Chapter 16: Grand Hotel

Chapter Introduction

Anatoly and Neena, Manfred and Petra contend over the fate of Tracy but when Tracy joins in the game later, does she realise that she is playing with a loaded die?

Slave Market

Neena had never realized that Edinburgh was such a city of mountains and spires, classical buildings, temples, elegant domes, broad streets and distant views of an eastern sea.

She and the Kustenskies are staying in an imposing wedding cake of a hotel, all columns and baroque gables and, rising above its roof, a large square tower which dominates the area around. It is a building Stalin would admire, she thinks.

As Neena looks out from her bedroom window, she is able to admire the vista of The Castle, The Scott Monument (a magnificent black, tiered, serrated gothic tower rising from a cluster of soaring gothic arches), the tenements of old Edinburgh built rank upon rank on the thin spine of the Royal Mile and, above all, the brooding massif of Arthur’s Seat and The Salisbury Crags.

Neena glances at her watch. It is time. She must attend upon her Employers! (1)

Anatoly, Sveta and Neena walk from their rooms to the suite they have arranged to use for the meeting. They are accompanied by members of their security team. They walk west, which is to some extent symbolic.

Meanwhile, Manfred Randolf, Chuck Yates and Petra are walking east.

Both parties converge at one of the “Grand Suites.” The main door stands ajar. Across the lobby, the inner door welcomes the Parties to a spacious octagonal lounge with extensive views over the City. Petra and a member of Anatoly’s delegation enter first, to check the main lounge, the adjoining bathroom and bedroom. The Principals then enter the main lounge where they find a member of the hotel Functions Team.

“I opened the room to make sure all is ready for you. I hope that is in order?”

Anatoly smiles, nods and thanks her.

Randolf also smiles, thinly, and merely says “Ma’am.”

For the contestants, the lounge of the opulent suite feels more intimate and personable than the conference rooms of the hotel. An oval table has been placed in the centre of the room. It is large enough for three people on each side.

“Please ‘phone if there is anything you need. Room Service will be pleased to bring tea and coffee and food, just as you require,” says Functions. “You will find the bathroom there and the bedroom is there,” she continues for completeness.

She leaves, followed by Anatoly’s men, who take up positions outside in the chairs dotted in groups along the corridor.

As the door closes, Randolf takes up the initiative. He places his hands on his hips and faces Anatoly.

“I’m Manfred Randolf, this is Chuck Yates, the RanCor senior vice president, financial, and Petra Tennerby, my corporate security advisor. Shall we sit?”

Randolf is dressed very much as he was at the crisis meeting in the Berlin Marriott, just after Tracy disappeared. He wears an open neck shirt, jeans and cowboy boots. His clothes say he is practical, tough, down to earth, here to do business. His handshake is firm, his grip strong, his palm dry. He notices that Anatoly’s hand is also hard and dry and Randolf’s firm grip was returned in equal measure.

Petra is dressed to look dangerous. She wears lace-up boots, cargo pants, and a tight white T shirt. Her hair is plaited into a tight ponytail. Beneath her T shirt, the muscles in her arms stand out and her pecs lift her breasts, which do not really need any support from the sports bra she also wears.

Anatoly is in a grey suit with a thin pale blue stripe and black brogues. His shirt is pale blue, immaculately ironed, and set off with a yellow tie. His hair is a short buzz cut, styled at the temples and into the nape of his neck. He could be the businessman owner of a gymnasium chain. Sveta, beside him, wears a dark blue blazer, a white blouse, leather skirt, black tights and heels. Neena, behind her, wears her signature white shirt but this time with a pleated skirt and black loafers on her bare feet. Around one ankle, she has a gold ankle bracelet. She looks like a corporate secretary or PA.

Anatoly decides to dispense with Slavic patronymics, knowing they can, to western ears, appear anything from exotic to ridiculous, according to the sympathies of the company.

He replies: “I am Anatoly Kustensky. This is my wife and partner, Svetlana, and my colleague, Neena, who is your daughter Tracy’s line manager.”

The parties take their seats at the table. Randolf, Chuck and Petra on the one side, Anatoly and Sveta opposite with Neena sitting to the left and slightly behind Anatoly.

Once again, Randolf speaks first. “Pleasantries now over, I think we all know that we are here to do business. I further insist that all parties here present speak English all the time except if we call an adjournment. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” replies Anatoly, “and I have another suggestion...”

Before this crucial meeting, over breakfast in the privacy of their bedroom, Anatoly and Sveta has discussed how they should approach Randolf and Yates. Sveta is perceptive and suspects that Randolf is the sort of man who likes to keep the reigns of any negotiation very much in his own hands, an old fashioned man who remains in love with the ways of the Old West, the sort of man who likes to do business man to man. Accordingly, she has primed Anatoly to attempt to fission of the American negotiating team.

Anatoly continues “ ... we have confidential matters in front of us. We have to reach agreement and may need an innovative solution to the business situation we are dealing with. I often find walking in the open air helps to see matters from new perspectives, so I am going to suggest that Mr Randolf and I, perhaps with Neena and Ms Tennerby, leave Svetlana and Mr Yates here whilst we go outside. There is also much less risk of being overheard outside. Agreed?”

Randolf is caught off guard just for a moment. He had thought of himself conducting the negotiations as he might around the conference table in his office in the RanCor Tower, but he can see the wisdom of moving unexpectedly to an outdoor location. After all, what if the FBI had arranged with the local police to have the room bugged? And the weather is bright and mild outside.

“OK,” he says. “Agreed. Let’s go.”

Middle Meadow Walk

Neena drives the hire car — a black Range Rover automatic — into the city and follows the sat-nav directions to a large area of urban parkland. The Meadows (2) occupy a broad swath of south Edinburgh, between the old Royal Infirmary on the north side and the Victorian suburbs of Sciennes, Marchmont, and Bruntsfield to the south. The park is bisected by Melville Drive which carries a constant stream of traffic through, but the area occupied by the Meadows is large and dotted with runners, university students on their way to class, young mothers walking their tiny children in the fresh air, and the occasional knot of school children accompanied by their teachers. Mature trees form arcades above the paths and provide a calm and reviving atmosphere, yet the parkland also has the feeling of an arena, which is what it will become today, as Anatoly and Randolf contend over the fate of Tracy.

Neena stops the car to let Anatoly and Randolf out whilst she and Petra find a suitable parking spot for the vehicle.

Anatoly and Randolf start off down one of the paths.

“You been here before?” asks Randolf.

“Once or twice,” replies Anatoly. “I like the hotel and after our ... negotiations, I am going to stalk Roe Deer in the mountains. They have good facilities in Scotland...”

“Do they? I’m a golfer, me. I have played the Old Course at St Andrews which is a classic, right up there at International Standard with the best, but I am not staying.”

“Oh?”

“Nope. As soon as we are finished, I am heading north to Aberdeen. It’s an oil town, you know? It’s where they base their off-shore industry. Boy, has there been production from the North Sea! Right at the beginning, drilling those off-shore wells and handling all the undersea work, that was cutting edge. It really pushed industry capability forward. Anyway, the RanCor jet is at the airport, so I will fly back home from there. Aberdeen is the sort of place you might expect to find me so it will not start people asking questions.”

“That’s very astute, Mr Randolf.”

“Yeah, it is. Chuck Yates is staying here in Edinburgh for a few days. Chuck likes history and there is plenty of history here. He wants to see Edinburgh Castle.”

“Edinburgh is very beautiful. The buildings are like Saint Petersburg.”

“You don’t say?”

For a few paces the conversation ceases and then Randolf begins again.

“Y’know, I’m impressed. Taking off from the hotel to come here. If the FBI or anyone were thinking to eavesdrop — well, it’s much more difficult here. It would need preparation. They would have to know where we were going in advance, so I guess I am feeling better about talking.”

“I also do not want to be overheard. Mr Randolf, I think we both have things to gain and much to lose if we do not play our cards carefully, do you agree?”

“I think we can agree on that, so let’s begin with another easy agreement. Kustensky, I’d like you to start by confirming that you have abducted my daughter, Tracy.”

“Mr Randolf, I can confirm that Tracy is a member of my staff and is working for me at the present time. I can also say that she took the initiative and has offered her expertise and experience to me so, surely, your daughter is making her own way in the world?”

Petra and Neena have now caught up with their employers and Petra joins the conversation.

“Mr Kustensky, let’s cut the crap, shall we? Tracy was set up by a German male escort called Hans Peter Gensher. On the night she disappeared, he took Tracy out on the town, brought her back to her flat, fucked her brains out, and then gave her some sort of date-rape drug, I’m guessing. When Tracy lapsed into a stupor, he called your team of heavies who completed her abduction, loaded her into a railroad container, and shipped her off to Moscow (which Tracy pronounces Mas cow), so let’s not beat about the bush here, shall we? I’m not sure I can exactly imagine Tracy ‘offering her expertise and experience’ as a free agent in the circumstances, can you?”

“Mr Randolf, I am aware that RanCor began doing business in Russia and East Europe several years ago to help you recapitalize your business. The recapitalization was necessary because your stock was over-valued and you took steps to hide the true financial position of RanCor from your auditors, shareholders and from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Recently, you became dilatory at settling your accounts and that raised anxieties in the minds of your business partners as to your intentions.”

“Now let’s get this quite clear, Kustensky. As of now, I don’t owe nobody nothing. Not one red cent, d’you hear? Now, I want my property back!”

Neena chooses this moment to clear her throat.

“Yes, Neena?” asks Anatoly, keeping his gaze ahead as he and Randolf stroll slowly on.

“I think there are advantages for both parties if we can agree to be frank about our own situations.”

“Say, the bimbo has an opinion,” drawls Petra.

Neena — the bimbo in Petra’s estimation — continues.

“Mr Randolf does not wish his financial difficulties to become public and wishes to avoid any criminal investigation into his conduct. Anatoly Sergeyevitch does not wish to be associated with a criminal abduction. Both parties can be satisfied if we can agree on the correct ... location and status ... for Tracy.”

The quartet walks slowly on for a few more moments.

Anatoly takes up the thread of Neena’s summary of the situation. “If we can both agree that Tracy has taken up a new position in my organization, I am not responsible for a criminal abduction and Tracy is out of reach of your financial authorities.”

Petra now sees her chance.

“Tracy was putting some of the financial issues to do with the Corporation in order. According to Chuck Yates, that job is done. The issue from our side is that Tracy knows where the bodies are buried — that’s just a phrase, by the way — and, if she is out of circulation, then she is not standing on the street corner available to be pulled in and grilled by auditors or the SEC people or the FBI or Houston PD, and that means she is not a risk for us. If Tracy is going to work for you, we want her to stay working for you and not to come back to haunt Manfred. To be blunt, we want her to stay abducted but, publically, we will accept your version of the situation.”

“So, let me re-draw the new situation,” says Anatoly.

“The Randolf Corporation is now in safe financial waters. The main risk for you is that your daughter Tracy, who is to some extent responsible for the successful financial engineering, might be interrogated by your financial authorities. If she explains all she knows to them, they may begin legal action against you?”

“Which would be very bad news...”

“So, if I employ Tracy, and she stays in Russia, the legal dangers around you are substantially reduced, perhaps eliminated entirely?”

“Yep, that’s about it.”

“On my side, I do not want my business interests in the European Union or in North America compromised by any criminal investigation and I want to be able to travel freely outside the Russian Federation without fear of arrest for abduction.”

“I can understand that.”

“So my colleague Neena has correctly identified the common interest between us. The question to resolve is how we cement our understanding — which is now perhaps our agreement? I can tell you, Mr Randolf, that Tracy herself is worried about the US Treasury Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Houston Police.”

“The little bitch thought I was going to sell her down the river, did she?”

“I think she was worried that, if the Randolf Corporation was subjected to a searching investigation, she would be ... in the frame ... is that the phrase? ... in the frame for the financial irregularities and that you would be happy to see her take the blame.”

“It’s a practical calculation, Mr Kustensky,” replies Petra.

“There was a time when no one was worried, provided debts were paid and shareholders made money. After Enron, everybody is worried that corporations which look good on the outside might not be good on the inside, so ‘corporate governance’ is the word of the day. If Manfred is charged and convicted of false accounting, that’s going to drag Chuck Yates down, others too, maybe even me. Manfred could find himself doing serious jail time. Twenty years is easily possible. Manfred is sixty. Sixty plus twenty is eighty. That’s not good. Tracy is not quite thirty, but let’s say thirty to make the math easy. Thirty plus twenty is fifty. She could walk out of jail and enjoy another thirty more good years of life, so, sure, if the chips were down, we would sacrifice Tracy.”

“And in the words of Joseph Stalin,” says Anatoly by way of reply, “No man (or woman in this case). No problem?”

“Sorta...” agrees Petra.

“So, Kustensky, here is the deal,” says Randolf. “You get a pretty good accountant and you get the various authorities off your back so you can get on with your business and travel. The cost to you is Tracy’s salary and you have to keep her in Russia.”

“For twenty years?” asks Neena, smiling. It seems that she might get an opportunity to make something really special of the American after all — and at her leisure.

“For at least twenty five years and without parole,” says Petra, wishing to be absolutely precise. “Now, another thing. How do we know that Tracy will remain compliant? What’s to stop her picking up the phone to the US Embassy in Moscow?”

Neena?” says Anatoly, “perhaps you could explain?”

“We are completely used to altering to attitude of young ladies like Tracy. Her daily activities are carefully planned and closely monitored. She wears a collar which interacts with our office and home security. We can permit or restrict her access to any areas by programming our main computer or by using a smart phone app. The collar will deliver a shock to remind her when she is moving out of bounds and infractions are punished. At work, her internet and telephone access is restricted to be sufficient for her to do her work and it is monitored so she has no opportunity to make unauthorized contacts. In other ways, Tracy’s physical needs are carefully looked after with diet and exercise and we have not forgotten the ... ah... other needs a young woman has. Of course, the opportunity for sexual recreation has to be earned. Does this give you confidence?”