Chapter 1: Board Meeting

Two people are in two offices, a hundred miles apart. By coincidence they are both looking at the same page of the same magazine.

Larry Ross, thirty five years old with sandy hair that just might be starting to thin at the back and a waist that is just a bit thicker than he would like, is one of them. Until recently Marketing Director of Clegg Enterprises Special Products Division, Larry has been given a new job by Clegg and a new challenge, too.

The other is Jenny McEwan, a post graduate student and researcher at a university in the English Midlands.

The magazine is Second Skin, a glossy BDSM and fetish scene magazine. The page they are looking at carries an advertisement placed by a business called "Inward Bound".

They may be looking at the same thing, but they each have very different interests. Jenny is studying it closely. She is telling herself that her interest is academic, but that might not be the whole story. Larry, on the other hand, already knows about Inward Bound; when he first heard about it he was so impressed he recommended that Clegg Enterprises buy the company.

Jenny is remembering times when a new issue of Second Skin was the thing she looked forward to most of all. She recalls how she and her lover used to read it together in bed using its fetish imagery and kinky articles as a springboard for their own imaginations. It is a pleasant memory, but right now that's the problem: it's only memory. She goes on looking at the advertisement. She is going to discuss it with her PhD supervisor, Professor Dawney, later. She is suspicious of Dawney's motives for suggesting that Jenny look at the advert. She is determined that she won't end up in bed with the Prof again. Not this time.

Larry is sitting at an empty desk in an empty office in an empty building. It's the first day in his new job; his first day as managing director; the first day of the new business venture that Clegg has set up. He takes one last look at the magazine and then puts it to one side.

He allows himself a few moments to savour the luxury of an empty diary, an empty filing cabinet and nothing more than the ideas in his head and an open-ended directive from his boss as the starting point for what needs to be done.

The directive was Clegg's quiet, "Just get things started, Larry. Go talk to the people in Huntingdon. See how you can move things along." It is a change for Larry; but it is a change for Clegg too. He isn't used to letting somebody else run things. It's obvious that neither of them will find the change easy to deal with.

For Larry it is definitely a promotion. Today he is starting on "Project Willing", the result of ideas that he himself had proposed to Clegg. They aim to take over "Inward Bound", a business that specialises in giving submissives a chance to experience consensual slavery. Larry isn't sure which is going to be the bigger challenge, doing the job, keeping Clegg happy or keeping the business legitimate!

He is, however, sure about one thing. The whole enterprise is going to work better with a cup of coffee but, with no kettle, no coffee machine, no coffee, no milk, no secretary it will have to be Starbucks, he thinks.

There's so much to do to even get the basics in place. He stands up, runs his hands though his hair and looks out of the window. Unsurprisingly, he can see the green and black sign over a shop front less than fifty yards away. He looks down at his waist line. He promises himself that he'll have a low fat muffin this time. He knows he's lying to himself.

He is half way to the door when the phone rings. "Ha! Interruptions!" Larry thinks, "That's good. I must be getting somewhere already. You always get interruptions as soon as you start doing something important."

He picks it up. "It's Larry."

"Hi, Larry." He recognises the voice at the other end. "It's Sarah," she says. "I've just had a message from Mr. Clegg. He wants you for a special board meeting at 10:00."

"Did Freddie say what it's about?"

"No, Sir, but I sort of had the impression that he has something on his mind. He was, er, very definite if you know what I mean."

"Thanks Sarah. I know what you mean. I'll be there." Larry looks at his watch. It will only take him fifteen minutes to get over to the Brick Lane offices.

Larry puts down the phone. With an empty desk and an empty diary there doesn't seem like there's much preparation he can do. He was going to call the people in Huntingdon they were planning to take over. That was going to be the starting point for "Project Willing". But now, well it's probably best to wait until after the board meeting. He looks at his watch. 9:30. Larry thinks, "I might as well walk round. It'll be better for me than the coffee anyway."

The Brick Lane office has a seedy, unkempt air. It is set on the edge of the City in a 1950s block of dirty brick, peeling paintwork and metal windows. The building has an anonymous, non-descript feeling to it that suits Clegg perfectly. He doesn't much care for ostentation. At least not in his business dealings.

At 10:00, Larry makes his way up to Clegg's office.

The room is comfortable rather than luxurious, but then Clegg's preferred business forum is his club or the restaurant alongside it rather than the Whitechapel offices. Sometimes, though, he needs an office base, and this is it.

Clegg's management style is usually pretty 'hands on'. He finds it hard to delegate. Worse still, he finds it hard not get involved with the detail. Larry remembers stories of how Freddie insisted on taking part in 'operations' sometimes. He isn't surprised that Freddie is looking to involve himself even at this early stage. He had hoped he was going to get through his first day without it, though.

It's not as though he's even keen on meetings," Larry thought to himself. "He's never been strong on the formal 'running the business' stuff." As a result, Larry is surprised to see the room almost full. There's even one of the secretaries there to take minutes. Larry is astonished. Freddie doesn't usually go in for taking minutes.

Larry looks around the room. It's not quite the usual suspects. Freddie is there, of course, and Elly (his business and, everyone assumes, personal partner) in her role as group legal adviser. Pamela Jordan, the group's medical adviser, and Connie Mbazu, recently appointed as head of training, are both there, too ... There are maybe a half a dozen others lurking at the back. Given that the office isn't much bigger than a table that has room for eight, it's pretty crowded.

Clegg smiles and waves Larry to the one remaining chair. "Hello Larry, glad you could come. I just thought it would be good if we all had a chat before you got yourself stuck into things with 'Project Willing'. Give us all a chance to make sure that things go in the right direction. No treading on toes. No dead ends. You know."

Larry nods. He knows. He knows exactly. What this says is that Freddie's changing his mind about things.

"The thing is," Elly cuts in, "Freddie's has been re-reading your business plan and looking at the due diligence from the 'Project Willing' acquisition. We're wondering if maybe the "consensual" division might be more important for the future of the Group than we thought at first."

Elly had always struck Larry as dangerous. She is an attractive woman, her hair jet-black and curly and usually, as today, combed back from her forehead. Her eyes are piercingly blue. Larry always felt there was much more going on in her head than she ever spoke out loud. On their previous encounters, she'd given him a fair hearing and when she'd agreed to support him, she'd always delivered. She is wearing a smart, fitted, white blouse, a black leather skirt, black tights and riding boots. Her outfit tells you she's a powerful woman, a woman that means business, and one that doesn't mind your knowing it.

"Yes," Freddie continues. "We have to have an eye to the social and political context we are operating in."

Larry is immediately worried. 'Context' is a word he doesn't normally associate with Freddie. It means that he's been talking to people. That is invariably a bad idea from Larry's perspective.

"The thing is, Larry," Elly chips in, "that our business risk is gradually increasing whilst the fees we can charge clients can't rise in step."