Only the Strongest Survive (7 page)

“
And she
simply
disappeared?” Alexandra
said.

Guan
asked
, “But why would she do something
like that?”

“It’s hard to say. It’s an escape into the
unknown. Maybe Emely wanted a normal life.”

More
noise
erupted in the meeting
room.

Blake
said
, “Listen, we can make all sorts of
assumptions, but there’s no point. Who’s in favor of going
public?”

A majority
raised
a hand.

“
Good. I’ll
tell the police that we’re ready to
make
a public appeal.”

Alexandra
thought
,
It’s a mistake.

*

At noon,
Blake Crouse went to a Chinese restaurant
to satisfy his growling stomach. He chose that restaurant
not for its food but because he hoped to be completely alone to
think it all through.
How
could this have happened?

He parked his
Cadillac
, the latest model, not far from
the park and then set off on foot toward some restaurants.
Where is all this going to lead? How
can I run the company without Emely?

Whenever he
had
previously taken on this role it was
always for a limited time. It happened rarely, usually when Emely
was on vacation. But all the important decisions were still made by
her. If there were problems, all he had to do was pick up the
phone. It was different now. The entire burden of running the
company lay on his shoulders and he would not be able to put off
dealing with the bigger issues indefinitely. Even though he was
ambitious, being right at the top didn’t suit him. Managing the
legal department was the highest he wanted to go. He was of the
opinion that being a CEO was something you were born for. Not
everyone could do it.
Emely,
what’s happening with you? Come back.

He had known
her since she was a little girl. Who would have thought then that
she would become one of the
country’s
most capable businesswomen. He had just finished law school and was
working as a young lawyer at the Chicago District Court. A horrific
accident had happened and little Emely had become an orphan. He was
in charge of resolving all the bureaucratic problems connected with
putting her in a foster home. He remembered the sad story of her
mother’s death.

*

In
St. Martin’s Hospital, in the center of
Portland, the staff were in a state of controlled panic. There had
been a huge explosion in a dye factory only fifteen miles away.
Just twenty-six minutes later, over forty people suffering from
severe burns were brought in. It was ten o’clock in the
morning.

All the staff
off duty that morning had come in to help. Nurses were running
along the long corridors and it was tough for the doctors to decide
which patient was in a worse condition and should get
priority.

“
Doctor, this
woman needs help urgently!” a nurse shouted over the unbearable
noise. Badly burned patients were moaning and the nurses were
comforting them as best they could.

The
doctor
quickly examined the pregnant
woman the nurse had pointed out. The skin practically all over her
body was blistering. He couldn’t decide whether to treat the woman
or stay with a man who was barely breathing. In the end, he went to
the woman and checked her pulse. Then he quickly ran to the nurses’
station. “I need an operating theatre now!”

The
n
urse looked at the computer screen.
“Sorry, but they’re all occupied.”

“
Damn it,”
said
the doctor. He ran back to the burnt
woman and checked her vitals once more.

“
Wait,
doctor!” shouted
the nurse. “Room B-12
has just become free.”

“
Great! All I
need now is an anesthetist and an assistant surgeon,” he said,
already pushing the emergency gurney with the unconscious woman
toward the elevator.

*

After they
had been workin
g on the woman for half an
hour the first to say something was the anesthetist, who closely
monitored the instruments.

“
I’m sorry,
but I have
a feeling we’ll lose her in
the next few minutes. Her condition is rapidly
declining.”

“
We’ve got to
save the baby,”
the doctor said. “Get the
instruments for a Caesarian.”

Only twenty
minutes later they put a wrinkled bundle into
an incubator. The mother’s heart monitor was showing a flat
line.

*

Two months
later,
the nuns in St. Joseph’s Convent
kept passing the crying baby to each other.

*

Blake
smoothed down his hair.
And
where has it got her? What use are the heaps of money now? It only
leads to misfortune.

He was sixty
and still working only because he would
otherwise be bored at home alone. The thought of waking up
in the morning and not having anything to do always horrified him.
Emely, who was aware that he was old enough to retire, kept telling
him how much she needed him and that the company wouldn’t be able
to do as well without him.

The cell
phone in
the inside pocket of his
custom-made jacket vibrated.

“Yes?”

“
Robert
Miles here. You may
remember we talked a few days ago about a promotional article about
your company in—”

“Yes, yes, I remember.”

“
I wanted to
ask if we could meet this morning
.”

“Come to my office in an hour.”

The journalist could not believe his ears. He
had been certain that Blake would refuse to talk to him. “In an
hour? Good.”

“
Goodb
ye until then,” Robert Miles
said.

But Blake had
already cut the line. The whole thing disgusted him. What he would
have liked to do most was to retire that very moment and escape to
the Bahamas. He did not know what to say to the journalists that
would not damage the company. Every badly chosen word could cost
them huge amounts of money. His phone rang again. It was Maria, the
secretary.

“
Michael
Dorten just called, the CEO at Bio Conran. The joint venture in
Poland isn’t going too well. He wants a meeting with Ms. Donnovan
immediately.”

“
Tell him
that M
s. Donnovan is away on some urgent
business and won’t be back for another week.” He could only hope
that Emely would be back at all.

“OK.”

After another
minute, the phone vibrated again. “
He
said it can’t wait a week. He’d like to meet with you, if you’re
the one standing in for Ms. Donnovan.”

“Shit. Tell him I’ll call him as soon as I
get back.”

“
OK.”

Just as he
was about to look at the menu,
his phone
demanded his attention once more. He answered angrily.
“Yes!”

“
I’m sorry
to
bother you again, but I’ve got a Ms.
Rodriguez from the Central Bank on the line. She said that the last
installment of our loan has not been paid.”

“Listen, that’s not my area, why don’t you
call Alexandra!”

He cut her off angrily.

Let them ring me just one more time. They know I’m having
lunch.
With a sour face he ordered some
food and had a glass of brandy. Usually he’d order fruit juice or a
beer, but he needed something stronger. All the problems were
making his stomach churn. Then his phone rang yet again.

“
Hello,
” he said through gritted
teeth.

Maria could
sense the anger in his voice, but didn
’t
know what else to do. Various people wanted to talk to Emely
urgently, and since he was her stand-in, who else could she put
them through to?

She said with
a firm voice
, “Ultra Products are
threatening a lawsuit because we copied their advertising slogan.
They’re asking for an immediate meeting or they’ll take us to
court. They’re also threatening to go to the press.”

“
OK, I’ll
handle them.
Let me finish my lunch, at
least. Please, don’t call me until I get back to the office,” he
said, immediately pressing the red phone button.

“
Go to hell!”
Maria
said angrily.

*

“
Please, sit
down, Mr. Miles,” Alexandra
said. Blake
Crouse was sitting next to her.

“Thank you.”

“We’re assuming this time you haven’t come
because of the promotion you talked about to Mr. Crouse, have
you?”

“
You’re
right.”
Miles was embarrassed because he
didn’t know her surname. He admired her symmetrical face, piercing
eyes, and dark hair.

Alexandra nodded. “It’s a very delicate
matter.”

Blake was
grateful to her for taking the lead in this discussion. He felt a
burning pain in his stomach and didn
’t
know what to do about it. All those phone calls had made him
nervous and he could feel a headache coming on.

“
We’ve
decided to make a public announcement about the disappearance of
the CEO of our corpora
tion, Emely
Donnovan. We chose three publications to which we will disclose all
the details under the condition that you do no damage with what you
write.”

Miles nodded
and said
, “I understand.”

Blake
said, “It’s been two days since she disappeared
and there’s no trace ….”

Alexandra
said,
“You must promise that you will
emphasize a number of times that the company is led by people who
are capable of working without the CEO.”

“
I see,”
Miles
said.

“
You must
understand that any negative news will i
nfluence our share price. According to our assessments, the
price is currently at a realistic level and we are anticipating
that the value will fall by 20 percent at the most. We can’t afford
any more than that.”

“
Yes,
that’
s perfectly clear.”

Blake went on
with what bordered on desperation: “We’ve hired detectives, the
police
are looking hard, but it seems
that Emely has vanished.”

“
It’
s been said that her vehicle
was found,” the journalist pointed out.

“
Yes, at
first it looked like a kidnapping. We kept waiting for the dreaded
phone call. But it never came. The police
think that it’s not a kidnapping in the normal sense of the
word, as by now the kidnappers would have asked for
ransom.”

The
journalist kept looking with great interest at Blake and Alexandra
in turn
, and asked, “And what do you
think?”

“
We don’t
know what to think. She
may have decided
to simply take off for a while.”

“And why would she do that?”

“These are all unfounded assumptions,”
Alexandra said. “Emely was a stable person. I don’t believe she
could just disappear.”

“
But what
could have happened to her?” Blake
asked,
slightly confused.

Alexandra was
angry that Blake couldn
’t be more firm
and confident in front of the journalist. She was aware that Miles
would use everything they said in the article.
I should be the one who is standing in for Emely,
not Blake. He knows little beyond legal matters,
she thought, but said: “I think we need to wait a little
longer. Perhaps she’ll appear tomorrow. Who knows?”

The
journalist looked at her
, wondering how
she could be so cool and collected.

She
added
: “The main thing is to inform the
public about her disappearance because it could help us if she
really did disappear against her will. Something must have happened
on that highway. If anyone did see anything, they’ll report it to
the police.”

“
Perhaps we
should announce a reward?” Blake asked.

Alexandra
gave him another angry look
. “No, no,
let’s wait for now.”
There’ll
be plenty of speculation as it is, there’s no point in making it
worse,
she thought.

“
So
you don’t think that her absence will affect
your market standing?” Miles asked.

“
That’s
exactly it.
Donnovan Corporation is a
huge company that consists of many smaller divisions and companies.
They all have their own management, headed by good
people.”

“I get that. But what about new business
deals?”

“
For some
time Ms. Donnovan has not been deciding on new deals
independently,” Alexandra lied.

Actually,
i
f Emely decided on something, she got
it. If a member of the executive board or a manager voted against
her too often, she soon got rid of him or her.