Heads You Win

“I’d like to speak to my wife.”

“Of course, sir, I’ll put you through.”

Fiona had once told him it takes a little time to get used to the sudden change of lifestyle from opposition to government.

“Hello?” said the voice on the other end of the line.

“Good afternoon, this is the Right Honorable Sasha Karpenko, Her Majesty’s Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.”

He waited for Charlie to burst out laughing. “I’m so sorry, minister,” said the voice, “but your wife is away from her desk at the moment. I’ll let her know that you called.”

“I do apologize—” began Sasha, but the phone had already gone dead.

“I’ve just made my first gaffe, Arthur.”

“And I feel sure it won’t be your last. But I must admit, you’re the first of my ministers who managed it even before he’d reached the Foreign Office.”

43

ALEX

Boston and Davos, 1999

The board meeting had gone smoothly enough until Jake raised the final item on the agenda, “Any other business.”

“Evelyn wants what?” asked the chairman, staring in disbelief at his chief executive.

“To sell her fifty percent stake in the bank. She’s offering us first refusal.”

“How much would her shares fetch on the open market?” asked Bob Underwood.

“Four, possibly five hundred million.”

“And how much is she asking for?” asked Mitch Blake.

“A billion.”

A group of men who were capable of playing poker for hours without moving a facial muscle gasped in disbelief.

“Evelyn’s well aware that while she owns fifty percent of the company’s stock, she can put a gun to our head.”

“Then she may as well pull the trigger,” said Alex, “because we don’t have that sort of money available.”

“As George Soros once said, if you own fifty-one percent of a company you are its master, if you own forty-nine or less, you are its servant.”

“Anyone got any ideas?” asked Alex, looking around the boardroom table.

“Kill her,” said Bob Underwood.

“That wouldn’t solve the problem,” said Jake matter-of-factly, “because her husband, Todd Halliday, would inherit her estate, and then we’d have to deal with him.”

“We could call her bluff,” said Underwood. “She’d soon find out that no one else is willing to pay her such a ridiculous sum.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” said Jake. “The Bank of Boston would love to get their hands on our Russian portfolio, which is now outperforming all our rivals, and I suspect they’d be willing to pay well above the asking price.”

“Why don’t we just ignore the damned woman,” suggested Blake, “and perhaps she’ll go away.”

“She’s already anticipated that,” said Jake, “and decided to park her tanks on our front lawn.”

“And what does she plan to use as ammunition?” asked Alex.

“The company statutes.”

“Which one in particular?” asked Andy Harbottle, who thought he knew them all off by heart.

“Number 92.”

The rest of the board waited while Harbottle thumbed through a well-worn leather-bound book. When he came to the relevant statute, he read it out loud. “Should one shareholder or group of shareholders own fifty percent or more of the company stock, they would be entitled to hold up any board decision for six months.”

“She’s listed eleven decisions we’ve made during the past year that she intends to challenge,” said Jake. “That would bring the bank to a standstill for six months, and she says that if we don’t pay up, she’ll come to the AGM next month and carry out her threat in person.”

“Who put her up to this?” said Underwood.

“Ackroyd would be my bet,” said Jake. “But as he’s got a criminal record, he can’t risk putting his head above the parapet. So we’re going to have to deal with Evelyn personally.”

“But in view of her past relationship with Ackroyd,” said Underwood, “why don’t we offer her four hundred million and see how she responds?”

“We could try,” said Jake. “But have I got any room to maneuver?”

“Six hundred, and even that’s extortionate,” said Alex.

“I think, as a board, we’ll have to assume that she’ll carry out her threat,” said Jake. “In which case Ackroyd will advise her to offer her shares to the Bank of Boston for seven hundred million.”

“She should be hanged from the nearest gibbet, as many of her English ancestors were,” said Underwood.

“It’s me who should be hanged,” said Alex. “Don’t forget, she once offered me her fifty percent for a million dollars, and I turned her down.”

“Drawn and quartered,” said Underwood.

“Not quite yet,” said Jake. “We still have one ace up our sleeve.”

*   *   *

“Congratulations,” said Anna. “It’s always a bit special to be recognized by your peers.”

“Thank you,” said Alex. “Especially as Davos is attended by all the players who really matter in the financial world.”

“What do they want you to speak about?”

“Russia’s role in the new world order. The only problem is, it couldn’t have come at a worse time for the bank.”

“Evelyn causing trouble again?”

“She’s threatening to hijack the AGM if we don’t agree to her outrageous demands.”

“Perhaps we should cancel our weekend in London and fly straight to Davos?”