by Penny Avis
‘Hi, guys. How’s the VuePharma pitch preparation coming on?’ said Nick, walking towards them. Lars hovered behind.
‘We were just talking about that actually,’ said Meredith. ‘Alfred and Jackie have prepared us a project room with everything we need and we’re about to head over there. It’s in the new training centre. Plus I had a lucky break yesterday with one of the key decision makers.’
Meredith briefly filled Nick in on her trip to Paris.
‘Did you tell those students who you were?’ interjected Lars on hearing her story.
‘Yes, of course,’ said Meredith.
‘Sounds a bit like gossip and hearsay to me. And you know our policy about using that sort of information,’ said Lars, throwing an apologetic glance at Nick.
Meredith glared at him. ‘Naturally we’re only using the information that we’ve been able to corroborate from independent sources.’
‘Oh, Lars, stop being such an old woman,’ said Nick. ‘Meredith knows what she’s doing. It’s just a quicker way of building a picture of what’s already out there, that’s all.’
‘If you say so,’ said Lars, folding his arms.
Meredith grinned to herself. That told him.
‘I’d like to start rehearsing with you as soon as you’re ready,’ said Nick.
‘We’ll be drafting the pitch script today, so there should be a good draft ready for you by close of play. You can have a look later. It will be in the VuePharma folder, or shall I email it to you?’
‘Email would be best. I can never find my way around our damn filing system. Also, can you put some rehearsal time in my diary?’ Nick smiled at Meredith. ‘I’m sure we’re going to make a great team.’
‘Me too,’ said Meredith, studiously ignoring Lars’s stony-faced expression.
‘Wow. Lars has really got it in for us,’ said Alfred when Lars and Nick were out of earshot.
The new Clinton Wahlberg training centre was just a few minutes’ walk from the main office building. The light and airy foyer was completely devoid of furniture and their footsteps echoed loudly as they approached the empty reception desk.
‘Where is everyone? You’d have thought they might at least have a few chairs by now,’ said Meredith, looking round.
‘It’s not due to open for two more weeks,’ said Alfred. He waved a temporary pass at her. ‘We need to let ourselves in to our room.’
He led them down a long, pristinely painted corridor that still smelt of new carpet. Their project room was bright and spacious, with two huge windows and a large oval table that could seat at least ten people. There was a large bookcase stuffed full of lever-arch files and two flipcharts standing either side of the end of the table, like a pair of guards positioned to ward off unwelcome attention. A neat pile of pens, highlighters, paper and other assorted stationery occupied the other end.
‘Now this is what I call a war room,’ said Meredith, looking around in approval. ‘All we need now is some coffee.’
‘We’re fending for ourselves there,’ said Jackie. ‘The kitchens aren’t up and running yet. I’ll pop over to the canteen and get some.’
Meredith and Alfred sat down at the table and started setting up their laptops.
‘Are you on the network?’ Meredith asked.
Alfred peered at his system tray. ‘It’s just searching now… yup, that’s it, connected.’
A few minutes later, Jackie returned with the coffees and the three of them set to work. They started off by going through each member of the management team that would be at the presentation. Jackie had printed out a photo of each of them from the company’s website, which she fastened up on one of the flipcharts, noting their names and key facts about their jobs underneath.
‘This looks like a scene from one of those crime shows on the television.’ Meredith got up and marched about in front of the flipchart. ‘Now, what connects all these people? And where were they on the seventh of March? We need answers and we need them soon, before he strikes again,’ she said, banging the table with a dramatic flourish, as the others laughed at her antics.
‘Seriously, though, I do need to learn all about them,’ said Meredith sitting down again. She was determined to be able to greet each one in turn without the need for an introduction.
For the next three hours, they worked hard preparing a script for Meredith and Nick to use at the presentation; a script that they’d learn by heart and then deliver without notes. As usual, Alfred took charge of taking notes, which he typed up on his computer and saved onto the network. They then took a break for lunch.
‘Okay, let’s just have one more run-through of that script and then let’s focus on the Beau Street valuation,’ said Meredith when they returned from lunch.
Alfred flipped open his laptop and clicked to open the file. ‘What the… ?’ He stared at his laptop in alarm.
‘What’s the matter?’ said Meredith.
‘It’s not there!’
‘What’s not there?’ asked Jackie, looking over Alfred’s shoulder.
‘The script file. It’s not there any more.’
‘Don’t be silly. It must be,’ said Meredith, getting up.
‘I’m telling you, it’s not there,’ said Alfred, panic rising in his voice. ‘When I select file/open, you can see the path name of the files you were last working on. This one is ours. But when I click on it, it says “file not found”. Look.’
Meredith stared at the error message in disbelief. ‘How could that happen?’
‘I have no idea,’ said Alfred.
‘Could you have saved it as something else?’ suggested Jackie.
‘No, but I’ll run a search on the directory just in case.’ Alfred typed furiously into his laptop. ‘Nope, no files created today containing the word “VuePharma”. Shit.’ He slumped back in his chair in dismay.
‘There must be a backup,’ said Meredith, trying to stay calm. ‘Ring IT support.’
‘They only back up overnight,’ said Alfred.
‘What about the auto-recovery backup? Where does that save to?’
Alfred checked the program settings. ‘Okay, this might have it. It’s picking up the temporary folders of the server we’re on over here.’ But as Alfred clicked on the pathname, the message Error 101. Folder not in use popped up on his screen. ‘Oh no, the temporary folders aren’t in use yet!’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Meredith, pacing the room. ‘Where could our file have gone? I’m ringing Hazel.’ She picked up the phone to her secretary. ‘Hazel, it’s Meredith. We’re having a bit of a crisis over here. One of our files has disappeared off the server. You haven’t been re-organising the files or anything, have you?’
Meredith sat with her head bowed, rubbing her forehead as she talked through the problem with Hazel.
‘She’s no idea either,’ Meredith said as the call ended.
‘Neither have I. We were only working on it an hour ago,’ said Alfred. He sat still for a few moments, thinking. Then he said, ‘We don’t have any choice. We’ll just have to do it again.’
‘But we need to work on the Beau Street valuation. They’re arriving tomorrow. Bloody hell!’ Meredith banged the table, making Alfred and Jackie jump. ‘Where the hell has it gone?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Alfred quietly. ‘Look, I’ve got the notes we made, so why don’t I start retyping the script as best I can and then you can check it afterwards. Chances are I’ll remember most of it, and Jackie can help me.’
‘Alright,’ said Meredith after a few moments. ‘You’d better give me the Beau Street valuation then.’
‘I can do that afterwards,’ said Alfred.
‘That won’t give me time to go through it,’ said Meredith. ‘It’ll be quicker if I just run the new valuation model myself.’
Alfred looked at Meredith in surprise.
‘What? You don’t think I’m capable of running a valuation model? I did do your job once, you know,’ said Meredith.
�
�Sorry, of course you’re capable. It’s just quite a complicated model, that’s all,’ said Alfred.
‘So you’d better hurry up and talk me through it then.’
Meredith left Alfred and Jackie feverishly rewriting the VuePharma script and made her way back to the main building. She shut her office door, put her phone onto divert and spent the next two hours working her way through the valuation model, carefully entering the new numbers that Tom had given her. The revised valuation came out at forty-six million, only two million lower than before.
Meredith sat back and admired her handiwork, feeling quite pleased that she could still hack it in a crisis. She rang Alfred, who told her that the new script would be ready in about ten minutes.
She went to get herself a coffee. On the way back she passed by Lars’s office. She couldn’t resist stopping.
‘Trying to get me into trouble earlier, were you?’ she asked.
Lars looked up from the report he was reading. ‘Just wanted to make sure that you were following proper procedure. Because, you know, it wouldn’t be right for someone of your experience to be cutting corners.’
‘Lars, please stop being so childish. We’re on the same team here.’
‘Same team? I seem to remember that it was you threatening to run bleating to Nick.’
‘You were deliberately trying to undermine me!’
‘I was just being commercial, making sure we had all the options covered. How’s the pitch for VuePharma going? All ready are you?’ He raised his eyebrows enquiringly and his mouth twitched with amusement.
Meredith stared at him in disbelief. ‘Did you delete our file?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ said Lars, grinning.
‘I can’t believe it! You utter prick. Why would you do that? That’s just pathetic, and anyway, it didn’t work. We had a backup.’ There was no way she was giving him the pleasure of knowing the truth.
‘I’m sorry but I’ve got better things to do than sit here being insulted by you. I’ve got a report to read,’ said Lars, turning back to the papers on his desk. ‘Do let me know how you get on,’ he added without looking up.
Meredith spun on her heels and marched out of his office. How utterly infuriating! She’d never be able to prove that he had deleted their script file, but the look on his face had said it all. She rang Alfred and told him to password protect all their files and back them up onto a disk. There was no way he was getting away with that again.
Shortly after she got back to her office Alfred emailed through the re-created script file. Meredith added her comments and then emailed it back to him, along with a summary of her revised valuation for the Beau Street Group. She had just pressed send when her phone rang. It was Ryan.
‘Hi, gorgeous! Just landed.’
‘Hi, where are you?’ she asked.
‘Hiding around the back of baggage reclaim so none of the others can hear me,’ said Ryan. ‘Look, I’ve gotta be quick. I’m going to jump in a taxi and come and see you later, but it’ll probably be quite late. Maybe around ten, once I’ve escaped from the others.’
‘God, Ryan, please be careful.’
‘Don’t worry, I will be. We’re all pretty tired from the journey and we’ve got a full day of meetings tomorrow, so I’ll just make my excuses and slip away.’
‘We’ve run a new valuation for you.’
‘Great. I guess you can show me that later. Oh, and we’re having a planning meeting at the hotel tomorrow morning before we head out to Beau Street. I think it would be good if you joined us.’
Ryan turned up shortly after nine thirty. He immediately dropped his briefcase and gathered her up in his arms.
‘Wow, have I missed you,’ he said, pulling her tightly towards him. ‘Being away from you is torture. Let’s just go to bed now.’ He took her hand and starting pulling her gently towards the bedroom.
‘Ryan, not yet,’ said Meredith, resisting his pull. Although she hadn’t seen him for two weeks, the last few days had taken their toll. She felt exhausted. ‘Can’t we just sit down and talk for a bit? I’m a bit shattered to be honest.’
‘Sure,’ said Ryan, dropping her hand.
There were a few moments of awkward silence.
‘Would you like a drink? Tea maybe?’
‘I’d rather have a beer,’ said Ryan.
Meredith looked in the fridge. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I’ve none left,’ she said, immediately feeling guilty that she hadn’t remembered to get some more in. ‘Wine?’
‘Guess so,’ said Ryan.
Meredith returned from the kitchen with two glasses.
‘So, what do you want to talk about?’ Ryan wandered around the living room, absentmindedly picking up various ornaments and photos that adorned the abundant surfaces provided by the modern furniture.
Meredith paused. What she really wanted to do was to curl up on the sofa and tell him everything, and for him to hold her and reassure her that everything would be okay. But instead she felt a barrier between them. The fact that he was her client was finally getting in the way.
‘Shall we go through the new valuation?’ she suggested, taking the papers she’d prepared earlier out of her briefcase. Ryan came and sat down next to her.
‘So, the revised valuation comes out at forty-six million,’ said Meredith, passing Ryan the top sheet.
He looked up in surprise. ‘Are you sure? That doesn’t sound like much of a drop. I was hoping we’d be able to shave off more than that.’
Meredith nodded and ran through Tom Duffy’s revised figures with him. ‘So you see, most of the growth is in the newer procedures and Lloyd did less of those than the others.’
‘Even so, he was such a high earner. I’d expected that taking his results out would’ve had more of an impact. Anyway, you can talk Lawson through it tomorrow morning. It’s him you need to convince.’
Ryan sat back on the sofa, put his hands behind his head and started tapping his feet together. He looked around the flat, as if searching for something to do. Meredith found herself struggling for anything to say that wasn’t work related.
‘How was your flight?’
‘Yeah, not bad,’ he said.
Meredith slid over next to him and tucked herself under his arm, hoping that her small display of affection would help soften the atmosphere between them. Ryan clearly misinterpreted her intentions and immediately spun round and started kissing her passionately. He slid his hand up her skirt and gently stroked the inside of her thigh.
‘Enough of work,’ he said huskily as he kissed the side of her face. He put his other hand under the small of her back and pushed himself against her. ‘I want you right now, on this sofa.’
Meredith rolled away from underneath him. ‘Ryan, please don’t.’
‘What’s up with you?’ Meredith was shocked at how annoyed he sounded.
‘I’ve had a tough week, and I’m sorry, but I’m just not in the mood,’ she replied, starting to feel equally irritated.
‘Maybe I should just go then,’ said Ryan, getting up.
‘No, don’t. Stay, we can just watch a movie or something.’ Meredith tugged the back of his shirt to encourage him to sit back down.
‘You’re tired and we’ve both got a long day tomorrow. Let’s just call it a day, shall we? Here, I’ve got you a spare key-card for my room. I thought it might help, as we’re here for a few days.’
He tossed the key-card onto the coffee table and Meredith followed him to the door. He gave her a cursory kiss on the cheek and then left.
Meredith sat back down on the sofa and stared at the key-card, feeling utterly dejected. Was there really no more to their relationship than sex? He’d certainly managed to make her feel that way.
Chapter 20
The next morning Meredith and Alfred were sitting in a cab on the way to The Brook Hotel to join Ryan and the rest of the Equinox management team at their planning meeting. Meredith was trying hard to focus on the task in hand and f
orget about her unhappy encounter with Ryan the previous evening, hoping that it had just been down to a combination of her stress and his jetlag. Alfred was sitting opposite her, flicking through her valuation calculations and looking puzzled.
‘Is everything okay?’ Meredith asked.
‘Yes, it seems to be. It’s just that I’d done a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation in my head and I had the price coming down by nearer to four million, not two,’ said Alfred.
Meredith was immediately alarmed. She’d seen plenty of Alfred’s ‘quick calculations’ before and knew there was a good reason he had a PhD in applied algebra.
‘But I checked it several times. It can’t be wrong,’ said Meredith. ‘I put in the figures exactly as Tom gave them to me, down to the nearest pound.’
‘Hmm,’ said Alfred, continuing to stare at the numbers. Then he looked up at Meredith. ‘What did you just say?’
‘That I put in the figures exactly as Tom gave them to me, down to the nearest pound.’
‘Nearest pound? That’s it,’ said Alfred, grabbing his calculator out of his briefcase. He quickly tapped in a few figures. He looked up at Meredith, his face ashen with worry. ‘The model is in dollars and you’ve entered all the adjustments in pounds.’
‘What do you mean the model’s in dollars? Why’s it in dollars?’ Meredith grabbed the sheets of paper from Alfred’s lap. ‘The valuation we gave them is in pounds.’
‘Because Equinox’s numbers are all in dollars and that’s the currency they’ll be using to buy the business. That’s the standard approach. We always start with the currency of the business making the offer and then convert at the end,’ said Alfred.
‘Why didn’t you bloody well tell me!’ shouted Meredith, causing Alfred and the taxi driver to jump.
‘I’m sorry,’ stammered Alfred. ‘I just didn’t think about it. It does, er, say dollars at the top of the spreadsheet.’
‘Don’t be smart.’
‘I’m not being smart,’ Alfred protested. ‘I’m just saying.’
Meredith shook her head, furious with herself for making such a basic mistake. ‘Ryan said he was surprised that the drop wasn’t bigger. I should’ve realised something was wrong then.’