Chapter 6: Phoebe Brought Down

David was rather surprised to get a ‘phone call from Gillian a couple of weeks later to say that Phoebe had just rung her and hinted that another dinner date with David and herself making up the foursome would be very welcome.

“What did you say to her?” he asked.

“I didn’t know what to say, so I told her I’d think about it. I didn’t tell her we were meeting several times each week in case you wanted her as well as having me, Master.”

“Ring her back and tell her you don’t know how you would arrange a meal as you don’t have my number. Explain that Chris works in a different building from me so he can’t just ask me in passing. Can you do that?”

“Of course Master.”

Then David added, “Oh, and by the way I have no desire for Phoebe’s company or her body. That would be true even if I didn’t have yours.”

“You have mine any time and anywhere, Master, just say.”

At the office that Friday morning Phoebe received an internal memo setting up a meeting with David which read:

An appointment has been made for you to attend a meeting with Mr. Ransome at 10am on Monday next, or immediately after the Monday Meeting whichever is the later.

As had been intended, this worried her so she went along to his office and said, “You wanted to see me?”

David’s reply was short and to the point, “Monday at ten o’clock,” and he went back to reading the papers on his desk.

“But...” was all Phoebe managed before he said, “Out!”

Naturally Phoebe worried all weekend what this meeting was about. Does he want to sack me? Is it promotion? Am I being moved to some other job? She found it increasingly difficult to concentrate on anything, or even to sleep, which was precisely the effect David had been aiming for by the timing.

Monday came and the regular Monday Meeting where any problems were aired and the previous week’s progress reviewed, leading to any necessary plan changes for the coming week. This week there was nothing out of the ordinary and so the meeting ended at twenty past nine.

Phoebe went straight to David’s office there and then as he hadn’t asked anyone in for a chat, only to be told, “Ten o’clock!”

Half an hour later she timidly knocked on his door and he waved her in.

“What do you know of the history of the company?” David asked her.

“Not much,” she said, “I know you were one of the original founders of it, and everything it does is an official secret, but beyond that very little.”

“Good. At least security is tight. Yes, I helped to found this company specifically to do one particular project for the Navy about the time you were born. It was called Melisma and the content is still highly classified. The three of us were successful in that case and from that the company has grown to nearly a hundred technical staff plus the necessary paper pushers in Section 1. One thing we agreed on from the start was free coffee.”

Phoebe wondered why he mentioned that detail, but did not have long to wait.

“A team member who wants a cup of coffee just gets one from the machine. Since then a habit has developed that when they go to the machine they offer to bring one for any of their immediate neighbours, and this means fetching perhaps three or four cups and saves those neighbours the time and effort of getting their own. That is all well and good, but you have made it a habit to offer to fetch me one as well, although you sit much nearer to the coffee machine than to my office. At first I wondered if you were spying on the papers on my desk, but you never came nearer that the doorway to make the offer and I almost always refused your offer, so I can hide anything really sensitive by the time you were back on the odd occasions I accept your offer. In any case you don’t try to read any of the papers on my desk, the CCTV shows that.”