Milly was delighted with the strategy or, as The Predator, in his own endearing way recounted to Abelard, “this,” waving the presentation he himself had made to Milly, “got his juices going.” Even if he had no memory of ever having learned modern English more recently than four years ago, he did recognize The Predator’s limitations with the language. Abelard was put in charge of the dossier and proceeded with diligence and enthusiasm to execute his plan.
The onslaught was relentless. Over the following months The Castle lost enough of its customers to wipe out its profit margin. It was having trouble keeping its installations running for want of spare parts. Inevitably, The Castle was unable to respect certain of the protocols in its short term lending agreements, which gave the banks a pretext to withdraw credit facilities without offering to restructure, which they would have normally done, but for the encouragement from VBI. This succession of guided misfortunes led the credit rating agencies to put it on a ‘negative’ watch, inciting small number of outside investors to punish its stock price with the result that it would have difficulty raising money on the equity markets, not to mention making it much cheaper for VBI to eventually acquire. Abelard was delighted.
These troubles notwithstanding, there was nothing to stop The Castle negotiating with others interested in buying a company at distress prices, the so called white knights or, if viewed from a slightly different angle, the vultures. Such an outcome would mean a bidding war and, of course, a reduced take from any subsequent looting of The Castle. Abelard hoped to avoid such a situation by appealing directly to the captain of The Castle, Horst Hecht.
Mr. Hecht thought him mad to ask for a private meeting and categorically refused to have any direct dealings with his tormenters. But the incessant offensive had taken its toll with Mr. Hecht’s health. Before the hostilities his disciplined fitness schedule and strict diet had put him in top physical condition for a man with a heart problem. He had to work longer hours, and when he did get to bed he was unable to sleep. He had put his diet on hold for the duration and the more dangerous sort of fat was showing at his waistline.
Abelard’s plan, however, required that he deal directly with Mr. Hecht. He decided on a bold move. He would kidnap him, only for the briefest period, during his regular lunch time stroll, which is the one activity Mr. Hecht refused to give up. He always walked alone. No matter how harmless it may have seemed to him, Abelard did understand that kidnapping and sequestration, even for only very short periods, was frowned upon. He would need to arrange for everything to appear normal.
At lunch time, the day of the event, Abelard sent an e-mail to Mr. Hecht, knowing full well that he would not see it until that afternoon, too late to alert him. The contents were brief and to the point;
Mr. Hecht,
I was gratified to hear from my colleague, Badger Valois, that you would be willing to meet with me over lunch today to discuss alternative ways in which we could bridge our differences. And, by the way, Badger very much liked your speech yesterday. Until later. Take care.
As it turned out, Horst Hecht was the keynote speaker at a charity dinner and Abelard had sent Badger to attend. Badger had not had any actual contact with Mr. Hecht but that did not matter. At such an event no one would ever be able to recall whether Mr. Hecht had actually spoken to Badger or, for that matter, to anyone else. And Badger, now wholly dependent on Abelard for his very survival, would definitely not object to participating in his little ruse.
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The Perfect Human: An Abelard Chronicles Book Page 16