinking, or why he was worried.
When it was one o’clock, everybody took a lunch break. Some went out to look for a nearby restaurant, while a lot of the other delegates stayed in the conference centre and ate in the bar or restaurant there. At about 1.30 there was an announcement:
"Attention, s’il vous plait! Could I have your attention please! Don Jenkins from Alpha Telecommunications will be making a special announcement in the main conference hall in thirty minutes. I repeat: Important news from Alpha Telecommunications in the main hall in thirty minutes."
The news seemed to cause a lot of interest. Lots of people began talking to each other excitedly. Sue McGovern was right – I was naive. I had known nothing about the rumours about Alpha, but it seemed that a lot of other people had heard a lot of gossip, and now they wanted to know what was true and what wasn’t.
I took my place in the main conference room fifteen minutes later, at a quarter to two, and already the enormous hall was nearly full. I looked out at the audience, and I could see Bernd and Françoise sitting on the front row looking nervous. I guessed that there were five or six hundred people there. There were a lot of journalists there, with photographers too. Great! This was exactly what I wanted. I waited until five to two, by which time the hall was completely full. People were standing up at the back of the room because there were no more free seats. I stood up and the huge room fell into complete silence.
"Good afternoon everybody! Thank you for coming at such short notice."
It was at that moment that I saw the doors at the back of the hall burst open. Tom Werner stood there, looking at me directly. He was a huge man, an imposing physical presence – his size made him frightening. He stared at me in an attempt to frighten me. He seemed to be saying, "If you say anything, I’ll make your life hell!"
But it was too late now. I wasn’t afraid anymore.
"As I’m sure many of you have already heard, Alpha Telecommunications is going to be sold to one of our competitors. But that is not the only news. Our competitors may be interested to know that they are not going to buy a successful company, but a company which is about to go bankrupt."
I could hear gasps of surprise all around the hall. Some people started shouting.
"I have found evidence of large-scale mismanagement of company funds by one of our senior directors. This corruption has resulted in the bankruptcy of Alpha Telecommunications. The police have been informed, and will be making further enquiries."
The shouting in the hall grew louder. There were hundreds of flashes from the photographers’ cameras.
"Moreover, one of my colleagues, Rob Dean, has gone missing in mysterious circumstances. The police have also been informed of his disappearance. That is all I wanted to say, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your time."
My speech was followed by an uproar in the hall. I have never heard so many people shouting at he same time. Questions, accusations, threats and applause were coming at me from all directions. The hall was in chaos. I decided to get out as quickly as possible, and ran for the exit. There was no sign of Werner. Outside the conference centre, I jumped into a taxi and headed back to my hotel. I planned to go back home and keep out of sight for a while. As soon as I got back to the hotel, I picked up my key from the reception and found I had a message.
"There are two people who would like to see you waiting in the lounge, sir," said the receptionist.
"Who are they?" I asked.
"I’m afraid they didn’t leave their names, sir," replied the receptionist.
I was worried. I was afraid. I admit it. It could be Werner and some of his bullies. I walked very slowly to the lounge and looked in carefully.
In the corner of the room there were two people sitting down talking to each other. One was Sue McGovern. And the other was Rob Dean.
They both looked up when they saw me.
"Where on earth have you been?" I shouted at Rob, "We were all worried sick about you!"
"I thought it was better to keep out of the way for a while, that’s all. Now it seems that Werner has gone missing. There are a lot of people interested in talking to him – especially the police!"
"I’ve just heard a report that Alpha’s shares have crashed completely," said Sue. "It looks like your little speech had quite a big effect!"
"Yes," said Rob. "I think there are quite a lot of people who want to talk to you as well. Here’s one of them now!" He pointed to a man walking into the lounge of the hotel. I recognised him – it was Susumu Yokota from our Japanese competitor. He bowed very politely. I held out my hand.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Jenkins. May I say that I found your speech very interesting. It was my company who was interested in buying Alpha Telecommunications. I must say thank you. You have saved us a lot of money and trouble."
"No problem!" I said. "There’s no chance of me getting any promotion now though, is there?"
"Not with Alpha!" said the others.
"But Mr. Jenkins," continued Yokota. "My company has wanted to set up a European research and development company for a long time. It would be an independent company, but backed by our finance. You would be free to follow any research interests you have. Would you be interested?"
"Absolutely!"
"Shall we have lunch to talk about it?"
"Let’s have lunch to celebrate!" said Rob.
"Good idea!" said Sue.
"Sushi?" asked Yokota.
"Moules marinières!" suggested Sue.
"No," I said. "Champagne! And I’m paying!"
That’s promotion.
THE END
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