U. The Unfaithful Dead - Part 1 of 4

Of their first disobedience, and the consequences of Dr Tskuimura's
invention, I can only guess, but I doubt there was a hint of rebellion
in either of them before the funeral. The reception was held in the
Van-Heer company offices so everything was taped, you can only just
make out the voices but you can see them talk and, more importantly,
who they talked to.

She, Dr Eowen Gwen Lombard, 28, wore heels and a black dress more
befitting a wedding than a funeral. She looked at turns elegant then
goofy and awkward. She was tall and thin and had shoulder length blond
hair tied tightly back in a ponytail. When she talked she focussed
intently on the listener and gesticulated wildly, twice she spilled her
drink and never even noticed. When she listened her fingers fidgeted
and her eyes wandered and scanned the room, not searching for someone
more interesting but just idle, as if she could focus on the
conversation with focus to spare. Except when he talked, then she
stayed rapt.

He, Dr Alexander Hodder, no middle name, 31, wore a poorly fitting pin
stripe charcoal suit with a stain on the left cuff, twenty quid says
it's the same he wore to his interview six years before. He was tall
and slightly built but sporting the beginnings of a belly, too much
beer and too little exercise, he could contain it easily now with a few
visits to gym, but give him five years and it'll be a lot more work I
should know, I felt for him, or the man he would become.

Once I would have made them both as fools, harmless idiots stuffed into
monkey suits, since working for the Van-Heer company I knew better,
they were closer to geniuses but their social skills were somewhat
lacking is all. Understandable once you witness the lifestyle, all
working till early morning and heads caught up with problems I can't
even begin to understand. Perhaps nerds is the right word.

At first they just talked together and with colleagues, never straying
far from the drinks table. He drank fast, downing three glasses of wine
in thirty minutes, heavy going for lunchtime on a work day. Tenner says
he was nervous about public speaking. They went up to say something
together but he was the only one who talked, I looked for some sign of
affection or mutual support from her, a hand hold or a hug or just a
tap on the shoulder and 'good luck', but there was nothing.

After he talked others talked and they went back to the bar and he near
as damnit downed a glass of wine. That's when the other man introduced
himself.

'Excuse me. Hello. My name is Stan Arkin, I wanted to thank you for
your kind words.'

He was shorter and older than either of them but far better dressed, he
talked easily and quickly, when he ended a sentence he punctuated it
with a slight but insistent nod of the head in the direction of the
listener as if transferring the dialogue over and demanding a response.
He alternated these little flourishes between Eowen and Alex and thus
batted the conversation between the two of them.

'Pleased to meet you Mr Arkin. My name is Eowen and this is
Alexander.'

They all shook hands. 'Eowen, that's an unusual name.'

'My parents were big Tolkein fans, I have a brother called Frodo
Bombadil.'

He laughed and then said. 'I've never read any myself. It must be
something of a bind.'

'Oh I'm quite fond of it actually, were you a friend of Dr
Tsukimura?'

'I used to be his boss, and his friend as well. I was here? oh five
years ago. Alex might remember me, I remember you.'

Alex shook his head. 'I'm afraid not.'

'Oh well. I was pretty much out of the department by then. We were all
excited by the work at the time, I was disappointed never to hear
anything of it.'

Alex said 'This was five years ago?'

'Yes.'

'Then I'm sure there's no harm in telling you we've been on the same
project all this time.'

'Is that so.' He said. 'How sad that Dr Tsukimura did not live to see
it completed. He was so excited by it back then. He had no children you
must know so I think, in a way, he compensated with his
research.'

'Actually.' Said Eowen. 'He did live to see it finished.'

Alex looked sharply across at Eowen but she did not take any
notice.

'We had a fully working prototype completed just two days before he
died.'

'Oh.' Said Stan Arkin. 'That is good, that's quite cheered me
up.'

'I probably shouldn't have told you that.'

'I quite understand, don't worry I won't breath a word to a soul. Isn't
it wonderful though. I don't know, it's like the silver lining, it
meant so much to him.'

'Well,' said Alex, 'we're all proud.'

'Of course you worked on it too.'

'Six years of my life. Which is not as much as Dr Tsukimura's of course
but?'

'? still a long time. What about you?' He gestured to Eowen.

'Only three years of mine.'

'Also a very long time.'

He paused as if thinking about something and because it was the first
time he had paused Alex and Eowen were left at a loss, they did not
know whether they should wait for him to speak or not.

'Just don't let them use Tsukimura's death to screw you over.'

Alex looked at Eowen and Eowen looked at Alex. 'How do you mean?' Eowen
asked.

'You should be careful. There ought to be a lot of credit and a large
bonus coming your way but they're likely now to say it was all Dr
Tsukimura's work and ignore you.'

'They'd do that?'

'Of course if Tsukimura was alive he'd make damn sure you got the
credit you deserve but now he's not? You have to understand the
mentality of management, it is a job of two parts, the one you see, the
day to day running of the department, and the most important part,
achieving measurable results.' He put up his hand to stop Eowen from
interrupting. 'You and I know that results are a thorny business, they
may come early and often or they may take ten years of hard graft to
achieve. This does not usually concern the scientist or engineer, the
worker, they keep at it for as long as they believe the task is
possible, the manager on the other hand lives in a different world, a
hierarchy he must maintain his position in, and the only way he can
maintain that position is by providing results, so he badgers you for
them, and when there are none, he creates the illusion of
progress.'

Alex laughed, possibly a little drunk.

'With these disparities in mind a successful manager must separate
these two worlds completely, he cannot have his own boss talking to his
workers, he is paranoid you understand, terrified that those who
actually do the work will get the credit instead of him. So he must
subjugate his workers as much as possible whilst appearing to reward
them, small bonuses and meaningless little rewards such as a bottle of
wine are the best way to do this, these treats keep the employees
scrabbling for more, keeps them on their knees. A successful worker
with ambition is a direct threat to those above him. It seems perverse
but it as actually good personal strategy to keep your employees
down.'

'No.' Said Alex. 'We've put too much time and work into this, they
can't ignore us.'

'You have to understand that your department has a lot of enemies on
the board and it was only Dr Tsukimura that kept it safe from
interference. He held a lot of weight within the company, they poached
him from Sony you know, he was William Gassner's blue eyed boy, he was
protected from up on high. The projects success will only make its
enemies more deadly because they will regret not supporting it from the
outset. You are a very expensive department and people will be asking
what you are even for without Tsukimura. I expect you will be dissolved
before the question of a reward even comes up and by then you will be
working elsewhere and it will never come up. At least not for
you.'

'So what should we do?' Asked Eowen.

'Good question.' He replied. 'Not that much you can do much I'm afraid.
If you have a working prototype then they don't really need you
anymore, their loss if you go of course but they won't see that till
it's too late. No, all you can really do is nick it.'

'What? Take the prototype.'

'I was thinking more the formula actually, take that and you could
charge your own price from any one of Van-Heer's competitors, that
price could be just money or it could be a department of your own and a
battery of lawyers to protect you.'

'But it's illegal.' Said Alex.

'This is business, there is no real law, just that which you can buy.'
He looked at his watch. 'Look I have a plane to catch, it's been
fantastic to meet you and I'm sorry if I haven't had any good news for
you. Here take my card and anytime you want to talk, just to ask my
advice or? Anyway goodbye.'

He shook both their hands and made a swift exit. They spent the rest of
the reception talking to each other alone, in hushed voices.

*****

I watched the tape from a black leather sofa in Gassner's office that
had been polished so damn shiny that it required a permanent effort not
to slide off and be lost forever into the uncharted depths of the
carpet. Across a clear acre of mahogany old man William Gassner, CEO of
the Van-Heer company, reclined in a far more comfortable looking chair
and stopped the tape.

'Well.' He said, shooting me a look that might well have worked on his
usual armies of flunkies, lackeys and middle management toadies.

'Well what?' I asked.

'What do you think?'

'I think somebody has been trying to solicit members of your staff into
selling company secrets. I assume since I am here that he was
successful.'

He rocked the chair forward to an upright position and rested his
elbows on the desk. 'It seems he might well have been.'

'You don't know?'

'Mr Hodder and Miss Lombard have disappeared.'

'Follow Arkin,' I said, 'if it's true that's where you'll find
them.'

'Mr Arkin has also disappeared.'

'I see.' I said. 'And I suppose you want them all found and the
"formula" recovered?'

'That would be nice.'

He smiled so I smiled, that is how you work with powerful people. I was
about to ask about Arkin but at that moment the son walked in the door
without knocking.

'What the fuck is he doing here?' He shouted, pointing at me. I just
braced my feet against the carpet and tried my best to look
comfortable. Let the old man sort it out.

'Calm down James.' He said. 'I asked Michael here.'

'I'm handling this.' The son screamed. 'This is my responsibility. How
can you go over my head.'

'I think Michael should handle it.'

'Fuck you!'

Call me sentimental but I don't like to see the old man being talked to
like that, especially by his own kid. 'When you've finished throwing
your toys out of your pram,' I said, 'perhaps we can discuss this like
adults.'

He turned and glowered at me, face red and hot and twitching with rage,
fists clenched tight. I oh so wanted to stand up then, or just crack my
knuckles and stare him down, instead I turned to the old man and said
'Is there a problem Mr Gassner?'

'No Michael there is no problem. Sit down James.'

James sat down across the room from me and smiled as if nothing had
happened.

'You've had him handling it?' I asked.

The son spoke. 'It's my department and I discovered the item was
missing so I did what I could.'

'The item?' I asked. 'I thought we were talking about a formula.' I
gestured towards the video screen.

'I was referring to the formula.'

'Okay.' I said, it did not ring true but I let it slide. 'And what did
you do then?'

'That's none of your business.'

I turned to the old man who turned to his son and said 'Tell him
James.'

'We searched their houses but we didn't find anything.'

'This was after you realised they had disappeared.'

He paused but a nod from daddy prompted him on. 'No.' he said, without
a hint of embarrassment. 'We didn't realise that till after.' He didn't
have a clue he had done anything wrong.

'You probably scared them away.'

He glowed red again which was satisfying, but didn't say anything. I
was curious who 'we' were but that wasn't important just yet. 'Who is
Stan Arkin?' I asked.

The son answered. 'You don't need to know that.'

'If I'm going to find him I do.' I turned to the old man.

'He's an ex-employee. He lives in Richmond and runs his own business in
Chertsey, but he's away from both at the moment.'

I took out my pad and pencil and made a note of this. 'Shouldn't be too
hard to find.' I said.

'Oh yes?' Said the son. Fifty quid says he had tried and come up with
squat.

'He's trying to make a deal.' I said. 'So he'll need his lawyer, we'll
just follow the lawyer. I don't suppose you know who his lawyer
is?'

'No.'

'Not a problem. Although I imagine we'll find your two doctors first
anyway, it's a lot harder to disappear if you can't afford to, our Mr
Arkin looks like the type who can but those two won't be able
to.'

I waited for then to confirm my reading of Arkin but neither of them
said anything. I said. 'What exactly is it I'm looking for.'

'A compact disk.' Said the old man.

'Pure IP?' I said looking at the son, missing item my arse.

'Yes.' Said the old man, the son said nothing. 'Do you need anything
else.'

'I'll need to see their place of work.'

'Of course.'

'And is there any chance of you telling me what this formula is
for?'

'I'm afraid not Michael.' Said the old man. The son grinned ear to ear,
enjoying having a secret. Fiver says I'd know anyway by the end of the
day.