Post by The Greater Evil on Jan 22, 2010 0:00:06 GMT -5
“Haiti ? Really ?” I stated with no small amount of derision in my voice. “We’ve been friends for almost fifteen years and your cynical ability to create an “opportunity” continues to amaze.....and at times, disgust me.”
He looked at me with a somewhat amused expression, not mocking or disrespectful…just amused that someone who used to sneak around in the dark and carry out “cloak and dagger” missions would be offended by seeing a tragedy be taken advantage of as a means of making money. Of course, I was used to this...yet somehow it still disgusted me when he did it. I turned my head and looked at the floor before looking back up at him.
"It’s not that this surprises me, because after almost fifteen years nothing you do surprises me."
He leaned back in his desk chair, lacing his hands behind his head as he often did when he was feeling that uniquely Dirge combination of smug and relaxed. I’ve seen that expression cause many a business negotiation end in his favor because the negotiator was somehow thrown by it. I’m talking about Professional business negotiators, men and women who lie and manipulate for a living, being thrown into a state of near incomprehensible rage by a simple mannerism and the smirk that usually accompanies it.
And there it is. Now I understand why it drives people into sputtering fits.
It’s not that I’ve never seen the look before; it somehow just becomes a great deal more irritating when it’s being flashed at you. I would have thought that I was immune to being infuriated by his expressions and yet somehow, he always manages to surprise me. That, in and of itself, is just as irritating.
"So what amazing, Earth shattering business opportunity are you seeing in one small island nation being walloped by two major Earthquakes inside a couple of weeks. ?"
My question prompted the smirk on his face to widen and a mischievous twinkle to fire in his eyes. I’ve only seen one person shrug that look off and still get her way with him...and she sired his daughters. I think that’s one defeat that the competitive side of him has never quite gotten past.
If you could call that a defeat...
"Elementary Erik." He stated in a mocking Sherlock Holmes voice; "Disaster is the best opportunity to make money and expand one’s sphere of business influence. Besides, do you think charities are going to refuse an influx of cash just because most people think that I’m a disreputable scumbag ?"
“Aren’t you ?” I quipped back.
The stab drew another grin from him and he leaned forward in his chair, laying his arms across the desk in front of him. It caused me to notice something I hadn’t noticed before…and that’s where the sun was positioned. As he leaned forward his big head was no longer blocking the window and the sun came right through…and hit me square in the eyes...after I noticed that it created an odd little halo around his head. I couldn’t help but smile at the irony in that. He noticed the grin on my face and turned his head to the side quizzically.
“Is something amusing Erik ?”
“Da. When you moved your head, right before the sunlight blinded me; it created a little halo around your head. Given our current conversation I find that very funny in an ironic sort of way.”
His smirk curled up in the corner of his mouth and he let out another short chuckle before arising and walking across his office to the Liquor cabinet.
“That is quite ironic my friend. If not for David I think most people would consider me a couple of steps removed from being the Antichrist.”
“This, friend Dirge, is not always an inappropriate comparison if you think about it.”
He chuckled again, pouring himself a glass of his favorite Scotch and waves his hand in front of me in an offering gesture. I lifted up my hand and politely refused, wishing to return to the conversation at hand.
“Suit yourself Erik.”
He walked back to his desk and stood looking down at the city of Chicago with the glass in his right hand, hanging next to his knee. It was a common mannerism for him when he was thinking.
“Quite simply Erik, Haiti is a money pit waiting to be drilled and tapped.” He explained. “I intend on being the one to make sure that the money pit is tapped by Elite Enterprises. Sure it’s cynical...most smart business decisions tend to take advantage of the misery of others. One man’s garbage pit is another man’s gold mine my friend.”
There’s the cold, sociopath- like reasoning that I’ve come accustomed to. I wonder at times if I shouldn’t be bothered more by the fact that I’ve accepted his often extremely cold and pragmatic view of existence. How can one be a man of principal when his best friend is at times one of the most coldly unethical men walking the Earth. I admit that I did horrible things in my time in the Russian Special Forces and I’ve made peace with that and tired to make amends for it ever since. Dirge can bury a man alive in concrete, listening to him scream in bloody horror as he impotently tries to avoid the inevitable and then go kill off his entire family, leaving their corpses to rot in the desert and not bat an eyelash at the barbarity of it as long as he feels it’s been justified. How can I be a good person when I not only know of these things, but have witnessed more than a few of them.
Now he wants to rebuild Haiti...just not out of the good of his heart.
I looked at him standing before the window and shook my head. Even after more than a decade the processes of his mind still sometimes caught me off guard. I could only begin to imagine where he was going with the rebuild of Haiti.
“So exactly what are you planning down there ?” I queried to him, pausing momentarily to get a bottle of water from the expensive refrigerator he had in his office. “And why do I get the feeling that you already have an agent or two down there assessing things ? Probably Damarest or Ian at the least.”
He lifted up the glass and took a drink before lowering his arm again, letting the hand with the glass dangle at his side.
“Not David. He’s still up here. Ian is coordinating with the connections here that will set everything up. I don’t have an agent in place yet. I wanted to discuss that with you first.”
“Ok. Who do you have in mind ?”
He paused for a moment and watched as a chopper went by, whipping a small cloud of residual snow off of the building across the street. I watched his shoulders rise and fall before he answered me.
“I was thinking of sending Tiberius and Creighton. They’re both level headed and intelligent. They’d be good representatives.”
“Neither of them speaks French. I assume you have a Translator lined up already ?”
“Yes. Endiwe Unwusu. He’s already there, so it’ll make utilizing him that much easier.”
“Ok. I was thinking of utilizing Pavel and Yuri for the Security Team. I’ll have them coordinate with Creighton when they get down there.”
“Excellent. They’re both reliable men.”
“In terms of transportation I was thinking of making our primary station one of the Corporate Conference ships. Our men will be swarmed by refugees when they get down there and we should have a secure base of operations off land, both to handle the refugee issue and just in case they get hit with another quake.”
He nodded his head at my assessment and turned back around, sitting back down at his desk and leaning back in the expensive leather chair. He took another drink from his glass and set it down on the desk.
“That’s fine with me Erik. It’s a very good idea in fact. Along the lines of refugees, I’ll call in a few favors with the Government here, as well as a couple of Cruise Lines and see about hiring out a couple of older Cruise Ships for the purpose of housing and taking care of refugees. They could be used like floating hotels and hospitals. The more people we get off of that half of the island, the better. It’ll make our other operations that much easier to achieve.”
Here’s the rub.
“What exactly did you have in mind for other operations ?”
“Well Erik, I know that you know about that freighter that was stopped in the river channel yesterday...”
“Of course. I helped plan the operation.”
“Naturally.”
“Do continue though. I presume the cargo that we repossessed has some bearing on new operations in Haiti...”
“Indeed it does. You see my friend; the men who dared to try and steal from me presumed that we couldn’t figure out who they were or who they work for. They were wrong. As you know, David can be very persuasive.”
I nodded my head and gestured for him to continue.
“Well, those gentlemen not only gave who they were working for, but also what they knew of the long term plan of their employer is. Through that I was able to contact their masters and...shall we say... “break” their operation. As such, we now have another company to make use of that gives us even more assets to control and manipulate. I sent the dossiers over to your office about an hour ago. I presume that your secretary will be sure that you get them. I read them cover to cover and consolidating that group will help our international operations significantly.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at his way of turning potential disaster to his advantage. He’d always preached that any situation can be turned into an opportunity if only one was patient enough to wait for the right moment to strike. I nodded my head at him before taking another drink from my water and setting it down.
“So then, once I read these dossiers I presume the next step will be to cull the herd over there and incorporate the useful ones into our operations in some manner. Same as normal.”
He shook his head briefly before continuing.
“Yes. It shouldn’t be too hard. They’re not a huge company, just big enough to be useful to us.”
“Of course, otherwise we wouldn’t be considering “merging” with them.”
“Of course not. Why introduce chaff to the organization ? It’s not efficient.”
“True. I presume some of the normal Special Operations will be in place once we’re in ?”
“Yes. While the Humanitarian angle is certainly good for business, it’s important to get our economic feet in the door once the rebuilding starts. That’s where the true gold mine is sitting. Besides, Caribbean Politicians don’t exactly have a proud history of being incorruptible.”
I couldn’t help but appreciate the irony of the situation considering that he was using the collapse of Haiti for an opportunity to grow the Company all the while plotting the collapse of GIW. It made me wonder what sorts of obtuse connections between the two he was making in his Machiavellian mind. At that moment the phone rang and interrupted my train of thought. I watched as Dirge downed the rest of his Scotch after the call and stood up from his desk and gestured for me to join him.
“Problem ?”
He looked at me with a grin and slapped a hand down on my shoulder.
“No. We have a meeting downtown in the next half hour.”
The only reason I picked up the reference in the intentionally obtuse remark was because I knew him so well. He put is leather coat on and waited for me to meet him at the door, at which point we departed the office for our meeting.
He looked at me with a somewhat amused expression, not mocking or disrespectful…just amused that someone who used to sneak around in the dark and carry out “cloak and dagger” missions would be offended by seeing a tragedy be taken advantage of as a means of making money. Of course, I was used to this...yet somehow it still disgusted me when he did it. I turned my head and looked at the floor before looking back up at him.
"It’s not that this surprises me, because after almost fifteen years nothing you do surprises me."
He leaned back in his desk chair, lacing his hands behind his head as he often did when he was feeling that uniquely Dirge combination of smug and relaxed. I’ve seen that expression cause many a business negotiation end in his favor because the negotiator was somehow thrown by it. I’m talking about Professional business negotiators, men and women who lie and manipulate for a living, being thrown into a state of near incomprehensible rage by a simple mannerism and the smirk that usually accompanies it.
And there it is. Now I understand why it drives people into sputtering fits.
It’s not that I’ve never seen the look before; it somehow just becomes a great deal more irritating when it’s being flashed at you. I would have thought that I was immune to being infuriated by his expressions and yet somehow, he always manages to surprise me. That, in and of itself, is just as irritating.
"So what amazing, Earth shattering business opportunity are you seeing in one small island nation being walloped by two major Earthquakes inside a couple of weeks. ?"
My question prompted the smirk on his face to widen and a mischievous twinkle to fire in his eyes. I’ve only seen one person shrug that look off and still get her way with him...and she sired his daughters. I think that’s one defeat that the competitive side of him has never quite gotten past.
If you could call that a defeat...
"Elementary Erik." He stated in a mocking Sherlock Holmes voice; "Disaster is the best opportunity to make money and expand one’s sphere of business influence. Besides, do you think charities are going to refuse an influx of cash just because most people think that I’m a disreputable scumbag ?"
“Aren’t you ?” I quipped back.
The stab drew another grin from him and he leaned forward in his chair, laying his arms across the desk in front of him. It caused me to notice something I hadn’t noticed before…and that’s where the sun was positioned. As he leaned forward his big head was no longer blocking the window and the sun came right through…and hit me square in the eyes...after I noticed that it created an odd little halo around his head. I couldn’t help but smile at the irony in that. He noticed the grin on my face and turned his head to the side quizzically.
“Is something amusing Erik ?”
“Da. When you moved your head, right before the sunlight blinded me; it created a little halo around your head. Given our current conversation I find that very funny in an ironic sort of way.”
His smirk curled up in the corner of his mouth and he let out another short chuckle before arising and walking across his office to the Liquor cabinet.
“That is quite ironic my friend. If not for David I think most people would consider me a couple of steps removed from being the Antichrist.”
“This, friend Dirge, is not always an inappropriate comparison if you think about it.”
He chuckled again, pouring himself a glass of his favorite Scotch and waves his hand in front of me in an offering gesture. I lifted up my hand and politely refused, wishing to return to the conversation at hand.
“Suit yourself Erik.”
He walked back to his desk and stood looking down at the city of Chicago with the glass in his right hand, hanging next to his knee. It was a common mannerism for him when he was thinking.
“Quite simply Erik, Haiti is a money pit waiting to be drilled and tapped.” He explained. “I intend on being the one to make sure that the money pit is tapped by Elite Enterprises. Sure it’s cynical...most smart business decisions tend to take advantage of the misery of others. One man’s garbage pit is another man’s gold mine my friend.”
There’s the cold, sociopath- like reasoning that I’ve come accustomed to. I wonder at times if I shouldn’t be bothered more by the fact that I’ve accepted his often extremely cold and pragmatic view of existence. How can one be a man of principal when his best friend is at times one of the most coldly unethical men walking the Earth. I admit that I did horrible things in my time in the Russian Special Forces and I’ve made peace with that and tired to make amends for it ever since. Dirge can bury a man alive in concrete, listening to him scream in bloody horror as he impotently tries to avoid the inevitable and then go kill off his entire family, leaving their corpses to rot in the desert and not bat an eyelash at the barbarity of it as long as he feels it’s been justified. How can I be a good person when I not only know of these things, but have witnessed more than a few of them.
Now he wants to rebuild Haiti...just not out of the good of his heart.
I looked at him standing before the window and shook my head. Even after more than a decade the processes of his mind still sometimes caught me off guard. I could only begin to imagine where he was going with the rebuild of Haiti.
“So exactly what are you planning down there ?” I queried to him, pausing momentarily to get a bottle of water from the expensive refrigerator he had in his office. “And why do I get the feeling that you already have an agent or two down there assessing things ? Probably Damarest or Ian at the least.”
He lifted up the glass and took a drink before lowering his arm again, letting the hand with the glass dangle at his side.
“Not David. He’s still up here. Ian is coordinating with the connections here that will set everything up. I don’t have an agent in place yet. I wanted to discuss that with you first.”
“Ok. Who do you have in mind ?”
He paused for a moment and watched as a chopper went by, whipping a small cloud of residual snow off of the building across the street. I watched his shoulders rise and fall before he answered me.
“I was thinking of sending Tiberius and Creighton. They’re both level headed and intelligent. They’d be good representatives.”
“Neither of them speaks French. I assume you have a Translator lined up already ?”
“Yes. Endiwe Unwusu. He’s already there, so it’ll make utilizing him that much easier.”
“Ok. I was thinking of utilizing Pavel and Yuri for the Security Team. I’ll have them coordinate with Creighton when they get down there.”
“Excellent. They’re both reliable men.”
“In terms of transportation I was thinking of making our primary station one of the Corporate Conference ships. Our men will be swarmed by refugees when they get down there and we should have a secure base of operations off land, both to handle the refugee issue and just in case they get hit with another quake.”
He nodded his head at my assessment and turned back around, sitting back down at his desk and leaning back in the expensive leather chair. He took another drink from his glass and set it down on the desk.
“That’s fine with me Erik. It’s a very good idea in fact. Along the lines of refugees, I’ll call in a few favors with the Government here, as well as a couple of Cruise Lines and see about hiring out a couple of older Cruise Ships for the purpose of housing and taking care of refugees. They could be used like floating hotels and hospitals. The more people we get off of that half of the island, the better. It’ll make our other operations that much easier to achieve.”
Here’s the rub.
“What exactly did you have in mind for other operations ?”
“Well Erik, I know that you know about that freighter that was stopped in the river channel yesterday...”
“Of course. I helped plan the operation.”
“Naturally.”
“Do continue though. I presume the cargo that we repossessed has some bearing on new operations in Haiti...”
“Indeed it does. You see my friend; the men who dared to try and steal from me presumed that we couldn’t figure out who they were or who they work for. They were wrong. As you know, David can be very persuasive.”
I nodded my head and gestured for him to continue.
“Well, those gentlemen not only gave who they were working for, but also what they knew of the long term plan of their employer is. Through that I was able to contact their masters and...shall we say... “break” their operation. As such, we now have another company to make use of that gives us even more assets to control and manipulate. I sent the dossiers over to your office about an hour ago. I presume that your secretary will be sure that you get them. I read them cover to cover and consolidating that group will help our international operations significantly.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at his way of turning potential disaster to his advantage. He’d always preached that any situation can be turned into an opportunity if only one was patient enough to wait for the right moment to strike. I nodded my head at him before taking another drink from my water and setting it down.
“So then, once I read these dossiers I presume the next step will be to cull the herd over there and incorporate the useful ones into our operations in some manner. Same as normal.”
He shook his head briefly before continuing.
“Yes. It shouldn’t be too hard. They’re not a huge company, just big enough to be useful to us.”
“Of course, otherwise we wouldn’t be considering “merging” with them.”
“Of course not. Why introduce chaff to the organization ? It’s not efficient.”
“True. I presume some of the normal Special Operations will be in place once we’re in ?”
“Yes. While the Humanitarian angle is certainly good for business, it’s important to get our economic feet in the door once the rebuilding starts. That’s where the true gold mine is sitting. Besides, Caribbean Politicians don’t exactly have a proud history of being incorruptible.”
I couldn’t help but appreciate the irony of the situation considering that he was using the collapse of Haiti for an opportunity to grow the Company all the while plotting the collapse of GIW. It made me wonder what sorts of obtuse connections between the two he was making in his Machiavellian mind. At that moment the phone rang and interrupted my train of thought. I watched as Dirge downed the rest of his Scotch after the call and stood up from his desk and gestured for me to join him.
“Problem ?”
He looked at me with a grin and slapped a hand down on my shoulder.
“No. We have a meeting downtown in the next half hour.”
The only reason I picked up the reference in the intentionally obtuse remark was because I knew him so well. He put is leather coat on and waited for me to meet him at the door, at which point we departed the office for our meeting.