by Yossi Porat
“Yes, sir,” the manager replied calmly. “But our bank offers you security, discretion, and most important, complete anonymity. No one will know about your money.”
Omar nodded his head in agreement and handed the manager his briefcase of money. “Will you count it now?” Omar asked.
“No, sir. Your word is good enough for me,” shaking Omar’s hand and smiling politely. Omar left the bank, satisfied with the transaction.
…..
Adam gave Laurie a gentlemanly smile and a polite “Good morning” before entering the office.
“Oh, good – you’re here,” Andrew greeted him. “We have to talk.”
“We certainly do,” Adam answered him. “Have you lost your mind? A small bomb?”
“Look, Adam,” Andrew stopped him. “You knew from the beginning what the implications of this technology are. Don’t try to play innocent now! If you want out of the company, I’m sure the Saudis will have no problem buying you out.”
“Yes, well,” Adam sputtered. “I certainly do want out, and I want a premium of fifty million pounds over and above my original one hundred million pound investment.”
“What! Fifty million pounds! Absolutely not! You don’t deserve it” Andrew was furious.
“Look, Andrew. “Give me the money and I’ll keep quiet about what you’re doing.”
“Are you trying to blackmail me? You don’t have the nerve!”
“Andrew, stop your grandstanding. Give me the money I want and I’ll be out of here, no worries.”
“How about twenty-five million? That’s half of the Saudis’ money,” Andrew bargained.
“Nothing less than forty million,” Adam countered. “I’m out of here for a hundred and forty million pounds. What do you say?”
Andrew answered, “We’ll see. I’ve got to talk to the Saudis.” To himself he thought, “What a loser Adam is. I’m well rid of him.”
After Adam left his office, Andrew told Laurie over the intercom, “Laurie, take off early today – say at four-thirty. Tell the rest of the staff as well.”
“How nice,” Laurie answered. After finishing with Andrew, she sent an SMS to Menahem: “Andrew closing office early today. Could be secret meeting with Saudis. Advise.”
Menahem answered immediately. “Plant the new listening device I sent you yesterday in Andrew’s office now!”
Laurie entered the office, moving slowly and seductively toward Andrew’s desk. She leaned over him, her right hand on his shoulder, and her left hand with the device hidden in it, leaning on the desk.
“I just wanted to thank you again for my bonus,” she said softly. She pressed the tiny button onto the underside of the desk, smoothing it to make sure it had adhered.
“That’s quite all right,” Andrew answered. “You deserve it. And we’d like to involve you more in the company’s activities. You’ve proved yourself.”
Laurie smiled and left the room. She sent a quick message to Menahem: “Done” was all it said.
…..
At five minutes past five that afternoon, Omar and Sayeed entered Andrew’s office. Andrew told them of his negotiations with Adam. The Saudis were satisfied and decided that it must be done as soon as possible. “We must get on with the experiment,” Omar urged. “But let’s talk about how we’ll divide the company with Adam gone. What do you think, Andrew?”
“I’m thinking two-thirds to myself and one-third to you two,” Andrew pronounced confidently.
“Absolutely not. It must be fifty-fifty.”
“How about sixty-forty?” Andrew offered.
“Fifty-five percent to you, forty-five percent to us, but all decisions made equally by both sides. You will do nothing against our wishes.”
“Agreed,” Andrew concluded. “I’ll be doing most of the managing anyway,” he thought to himself.
When the Saudis had left his office, Andrew called Adam to let him know that they had agreed to give him one-hundred and forty million pounds. In return, Andrew made clear that Adam was not to speak to anyone about the company’s activities.
“No problem,” Adam agreed. “I’m only interested in getting my money. And anyway, how could I betray my oldest friend?” This sounded false to Andrew, but he did not challenge Adam, hoping he was wrong.
Adam immediately called Sir Joseph to report on this latest development. Sir Joseph thanked him and in a further conversation with the Prime Minister, discovered that the Americans had put a block on the Saudi’s fifty million pounds. Omar would never see that money, the Prime Minister told Sir Joseph, pleased with this development.
…..
Adam entered the office building at nine that evening. “Good evening, Oscar,” he greeted the guard. “I think I left some important papers in the office. I’ve got to have a look.”
When he entered his office, he hurried to open the window. There was Rob, snappeling up the side of the building. “My God, Rob,” Adam exclaimed, “That’s quite a talent!”
“Always loved doing this,” Rob joked as he climbed in the window. “OK, let’s see if we can crack Adam’s password.” They went through all the usual possibilities: Andrew’s mother’s maiden name, his children’s names, his cats’ names, nicknames of all his family, birthdays, first girlfriend – until Rob asked
Adam, “Maybe there’s something to do with the company beside the official name. Can you think of anything?” Adam looked at the folder on Andrew’s desk and noticed the embossed monogram.
“Maybe Octagon?” he asked hesitantly. “That’s what we named our secret tree-house when we were boys, and now we use it as our company symbol.”
“That’s it!” Rob crowed. “I’m in!” He began downloading every file in the computer to his memory stick, and for good measure, sent it all to himself via email.
When he had finished, Adam asked him timidly, “Are you sure he won’t be able to tell?”
“Don’t worry – I’ve covered my tracks completely,” Rob answered confidently. He left the way he had come – through the window.
There was a soft knock at the office door. It was Oscar, the night guard. “You’ve been in here over an hour, sir, and I was afraid that something had happened to you. Is everything all right?”
“Thank you, Oscar,” Adam smiled. “I was just leaving.” He waited for the guard to leave the office and quietly shut the window.
…..
Menahem was reporting to Avram. “We’ve got an especially high-quality bug in Andrew’s office now. We know that someone cracked Andrew’s computer. We also know that Adam is leaving the company and will be taking more money from the Arabs. They’re talking about a bomb attack in Barcelona. Sir, I really think we should inform the London authorities, as well as the Spaniards, of course.”
Avram was firm. “I’ll take care of that. The Prime Minister will talk to Spain. Don’t worry about the British.”
…..
Andrew was at the office at ten the next morning. When he entered the room, he noticed that his computer was turned slightly to the left, certainly not the way he had left it last evening. He typed in his password and activated a program that he had developed in one of his previous start-up companies. The program allowed the owner of the computer to detect any activity on the computer. It reported that the last entry had been last evening at 22:04, with an exit at 22:26.
“Who was here last night? What were they looking for?” he fumed. He picked up the intercom and asked Laurie for the night guard’s phone number. When he reached Oscar he asked about any unusual activity in the building the evening before. “Yes, sir, your partner Adam was in the office for over an hour. He told me that he had left something and that he needed it, but when he didn’t leave, I went up to check it out. He was in the office, and left soon afterwards.”
“Thank you, Oscar,” Andrew said. “Please don’t tell anyone else about this.”
Andrew called the security officer of the building. “Could you send me all the elevator surveillance tapes
from last night?” he asked. “Right away, sir,” the officer replied. The tapes were disappointing – only Adam was seen entering the elevator. “Who was with him? He couldn’t do anything like this on his own – he barely knows how to turn on a computer!” Andrew thought furiously. “This is very bad!”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Na’ama entered Menahem’s office, and sat down. “We have a lot of new information about India,” she began. “We’ve located the office of the three division managers in Gujarat, and we’ve got a surveillance team there. They entered the office last night, and found a new, sophisticated server. The computer expert on the team cracked the password and entered the company’s intranet. We know that all the programmers have emails addresses with the same ending, differentiated only by A, B, or C, to indicate which division they work for. So now we know that in division A there are twenty-one programmers, division B has sixty, and division C thirty. We also can send them all an identical email with a virus attached. They won’t even have to open the attachment – it’s programmed to work when they turn on their email accounts. This way we can wipe out all their code and destroy the program!”
“Yes, but what if they have physical backup on discs?” Menahem asked.
“Ah, then we need the individual addresses of each programmer, in order to get to their homes and find the discs,” Na’ama answered. “How do we get the addresses?”
“I’ll send a message to Laurie in London,” Menahem replied. “I’m sure she has the information.”
Laurie signaled back that she had names and bank account numbers, but no private addresses. “That’s all right,” Menahem explained to Na’ama. “We can work with that. I just happen to know the head of the security ministry of Gujarat – we were on a four-month course together. He owes me a favor.”
“OK,” Na’ama summed up. “We give him the names and bank account numbers of all the workers in India, and he gives us their addresses. But how quickly can we get the information?”
“I’ll make it clear to my colleague that we need it yesterday!” Menahem smiled.
Menahem then updated Na’ama on Andrew’s dealing with the Arabs, and
Adam’s departure from the company. “But doesn’t that mean that Adam is in mortal danger?” Na’ama asked worriedly.
“Yes, it does. Add to that that Andrew knows that Adam was in his office last night with someone who hacked into his computer, and you have quite a few reasons to fear for Adam. When the deal with the Arabs is finalized, Adam is a dead man.”
“We’ve got to let the British know,” Na’ama urged.
“I’ve been saying that from the start, but it’s not my decision, it’s the Prime Minister’s. So far, he’s been reluctant to inform them of our activities. He thinks that Andrew will catch wind of our involvement, and then we’ve lost the technology for ourselves.”
After parting from Na’ama, Menahem entered the Prime Minister’s office. “Prime Minister, what about Adam? Na’ama and I are worried for his safety.”
“I understand,” the Prime Minister answered. “You must let me think about the implications, Menahem. There’s a lot at stake here, not just the life of one man.”
“I understand, sir,” Menahem replied, dissatisfied. “Please let me know what you decide.”
…..
Avram was adamant. “You can’t tell the British anything,” he said to the Prime Minister. “We’ll lose our advantage, you know.”
“I have to think about it, Avram,” the Prime Minister concluded.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“I’ve got approval to invest another one hundred and fifteen million pounds,” Sayeed told Andrew the next day in Andrew’s office.
“Great,” enthused Adam. “I’ll call Adam and have him here today to finalize the deal.”
The Arabs walked by Laurie on their way out of the company. Sayeed bent over Laurie, “Soon it will be just you and me, darling. Adam’s out and we’re completely in.”
Laurie turned herself away from Sayeed, who realized that he had gone too far. After they had left, Laurie asked to speak to Andrew. “Come in, please,” Andrew invited her into the office. “How can I help you?”
“We have a few small problems. First of all, our regular cleaner has left. I would like to hire someone else. Is that all right?” “Of course,” Andrew smiled. “Completely within your discretion. What else?”
“I understand that you told Sol that you’re planning on hiring someone full-time for his position. Can I do that as well?” Andrew nodded. “Anything else?”
“Yes,” Laurie was blushing slightly. “The Arabs are becoming too familiar with me, and I don’t like it. When I choose to go out with Sayeed of my own free will, it’s one thing. But I don’t want them thinking that I come with the office, that I’m at their disposal.”
“You’re absolutely right, Laurie,” Andrew assured her. “You know, they have a different mentality concerning women. I’ll have a word with them. What else can I do for you?”
“Can you tell me why Adam is leaving? Laurie asked.
“It seems he wants his money back, plus a premium. He’s not interested in
continuing with our new partners. Of course, the new partnership still leaves me in control of all major decision. The split is fifty-five, forty-five in my favor.”
“But what happens if someone tries to steal the technology? Do you have back-ups? I’m thinking now about my stock options, you know.”
“We have quite a few fail-safe back-ups,” Andrew boasted. “One set of back-up discs is here in my safe, protected by a password impossible to crack, with two keys both in my possession. We also have a direct connection to our server in India. The Indian server would receive an immediate report if someone entered the safe here in London, and would be able to activate a self-destruct order to the safe.”
“And what about the information then?” Laurie asked worriedly.
“We can redo all the technology through the separate back-ups kept securely by each division in India. What are the odds of an attack on us both here and in India?”
Laurie was satisfied, “Very clever,” she smiled. “So when will the deal with the Saudis be closed?”
“As quickly as possible. By the way, could you get Adam on the phone and tell him to be here this morning?”
“Certainly,” Laurie nodded, leaving the office. She immediately sent a message to Menahem to find her one of their people to be the next office “cleaner,” and reported on her conversation with Andrew. Then she called the building manager and asked him to extend Sol’s employment for just another three weeks before hiring a full-time person for his job. “Certainly, Laurie,” the manager replied. “It would have taken three weeks anyway, and I have no problem with Sol staying on. He’s a very satisfactory employee.”
Happy to have arranged these matters to her and the Mossad’s satisfaction, Laurie waited for Sol to appear at the elevator, and told him of her success. “In three weeks we’ll be finished with this mission,” she said, “and you’ll be here the whole time to watch over me!” She added, “And don’t forget about the new ‘cleaner’ – she’ll also be one us.”
Sol saw that the elevator was needed downstairs, and he left with a wink. A few moments later, Adam left the elevator and greeted Laurie. “You should know, Laurie, that I will really miss seeing your smiling face here, now that I’m leaving the company. It was a pleasure knowing you.”
Adam entered Andrew’s office. Andrew informed him that the Saudis had approval to buy Adam out, and that they could conduct all the legal transactions as soon as possible.
“I just have a few requests,” Adam answered. “I want to keep some options in the company, a few percent, that is. I’d like to stay on the Board as well.”
“I don’t think so, Adam,” Andrew growled. “You’re getting your money. Isn’t that enough?”
“Well, actually, it isn’t. If that the case, I withdraw my agreement to a buy-out.”
/> “When did you get to be such a tough negotiator?” Andrew scoffed. “Well, if it’s really that important to you, have two percent and a seat on the Board. It’s meaningless to me, in the end.”
They agreed to meet again in the office at four that afternoon, to finalize the deal with the Saudis, and Adam left, humming a Beatles tune.
…..
Laurie and Andrew were eating their lunch together in Andrew’s office.
“Andrew, when will you be arranging my stock options?” Laurie asked casually. “Maybe it could be done today, before you sign the agreement with the Saudis.”
