How did we get here?

Robert MacCawdor, now the confident Director of Planning, having rid himself of those pesky lieutenants: the “rower”, the “techie”,  and “teflon man”, and having surrounded himself with his ever-faithful adjutant, Lady M, and his “eyes and ears,” the three watchers, felt quite at home in his large comfortable chair looking out of the executive floor office’s picture window at the rowers practising on the river in the soft early morning light.

The Commander was happy. Lady M was delivering the strategy and financial plan. His PA, May, the “poisoner”, and his “special projects” duo – the “thief” and “noddy”, known collectively as the three watchers, kept an eye on the first floor people. And that irritable Director of Development, Sue, was so busy she did not have the time to delve too deeply into his Planning Department’s murky affairs.

There was just one problem that preyed on MacCawdor’s suspicious mind – that annoying little intern, the “team-builder” as she was referred to in derogatory terms. What did she know? Who had she been seeing? What did she tell them? Despite his carefully woven network of surveillance, he did not know. Time to act. The merger, meanwhile, exacerbated the general atmosphere of menace, fear and relentless pace. Continue reading →