Christopher Golde
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven
Holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit
And a great chain.
John: Revelation 20.1
Date: 28th December 1999
Location: Washington, USA
The early morning sun reflected on the ice of the lake, snowdrifts edged the walking track and dour pines bent under the weight of their frosty burdens. On the track, two figures ran alone, the steam generated by their exertions streaming behind them, before suddenly dispensing into the crisp, Washington winter atmosphere.
The shorter of the two runners, dressed in a dark tracksuit and woollen beanie, obviously laboured under the strain of the exertion, whilst the taller of the two runners, in brighter colours of yellow and red, took long confident strides. As they approached two vehicles parked on the roadside next to the running track, they both slowed until their pace was reduced to a brisk walk.
On arriving at the cars, John Costello leaned on the rear of the black Mercedes limousine, bowing his head towards the ground and gasping for each and every breath. Finally, he looked up to see his companion and boss, Bill Gatwick, doing warm down stretches only a few feet from him, not appearing to be any the worse for this morning’s casual ten-mile run.
“Why do you drag me along on these fits of masochism, I don’t run in the summer, let alone when it’s minus ten,” John gasped, bursts of steam abbreviating his speech?
“It’s good for you John, you should be out here running at least three times a week all year round, healthy body, healthy mind, you know.”
Bill Gatwick was a perfect specimen of human physical condition; he stopped stretching and stood to face his personal assistant.
“Okay, so why are you here John? You said it was important and you wouldn’t come out jogging unless it couldn’t wait!”
John straightened up still breathing heavily.
“Bill, it’s about tomorrow’s meeting.” he paused, struggling to get his breathing back to something like a normal rate.
“Well, what about it,” Gatwick said, with some impatience?
John continued without hesitation; he knew that his boss expected direct, immediate and concise responses.
“I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as you think and maybe we need more time.”
“Why,” snapped Gatwick, with obvious impatience?
“You plan on doing business with Futuretronics and announcing it to the board tomorrow…”
“Yeah, so,” Gatwick cut in!
He did not like anyone questioning his ambitions, right or wrong. John was accustomed to this and continued.
“Well, for it to work as you expect it to, you need to be the only two players;” Now John hesitated, he knew what he was about to tell his boss was not going to be taken well, “and I have found out that there could be someone else we need to be concerned about.”
“What on earth are you talking about John,” exclaimed Gatwick, still obviously impatient, but starting to subconsciously realize he needed to hear what his assistant was about to tell him?
‘After all, that’s why I pay him so much,’ he thought to himself, trying to control his temper.
“It’s a company called Trade.com Bill; we have talked about them in recent times,” John continued, anticipating his bosses reaction to his next statement thus standing upright and looking him directly in the eye, “but what we didn’t know before, is that they evidently own a major share of Futuretronic’s chip manufacturing company and they want in on your deal, and I mean 'in'!”
Gatwick didn’t react immediately to this obvious distraction to his well-placed plans, but in complete contrast to how he really felt inside, he calmly asked.
“What’s the deal, John?”
“Well it could be good for us,’ his assistant replied, attempting a positive spin on the bad news, “you already know that Trade.com control the largest portion of the International share trading market on the net, and if they really wanted to they could make it difficult for firms using our operating systems to trade, but until now they have caused us no problems. In some ways they have been way too quiet, not even demanding any sort of reciprocation, but instead, supporting our operating systems. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they knew exactly what we were planning.”
Gatwick wasn’t so sure this was not a possibility; all of a sudden he realized they could have been played at their own game, without even realizing it.
“Out of the blue,” John continued, “they contact us and tell us they want in on your deal with Futuretronics.”
Gatwick interrupted.
“Did you speak to the Futuretronics people?”
“They contacted us, seconds after we had a call from Futuretronics, to tell me that they had been given similar demands. The Trade.com person even knew about tomorrow’s meeting and Fujimo swears he has not told anyone outside of his controlling board of directors, as is the case with our team.”
Gatwick held up his hand and John stopped. He knew better than to interrupt when his boss wanted to think. Gatwick mulled over this new development, he must use them to his advantage, no matter how much it displeased him having all of a sudden to deal with another company.
“So what do they want and what do we know about them?”
John knew this was no time to beat around the bush, his boss would need to know the truth.
“They’re good, really good. They’re the biggest Internet trading company in the world and no-one even knows who exactly pulls the strings. Came out of nowhere in the late ninety’s and based in Australia, that’s about all we know.”
John only paused briefly to catch his breath before continuing.
“They operate as a team to the extreme, so much that no one person ever seems to be dominant and all their trade and sales are all done on the net, nowhere else.”
“And,” Gatwick asked, starting to show the slightest signs of strain in his voice?
“That’s about it; they said they’ll negotiate at tomorrow's meeting, and get this; they’re sending their top man, a guy by the name of Jason King, Everyone I’ve spoken to about him, tells me he’s a recluse Australian billionaire, and that’s all they know.”
“That’s ridiculous, you can’t be that rich and not known,” Gatwick fumed, “what if I don’t want to sign up with them?”
“Bill we need the Futuretronics chip and these guys own a major piece of that part of the company. I don’t think we have any choice.”
Gatwick walked towards the limousine door.
“There’s always choice John,” Gatwick replied with control. His assistant was not fooled by this calm, he knew his boss better than that. “I don’t know how you let this slip John, but get back in control of the situation, or else! Even you’re expendable John and don’t you forget that!”
Chapter twenty two
The Competitor