Numbered Account

"Oh yes, I completely forgot," Kaiser said. "Well then, back to work for us all."

As Nick walked out of the grand office, he asked himself when he had mentioned his luncheon plans to the Chairman.

CHAPTER 41

"Were you able to get the reports?" Nick asked as he crossed the threshold to Sylvia Schon's apartment. It was eight o'clock and he had come directly from the bank.

"What? No hello? No 'How was your afternoon?' " She gave him a kiss on the cheek. "It's nice to see you, too, Mr. Neumann."

Nick walked down the hallway, taking off his overcoat. "Sylvia, were you able to get the monthly activity reports?"

"I said I'd help you, didn't I?" Sylvia picked up the polished briefcase leaning against her sofa. She unbuckled the cover and drew out two thick binders, colored the same faded yellow as the one they had read several nights before. She handed one to him. "Satisfied? I'm sorry I forgot to get them in time for lunch."

Nick lifted one and read the coding on its spine. January through March 1978. He shot a glance at the other file. It was entitled April-June 1978. At least one thing had gone right today. "I'm sorry if I was rude."

Nick was tired and irritable. His only break the entire day had been the scant half hour he'd spent lunching with Sylvia at Kropf Bierhalle. Time to consume a sausage, french fries, and two Cokes, but hardly enough to get around to asking her if she had mentioned their lunch date to someone. They had agreed it best to keep their relationship quiet. Not secret- for secret was a dirty word. Just quiet. Neither had thought to ask what answer should be given if someone were to question them about their seeing each other. Or if they had, they hadn't dared ask it.

Sylvia stood on her tiptoes and rubbed his cheek. "Want to talk about it? You don't look so great."

Nick knew he looked haggard. He'd been getting by on five hours of sleep a night. When, that is, he could sleep at all. "Just the regular grind. Things are pretty crazy up on the Fourth Floor. The general assembly is only five days away. Konig's biting at our heels."

"What does Kaiser have you doing?"

"The usual," Nick explained, aware that he was doing everything but. Regardless of his feelings for Sylvia, he couldn't bring himself to confess the larceny being perpetrated on the Fourth Floor. Some things he had to keep to himself. "Lining up votes. Answering phone calls from investment analysts. We're all feeling the pressure. It's crunch time."

"Everyone is feeling Konig's pressure," she said. "Not just you big shots on the Fourth Floor. No one wants Konig to get his seats. Change is frightening, especially for the little guys underneath the Emperor's Lair."

"Too bad we can't order every employee of the bank to purchase a hundred shares of our stock," Nick said. "If they don't have the money- no problem. We can subtract it from their future salaries. That would go a long way toward fending off the Adler Bank. At least then I wouldn't have to-" He bit off his words in mid-sentence.

"Then you wouldn't have to what?" asked Sylvia. Her eyes flickered, and Nick could see the scent of scandal was rich in her nose.

"Then we wouldn't have to fight so damned hard against Konig," he shot back, not missing a beat.

"How does it look?"

"Forty-six percent for the good guys, thirty percent for the bad guys. Just keep your fingers crossed Konig doesn't launch a full-scale hostile bid."

"What's stopping him?"

"Cash. Or lack of it. He'd have to offer a significant premium to the market price, but if he did, enough shares are in the hands of the arbs that he'd have no problem capturing sixty-six percent of the votes. Even our supporters would defect to Konig. That would give him full control of the board. A one-way ticket to Valhalla for Wolfgang Kaiser."

"And for the rest of us?" demanded Sylvia. "What about us? You know very well the first jobs cut after any merger are overlapping staff functions: accounting, treasury, logistics. I can't imagine that the Adler Bank will have any need for two personnel directors in their finance department."

"Sylvia, don't worry. The battle we're fighting is to keep Konig off the board. No one is talking about an outright takeover."

"Not yet they're not." She squinted her eyes as if she didn't like what she saw. "You'll never understand what this bank means to me. The time I've put in. The hope I've wasted on this stupid job."

"Wasted?" he asked. "Why wasted?"