Chapter 6: Guderian at Dunkirk

In this chapter, when Jennifer was Vyera, in Moscow, she met Tracy, another abductee being held as security against her father’s un-paid business debts. Petra Tennerby the Randolf Corporation enforcer, is closing in on Jennifer McEwan. Jennifer is the girl who came back. Has she information which could help locate Tracy? Guderian at Dunkirk

In a quiet moment during his office day, Anatoly picks up the Vyera file and reads. He reviews the resume of the telephone calls and email traffic. He notes Neena’s ‘e-visits’ to Vyera and her appointments with the therapeutic psychologist, Malvern. The calls, text and emails to her parents. Vyera’s calls to her husband and his calls to her. Anatoly goes to the second section of the file to remind himself about Vyera’s husband Joseph. About the company which employs him, about what he did for the company and what he did when his wife Jennifer disappeared and became the new woman “Vyera” he is now getting to know. Anatoly notes Joseph’s calls to a colleague called Gwenda. If Sveta had not intervened and so to speak, altered the course of history, Anatoly wonders if Gwenda and Joseph might have found happiness together? Joseph is a brave and resourceful young man, the sort of person who could easily find a place in Anatoly’s organization, if only Anatoly is able to get the engineering right. And Joseph would bring Vyera with him...

As he grows older, Anatoly often finds himself thinking about his father.

He remembers standing by his father on one occasion as they looked at a picture of Army officers who themselves were standing and gazing at a map. In the picture, Anatoly’s father points to a location and glances up at his Commander, Marshal Gregory Zhukov. (1)

“It’s important Anatoly”, said his father, “to follow orders carefully. Especially if the orders come from a man like this”. He taped the image of Zhukov. “On the other hand there are times when you have to know which orders to disregard.

Did I tell you about the time when the German panzer leader Heinz Guderian lost the Great Patriotic War in West Europe by following orders?

In 1940, he had pushed the British forces right to the sea. There they were trapped along the Belgian coast. Guderian was poised to strike the final fatal blow which would have destroyed the ability of the British to resist Hitler on land in the west. For some reason, Hitler told Guderian to stop advancing. There he sat, tank engines running, consumed in frustration whilst a few kilometres away, the British slipped away across the sea in a ridiculous armada of small boats. (2) By and by his chance of finishing off the British vanished and all because he obeyed an order. Do you know what he should have done? Gone right ahead and told Hitler that the final attack was in progress and could not be halted! You see, Guderian knew better than the German High Command exactly what the position was on the ground. Orders from superiors do not excuse a soldier from using his brain. So that goes to show little Anatoly that sometimes you have to know when to disobey!”

Anatoly as a mature adult is now able to understand much more exactly the sage advice from his father, General Sergei Kustensky, Hero of the Soviet Union. Anatoly smiles. Mikhail Barysovitch Antonov is – in Anatoly’s opinion - not at his best in a crisis. He told Anatoly to dismantle the surveillance equipment planted in Vyera’s home in England. Clearly, a panic response. This was an order Anatoly had disobeyed – and he was reaping the benefits of holding fast. He will not mention the details to Mikhail Barysovitch but the information he is learning is sharpening his plans about what to do next.

Petra stalks her Prey

After Petra finds the exact location of Jenny and Joe’s home she formulates a careful surveillance plan. As an American she is unusual, although not the novelty she might have been years ago. Still, she would linger in memory if she had an accidental encounter with one or more of the McEwan’s neighbours or worse still, an unexpected meeting with the McEwans themselves.

Petra begins in the safety of her hotel room in London and brings up the McEwan’s address on Google Earth. She has an excellent aerial view of their property and the neighbourhood and a street map which allows her to plan a drive-by in the most discrete way.

Petra has to gain some detailed knowledge of the McEwan’s routine and of their immediate plans. The technical question is, how should she arrange the eves-drop?

Petra turns again to the satellite image and increases the size to maximum resolution. It seem almost as if she hovers above the roof of the property. Petra is searching for some vulnerability, some point of leverage she can exploit to help her find a technical answer to her problem...

Over dinner that evening (she chooses to go ‘Oriental’, to Kai Mayfair because it is simply the best. Sharp. Elegant. Beautiful and with food to match.) (3) Petra muses over what to do about Tracy. She thinks back over the revealing conversation she had with Randolf and Chuck Yates, the Randolf Corporation Chief Financial Accountant. (4)

“So Petra, Chuck and I are gonna have to put you more in the picture about the Corporation. Give you some important context. Chuck?...”

“Well Petra, it’s like this. Frankly, the Corporation has been in poor shape over the past few years. We are seriously over-valued. We need real money to refinance and to get working capital to rebuild our financial foundations...”

“So why not just go to the Bank and borrow?” Petra asked. “If people think you are a good risk and a valuable company, that should be no problem?”

“The banks are being much more careful and frankly, I don’t want them crawling over the company accounts” replied Randolf.

“and the reason is”, continues Chuck, “that the accounts have not told the complete picture about the corporate finances for quite a while, So what we did”, continues Chuck.

“Look, Petra it’s like this” said Randolf, following through. “Along comes The Nineties. After the Soviet Union collapsed I could smell money. Could we cut some deal with the former soviets? Hell, I thought we’d be dealing with a bunch of engineers who knew fuck all about business or a collection of ex-pinko communist apparatchiks who did not know which way up the balance sheet went.”

“And I guess it did not turn out quite like that?”

“No siree girl, it did not.“

“ ... so we took a leaf out of the Enron Book” (5) adds Chuck. “We set up a number of Special Purpose Vehicles. These separate an investment from the main balance sheet. If it makes money, you can transfuse money into the main Corporation accounts. If it loses, it is off the books but the main thing is that the share price is not affected by what the SPV’s are doing.” (6)

“I wanted them just to bring investment capital into the Corporation” explains Randolf. “ ... and avoid tax” adds Chuck with an accountant’s precision.

“Well, ‘Boris’ found out that we were over-valued and he guessed that we had been using our East Europe operations to rebuild our finances” added Randolf.

... you see Petra, they knew that we had not been correctly declaring profits and The Treasury does not like that” the pedantic Chuck explained.

“ ... and I have no intention of doing jail time like that dumbass Jeffery Skilling” added Randolf. (7)

“ ... so Manfred sent Tracy to tie up the East European operation.”

“To cut the Russians loose?”

“Yep, that’s about it. A few more months and we would not have needed them any more” Randolf replied.

“And now they have Tracy, she is security to guarantee your good behavior”, says Petra, summarizing the situation.

“Yes Petra, that’s it. Tracy also knows where a whole lot more bodies are buried.”

Petra glances at her watch. 9pm in London but 3pm in Houston. Chuck Yates would still be at his desk. Petra places the call. She reaches the Corporation switchboard and is soon speaking with Chuck’s secretary.

“Mr Yates Office...”

“This is Petra Tennerby. Corporation Security. I would be obliged if you would put me through to Mr Yates?”

“Do you have an appointment, Ms Tennerby?”

“No I do not but I think you should let Mr Yates know I am on the line. It’s an expensive line, by the way. It goes all the way to London, England.”

“Just one moment, I will see if he can give you time...”

“Petra?” Chuck sounds tentative and unsure of himself.

“Chuck!”

“Petra, should we be talking like this?”

Petra is not to Chuck’s liking. She is attractive and sensuous in a sinuous rattlesnake sort of way and like a rattlesnake, she is dangerous with a fast, deep and poisonous bite. If he reflected carefully enough, Chuck would have to admit to himself that he is afraid of Petra and perhaps with good reason.

“Why the hell not, Chuck? We both work for the Randolf Corporation.”

“Yes but well, you know ... you are Security.” Petra can imagine Chuck starting to perspire, beginning to squirm in his chair.

“Who better to speak with the Corporation Chief Accountant?”

“So how can I help?” Chuck sighs and Petra hears him down the line. ‘A good accountant maybe but not good with poker’ she muses.

“You have got my number?”

“Of course.”

“So go home, stop by Wallmart, buy a ‘pay as you go’ mobile and call me. I would like to take your call before midnight and its already 9pm here so call me by six, your time huh?”

“Ye ... yes Petra, I’ll try”

“No, Chuck. Don’t just try. Just do it, do you hear?”

“OK Petra, I’ll call.”

After she closes the call, Petra reflects carefully over some awkward facts: Randolf owes money – but is almost in the clear. Randolf is tied to a partner who is able to dictate terms. Tracy is surety. Tracy has insider information about the Corporation - but the value of her inside knowledge is fading with each passing day and other information about some less-than-honest financial footwork which has kept the Corporation looking like a sound investment.

Petra finds herself wondering when would Tracy cease to be of any real value to the Corporation? When would they get to a point where they did not need Tracy anymore?

The Prospects for Tracy Randolf

“Petra? It’s me, Chuck.”

“Good boy Chuck. You are calling on time. Are you inside?”

“Yes of course.”

“I would rather we had this conversation outside.”

“Do I have to?”

“Depends if you want to be overheard or not. Is it raining or something?”

“Petra you surely don’t think our home is bugged do you?”

“Frankly Chuck I have no idea. It was clean last time I did a sweep but who knows now. Anyway the point is I don’t want us to be overhead and it’s less likely that your garden has been compromised. Bugs planted between the roses, you know?”

“OK just give me a minute...”

Chuck keeps the line open as he goes outside. Petra can hear him shuffling through his house and eventually the character of the line changes as he gets outside. “So what is it you want to talk about that is so sensitive? Have you found Tracy?”

“No, but I have found the girl who might have been held captive with her.”

“Oh ... Well that’s good isn’t it?”

“Yeah, that’s definitely a step in the right direction but that is not why I am calling.”

“Oh?”

“I was thinking back to the conversation you and Manfred had with me in Berlin. You remember: when you told me that the Corporation was headed down the pan and about what you did...”

“Yes well Petra do we have to go over that again? I mean it’s looking a lot like water under the bridge now.”

“Yes I hope so but its still a skeleton in the cupboard, right?”

“Erm, yes well ... Yes, I guess so, although I would rather not use that sort of language...”

“So Chuck, Manfred said that Tracy knows where a whole lot more bodies are buried?”

“Petra, do we have to go over this again? Isn’t your job just to help us get Tracy back?”

“My job is to manage the situation Chuck, which may involve getting Tracy back and maybe no.”

“No? Not get Tracy back? How do you mean Petra?”

“OK Chuck let’s think this thing through. You are in Manfred’s office, sat at the conference table but unfortunately, it’s not just you and Manfred. There are people from The Treasury, people from the Department of Justice, FBI, Houston PD and maybe you two have gotten yourselves an attorney. The Treasury says ‘we realise that no one has lost money but what you did was serious fraud and way out of line’ and the Department of Justice people shake their head and say ‘yep, one of you two or maybe both of you is going down for twenty five years at least. We have got to set an example here. Uphold standards of good corporate behaviour. We do not want any more Gordon Gekko behaviour’. (8) What’s Manfred going to do? How old is he now? Sixties? Sixty plus twenty five minus three for good behaviour minus two for a ‘guilty’ plea is eighty. Can you or Manfred last out in the State ‘Pen till you are eighty? Alternatively does Manfred say ‘Well look here I gave my daughter a free hand to bring new thinking to the business? I think you are going to have to have a word with her because all these irregularities started after she joined the Corporation - and meanwhile he is thinking ‘Tracy: she is thirty so thirty plus twenty five equals fifty five and she gets to walk out of the ‘Pen and she still has a lot of years ahead of her?”

Chuck swallows hard. Petra’s grim scenario seems all too dreadfully plausible. He knows that if the chips were really down, Manfred would always look after himself and would have no hesitation in throwing him and perhaps even Tracy to the wolves if the need arose.

“So what should we do Petra?”

“So let’s think about Tracy. Why is she valuable to her abductors?”

“Well they will assume that Manfred wants his daughter back and will start toeing the line so they can do some sort of deal between us and them?”

“Something like ‘give us a controlling interest in the Corporation and you can have the girl back again’?”

“Something like that.”

“What other value might she have? Pretend you were selling her to the highest bidder. Maybe pretend she was a bit like a football player.”

“Well if you put it like that Petra, Tracy is a trained accountant and a very good one actually. She knows the oil business. She knows the financial position of the Corporation and how we like to do things.”

“OK, let’s take these things one by one. Accountant?”

“She is good but not uniquely good.”

“Oil business?”

“Well, plenty of people know about the oil business...”

“The financial position of the Corporation? That must change from day to day, right?”

“Sure. When she vanished, she would know the up to date situation. As time passes, her detailed knowledge becomes out-dated. That is inevitable.”

“So her knowledge of the Corporation is becoming less valuable as time passes?”

“Yes, well I guess but look Petra...”

“And then you add a little something if you roll all these things up together in one package?”

“Yes, that’s fair but look Petra this is Tracy we are talking about. Manfred’s daughter.”

“Chuck here is some practical risk management. From what you have said, Tracy’s unique value to you is that she knows where the bodies are buried, right?”

“Right.”

“So if there is no Tracy, there is one less person to open their mouth too wide. If Tracy comes home and sings in Washington or Houston, you and Manfred are in real trouble. If she sings in Moscow, who in their right mind is going to believe her, especially when you and Manfred have the opportunity to pour all the evidence down to the bottom of one of those deep wells Manfred wants to drill?”