The Fund. Jeff Edwards

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СКАЧАТЬ none of them were trying to talk down to her. Even Toby’s comment, she accepted, was him attempting to lighten the situation rather than an attempt to put her down. It was now up to her to decide the correct course of action.

      She took a deep breath. ‘So, if I want to go out to Africa I have to become “normal”, do I?’ she said with a disgusted expression.

      ‘Well, Eliza,’ began Nori, ‘if what you mean by “normal” is that you dress in a manner appropriate to the climate and that you wear an amount of jewellery that will not set off all the airport detectors and that you conduct yourself in a dignified and professional manner, then “normal” is what is required. I daresay they have any number of citizens travelling through their country as backpackers, but you’ll be there on business, so even a casual mode of dress will be insufficient to gain their trust.’

      ‘No jeans?’ asked Eliza.

      Nori nodded. ‘Not even a hint of jeans! You will be on a mission to gain their trust. You will need to dress appropriately.’

      Eliza sighed deeply, wondering if she were capable of such a drastic change. Up to now all business had been conducted by phone and she had established a good rapport with some of the officials. To lose them at this late stage would be disastrous for the project.

      Lana looked at Suzie and gave her a wink. ‘I think it’s time for some of your fellow directors to come to your aid. I hereby nominate myself and Suzie as re-modellers.’

      ‘Okay,’ nodded Suzie, ‘I accept the challenge and I think Justine should be done over as well.’

      ‘Me! Why me?’ asked Justine.

      ‘Well, if conservative dress is the order of the day for overseas travel, then you’ll need a new wardrobe as well,’ said Lana, ‘especially if you want to oversee your first project. After all, the one you’re working on is in a predominantly Muslim country.’

      Next to Justine, Ali reached out and touched her lightly on the hand. ‘My wife and I thought it would be best if, when you do travel out there, that we went with you. It is an unfortunate fact that a middle-aged Muslim male would be better able to get things done than a very young and Christian female.’

      ‘Yes,’ conceded Justine, ‘I’ve already found that out. It was very hard at first, but then I found out that if I simply told one of the boys in the office what to say, they could ring up on my behalf and were actually passed through to the official we wanted to speak to.’

      Ali smiled. ‘You shall remain in charge. I will simply be your voice.’

      ‘All right. I’d appreciate that,’ smiled Justine.

      Suzie spoke up. ‘Then it’s agreed. We need complete makeovers for two. I think Paris is called for. Don’t you agree, Lana?’

      A broad grin spread over Lana’s face. ‘Paris? Definitely! And we’ll need at least two, no, make that four, days.’

      ‘Hang on! How much is this going to set The Fund back?’ asked an alarmed Brian.

      Lana smiled warmly at her husband. ‘Don’t worry, my love. Consider this an investment. The Fund will benefit from it in the long run.’

      ‘And what are Brian and I to do while our wives are wasting our funds in Paris?’ asked Toby.

      Nori looked up. ‘I thought your accountant friend Mr Marks was about to call out to Jersey and Jamaica to investigate the banks we now own. Shouldn’t some of us go out there with him to check them out?’

      ‘Jersey and Jamaica? How does that sound to you, Brian?’ asked Toby.

      ‘Very worthwhile!’ agreed Brian with a grin.

      ‘Well, if they’re going to be away for a while I think Paris will have to put up with us for at least a week!’ countered Suzie.

      ‘Ye gods! There’ll be nothing left in the shops by then!’ exclaimed Toby.

      ‘In the meantime, Nori and I will look after matters here at home,’ said Ali.

      ‘I’m sure that when all get back my husband and I will be able to slip away for a short time to be with our children,’ said Nori.

      ‘We’ll make sure you do,’ agreed Brian.

      ‘Well, now that you’ve all arranged holidays for yourselves, I’d like to bring up something that Eliza and I have been discussing. It’s important,’ said Justine.

      They all knew by now that Justine did not have a frivolous nature and that if she said a topic was important then it meant that she had turned it over many times already in her own mind.

      ‘What is it?’ asked Ali.

      ‘The future direction of The Fund,’ said Justine.

      ‘I would have thought that The Fund had an almost unlimited future,’ said Brian.

      Justine nodded. ‘Given sound financial advice, that will be the case. But what I’m talking about is The Fund’s real power. The videos.’

      ‘What about them?’

      ‘How long do you think it will be before the videos are considered to no longer be a threat to the government?’

      ‘Years!’ said Toby.

      ‘How many years, Toby? One, five, ten?’

      ‘I don’t know. What are you saying?’

      Justine rose and began to pace the floor. It was how she expressed herself when she had something difficult to say. Her hands and arms became part of her speech as she waved them around to emphasise a point.

      ‘True, the videos are important today. They have the power to change governments, to bring people in high places down. They are of people in the highest positions in the land at this time. That’s the trouble. In a few years from now those people will be gone. They’ll be retired, or worse, dead. You can’t threaten to expose a dead person. It just won’t work. Besides, people’s attitudes change. People of my generation just don’t care if a politician visited a brothel twenty or thirty years ago. We weren’t born then, so it’s just history to us. When Eliza and I look at those videos it just makes us laugh. For us it’s just like watching Funniest Home Videos on TV.’

      ‘Are you saying we should turn the videos over to the government?’ asked Brian.

      ‘No! Certainly not! They’re still important, and we’ll make full use of them while we can, but you all have to face facts!’

      ‘What facts?’ asked Toby.

      ‘Eliza and I looked at the figures. When we placed the PM’s brother on the Internet the site had nearly two thousand hits before the government shut it down. That was for two days.’

      ‘Well, that shows how much interested people were in it,’ said Toby.

      ‘No Toby, it doesn’t. The site was mentioned in newspaper articles.

      Everyone with a computer and modem could have accessed СКАЧАТЬ