A Kitten Called Cat

Chapter Twenty Eight - Attack

After lunch, I finished off my maths and then set to work reading my current economics book which, I was surprised to find, was also available from the terminal.

Suddenly my attention was broken by an intercom message from Margaret. "Reuben's here to see you," she told Mr Bossy.

"Send him in," he replied.

A geeky-looking man in his mid twenties knocked on the door then came in and was invited to sit. He looked distinctly nervous.

"You've requested a transfer to the top floor," Mr Bossy said. "You've shown yourself to be more than technically proficient and, last weekend, you had your meeting with 'Enforcement Division'."

Reuben turned white at the mention of that meeting. I would have bet that there'd been knives and fingers involved.

"So now it's time for you to make a decision," Mr Bossy went on. "You have three options: you may withdraw your application and remain downstairs; you may request constructive dismissal and walk out of the door with a sizeable cheque; or you may accept your promotion and move up to the top floor with all that entails. But before you make that decision, I need to reiterate one point."

In a flash, Mr Bossy flipped from the firm but fair manager that we all loved, to a menacing and dangerous organised crime boss who would have your guts ripped out and roasted over a slow fire in front of your eyes. I could sort of feel the knife on my finger as he spoke.

"Whatever you decide, you will, for all time, remain absolutely bound by the terms of the confidentiality agreement that were laid out at your meeting with Enforcement Division last weekend, with the full weight of the associated penalties for any breach."

He paused briefly to stare into poor Reuben's eyes... into his soul. "I... will... never... tolerate... betrayal," he said slowly, stressing each word.

A cold wave passed through me as the memory of my own meeting returned. I felt a sudden urgent need to go to the toilet and so, by the look of him, did Reuben.

Then, as suddenly as he went, the nice Mr Bossy was back. "So, which is it to be?" he asked.

"I'd like..." Reuben tried but his voice had stopped working. "I'd like to accept the promotion, please," he managed at the second attempt.

"Then welcome on board," Mr Bossy said, offering Reuben his hand.

As Reuben left, I tried to turn my attention back to my economics book. But I found it a bit tricky to concentrate for a while.

I was still staring vaguely into space when I was called into the meeting room by Mr Mac. He gave me a quick introduction to Mr Andretti's organisation and to our relationship with them.

And it was absolutely brilliant. Without ever saying anything that actually admitted anyone was doing anything even vaguely wrong, he managed to explain that Mr Andretti was the head of a major Italian-American mafia family and that he was looking to use Mr Bossy's contacts to ship various illegal drugs between Europe, North America and the Far East. Simone was going to be responsible for organising this operation from their side... and there was a one-to-one meeting between Mr Bossy and Simone scheduled for next week.

After a couple of minutes, other people started to arrive. One was Maximilian Roth, Head of the Enforcement Division and Caroline's boss. He had a slight German accent and seemed vaguely familiar and I realised that he was the one who had been with Caroline when they had found me in the woods. Mr Mac said he was a former champion Chessboxer.

"Excuse me but... what's Chessboxing?" I had to ask.

"Just what it is sounding like," he explained. "You compete in alternate rounds of chess and of boxing."