Chapter 63: Life Becomes Interesting

The last report on our activities showed that we were growing fast in Europe, especially in the Elk logistics hub. The city was alive, the Castle booked out, and our relationship with the new Mayor and the Regional Governor, Mr. Smirsky (who had used our previous success to jumpstart his political career) could not be better. He warned us, however, that the political climate in Poland was worsening. The country’s economy had slowed down. The government blamed Brussels and Germany for the pressure to take in immigrants from the Arab countries and North Africa. It was evident that the opposition Law and Justice Party wanted to find scapegoats. He thought that our success and the support we had in the city and the State would keep us safe but recommended that we should keep an eye on the situation. He would keep us advised if anything happened.

We followed his advice, and I had a news agency sending me weekly reports on Poland. There was a nationwide election, and to everyone’s surprise, Law and Justice had an almost working majority in the lower House of Parliament, the Sejm. With twelve votes from another party strongly supported by the church, they had a three-vote majority, enough to elect the Prime Minister. They started immediately to change the system - Ministers of the Supreme Court were dismissed. There were loud protests against this move, even from Brussels and member states of the EU, and LaJ immediately used this for more patriotic sermons. Federal bureaucracy was cleaned out and party members promoted; apparently, they used their patriotic wave to silence the opposition. I was getting worried, but up to that moment, there was no panic button pushed by our friends in Elk.

Suddenly, the Polish Consul in Sydney asked to meet me. He had become a friend, supporting our policies.

“Count de Winter, thank you for seeing me on such short notice. Unfortunately, I’ve bad news - I’ve been recalled to Warsaw. It seems that my political views are no longer welcome in the government. You and I have become friends, and I want to warn you - your success and consequent influence will cause problems. The city of Elk and your enterprises have turned out to be a shining light of what liberal capitalism can do for our people in this slowdown of the economy - and this is against all ideologies the new government is spouting. You, a German Count - and these are two strikes against you - own a huge tract of land in Poland, sponsor German language classes, are successful with your Schloss de Winter company - another strike against you since it reminds people of the good side of German traditions - brought Brussels bureaucrats leading municipal and State projects into the country, and employ non-Polish managers in important positions. It doesn’t matter that they are all a great success - these are projects depending on cooperation between your companies, Brussels, Germany, and local authorities. The new government wants control of this, and you have to be very careful about how you handle this.”

I corrected him that it was an Australian investment with Australian money and an Australian CEO. Still, he said that at this moment, this was unimportant. LaJ wanted a scapegoat, and a German Count would serve very nicely. We were sad to see him go, and I planned to visit Poland soon to see for myself what was going on.

Then I received a rather curt message from Canberra - the new Polish Ambassador wanted to see me. My schedule was packed, and I responded that I’d be available the following week. This caused another curt and now almost impolite note to appear on my desk. He wanted to see me now, and not in ten days! I respectfully told him that I had no earlier time available. Finally, his secretary called my secretary to confirm a date. She had also made friends at the embassy and was told that the Ambassador was furious!

I called my friends in Canberra and, after a few days, received a confidential briefing stating that the Ambassador, Mr. Pavel Buzek, was an old party hack, a personal friend of the Prime Minister, and known for anti-foreigner diatribes. It would be interesting!

I had scheduled other meetings for that day in Canberra but managed to arrive at the Polish Embassy in time. Obviously, I had to wait for the esteemed authority but had enough after waiting for twenty minutes. I advised the Secretary that I had another appointment and could wait for another five minutes, but then I had to leave. He was still playing his game, so I left. At the exit, the guard stopped me.

“Sir, the Ambassador wants to see you now.”

Probably I could have been more diplomatic at that moment. Still, I was upset about these little games that bureaucrats wanted to play and told him that I had waited for twenty-five minutes and had other appointments. My secretary would call to set up another meeting.

When I was back in Sydney, the Consul called me.

“Count, what did you do? The Ambassador is absolutely furious and wants you in Canberra tomorrow morning!”

I shrugged and told him that my secretary would call the Ambassador’s secretary, and if the two could agree on a date, I would go back. If not, he would just have to wait until a date could be set; in any case, I had planned to go to Europe the following month, which would include a trip to Elk.

“Count, I hope that you know what you are doing! Good luck!”

Upon my return, Maureen called for a family session to decide what I should do. She had prepared a light dinner while Jenny and I processed the information we would discuss. I told them to put on some clothes - looking at a beautiful redhead in just an apron, and a black-haired beauty in a short t-shirt would not be helping in the discussion! Looking at them always made me wonder why they had accepted me as their husband. But the fact always would make me accept my life gratefully!

In the end, the two secretaries agreed on a date, and I went back to Canberra. The building was modern pretty - a two-story white building set into a great garden, with the red-white Polish flag and the great eagle threatening all enemies. This time I did not have to wait; I was ushered immediately into the Ambassador’s office.

Mr. Buzek was precisely how I had imagined a self-important Polish official would be - dark suit, smallish but relatively wide at his stomach, white hair and a mustache, and little eyes that were already boring into mine. He was sitting behind a monstrous dark desk, a prominent Polish flag against the wall, lots of photographs showing him with some apparently important people, and glowered at me.

“Mr. Winter, I was very surprised that you left the last time without seeing me. Very surprised! I was in an important meeting and expected that you’d wait for me. How dare you leave!”

Add vain and ignorant to self-important.

“Mr. Ambassador, I was waiting for twenty-five minutes without any information when you would be available. I had other meetings scheduled afterwards, and they could not wait anymore. If you had told me that you needed another five minutes, I would have waited - but sitting in a room looking at the wall? I had better ways to use my time, Mr. Ambassador.”

Bullies take a step back if they are confronted by a bigger bully - meaning me - but Mr. Buzek was an exception. He took a deep breath, got up, walked around his desk, and stopped before me.

“Mr. Winter, I called you to advise that the Polish Government has some serious issues with your investments in Poland. We cannot accept that a German Count wants to re-establish your family’s exploitation of the Polish people and have decided that you will have to transfer management to Polish patriots, who will know how to defend our people from foreigners. In any case, Poland has decided that Germany owes Poland significant compensation for the damages that our people had to suffer under German occupation!”

He puffed himself up and glared at me. Add idiot to vain, ignorant, and self-important.

“Mr. Ambassador, I know our history well, but perhaps you had forgotten that Poland and Germany signed two agreements - one in 1953 when all rights to additional compensations for World War Two were waived and, Mr. Ambassador, in 1970, Poland confirmed that it had no claims against West Germany, either. For me and the German government, that question is settled.”

He was getting angry again, and his little round face was red all over.

“Mr. Winter, those agreements were signed by people who had no authority from our people to sign these rights away. We don’t recognize the validity of those acts and will claim our rights most forcefully!”

I wondered where that had come from but did not want to waste more time.

“Mr. Ambassador, I respect your government’s determination to receive reparations from the German government, but that has nothing to do with my investments - which, by the way, are funded by Australian capital! Everything we have done in Poland followed Polish law and was authorized by municipal, state, and federal governments. I will not hand over my companies to any Polish authority without a legal fight, and I have quite competent lawyers, sir!”

That ended the discussion, and now he gave me an order.

“The Prime Minister, Mr. Wacynsky, wants to see you next week on Wednesday to advise what we have decided. You’d better obey us, Mr. Winter!”

I looked at him for a long time.

“Mr. Ambassador, don’t order me and don’t threaten me. Better people than you have tried this and lost. Tell your Prime Minister to contact my secretary to see when I’m available while on my trip to Poland. And by the way - my name is James Count de Winter, not Mr. Winter!”

I wondered whether he would get a heart attack, as his face was red all over. He started to sputter that I would regret my attitude, that they would take over all my assets and audit all accounts. He was confident that they would find problems. Did I believe that our accounts could stand a thorough audit by his tax auditors? They could always invent something, and I would never get out of jail...

I got up and walked to the door.

“Mr. Ambassador, you have my telephone number. Contact my secretary.”

I knew that we were friends no longer.

Immediately, I called Mr. Smirsky. He was nervous and asked me to come as soon as possible to Elk; threats were floating around, and he needed my input on what to do.

Our other call for help went to my parents-in-law - Sir Allan Moise, currently the Australian Minister for Business Development, and Eileen (please! Lady Moise!) They were happy and comfortable with each other. Fortunately, our involvement was hidden in the past...

We needed help and options. They summoned us the following weekend, and we went over to Allan’s house. It was a beautiful autumn day, with warm weather and a light breeze, and Jenny had taken the cover off. Jenny loved her new car, an Audi 6 convertible, and drove it proudly (the little Mazda was not forgotten, but the new car had gained at least a temporary priority).

As always, Allan was waiting for us, smiling and visibly enjoying seeing us. Eileen had used her influence over him - gone were the black suit, the black vest, and the tie in regimental colors. Now there were grey slacks, a nice light blue checkered shirt, and even moccasins! What would come next? A Hawaiian shirt?

Eileen had not changed her habits, however. She was in a light blue silk shirt, a narrow dark blue linen skirt, and pretty white sandals with moderately high heels! She smiled and winked at me; she remembered our past...

Allan grinned.

“James, I see that finally, you seem to have found a problem that you cannot resolve through charm and pretty words! But maybe we can help.”

I looked around when we entered. It seemed that Eileen had won another little battle against the past - the old leather sofa was replaced by a modern Scandinavian settee, with colorful cushions giving life to the room. I glanced at her and nodded; she smiled, accepting my compliments. The usual High Tea was waiting for us. She had taken out her Number Two set - the Wedgwood Harlequin Cuckoo set, with its matching tea cozy. As always, there was Earl Grey for me and Jenny, and Assam for the others. We weren’t formal guests - we were honored family.

I went through the information I had received up to now and after a lengthy discussion on options, Maureen agreed that Jenny and I would fly the day after next to Elk and meet my business and social contacts. Maureen was irate - she wanted to come with us! However, it would be too much to put all three of us into a potentially dangerous situation, and someone had to look after our children, too. There were other reasons also - Jenny had that killer instinct that Maureen had never developed, and after all, she was the CEO of the whole Schloss de Winter project!

Allan was suspicious about Mr. Wacynsky; his sources had whispered that his apparent integrity was only surface deep. Whoever would meet him had better be protected. He smiled, however.

“James, sometimes it’s nice to have friends in the spy business!”

He pulled out two little boxes and gave one to me and the other one to Jenny. Mine held a narrow tie clasp and a gold-plated fountain pen.

“James, these little things record everything that is said within ten meters; the tie clasp does it automatically, but the pen you have to switch on by pushing this clasp. If anybody discovers the tie clasp, you hand it over and stay with the fountain pen. It’s inert when not in use but it still works like a real pen and is not visible on any testing device. These are the best products on the market; actually, these two have not been sold yet openly, and my friends asked me to be very careful as they don’t want to lose them or worse, so don’t let them fall into other people’s hands!”

Then he turned to Jenny; she held a beautiful little pendant in her hands. It was a mid-sized sapphire, cut in a pear shape and surrounded by smallish diamonds.

“Jenny, when you wear this on a little gold chain, it looks like a beautiful piece of jewelry worn by a beautiful woman. I had the sapphire put in to match your eyes; actually, it is a nice tourmaline. Nobody will believe that this pretty bauble is anything different than what an elegant lady would wear on an official visit.”

He smiled. “Put it on, Jenny, please.”

She did, and it looked charming on her. But in my humble opinion, anything would look nice on my Jenny.

“Now, it is not only a pretty bauble, but one of the diamonds is a camera, and it will record anything up to ten meters with a very clear image. You have to press the sapphire when you want to start to record anything and press it once more when you want to stop. We’ll give you a special tablet that will show what is recorded once you lay the pendant on the top right corner of the tablet. Don’t ask me how it works, but I’ve seen it in action. Try it now - push the sapphire.”

Jenny pressed the trinket, and nothing happened. She asked Allan what had gone wrong, and he just smiled. “Jenny dear, you just have to wait a moment. But let’s talk about other subjects. You look tired, daughter - are you working too much?”

Maureen grinned and added her comment. “Jenny, you should really take some time off! James, when you’ll be back, can we go back to see our pretty twins?”