by Rosie Pike
"Oh, I see," Chloe said thoughtfully. "So this new material stops them because there are more layers?"
"Exactly!" Tariq thundered triumphantly, taking pleasure in Chloe's quick grasp of the situation. "I came across the company last year reading a magazine, and it's taken a long time to get them to the negotiating table, but I'm hoping we can do a deal today."
"Good luck…"
"Thanks. I'll need it. When are they due to arrive?"
"They should be here in ten minutes. I've placed a man downstairs to give us a heads up when they arrive."
"Good thinking."
Chloe watched as Tariq's expression quickly darkened with concentration the moment she brought the conversation back to the practicalities of his guests’ arrival. It was fascinating just watching him flit so quickly between entirely different modes – enthusiastic and joking to calm and professional within seconds.
A little buzz from her cellphone indicated that their guests were on their way up the Shard. Since it was London's tallest skyscraper, and the restaurant that they'd booked out was not far from the top, Chloe knew that Tariq would have some time – but not long, to prepare.
"The negotiating party’s here," she said quietly, tapping Tariq on the shoulder to get his attention. "Are you ready? Is there anything I can get for you?"
"No – I'm good," Tariq replied, fixing Chloe with a steely, piercing look. He turned to his entourage – the three colonels and the number of men, all men, that the Saudi embassy had sent over.
"Are we ready?" he asked curtly, rhetorically, heading towards Khalid. The Prince took the unruly colonel to one side, out of Chloe's earshot, but she could imagine what he was saying. Behave.
The staff formed up around their leader as he headed towards the bank of elevators, any hint of nerves entirely hidden behind a mask of supreme confidence – shoulders pulled back, broad smile and a relaxed, engaging posture.
Chloe watched the whole slightly bizarre situation with interest as the small throng of men dressed in suits and uniforms gathered around, watching as the red floor indicator surged upwards.
Ping!
"Mr. Wilson!" Tariq exclaimed, greeting the tallest of the new arrivals with unbridled charm, stepping forward with his hand outstretched.
"Oh, please – call me Jack,” the man said, smiling – his expression underlined with a hint of something else that Chloe couldn't quite put her finger on. "We've been on this road together for long enough, haven't we?"
"That we have, Jack," Tariq agreed genially. "Who have you brought with you today?"
"As we discussed over email, Charles may or may not pop in later on, but this is my very able deputy, Miranda," Jack pointed at the only woman in the group, an extremely capable looking late thirties executive, "and this is Tom Watson, one of our directors."
"Ah, Tom," Tariq began, while doing the rounds shaking hands, "I think we've been on a conference call together. How’re the kids?"
"Oh, marvelously, thank you," the sandy haired Tom replied, seemingly surprised that he'd been directly addressed. Chloe got the sense that the man performed some kind of back office role – perhaps he was the accountant. "How kind of you to remember."
"Not at all, not at all." Tariq chuckled. "Glad to hear they're doing so well. Shall we all sit?"
As they did so, Chloe again noticed that the leader of the pack of new arrivals, Jack – who was presumably the CEO, seemed consumed by a nervous energy, moving quickly and purposefully towards the square breakfast table, which was set for eight. For a man whose company, according to Tariq, had been difficult to get around the table in the first place, Chloe found it puzzling that Jack seemed so eager to sit down.
They sat down, leaving one place left over for the possible arrival of Charles, the owner of the company.
"Drinks?" Tariq asked, ever the good host, and Chloe watched with approval as the handpicked staff behaved as directed, like they were ghosts – flitting in and out of the meeting topping up cups and filling plates, but never seen.
The meeting dragged on and on, until glasses were emptied and plates removed and the morning sun had risen fully over the skyscrapers that thronged the old City of London. Chloe was no body language expert, but even she could see that the negotiation was clearly at an impasse.
"Can I suggest that we take a few minutes, regroup, and sit down with fresh heads?" Tariq suggested, a slightly tired sigh breaking his composed demeanor for the first time. The group agreed, and Tariq led his entourage away from the table, leaving the delegates from Bodytech seated in intense discussions with each other. Tariq separated from the three colonels and walked over to Chloe with a wan smile on his face.
"Tough day at the office?" Chloe asked sympathetically.
"Like you wouldn't believe," Tariq replied, to Chloe's surprise easily slipping into a husband-wife dynamic.
"Anything I can do?"
"I shouldn't think so. I'm not sure buttering this group up is going to do a whole lot. I just can't for the life of me figure out what the hold-up is…"
"What do you mean?"
"It's like Jack said at the start, we've been walking down this road with them for months – they know exactly why we're all sitting around that table, to buy them, so what's the issue?"
"What's the sticking point? Maybe talking it over will help."
"Hell if I know. It doesn't seem to be the share price, we agreed on that hours ago, and all the executives around that table would be keeping their jobs – I certainly don't have any experience in the body armor industry, and we'd provide written assurances that they keep their jobs in the event of this takeover occurring. So it's not about how much we are offering, or about the people in the company…
"Honestly, Chloe, I have no idea. But I need to get this deal done," Tariq said, frustration creeping into his voice.
"Well, Jack definitely wants to get this deal closed," Chloe said quietly, almost accidentally, as she tried to work through the situation in her head. "So –."
"Why do you say that?" Tariq asked, intrigued. "It feels completely different up there at the negotiating table. He's shooting every proposal down…"
"Oh, maybe I was on the wrong track then," Chloe muttered, slightly ashamed that her thought had so quickly and conclusively been proved incorrect.
"No, seriously – what makes you think that he wants to do the deal?" Tariq asked in a reassuring tone of voice. "What's that thing teachers say to kids – there's no such thing as a stupid question? Let's put it this way – I'm desperate. There's no such thing as a stupid opinion right now."
"It's just a thought, but look at them over at that table." Chloe pointed surreptitiously, and Tariq looked over, disguising it as if his eyes were just searching the room. She lowered her voice. "Look at them, and tell me that a man who didn't want to get this deal done would be acting like he is."
At precisely that moment, the man in question jammed his finger down hard into the table three times, as if to emphasize some point or other. "Look at him," Chloe whispered excitedly, "there's no way he's leaving this room without doing a deal. I sensed it the moment he walked in. He's walking around with a nervous energy. I just can't put my finger on what it is that's holding him back…"
"You're right," Tariq said slowly. "Yes, you're right. So we've just got to figure out what exactly it is that he wants. That'll be easier said than done."
"Maybe," Chloe said, staring thoughtfully at the crumb-strewn negotiating table, lost in thought. "Or maybe not."
"What are you thinking?"
"Well, do you reckon it could be anything to do with our mysterious friend Charles? At first, I thought that we'd laid him a place at the table out of courtesy, but the more I think about it, the more I'm beginning to think that has more significance than that…"
"Go on…" Tariq urged, intrigued.
"So, I did a bit of digging when I found out the name of the company, and like I said, there wasn't a whole lot on the Internet. But this guy, this Cha
rles Murphy, he was initially some kind of mad scientist who founded the whole thing."
"So?" Tariq said, not sure where Chloe was going with this.
"Maybe he's acting like a father whose children are leaving home to go to college – maybe he's the thing holding back the whole deal."
"That would make sense," Tariq mused, pacing back and forth. "Yes, that makes a lot of sense." He peeked over at the table, careful that no one on the opposite negotiating party had noticed his growing excitement. "That would explain why Jack is so keen to do the deal, why they're dancing around the specifics."
"It's just a theory…" Chloe countered, suddenly realizing that she was completely overstepping her remit and wondering what the consequences would be if she was completely wrong and Tariq torpedoed this business deal on her say-so, but at the same time, deeply appreciative of Tariq's warmth towards the idea.
"I don't think so. I think this is it. I wonder though, how do I play it?"
"I'm afraid that one's up to you," Chloe said with an apologetic smile. "Have you seen the time?"
The discreet but undoubtedly expensive watch on Tariq's wrist freed itself from the confines of his shirt cuffs as he stretched out to check. "Three o'clock! How the hell did that happen?"
"Well, you did look busy…” Chloe deadpanned. "Listen, this has gone on far longer than I thought it would. I need to set up for later tonight – do you mind if I leave to handle that?"
"Of course not, no. I'm going to miss your negotiating expertise, though!"
"You've got this," Chloe said with more confidence than she felt – terrified that she'd made a huge misstep in telling him what she thought about the owner of Bodytech Corp.
9
"Thanks for helping me out with this, Olivia," Chloe gushed gratefully. "It's my first big client, you know?"
"Oh hell, girl – you haven't got a thing to thank me for. You practically did my job for me half the time when you worked here!"
"Oh, no I –."
Olivia, the Kingsland Group concierge at the Park Lane Hilton just down the road from the Gloucester hotel, cut Chloe's self-deprecation off immediately. "Don't tell me you didn't, we both know it's true!”
Chloe turned a shade of beet red that was noticeable even through her unusually tanned skin. "Well, thanks anyway, Olivia. I really appreciate it."
"Man, it's really no bother. Tell you what, if I'd have had to post a reception for the Saudi embassy in my first week here, I'd probably have crapped my pants! Why couldn't you just have got some rich Nigerian princess who wanted to go shopping, eh?"
Chloe giggled at Olivia's crude humor, which reminded her of the many happy months she'd spent training under the attractive and precociously intelligent young woman. "I know, right!"
"When do they get here? The Skyline Bar is closed to guests this evening, so you should have free run of the place, and the staff all know to expect VIPs, so there shouldn't be any problems on that front."
"I'm pretty sure the Prince will be here by about seven – what time is it?"
"Coming up on half six now," Olivia replied, checking the watch strapped to her tiny little wrists. "Not long."
"Great – I'm exhausted! The sooner this day's over, the better…"
* * *
"JUST REMEMBER, whatever you do, don't ask anyone for money. Got it?" The assorted bar staff nodded in unison as Chloe finished up her briefing. She had no doubt that they were all perfectly capable of doing their job without her needing to butt in, but she did it anyway – tonight was going to run more smoothly than the Swiss train system. "Great. If any of you have any problems, just come to me and I'll sort them out."
She walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows and looked out over London's nighttime skyline. The bar lived up to its name – the view was gorgeous.
"That means I'm paying, does it?" Tariq murmured behind her quietly, giving Chloe the fright of her life – he was the last person she'd expected to hear.
"Shit! I almost jumped out my skin! Don't do that again," she remonstrated, turning to face him.
"Another great choice of location. Have you thought about doing this for a living?" the Prince joked, a charming smile on his face.
"You like the view, then?" Chloe asked, happy once again that Tariq seemed to dish out the compliments freely. While she knew deep down that she was good at her job, every now and again it was nice to get some external validation.
"It's gorgeous. My apartment in Riyadh is at the top of a skyscraper –." Tariq began.
"Of course it is," Chloe said drily, feeling as though she could push the boundaries a little with this particular client, and be a little bit sarcastic, and it'd go down well.
"As I was saying," he began, a curious little smile on his face. "But this view is much better – you get bored of seeing mile after mile of sand."
"It's one of the best things about London, you know," Chloe said, her face lighting up as she got to talk about one of her passions.
"What is?" Tariq asked, bemused.
"Oh, sorry." Chloe giggled. "Sometimes I forget that everyone's not just inside my head."
"More's the pity…"
Chloe blushed. "I was talking about the Royal Parks. They’re all over London, and it's so nice to see all that green space in the middle of the city. You can't see it now, because it's dark, but we're just above Green Park. It's the one that leads straight up to Buckingham Palace, you know."
"I do," Tariq agreed.
"You do?" Chloe replied, her turn to be confused.
"I know it's the park that goes right up to the palace gates. I've been inside them."
"You have?" Chloe gasped with excitement. "Inside Buckingham Palace? How did you manage that?"
"One of the many advantages of being a minor royalty," Tariq said with a grin. "The embassy usually gets a standing invitation to some of the Queen's garden parties every summer."
"Get out of town," Chloe said, for the first time impressed by something about the Prince other than his good looks. "What's it like?"
"Lovely. I wouldn't want to live there though…"
"Why the hell not? It's a palace!" Chloe exclaimed in surprise.
"It is," Tariq allowed. "But my father lives in a palace, and his is much nicer. Well, that's not entirely true – Buckingham Palace has beautiful architecture, and having those guards with a big bear skin on their heads is kind of cool, but it's a bit, well, antiquated inside."
Chloe laughed. "You're all the same, you lot. If a place doesn't have air conditioning, then it's no good…"
"Hey!" Tariq joked back with a contrived frown wrinkling his forehead. "You try living in the middle of the desert without AC!"
"Oh my God!" Chloe half shouted.
"What? Forgot to order the canapés?"
"No." Chloe shot him a glare for that comment. "How did the meeting go earlier? Was I right?"
Tariq immediately looked downwards, frowned and dragged his leather soled shoe along the luxuriously thick carpet. Chloe's stomach did a flip as she contemplated the consequences of her hasty decision to confide her observations about the way the CEO was behaving to Tariq. She should have kept her mouth shut.
"I went back to the table," Tariq began slowly, "and did like you said – I just straight up asked him what the deal was with Charles." He paused.
"And…" Chloe ventured, not really wanting to hear the answer.
"And…" Tariq copied her, dragging out his answer. "And it turned out you were right!"
It took Chloe a couple of seconds to process what Tariq had just said. She was right? Had he just said that?
"What do you mean, I was right? What happened?" The questions tumbled out of Chloe in an unstoppable waterfall of relief, one that practically bowled over a smiling Tariq.
He held up his hands to pause the flow of questions. "Whoa, hold up there," he said, grinning. "Give a man a chance to speak."
"Sorry." Chloe glared, making it entirely clear that she wasn't sorry in the sli
ghtest. "But get on with it, would you?"
"Feisty," Tariq commented, only to receive another harsh stare. "No, I'm kidding. You were completely right – it was all to do with Charles. Bodytech is running out of money, that's why Jack was so keen to get the business sold, so you were completely correct on that front."
Chloe breathed a sigh of relief, believing finally that she'd made the right decision in telling Tariq what she'd thought. "Thank God."
"Forget about him. Thank you!"
"Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah – Bodytech is more or less out of cash, so they needed to sell. They spent way too much developing the technology, and even though it works, that's not enough – they need to get some money into the business or they won't be able to pay their staff next month."
"So, why were they so reticent earlier on? You said I was right about Charles, but not how," Chloe asked, absorbed in the story.
"Charles was worried that we were going to buy the business and shut it down."
"What?" Chloe asked, befuddled. "Why would you do that?"
"It makes sense from his point of view. Either way, he's going to walk away a very rich man – but think about it, who else would benefit from buying up the best body armor technology?"
Chloe pursed her lips, puzzling over the answer before finally admitting that she didn't know.
"The guys who make it today. You know, Haliburton, BAE Systems, that lot."
Honestly, Tariq's apparent confidence that Chloe knew far more than she was letting on about the specifics of the body armor industry was misplaced, but nevertheless she was beginning to figure it out.
"Oh… So he was worried that one of them was trying to buy Bodytech because they didn't want to have to compete with it?"
"Bingo," Tariq said, smiling.
"Okay, but there's something I don't get," Chloe began. "Why would someone like Haliburton just shut down Bodytech if they bought it – wouldn't they want to improve their own vests?"
"Maybe," Omar allowed. "Maybe. But Bodytech's Kevlar alloy is quite a lot more expensive to manufacture, and not many people have heard about it yet. From their point of view – and this is what Charles was worried about – maybe it would just be simpler to shut it down, hold onto the patterns and not have to spend the money on building new factories."