Chapter 44: Stimulation

I'd taken on board what Harry was saying but I really hadn't decided what to do about it. If what Harry had to say hadn't been enough, the earful I got from Freddie the following day made the point even more strongly. He asked to see me in his office. When I got there Elly had evidently just finished a conversation with him. He didn't look happy. Elly just looked at me, dropped a file on Clegg's desk and said "See you later," to him She gave a nod to me but said nothing more and left.

Clegg gestured for me to take a seat. "How's things with the Emir?" he asked.

"OK," I said. Harry's got research to do some collection proposals. The Emir's happy with them. He's going to take 14 pieces from us. Some will come from stock but most will be custom collections." I'd expected him to be pleased with the news but it didn't look like he was.

"Larry," he said, "That's fine. Good news." He moved quickly on, evidently keen to get to what he really wanted to talk about. "Look, I know operations aren't your responsibility but I'm worried. There's been too many cock-ups recently in the field and in the Prep Centre. And then there was the business with Brian. The difficulty with all this custom collection work is that it means we're being more selective about targets. I'm not sure we're taking account of the extra risks the you get when you go after someone specific rather than just collecting opportunities. It was your idea to go down this track. The business needs to deal with the consequences but you need to get on board with that too. I got Elly to do some rooting around on some of the problems. She's just been filling me in. The only good thing is that it looks as though the Brian thing was well contained. Seems like he wasn't just keeping down sales prices he was skimming the receipts as well. The people who thought he was helping them are most upset. They actually sounded grateful that we'd taken him out. Sure, they like to make a bit of money but they don't like things be de-stabilised any more than I do. Not sure where that leaves him when I've done with him though. Nobody's even interested in him as meat. As to the rest of it, Elly was pretty scathing. The whole team's got too bloody casual. It needs to be tightened up. If we carry on like we are doing then someone's going to get killed or worse."

"Well, hang on," I said defensively. "I'm not sure that you can point deficiencies in operations or the prep centre at me. I know Brian was pissed off because of what I'd been doing but that's hardly my fault is it?"

"No," said Clegg, "it's not. But, and it's a big but, if this organisation as a whole can't cope with the attentions of that incompetent better than we did then we're in trouble. If one of our own folk gets snatched by amateurs; if one of our own folk lets herself get snatched by amateurs; if we only avoid you getting picked up by chance; if we let your writer run amok and break out of the Prep Centre; if we have our sales director running scams on the inside of the business and no one knows; if the Prep centre is so heavy handed it gets to blister the mind of one of our assets," I looked blank, "your bloody writer — Rachel; then I think the business has a problem. And if you don't think that's part of your responsibility then maybe I have a problem with you."

"Hey, I'm not backing away from any of this but I can't do other people's jobs. You didn't hire me because of what I knew about this business, remember?"

"No, I didn't. But I do expect some level of involvement. And I need to see some follow through on the consequences of getting into this approach to market. Now I'll admit I haven't pressed you on this. But I'm pressing you now Larry, I'm pressing you now. And you won't want me to press you any harder. Believe me."

Something about his humourless smile made me very certain that I agreed with him.

"The first thing we're going to do is fix your writer," he said bluntly. "I don't like wasting assets. You wanted her, you can take the lead."

"Well, I 'm not sure we can, I've spoken to Rick and..." Clegg's cold stare cut me off.

"I said it's going to be fixed. I've spoken to Rick about a few things too, including this and he's feeling much more motivated now." I imagined the conversation had been along similar lines. "He's made some progress. Got a new approach. Looks as though it might work, Go talk to him again. And then come back and tell me how you're going to fix it. That's not 'if', Larry, that's 'how'! Don't take it personally. I'm going to be pretty intolerant of cock-ups all round from now, but this one is very much on your priority list. I'm interested in your continued well-being Larry. Don't disappoint me."

I left Clegg's office feeling somewhere between deeply uncomfortable and scared shitless. Whether or not it was personal it was pretty clear that any failure would result in some personal attention and I didn't think it was about to be a quiet coaching session. In fairness, I had to admit he was right but it didn't make me any more comfortable about the possible outcomes.

I bumped into Rick in the corridor at the Prep Centre and told him Freddie had asked me to talk to him about Rachel. "Yes," he said, "Freddie had a chat with me, too." He gave a look that suggested he'd left his discussions with Clegg in about as comfortable a state as I had. "So, it looks like we need to try and fix this."