Chapter 12: Plate Tectonics

Introduction.

The shape of continents is wrought by the inexorable progress of tectonic plates across the surface of the earth and is there anything that can stand in their way, divert their course or survive their movements?

Well...

In Moscow, Anatoly cannot find sleep until he takes practical steps to bring Vyera back home
In London, Annie Elba – the Met’s forensic psychologist – wrestles to understand the progress Jenny has made under the care of the trauma psychologist, Dr Laura Malvern.
In Langley, Angela Dawney – Jenny’s research supervisor – is stalked by her past as the CIA’s Scott Anderson makes ready to plant an Agent in Anatoly’s organisation.
In Coventry, Joe’s past catches up with him as his employer and their new partners rationalise the new company.
And, in Moscow once again, Anatoly must alter his foot-work.

Pressure: Anatoly spends money

Anatoly cannot sleep, though his wife is warm and still beside him.

The evening before, they dined at Café Pushkin, just a few metres from their flat, along Tverskaya Ulitsa and then a left turn at Pushkin Square into Tverskoy Bulvar. (1) The Pushkin is a wonderful classical building with restaurants on three floors: the first floor Pharmacy (as it once was), the second floor Library (suitably lined with books), and the roof top terrace — but not suitable on a December evening. Anatoly and Sveta took turns each to order a course, as they had when they were much younger and had very few resources — and in those days, they did not dine at the Pushkin. Sveta begins with the salad of marinated tomatoes, cucumbers, papaya, crab meat with ginger dressing. Anatoly orders the main course and chooses crispy fried carp with potato stuffed with mushrooms, dried olives and fried onion and beetroot sauce. Finally, Sveta picks their desert and chooses Russian fruit fudge with apples and honey. The food had been exquisite and the wine list extensive and well chosen and the walk home through the cold night air was necessary.

Anatoly had eaten too much. He had an unnecessary Scotch before bed. Refreshing sleep evades him. He awakes in the small hours of the morning. His mouth is dry, his bladder is full, and his body is too hot. He rises and uses the bathroom. His body is now comfortable but his mind is restless, turning the Vyera problem over and over: how to get her back under effective control, but discreetly, so no one will know, perhaps not even Vyera and her husband — at least at first. The more he tries to surrender to sleep, to attack the problem in the morning with a fresh perspective, the more the issue surges and chafes his mind, like the troubled sea after a storm, when it cannot rest.

There is something on the sea which keeps bobbing into view and then sinking back into the trough between the waves. If only Anatoly could stretch out his arm and grasp the slippery idea ... and suddenly it is in his hand, but actually in his mind. How simple! How slow of him not to see it before! Why not merely acquire a controlling interest in NHCE-Skandia, or “New Skandia” as they style themselves now? He would, by slow and silent degrees, build up his ownership of the company and then merge it into his own engineering interests. At that point, he would be Joseph McEwan’s employer. Joseph and other staff would expect redeployment in the larger company and he could be neatly positioned at any suitable geographical location to allow him and his wife to be re-absorbed into another part of Anatoly’s empire!

This would get Mikhail Barysovitch Antonov off his back and also excise the wretched little Lithuanian girl that Mikhail Barysovitch had planted in his office.

The scheme now clear in his head, Anatoly wastes no time. He rises from bed once again, refreshes himself with a shower and tea from the kitchen (He remembers another occasion when he, Vyera and Sveta stood together naked and drank tea in the small hours of the morning, thinking about Alana and a new baby... ) and thus fortified, by tea and memories, he gains his desk. He opens his laptop to consult the latest stock market prices for “New Skandia” — in due course to become (if Anatoly has his way) “Even Newer Scandia” or what about “Karelia”? That is a more concise name and a good one, too, a name, which conjures visions of Finland and memories of the haunting music of Sibelius into the mind — and after all, Karelia belongs in Russia! (2)

Pressure: Requesting a Technical Report

Dr Laura Malvern is in her office when her mobile rings. She glances at the caller ID and smiles. She can guess what this is going to be about. She takes the call:

“Laura? Hi, look, it’s Annie Elba. I was wondering if you had a moment?”

“Annie! Of course. This is an unexpected pleasure. How can I help?”

“I am sorry, Laura, but...”

“You have another nasty forensic case for me?”

“No, no — not yet, anyway. Actually, it was about one you are dealing with at the moment.”

“Ah, I suppose that will be...”

“Mrs Jennifer McEwan.”

“Mrs McEwan. Well, Annie, I will be as helpful as I can be but, as you know, I have a professional relationship with her and there are limits to what I can say.”

“I know, I know. I am not going to tax your relationship, but I have to go to another meeting at Scotland Yard in the next week or two and I expect the people there will want me to give an update about Mrs McEwan’s psychological state and I wonder if there is anything helpful you can tell me? Or anything Mrs McEwan has agreed to let you pass on.”

“Ah ... well, probably not and no.”

“Pardon?”

“I don’t think I can maintain client confidentiality and give you an update on the client’s state of mind and no, there is nothing the client has told me I can pass on.”

“Laura, can we look at this from another direction?”

“Well, maybe. Which direction did you have in mind?”

“Can I ask you some specifics, for example? Just so that I can put the police people in the picture. To let them know ... what time scale ... I mean, how fast things are moving? For example, I might end up saying something like ‘the patient is in treatment’ and they are going to think it’s a bit like going to the dentist and will start thinking that Mrs McEwan will be in a position to tell them the whole story from her point of view, from thread to needle, by the middle of next week, so I need to give them a realistic steer about time scale for this part of the investigation.”

“OK, Annie, let’s try some specifics.”

“So, what stage of treatment have you reached?”

“We have worked to establish a ‘place of safety’ physically and psychologically. She seems to be at ease with me, so I guess that means we have a good working relationship with each other. She seems happy at home.

“We are dealing with some of the ‘trauma memories.’ That is going to take time and there seem to be rather a lot of them.

“We are working to re-establish a normal routine for her. This is also going to take time. I don’t think some of the other people at her work have been very sympathetic or supportive. Now, that is a pity because ‘fragile’ is a good word to bear in mind here and I do not think Mrs McEwan would cope well with any more seriously stressful events just at the moment.”

“So, I am getting the message that you are both working well together but it’s going to take time?”

“Uh huh...”

“and you are growing trees and not growing mushrooms — thinking of things which grow slowly and things which grow quickly?”

“Well, that’s an interesting analogy, Annie. ‘Trees’ is a bit slow. I was hoping for ‘flowers’ if we are talking gardening.”

“OK, thanks for that, Laura. The main thing the Police have to decide is: one, did Mrs McEwan merely take a holiday from some particularly trying circumstances at home and at work, or two, was Mrs McEwan abducted and held against her will. Is there any light you can shed?”

“I can shed light but I cannot provide certainty, not at the moment anyway.”

“And?”

“She has had to put up with some pretty tough treatment which does not sound 100% consensual to me. I have heard of people going on BDSM adventure holidays but, if this was a holiday, it was a holiday boot camp with the Army! But, Annie, that is just my opinion. Mrs McEwan seems to hold the people she met in ... how can I put it? ... in high regard, almost in ‘affection, ‘ so you should treat these impressions carefully. It’s thin ice and will not support much weight at the moment.”

Annie sighs; “Right ... right ... I get the picture ... well, I think I do. OK. Laura, thanks for your time. Maybe we can touch base again in due course?”

“Yes, Annie. In due course.”

Pressure: Langley

It is Tuesday afternoon, about 4pm.

Scott Anderson and Clyde Ritchie, Deputy Director CIA, are making their way through a progress review of the cases Scott is involved with. Coming slowly up the Agenda is “Item 8, A-S Kustensky.”

Item 8 finally arrives centre stage.

“OK. Anatoly Sergeyevitch Kustensky. I had a call from Ed Black in London. AK’s name has come up in connection with a possible abduction. Did I tell you that?”

“Yes, Sir. You did.”

“Hmmm. Well, the Brits don’t seem to have found anything very concrete against AK personally. They think his ‘plane might have been used to spirit the girl out of the UK but the problem is that the plane is up for hire, so just because he owns it does not connect him to the abduction very closely — and they are not even sure they have an abduction victim on their hands in the first place.

“Did you turn up anything more about him? I think last time we established that he was a model citizen. Works hard, pays his taxes, makes money. Still nothing which clearly connects him to the Tracy Randolf disappearance.”

“That’s about it, Sir. Anyway, I looked into the sort of contracts his company has taken on. It’s pretty much all to do with infrastructure. Roads, bridges, railroads. The railroad work has mainly been in the north-western states, Canada, oh — and Alaska.”

“So, not content to freeze his balls off in Siberia, he has come over here to freeze ‘em in Alaska?”

“I wondered if there should be a little bit of concern about his area of operation? Infra-structure is a strategic asset, after all?”

“Well ... well, I guess that’s true but, on the other hand, the Apple Corporation is an important strategic asset and they are making all their hardware in China? We are not worried about them, but maybe we should be?”

“I still think we would do ourselves no harm by organizing a pipeline into his organization...”

“So, how much would this pipeline building operation cost?”

“I think we are talking the price of a return air ticket for one person and some hotel accommodation. That would be for me, another Agent and for the Target.”

“OK, let me see that...”

Ritchie runs his eye over the pitch Scott has brought. Scott has a knack of boiling down his proposals to the essentials. Ritchie appreciates the clarity of thought.

“Hmmm...”

He leafs through the proposal once again.

“Hmmm ... Well, OK, Scott. This is just fine. Er ... I don’t think we should spend too much time and effort on this, but what you have got here seems like a good first step. Let’s see where this gets us, huh? So where are we now? Item 9?”

Pressure: NHCE-Skandia

Christopher Parker is at a senior management meeting in the aftermath of the merger announcement between NHCE and Skandia Konkret. There is a select coterie of attendees: the engineer partners in NHCE, the non-executive Board Chairman, the Chief Financial Officer, the Human Resources Director, and two representatives from the Board of Skandia.

There are two issues to discuss. The first is the movement in the share price since the announcement of the merger. They note that the price rose initially, then fell back and now — since this morning — there is evidence of a slow and sustained rise. Someone is buying the stock. It is hard to know if a single company or a single individual is at work, but shares are being bought both in the London share market and in Stockholm. This does not look a random co-incidence. NHCE-Skandia will be a bigger fish in the sea. Are some of the other larger fish planning to make a meal of the new company and buy the new organisation for their own ends?

The second issue which occupies the meeting is to do with the shape of the new company. The financial markets expect to see a reorganisation and a rationalisation of the new company. Skandia and NHCE have their own individual strengths and weaknesses. The rationale behind the merger is to build a company which retains the strengths of the original organisations, eliminates the weaknesses, and eliminates duplication. Some departments are very enduring. Swedish and UK employment laws are not exactly the same and so the new Human Resources Department will have to retain a Swedish and a UK arm. The Finance and Legal Departments likewise must retain the capability to operate in two similar but not identical jurisdictions. Ironically, it seems that it is the Engineers who are most at risk of rationalisation and redundancy. Both organisations supply engineering solutions to clients, but British and Scandinavian engineers are very similar in their training and in their general expertise. Does the new company have to keep so many of them on the payroll in the present poor economic climate? To keep the confidence of the share market, it seems that some of the life-blood of the new company may have to be drained.

When Chris Parker returns to his office after the meeting breaks up, his phone rings. It is Bill Rylands, the Chief Financial Officer at NHCE.

“Chris? It’s Bill. Look, I wanted to have a word with you and it did not seem exactly appropriate to bring it up at the Senior Team meeting. Can I come round, if you have a minute? We might have a bit of a problem with one of your guys. Got some paperwork to show you.”

“Sure, Bill. I don’t have anybody with me. Come straight round.”

Minutes later, Rylands is sitting with Chris in his office. He wastes no time and hands Chris an email.

“So this turned up in Contracts a day or two ago. As you can see, it’s from Derbyshire Stone and Gravels and addresses to our Contracts Manager, Andrew Elliott.”

“Hmmm, well, we use DSG quite a lot and they are pretty reliable firm to deal with so what’s the issue?”

“The issue is that the job they are referring to is not one of our jobs. We had no record of it so we went back to them to check and found that the email had been addressed incorrectly. As you say, we deal with them ourselves quite regularly and our man Andrew Elliott will be in their ‘contacts’ book.”

“And?”

“Well, it seems that the DSG invoice should have gone to someone called Andrew Edwards, not Andrew Elliott. Their secretary or whoever clicked the wrong addressee when they sent the email. Edwards is a local Warwickshire businessman. Anyway, if you read down, the covering letter mentions the invoice is in accordance to specifications drawn up by Joseph McEwan, who is one of your Team — and the job has got nothing to do with us.”

“Ah ... Oh dear ... So it looks as if young Joseph has been working for himself on the side without telling us?”

“Looks like that. And against the terms of his contract.”

“Yes, that’s what it looks like, doesn’t it? What are we talking about? It’s not someone’s garden path, is it?”

Chris reads further down and his eyes take in the quantities involved.

“This is a serious amount of aggregate...”

“Yes, a good few lorry loads there. It’s not, as you said, someone’s garden path or driveway. If I am not seriously mistaken, the Engineers’ contracts all give us the exclusive use of their expertise. We should definitely have been given the opportunity to estimate for this job. As it is ... well, it looks to me as if we could have missed a nice little contract here.”

“OK, well, thanks, Bill. Leave this with me and I will do some checking to see what this bloke Edwards is up to — and then we will have to decide what to do with McEwan.”

Subduction Zone

The worst thing about Open Plan offices is the distraction, Joe thinks. First of all, it was that girl from HR, Sally something, walking across the office to the small meeting room at the far end, skirt swinging, hair streaming behind her, and now it’s Gwenda. Things have been OK between Gwenda and Joe since he told her of his wife’s return. They’d both agreed to stand back from their own relationship. “At least for a while,” Gwenda had said with a flirty look as they’d finished that conversation.

Joe was grateful for the fact that Gwenda had done all she could to make it easy for him. She’d taken on some of his projects so that he could have some compassionate leave with his newly returned wife. The firm had been really good about it and had made it easy for Joe to get the time that he and Jenny needed, and Gwenda had taken up some of the slack. He had taken most of the projects back now and they weren’t working so much together which, in all honesty, was a bit of a relief.

But she still is a distraction, Joe thinks. She’s walking along in the same direction as the girl from HR, carrying a pile of files. She’s wearing a cream, tailored, linen suit whose safari-style jacket swings loose over a bright chrome yellow top. Black tights appear from beneath her skirt and disappear into shiny black riding boots. The contrast with her skin, even from the other side of the office, is striking, but she’s not looking her usual cheery self.

A screwed-up ball of paper, thrown from the opposite desk, bounces off Joe’s head. “No time for that, Mac, if we’re going to get this project plan finished!” Joe’s colleague, Craig, teases. “You’re a married man again.”

Joe smiles. Yes he is, and he is very happy with it. But that doesn’t stop him wondering if there could have been a lot more for him and Gwenda. Now there’s a guy heading the same way. He’s short, ginger-haired, ginger beard, wearing a brown suit. “Who’s that?” Joe asks.

“Legal,” Craig responds. “He worked on the contracts for the last bid I was working on. Geoff, Gerry, something like that.”