Chapter 66: Political Threats

I had called the Australian Embassy and asked for a meeting; fortunately, the Ambassador was in town and agreed to receive us. The Embassy was an ugly concrete building with Russian charm; we were admitted immediately to his office, and I saw a career diplomat; still a bit young (after all, Poland was of minor importance to Canberra) but still the ranking Australian authority and supposed to support and protect its citizens. He took his time to receive us and was apparently not well briefed because he wondered what he could do for a German Count. This annoyed Jenny quite a bit.

“Mr. Ambassador, we are here not to ask for help for a German Count but for an Australian company. You might have heard about the Schloss de Winter company?”

He shook his head, which made Jenny even angrier.

“Mr. Ambassador, that company is of Australian origin, funded by Australian money, and headed by me, an Australian citizen. The Polish government threatens to confiscate it on very shaky legal grounds. I had hoped to get support and information from the Embassy. Let me also tell you that our company in Australia is one of the biggest logistic providers in Australia, and all over the world we employ thousands of staff. Considering that you or your staff didn’t feel it necessary to brief you, there is no need for us to continue here. By the way, my father is the Minister of Business Development in Canberra, and I’ll brief him on our visit here. Thank you for your time, James; let’s go!”

She got up, and I followed her; the Ambassador was still shell-shocked. Suddenly he jumped up.

“Miss Parker, there must have been a misunderstanding. I apologize; please sit down, and we’ll talk.”

Unfortunately, Jenny had enough. “Mr. Ambassador, as I said, I thank you for your time. I expected better, but such is life.”

I nodded to the Ambassador, still standing there without really understanding what had happened, and we left.

So much for Step 2 of the Battle Plan. When we walked out of the building, I asked Jenny.

“What happened? Didn’t we plan to get some official support from your government?”

She was furious. “This so-called public servant doesn’t know who the public is and what servant means. I’ll tell Allan about him! And do you believe that he would have done anything to help us? He against the Polish Prime Minister? Hah! Never! We’ll do it on our own and win!”

Pavel stared at us when he opened the car for us. Jenny was furious, and he did the only thing he could - stay silent. We went back to the hotel, and even Catarina was quiet, having seen Jenny’s face and body language. She only said that a gentleman was waiting for us in the lobby. A young man was standing up when we approached. Jenny mumbled something probably quite impolite once more and then forced herself to relax.

“Miss Parker, Count, I was told to come to Warsaw and report to you. What can I do to help?”

I recognized him - Andrei Balek, our IT specialist. I had met him first two years ago when he requested a meeting with me. I didn’t like what I saw then - a typical nerd hippy, long hair probably not washed for a while, a stubble of hair on his face, a black shirt and jeans, and black tennis with laces undone. I was ready to excuse myself, claiming another meeting when he shocked me.

“Count de Winter, I’m sorry to enter rapidly on you, but do you know that you have a very serious security problem in your IT installation?”

This definitively interested me, and I asked him to sit and explain.

“I bought this little laptop and played around. You know how our minds work - we always want to know whether we are better than the other. So I looked at a few sites and, out of curiosity, entered your site. Your protocols are obsolete, and your firewall don’t exist. It took me fifteen minutes to enter your accounts and another thirty minutes to get into your HR files. I stopped there because I did not want to see confidential information, but I have urgent recommendation - beef it up substantially, but do it yesterday! Just imagine what I could have done with a decent computer! The installation is very incompetently, or it was maliciously planned. I also recommend audit of accounts!”

He started to rise, but I waved him down. “Stay for a moment. First, what is your name?”

“Andrei Balek, sir. I live here in Elk and go first year to college - you sponsored IT courses, and I take all.”

I leaned back and regarded him for some time; suddenly, he became nervous.

“Count de Winter, I did not do wrong. I stopped when saw confidential data. Please believe me, I did not do wrong. I am happy in Elk, and my mother received health treatment in the new hospital.”

His English was recognizable but definitively could use improvement.

I calmed him. “Mr. Balek, you didn’t do anything wrong; actually, you did everything right in coming to me. Now tell me in more detail what you did and what you found.”

He went into details, and I was shocked. The company installing the software had been recommended by somebody close to the previous mayor. It was time to take action.

“Mr. Balek, I am very grateful that you came in, and I’ll act on your recommendations. Are you interested in working for us while you are in college?”

He nodded enthusiastically, and the nervousness seemed to drain out of his body.

“OK, so come back tomorrow morning after talking with our HR department; I’ll tell them to expect you, and based on your qualifications, they’ll have a job for you. Today, go to a computer shop and buy the best laptop they have - that is your bonus for warning us. Send the bill to us. And one restriction you might not like, but it’s a condition to employment here. Clean up - hair, clothes, everything. If you need a loan to buy clothing, ask HR. They have a budget for this.”

I called our General Manager, Simon Jaroslav, and told him the bad news. It was his responsibility, and he had failed to check this. I gave him two days to take action and brief me; based on his report, he still might have a job. Maureen was furious - we had trusted the man!

The next afternoon a young guy was led into my office, and I almost didn’t recognize him - Mr. Andrei Balek! He had cleaned up nicely but was somewhat self-conscious about his new image - he wasn’t a nerd anymore! He had a job and told me that his salary was much higher than he had expected. He also showed me proudly his new laptop.

At this moment, Mr. Jaroslav walked in, and I used the opportunity to introduce him to Andrei. What would he do? Ignore the guy who had proved his negligence or use him? To my pleasant surprise, he welcomed him and asked him to accompany him; considering that Andrei had found the first flaws in the system, he should try to eliminate eventual others, too. Good move! Later the audit found that small amounts of cash had been systematically drained off our accounts - never much, but continuously. Later I told the mayor that two IT employees were fired immediately (and the reason why; after all, his predecessor had introduced them to us, and worse, had recommended them highly), and life returned to normal.

Andrei proved to be a semi-genius about computers, and we sent him to courses in Germany and the States. He was one of our fast-rising stars and soon spoke English fluently.

My mind returned to today’s problems, and I organized my thoughts. “Mr. Balek, just a moment.”

I turned to Pavel. “Mr. Balek, Miss Parker and I will discuss the IT side of our little problem, but we’ll have lunch here, and I want you to participate. I’d invite Catarina, too, but we’ll discuss confidential matters, and it’s better for her if she’s not involved.”

He nodded to Jenny and me, walked to the other side of the lobby, and settled himself into a comfortable chair. It was fun to see that this chair was close to Catarina’s desk, and Jenny started to smile - her bad humor was slowly draining away.

Jenny decided that we would all go up to the apartment; Andrei looked around and was suitably impressed with the size of the main room. “Count, my apartment is smaller than this! But please tell me why I’m here and what I can do to help you.”

I got water from the fridge, and we sat at the table.

“Mr. Balek, you know what is happening since Law and Justice formed the new government?”

He nodded. “Yes, Count. I saw speeches that the Prime Minister made. When I was told that Miss Parker and you were here in Warsaw and that you wanted to see me, I read everything I could on our political situation and discussed what could happen with Mr. Bronislaw and Mr. Tussek. They told me to support you totally, with no limitation. Miss Parker, you have given Elk life and have a future for the first-time young people like me. You tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”

What a difference to the Ambassador!

I regarded him for a long time. “Mr. Balek, we might need to do something which would be illegal and could be dangerous. If you don’t want to share this with us, please leave, and nothing will be held against you.”

“Count, I was told to support you with no limitation. I didn’t need that order; what I know about you and Miss Parker gives me assurance that you’d do it for a valid reason, even doing something illegal. And dangerous? I’m young, and life has been boring, Count de Winter. Bring it on!”

We laughed about the young man’s enthusiasm but were content to accept it.

“Mr. Balek...”

He interrupted me. “Count, please call me Andrei. We might go to jail together, so formalities could be abandoned. But don’t ask me to call you James! For me, that would be too much informality!”

I smiled - I liked this guy. Jenny was also favorably impressed; we had met Andrei before in Elk, but he was always one in a crowd.

“Andrei, we’ll meet the Prime Minister tomorrow to talk about the potential expropriation of our company. Do you know what this would mean for everyone in Elk?”

He sat straight up, and his face turned serious. He knew that this would destroy his city’s economy - party hacks would control the company, benefits would be deviated to the party and its protégées, employment would fall, and the city would return to the state it was before our intervention - a town bereft of hope.

“Andrei, we’re prepared for two scenarios - one, that it is a political ploy and we will fight it in the courts; two, that if we offer money, they’ll offer leniency and flexibility in their demands. Andrei, I’ve never paid bribes in my life, and I’ll not start here. We’re prepared for this moment, but we might need your help.”

He nodded. “I understand, Count. What can I do?”

I asked Jenny to take out our toys, and his face lit up.

“Count, these things are cool. I heard about similar devices, but I’ve never seen anything so small, and on top of it, pretty. Cool, Count, very cool!”

We showed him the tablet while Jenny placed the beautiful little pendant with its mid-sized sapphire, cut in a pear shape, around her neck. I took out the fountain pen and the tie clasp and laid them on the table. We gave him some background information, and then we came to the spy part. Jenny took the pendant off and placed it on the tablet, inserted a long and complex password, and suddenly the tablet showed Andrei as he listened and responded to our information. The pen and the clasp had just recorded the voices, but the image through the pendant was very clear.

Andrei was impressed. “Count, I’ve never seen anything like this in life; actually, I’ve never ever heard about something similar. Can I keep them after we’re done?”

I shook my head, telling him that I had strict orders to return them after use. Then I came to the part he had to play.

“We want you to take all the information we’ll get - video, voice; eventually some documents we’ll get from another source - and make a story to present to the world. I hope that it will not be necessary, but if they want war, they’ll get it.”

Jenny stepped in. “Andrei, I promise you that you will not suffer any harm if this gets serious. If afterwards you wanted or needed to get out of Poland, I’ll offer you a job in Australia, or Europe if you preferred this, but this will be up to you.”

He looked at her. “Miss Parker, recently my mother was very sick, and she recovered only because your company sent her to Germany for a very expensive treatment; I owe you!”

He repeated the instructions on using these little things, reminded us about the time limit for the video, and then lunchtime came around. I had asked Pavel to join us - he needed to get acquainted with Andrei - and when we came down to the lobby, he was sitting again in a comfortable chair, waiting for us. It must have been another coincidence that this chair was again conveniently located beside Catarina’s reception desk! Jenny grinned - something good might come out of this stupid adventure.

We said hello and introduced Andrei; Jenny apologized that she could not invite her to join us since we would be discussing company matters, but asked whether she would be available at night. Could she organize dinner and dance? And did she have a friend for young Andrei? I stopped her.

“Andrei, you don’t have to come - I assume that you have a girlfriend at home?”

He shook his head. “No, I’m single and would enjoy accompanying you, with or without a friend of Miss Catarina.”

He was polite, too.

We had lunch at the hotel, discussed other options a bit more, and then Andrei excused himself - he was going to prepare his spy work. We went back to the apartment, called Maureen (who told me that she missed me terribly), went through company numbers, and Jenny could resolve an organizational problem that had come up in Western Australia. There was a call from the Australian Embassy asking us to come in the following day, but Jenny was adamant.