Maserov, stunned, agreed to meeting at 10.30 am the following day, at Degraves Espresso Bar, off Flinders Lane. Jessica speculated that Radhakrishnan would have chosen that place because it was midway between the Freely Savage offices and Torrent Industry headquarters. Also, consistent with his apparent desire for secrecy, it was unlikely anyone from either office would be there since the espresso bar’s usual clientele would have long since left. And of those still there, none would have ever even aspired to, let alone undertaken, white-collar employment in the corporate sector. Additionally, Jessica could vouch for the coffee and the panini. But as to what Radhakrishnan wanted to discuss with Maserov, they were both completely unable to speculate. They had only one night to wait, during which time they managed to distract each other’s attention from the following morning’s meeting quite satisfactorily. Several times.
Radhakrishnan shook Maserov’s hand and, contrary to Maserov’s expectation, did not look at all discomfited by the location of the meeting or its apparent secrecy. He ordered a triple espresso and a mineral water and Maserov instinctively copied the order with one word, ‘double’, and a two-finger gesture that was almost a salute. He wasn’t sure why he’d done that but nobody in Degraves commented. Then Radhakrishnan got straight down to business. It was very nice to see Stephen again. This meeting never happened. Did Maserov understand this? Maserov said he did.
‘I’ve been asked to approach you on behalf of a cohort of partners at Freely Savage —’
‘Really, who?’
‘— who wish to remain nameless, at least for the time being.’
‘Certainly, no names,’ Maserov assured him.
‘Do you know how the partnership works?’ he asked Maserov.
‘Not precisely but it’s sort of like this, isn’t it? If you’re a partner you earn profits from the labour of all the people below you, you have an expense account, you can, it seems, humiliate people with impunity and you are virtually immune to any sanction for your behaviour.’
Radhakrishnan chuckled. ‘Oh Stephen, that’s very cynical and a little simplistic. That’s true only for equity partners. Salaried partners can only dream of this. Would you like to be a partner? Of course I mean an equity partner. Is this or has this become your ultimate objective?’
‘I hope you don’t think me rude, if I ask why you ask.’
‘Well, let’s just say that your work with Malcolm Torrent has earned you some admirers among the partnership.’
‘How does anyone even know about my work with Mr Torrent?’
‘You’ll forgive me, Stephen, I’m not at liberty to discuss that.’
‘I’m intrigued but okay. But far from me becoming a partner, Hamilton is going to fire me as soon as the year is up.’
‘Well,’ Radhakrishnan began to explain, ‘as I’ve indicated, a number of the partners have heard what you’ve been doing at Torrent and there is, at least among this cohort of partners —’
‘The ones who should remain nameless for the time being?’
‘Yes, among those same partners, there is an understanding that you’ve become something of a golden boy, Malcolm Torrent’s golden boy.’
‘Well, that’s very flattering, Mr Radhakrishnan.’
‘Allow me to explain a little further how the partnership works,’ the more senior man continued. ‘All partners, both equity and salaried, get voting rights, which are directly tied to the billings from all the files for which they are the responsible partner. Of course, equity partners also get additional voting rights which are tied to the equity they hold in the firm. Mr Hamilton, as you well know, is the partner directly responsible for all the Torrent Industries files. Torrent Industries is by far the firm’s biggest client in terms of billings. Frankly, this is how Mr Hamilton comes to tyrannise the other partners and, indirectly but unambiguously, the rest of the firm.’
Radhakrishnan went on to explain that if Maserov could get Malcolm Torrent to agree to make him, Maserov, the lawyer responsible for all Torrent Industries matters, then Radhakrishnan and the other members of the secretly conspiring cohort of partners would propose Maserov for partnership. Once Maserov was a partner, with his voting rights from control of the Torrent Industries files, Maserov, Radhakrishnan and the cohort of other partners would together hold a majority of the partnership vote.
‘Then Mr Hamilton’s reign of terror will be over and you will be a partner.’ He smiled and sipped on his mineral water.
‘What happens if something goes wrong?’ Maserov asked, still not believing what he was hearing.
‘Well, there are a limited number of things that can go wrong as I see it. But you said yourself that Mr Hamilton will sooner or later get rid of you so, by your own reckoning, you probably have nothing to lose. This cohort of partners that I speak of has, of course, everything to lose. This is why our meeting now has never happened and why, in the event that something does go wrong, you will be, I believe the expression is “hung out to dry”. But Stephen,’ Radhakrishnan said in a voice Maserov wanted to sink into, ‘your history suggests that you do extremely well when you have nothing to lose.’
Maserov thought for a moment and looked around the cafe to see if there was anything or anyone to suggest this was some kind of set-up. Then he asked, ‘So someone will go to Mr Torrent and propose that I become the lawyer responsible for all the Torrent Industries work?’
‘Yes. You will.’
‘Me?’
‘Yes, this way there’ll be no record of any of this should it not go our way.’
‘“Our way,” Mr Radhakrishnan?’
‘Yes, Stephen, our way. Call me on this number as and when the need arises.’ And with that, Radhakrishnan stood up and smiled, with a barely perceptible nod, leaving a fifty dollar note on the table and a business card on the saucer of Maserov’s triple espresso. The business card had Radhakrishnan’s landline and a mobile phone number that had been crossed out but on the other side there was a handwritten mobile number that differed from the printed one. There would be no record of any calls between the two ever having been made as far as anyone at the firm could tell. But by the time Maserov had realised this, Radhakrishnan could be seen turning left, out the door into Degraves Street, where he began the walk back to the hilly part of Collins Street where the specialist chocolate stores were nestled and the dentists liked to graze.
V
‘You are fucking kidding me?’ was Betga’s response to the news over the phone of Maserov’s Radhakrishnan meeting. He was delighted for his friend and colleague and also saw the likely benefits for himself. Perhaps best of all, it represented a kind of David slaying of Goliath wherein Hamilton was the Philistine unexpectedly brought down.
‘Maserov, this is unbelievable! This is the stuff of legend, it’s a once-in-a-generation event. You’ll be telling your grandchildren about this.’
‘I think my grandchildren would rather know why I did nothing to ameliorate climate change.’
‘Forget climate change, Maserov, we’re talking about making partner in a depressed economy. And as a Second Year . . . one with a target on his head. I’m honoured to know you and to have been a not insignificant part of this. I’ve got to hand it to you, Maserov. This hurts Hamilton more than anything I ever dreamed of doing to him.’
‘Listen Betga, you’ve never actually told me what Hamilton did to you. What did he do?’
Betga exhaled. ‘Okay, so first of all, I was a victim of all of the shit that you and everyone else has to put up with from him; the mind games, impossible deadlines, late nights, humiliation in meetings, you name it. But then there was something, something way out of left field. You know he always calls his secretary “Joy”?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Well, she . . . Oh shit! Hang on, Maserov. Wait. Marietta’s crying. She’s just woken up and she’s crying . . . probably hungry or . . . maybe . . . I need to change her. Listen, Maserov, I’m going to have to call you back.’
‘This is wonderful, S
tephen! I can’t believe it!’ exclaimed Jessica when he later told her of the proposal Radhakrishnan had put to him. ‘But is this what you want? I’m not saying it shouldn’t be. You’d be cementing yourself into Freely Savage. Don’t get me wrong, this is amazing news. But is it what you really want?’ she asked hesitantly.
‘What are you going to do?’ Eleanor said when he told her.
‘I don’t know,’ Maserov told his wife.
‘You’re their sacrificial lamb. These “heroic” partners who choose to hide behind you finally get a chance to de-fang Hamilton at no cost to them. If it doesn’t work or if word gets out, you’ll suffer the consequences and they’ll be back in business as usual.’
‘Yeah, it’s pretty clever on their part, isn’t it?’
‘It manages to be ruthless and yet cowardly. If it works, these will be the distinguishing characteristics of your partners.’
‘Not all of them, just the best of them.’
‘Aren’t you worried that they’re just using you?’
‘Everyone there is just using everyone else there.’
‘Stephen, I worry about you.’
‘Do you?’
‘Of course, don’t you know that?’
In a quiet voice, without anger or recrimination he asked Eleanor, ‘How should I know that? Really, I mean that. How should I know?’
It was a voice she found irresistible and she began to cry. ‘Stephen, I think we should try to be together again, to live together.’
‘How long have you thought this?’
‘I don’t know. It’s been a gradual dawning, I suppose.’
‘A dawning of what?’
‘A realisation that I don’t want the kids to be without their father.’
‘That’s funny because for quite a few months now you were fine with it.’
‘And I . . . don’t really want to live without you either.’
‘So what should I do?’
‘I think you should move back in.’
‘But what if you change your mind again?’
‘I won’t.’
‘Should I just come and go from my own house and my own children depending on how you’re feeling about things? Should I keep a suitcase packed?’
‘I’ve earned that. I mean, I deserve that you should say that. I was going to work and doing all the work at home and with the kids. It felt like I was doing everything. I hated it. You didn’t seem to get it. You didn’t seem to hear me.’
‘You’ve never apologised, Eleanor, never even admitted you’d done anything wrong. You know, I still couldn’t explain to someone what exactly you claim I did that was so wrong that I deserved to be kicked out of my own house.’
‘Who do you want to explain it to?’ Maserov turned away but it hurt him to do this. His wife was in tears.
‘I was talking to Carla. She told me about the amazing result you got for her. I was proud of you. She said that even though you were meant to be opposed to Betga, you actually kind of worked with him.’
‘Yeah, I suppose I did.’
‘And she said you worked with someone else too.’
‘Yeah, there have been three of us working on all this.’
‘Is that . . . who you want to explain what I did to?’
‘Eleanor, for an English teacher, that’s a terrible sentence.’ Maserov wasn’t ready to talk about Jessica to Eleanor. He didn’t know what role he wanted Jessica to take in his life and he wasn’t sure Jessica knew what she wanted either. His mouth was dry and his head was spinning with exhaustion and the nervous excitement of possibilities he’d never imagined and so had never hoped for. ‘You mean to say, “Is that to whom you want to explain what I did?” Sorry to correct you but the children might be listening and we don’t want them to hear their mother setting fire to the rules of grammar.’
‘Am I too late, Stephen?’
‘No, I think they’re asleep.’
‘Stephen, I’m sorry.’ Eleanor ignored his use of humour to delay discussing anything that mattered. ‘I do owe you an apology. As time’s gone on I have trouble explaining it too. I was angry. I was lashing out. I asked you to leave because you never seemed to hear me.’
‘I did hear you. I couldn’t do anything about it without quitting my job. And we needed my salary or we’d lose the house. Still do.’
‘Can you forgive me? Will you come back? The children would be in heaven.’
‘They never wanted me to live somewhere else.’
‘Of course they never wanted you to live somewhere else. I’ve hurt them too.’ Maserov went over to the kitchen counter and poured himself a Scotch, one Acting Sergeant Ron Quinn would have approved of.
‘Stephen?’
He took a sip from the glass.
‘Stephen, what are you going to do?’
He looked at her and he didn’t know.
‘Am I too late?’ she asked. ‘Isn’t this what you’ve been wanting?’
‘Eleanor . . . It’s lucky you’re not a musician ’cause your timing is awful. Do you have any idea what’s going on for me right now . . . at work?’
‘Well, I’m kind of concerned . . . that I sort of . . . do. Am I too late? Is that what you’re saying?’
‘No.’
‘I’m not too late?’
‘No, that’s not what I’m saying.’
‘What are you saying?’
‘I’m saying that we need to talk but that I just have to . . . I am so tired. Right now I just need to sleep. Then tomorrow morning I’m going to see if I can get an appointment to see Malcolm Torrent, see if I can get him to agree to make me, a lowly Second Year, the lawyer responsible for all Torrent Industries matters at Freely Savage. Then we should talk.’ Maserov finished his drink.
VI
The argument was simple. ‘I know that I’m a very junior lawyer but you’ve seen what I can do. You’ve seen what I’ve done for you and for the company in a very short space of time. You wanted me to demonstrate that you need me around. Well, sir, I think I have.’
‘It is quite stunning what you’ve done for me, Maserov. There’s no doubt about that. But what you’re asking, it’s very —’
‘When I met you, even apart from the sexual harassment problems, you had a meta-problem. You didn’t much like Hamilton, in fact, between us, I think you loathed him even then, but you didn’t want to go to the trouble and the expense of taking all your work away from Freely Savage to another law firm, pouring all that historical and institutional knowledge down the drain with the move and waiting for the new firm to get up to speed. Now you don’t have to make that choice. You can keep all your work in the same place.’
‘But I do have to make a choice, don’t I?’
‘Yes, sir, you do. It’s Hamilton or me.’
‘You’re smart, honest, hard-working and you’ve got balls no one would ever suspect you had.’
‘Thank you. Yes, it’s true, few people have ever speculated much at all about my testicles.’
‘But you’re a Second Year, for Christ’s sake.’
‘Yes, I’m a Second Year, a mature-age one. And Hamilton’s a narcissistic, sociopathic bastard. And you know it.’
Malcolm Torrent got up from his desk and walked over to his window and, with his back to Maserov, looked out high above the world that almost everybody else lived in. He stood there for some time. Then he turned around.
‘You draft the document, I’ll sign it.’ He smiled and the two men shook hands. Then Malcolm Torrent leaned into his desk, pressed a button to ask his private secretary, Joan Henshaw, to come in and ‘show Maserov to the door before I gift him one of the grandchildren’.
Maserov could hardly believe what had happened. Nothing like it, nothing of this magnitude ever happened to normal mortals and as Malcolm Torrent’s inscrutable Joan Henshaw rode down in the elevator with him, he wanted to scream, not make small talk. Fortunately for him she, quite uncharacteristically, began to chat.
‘Are you a cof
fee drinker, Mr Maserov?’
‘Coffee? Yes, I love a good coffee. How about you?’
‘Yes,’ she said, before adding pointedly, ‘Whenever I can manage it, I like to get to Degraves Espresso Bar.’
‘Degraves? I was just . . .’
She looked briefly at her shoes and then, as she looked up again, she betrayed the smallest smile he had ever seen.
‘How’s your Mr Radhakrishnan?’ she asked suddenly. ‘Now he’s a gentleman.’
VII
Maserov called the handwritten number on Radhakrishnan’s business card and told him the good news, Malcolm Torrent was prepared to make Maserov the lawyer responsible for all Torrent Industries files.
‘Mr Torrent is prepared to sign a document to this effect,’ Maserov explained as calmly as he could, hardly believing the words he was saying. Radhakrishnan showed little emotion during the call as there were still several stages to be satisfied in order for what was in effect a silent coup to be accomplished. He calmly explained that in order to validly effect the change there was a specific form that needed to be filled in and then signed by Malcolm Torrent himself. He cautioned against leaving this form unsigned anywhere.
‘You should not take the form to his office until you have a face-to-face appointment with him that would permit you to bring the form into his office unsigned and take it out again with you once he’s signed it. It’s better to wait with the unsigned form in your safekeeping for however long is necessary than to rush over to his office without an appointment and leave it somewhere, insecure. The importance of this, coupled with its secrecy, warrants patience. That said, Stephen, the sooner you’re able to get the document signed the better. Do you understand?’
Maybe the Horse Will Talk Page 32
