Kitabı oku: «An asymmetrical War»

FIRST ACT: HALF DEAD
Scene 1: The Wannsee-conference

When Bob woke up, his head was empty and hurt quite a lot. It was as if a rock of the size of a sky-scraper was lying on the right side of his head. He could not open the eye and with the left eye he could only perceive that it was a new day already. The room was giving the pompous charm of a Marriott hotel. But where was he and where was his wife Jela? His right arm was touching the bed next to him. No Jela! It was cold and so he pulled the cover from her side over towards himself. The american banker with an English father and a German mother was rather proud that he managed to do this. He imagined that it smelled a bit like her hair and with this positive feeling he fell asleep again.

Again he was cold and he woke up. The tall man remembered that he had gone to have dinner with Abbey at midnight. He had the picture of this friend of his wife, an exciting Amercan with short blond curls, before his eyes. She had wished him a long and refreshing sleep afterwards. Otherwise he didn’t remember much. On the way to the bathroom he felt unusually weak but had the reflex to see whether the door to the floor was locked which was the case. He must have been in a terrible condition!

He was in underwear and the rest of his clothes were neatly put into the cupboard. Had Abbey undressed him? He even found his telephon under one of the cushions in the bed. His head seemed to fall apart even though he had not drunk a lot. And it could not be age, at not even fourty. It was strange! He took a long shower and started to feel better.

The sky-scraper on his head had shrunk to the size of a normal five story townhouse. He sat down and thought of his family. His daughter Marlene, called by everyone ‚Lena‘ was jumping up at him to embrace him, yelling „mon Daddy Chéri”and he felt much better.

In his jacket he found a piece of paper. Abbey wished the ‚young man‘ a very nice day and a long life. What a strange message? Why should this day be nicer than any other day? Then a lightning struck him in the head. He should actually be at the conference at the Big Wannsee Lake to discuss his relations with the government of the Ukraine. He looked at his wrist watch: they were waiting there for him since at least two hours. He opened his phone which was full of messages. It seemed as if half the world had called or sent SMS.

Like he had learned it from his wife he cursed and listened to the messages:

“Where the hell are you, Werner?”, at 8:45 Uhr.

“Call me, it’s urgent., Natascha”, at 9:00.

“Without you we don’t get anywhere, Walter”, at 9:25.

The SMS of Abbey^*said: “9:45: Turn on the TV news. I almost love you!”

Bob threw himself on the bed and turned the TV on. The local station ony gave some news in German which he didn`t understand; he interpreted the undertitles as ‘Gas-explosion in Wannsee-Villa. Many deaths feared.’ Another lightning hit his brain, his blood pressure went up like a rocket. Bob ran into the bathroom and took his usual cocktail of pressure-reducing pills plus two extra aspirins. He had had already enough experience with his bloodpressure problems

The next things he did was to call all friends who had left mesages. He didn’t get any response and he didn’t want to call Abbey. He had to clean up his head not to make any mistake. She had the potential to be a mistake.

She had picked him up the evening before the big meeting at the old shabby airport of the ex-RDA and brought him to the hotel which was close to her studio at the Potsdamer Platz.

Later they met in the restaurant which was just downstairs in her apartment building. They had lots of things to discuss about the Ukraine. She had not even touched him but with all the wine she took she became personal:

“Bob, you should know that you are the first man in my life who screws up my priorities. I love your wife who doesn`t respond to my calls any more and feel attracted to her husband. You can laugh at me and I have earned it. Non-the-less I would like to sleep with you tonight.“

And the power woman put her hand on his thigh. Looking into her blue eyes which were a super fit for the blond curls, he could understand that his wife was attracted by this extraordinary journalist. She was really tough without being rough. They drank a bit more and finally Bob confessed:

“You are a strange bird and you fascinate me without any doubt. I wish to tell you something which has to stay just between the two of us.”

Not to hurt her he was very indirect with what his friend, the CIA-general had confessed to him. He had told him that Abbey was short before getting arrested because of her work for the Russian TV ‘Russia Today and Tomorrow’ because of high treason.

She only laughed about this as she knew about it since quite some time: „Let’s go up to my place.”As it had been the last time when Jela was with them, they made love in this special way as Abbey liked it. Slowly her style changed from simple sex into tenderness and around two she melted: “I hate you, Bob, as I begin to really love you.”

Then she had one of her strange ideas and needed something to eat. She managed to get Bob in a tourist restaurant in the Sony-center where she ordered a full meal, whereas he only ordered some desert. He grumled a bit while she enjoyed every bite and the wine. As he had finished before her, he went to the bathroom and then they finished their glases. They went back to her place and he refused a second round as all of a sudden he felt dead tired.

Now he asked himself whether she had put something in his wine.

After Bob treated his head once again with cold water he called the general who had not heard anything yet. He gave Bob the order not to leave his room and not to call anybody.

“In case this attack was meant for your Ukrainian fund you better play the dead man.”

He found that to be funny while Bob was thinking about Abbey with his humming head. Did the tall woman with her assertive behavior and the short curls had saved his life? When he finally wanted to call her, the general was faster but was not joking any more:

„Bob Horner, it seems that you are officially dead. Listen very well and do not call anybody!”

“My contacts in Berlin tell me, that a strange meeting of investors from the West and financial experts from the Ukraine in a villa on Lake Wannsee was blown up. The police has no idea about the number of people killed and whether Government members of the Ukraine are among them.“

“To keep the story out oft he political playing field, there are no names or functions made public as long as possible. But sooner or later it will hit the broad public anyhow.”

Bob imagined the general with his glasses on and his crew cut when he continued: “Most probably they will stay with the story of a gas explosion. I will work out an approach of what you should do or not and call you tonight. It is simple what you need to do now. Take some paper and write it down:

“You go and buy a new phone with a prepaid volume. Your old phone is taboo! You call your wife with the old phone and tell her about the nice life in Berlin. Tell her that you will give her a new number later today.

On the way back to your hotel you buy something to eat. You book the next flight to Geneva with a stop-over in Bruxels or so.

You put a list of people together who absolutely need to know that you are alife but don’t call them before we have talked tonight. Most of them should have your new number only if it is absolutely necessary.

Last advice: the old phone is taboo; you leave it somewhere in the Metro, in a taxi or somewhere that it will create the impression that you are moving around in Berlin.”

Finally the message hit Bob: Were all his friends and Pjotre of the finance ministry really dead? Who else got killed and who had done it? With trembling hands he packed his suitcase and went to buy a new phone. His head was slowly doing better but what was he doing in a world where they just killed his friends?

With all the shops in the two shopping centers at the Potsdamer Platz he was quickly successful with the phone. He even followed the advice to buy something to eat and called the general under the new number. He got some news right away: Among the death there are two women. One of them is from the catering service.” Was this confirming the death of Natascha? For a long time he was thinking of the charismatic woman with whom he had an almost telphatic understanding and who made him lose his willpower only by looking at him or touching him.

With all the confusion in the head he was sad but all his ideas were mixed up with questions regarding Werner und Walter. Not to fall into muddy uncertainty he took the list oft he ‚orders‘ of the general. Knowing that Jela was in her lunch break he told her about the lost phone and gave her the new number with the request to hand it over to Sandrine, too and Laura, his ex-chef.

In her typical ironic style she asked him whether he had had a good night with Abby as if she knew. But he did as if he had to go back into the meeting. To stay busy, he booked a flight via Amsterdam in the evening and took a taxi to the Tegel airport. As quickly as possible he wished to get out of the hotel even if he had to wait for several hours in the airport.

After having hidden his old phone between the cushions of the taxi he started the list of people who he had probably lost in the explosion. The big number had a strange effect on him. Somehow he couldn’t concentrate his sadness on one person. However it felt as if his well-defined world had come to a shrieking halt.

In the lounge at the airport, he had just finished his list, as he received his first call on his new phone. It was the general, who gave him the name of a person who would call him with a password. He also controlled whether Bob had done his homework. Then he had new insructions for him:

“Please, call Jela not to pick you up at the Geneva airport. You rent a car on the french side of the airport and you go to Divonne for one night.”

He made sure that Bob could follow. “Tomorrow morning, you do as if you are going to work but take the country road back and we talk to each other then, ok, young man? You noted everything?” In goog old military tradition he asked Bob to repeat everything.

Bob‘s head was clear now and he noticed that the pills were helping him. Despite the enormous accelleration that things were getting, he felt calm and controlled. So he called Gregor in the bank in Kiev and also Elena ’only to say hallo‘. Later his friends in the Ukraine would remember that he called them after the attack of which they would hear soon.

He did the same with Sybil in Frankfurt who was unusually nervous and asked him several times regarding her husband.

It was rather difficult for Bob to lie but he had no other option because he was not even sure whether Walter was dead. He saw her in front of his eyes with her white skin, the blond hair brushed to the side, the eyes with their changing colors and her face expressionless when she managed her billions.

He also saw how her face changed when she looked at him as ex-lover. How should he explain to her with her baby in the arm that her husband had died doing business for her in the Ukraine?

Half an hour before take-off his new contact identified himself on the phone with the password in a typical Berlin accent:

„My name is Fred, and I replace Werner as your leading officer.”

This call made it clear: it was the Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND, who was leading him now, and that Werner was also dead. However, Bob could not explain the american accent of Fred and stayed prudent. When he followed up on his impression the young man on the other end laughed and promised to explain later.

“For the moment we got more important things to do; both services see the best option for you to get the attack out of the public consciousness in all four countries involved in this affair.“ One could hear how he grinned when he continued.

“To be dead is your best chance not to be really dead. So you have a minimal chance to protect yourself and your family.“

The dry style of the young man showed that he didn’t know what he was saying. He could not know what it meant to be dead or to have a family. However, his logic was brutal but clear. While Bob was digesting the message, the BND-cowboy continued:

„Tomorrow morning you do what the CIA-general has ordered you to do and move in the appartment which he has reserved for you. It is in the fancy buildung next to the casino in Divonne. You will have a beautiful view across a little lake over to the Alps and you move in the … ” and he gave him the address and the code-number for the garage and the appartment.

“The really complicated thing will be how you deal with your family and the other people close to you. Be clear in your mind: if more than four or five people are informed your cover is not worth anything in latest three weeks.“

While Bob was still thinking, he continued: „ And this should be people in which you have 100 percent confidence otherwise it will even go faster. Let them swear on the head of their beloved ones!”

With that it was obvious that Fred had a sense of difficulty to ask a family to demonstrate sadness while daddy was quite ok. Bob was surprised to get this sign of compassion from him.

In the plane Bob dreamt of his wife, the greek-italian beauty on which everything was long and elegant: the black hair, the legs and the hands, even the nose, With her 180 cm she was almost as tall as her husband and on the sport side she could keep up with many long-distance runner. In brutal contrast to her elegant appearance was her language shaped by many years of university lingo only buffered for small children. His heart was getting heavy when he knew that he had to live without her for some time.

Scene 2: Learning, not to exist

After midnight, when Bob arrived in Divonne everyone in the house was sleeping already, so that he decided to sleep in the guest room. For quite some time he couldn’t fall asleep.What a day! His head wanted to digest everything at once but that didnt work at all. So he took an additional Aspirin and that helped. So he ended the day of the Wannsee conference as the only one of his friends in his own house with his family.

In the morning he enjoyed every member of his clan as if it was for the last time. He even took care of the two babies which they called the twins. When daughter Lena had to go to school he brought the seven-year old to the corner where her friend Jean- Pierre would meet her. He embraced her several times until she asked him whether everything was alright. This was a warning : he should not overdo anything otherwise the whole story would blow up.

Back in the house he ordered an extraordinary family reunion with the participation of Lise, the pediatrician who lived next door but spent most of her time with Jela whom she had helped to get back on her legs after her coma.

When he asked his wife to call at work in the CERN to tell them that she would come later she wanted to yell at him but when she saw his eyes she did what he had asked her to do.

Without the usual british humor Bob explained to his ladies what had happened in Berlin. He didn’t forget to mention that Abby had saved his life. Two days ago he had fallen in his bed totally drugged. When he added that at least four of his business friends were killed and that it was better that he disappeared for a while from the usual ways of life it was totally silent. Only the coffee machine made its usual noice.

The ladies turned pale, the pregnant Sandrine fell almost off her chair so that Lise had to put a wet cloth on her forefront, and Jela‘s pupils were rotating in all directions. Her mouth started to wince and the babys felt that this was the moment to start to cry.

To finish this scene of horror, Bob continued that he would not come back to the house for at least a week and this only during the night with his rented car. They should write down its number.

He made clear that he was close by and easy to reach. Again there was no noise but the babbling of the babies. Then Jela took on the role of the head of the family:

”Well, what the f… should I say? This man gets me into a almost deadly situation, saved our child and made me a second one and now he wants us to ran around to tell all people lies that he has died in Berlin because of heart trouble.“

She could not even smile: „In reality he was only teaching many rich ladies how anglo-saxons do sex.“

The little french teacher couldn’t totally hide her yealousy and her aggressiveness came through. She added: “Jela, you forgot the american journalists.“ Instinctively she held her thick tummy with Bob’s child with both hands.

“On the other side,“ Jela continued, “He led me through the darkest time of my life, helped me in my depression and gave me and several others in this room endless delight, isn’t it, ladies?” Sandrine, who should be touched most nodded her head and Lise was too clever to stay neutral. She had learned to stay in the background.

“If you want us to support your Hudini-trick you need to tell us precisely what we have to tell the kids, the school and the funeral home.”

Bob was proud of his wife and loved her more than any time before in his life. Her unlimited loyality he judged as extraordinary! What a woman! He went around the table, kissed her on the cheeks, hesitated and then did the same with Sandrine. When he continued he put his hands on Lise’s shoulders:

“For the next few days I will be on a business trip in Berlin if somebody asks. Please, do not change anything in your daily routines except that Jela stops doing her jogging without body guards. Starting from tomorrow I can provide you with answers regarding your questions you or others might have. Till then, Jela, please don’t talk to Elena or Abbey. It must be clear to all of us: we are playing with our lives and the one of the people around us.”

All nodded their heads but everyone saw someone else before their eyes. “It is difficult to control your communication the whole day long, I know, but we four will be responsible in case someone gets killed or kidnappeded.”

With the exception of Sandrine they all left the house. Bob went to see Jela before she drove off to say good-bye: “I find it phantastic what you just did . I love you even more!” Not many words, but exactly the right ones! She saw herself kneeling in the Deutschen Dom in Berlin where she gave her second marriage promise as she could not remember the first one. This had happened not a long time ago.

Then Bob went into Lise’s practise . He embraced her and asked her to keep an eye on the girls. She was proud that he took her as responsible at this level. She loved the closeness to the Horner clan and the work with Jela after her coma. This way she could also take care of her sick mother in the house next door. This one was similar to the Horners‘ but not freshly renovated. Her only problem was her yealousy towards Sandrine who was pregnant of Bob whereas her time was running out soon.

Lise was clear in her mind that there was no place for another person in the ménage à trois but the fact of the baby was quite heavy. She could live with the fact that Bob wanted to buy a house for Sandrine to make her independent financially, but this …

Bob stayed another hour with his little darling Sandrine who was totally disturbed. The kids adored her because she could do many things despite being so tiny. He remembered when they fell in love when she helped him and his family during the crisis after Jela’s injury and Lena‘s abduction^*. It was not clear whether Jela had seduced her when Bob was in the Ukraine but this was not imortant now.

With the acceptance of Jela she had become an integral part of their ménage à trois. As a teacher she was normaly calm and practical but now all her fear exploded out of her. He responded calmly and explicitely. Her horror vision was to get a child without a father. He kissed her face and caressed her round tummy until she finally fell asleep.

Scene 3: Presentation at the ‘Holy Gral’

Bob didn’t need help to find out that he urgently had to inform Laura, his boss at the Mega bank in Geneva and future partner in his consulting company, and so he broke the order to stay in his appartment for the first time. He drove to Geneva where the video control at the entrance for the parking of the bank accepted him even though he was not working there any more. He told the old man at the reception that he didn’t want to put Laura in difficulties and that she should come to the garage to talk to him. Within a few minutes the American lady appeared totally excited:

“In this house it is I who decides who I receive where.” Bob pulled her into his car and kissed her until he was breathless. “Laura, look at me. I am dead and I need to tell you horrible things and you need to behave accordingly.” They behaved like a young couple even though they had never slept with each other.

Despite his protests she pulled him into a café on the Place de Molard and ordered a big Grappa for herself which she emptied with one big sipp. He gave her a run-down of the events of which she had not heard anything yet. It seemed as if the police in Berlin had pulled a cover over the story.

“So”, Bob said after a while, “now you know what is happening. Only my family knows what’s on but I am not even allowed to live there.” Laura invited him to stay with her but he refused. “Are you proud that three secret services are dealing with you?“ She finally wanted to know but then the real message hit her and a few tears rolled down her cheeks. The tough cooky of a manager had problems to get her self control back;

“This is the second time that I ask you why are they always taking the people away from me that I love most?”

And for the second or third time Bob told the adored lady well known for her business wisdom and leadership talent the story of the employee who invites his female manager for a weekend in Monte Carlo.

Like all times before, she didn’t laugh about it and thought of all the masses of rubels her bank was buying all over Europe and especially in cash in the Ukraine. Was she also in danger?

When it was close to lunch time Bob drove back to Divonne going by the main entrance of the CERN at the french border and then along the many control stations of the CERN underground accelerator. He was close to call Jela but he didn’t want to put her in danger. He perceived this as the first sign of isolation but noticed that he was hungry. The best places not to be seen, had always been the ones with most people around.

He knew that from previous experience but where does one find something like that in a region where during the daytime almost everyone was working in Switzerland or the CERN? So he decided to drive to the big shopping center in Segny where he also bought the food for the next days in his luxury prison on top of Divonne.

Later in the afternoon he felt very tired and fell asleep on the couch on the eight‘s floor of his apartment building.

With a lot of discipline he had managed to put his food in the fridge, the clothes in the big cupboard and opened all windows to get rid of the old air. It seemed as if it was just a few minutes later when the phone rang. However, it was early evening and his friend Fred started right away.

Bob interrupted him. He needed to get a coffee. Then Fred explained to him that this was a secured connection and Bob could use it for all communications. „“But with that you better wait until you know which story you can tell.“ And then the BND youngster started the interrogation. Each family member was made transparent, everybody with whom Jela and Sandrine had to do, his business contacts and all people with whom he had to do during the last few months were scrutinized.

Fred questioned Bob as if they all were potential enemies. Even for adopted son Ahmed he gave guidelines of what Bob and Jela had to tell him. The same was true for the employees of the household, the neighbours and Jela’s collegues at the CERN.

For a typical German, Sandrine was a real challenge. Bob was forced to tell the young man that the french lady was pregnant of him so that he stopped to go through pages of questions in his long list. It was obvious that Fred had questionnaires in front of himself.

To shorten the interview which at this point had already taken two hours Bob decided to lie a lot when they came to the women on Fred’s list. While doing this Bob noticed that he had not even called Sybil. He asked Fred whether she would know about his adventures already. The youngster didn’t know it but promised to call back next day with the news the police had made public.

Bob took a note to call her before. Without any doubt she had tried to call him on his old number. He felt strong enough, to mix the truth with the nessecary lies that Fred and he had worked out together. His ex-lover had probably lost her husband and just had a child from him. No fun situation! There, even her billions could not help.

Fred however saw additional potential holes in Bob’s contacts in Kiev. For him the employees of the local Mega bank and the collegues of Pjotr in the ministery of finance figured as potential informers for the other side. When he heard that Gregor and Elena had visited the Horners in Divonne just lately Bob was sure that he wrote down their names in huge capital letters on the flip chart in his office.

Bob`s insistance that Elena never would give anything away what could harm him didn’t calm down Fred. He wanted to hear the hole story how they had met, which role Gregor was playing and so on. When Bob told him that he had paid a part of the apartment of the two, the youngster asked him whether he had slept with Elena. Bob was hungry, angry and tired and in a sharp tone he asked how long the circus would still last. He found it to be ironical that the services always saw love relations where there had been no-one. Even for himself there had been already quite a number.

Fred stayed cool: “Perhaps we stop for today, sir!“ It felt as if he understood that an old man like Bob would tire mentally quickly.

“And, please, Mr. Garner, reserve three hours for tomorrow afternoon for our session. Please stay in your rooms this night.“ Bob was so frustrated that he didn’t even react on the wrong family name and cut off the connection.

When he ate the few things which he could call ‚dinner‘ he was at least clear that the sleep in the afternoon had been positive for him. He knew that he was taken care of intensively by several people and that he was in the process of building up a mountain of lies which could not be perfect given the many details necessary to make it sound good.

After the meal Bob took a few empty pages and started to write down the sequence of events which had brought him into this strange situation. This was not easy because he had to think of Jela and Sandrine a lot who had to tell all his lies if needed. How could they continue to go on living quite normally and at the same time say that he was dead? He needed a solution that was easier to tell.

Most parts of the following day Bob spend with his new friend Fred on the protected phone. He learned all fictitious details since he had arrived in Europe, when he as an employee of the Geneva cantonal bank had to fly to Kiev from time to time and so on. When asked for customer names he should give the local Mega bank but no names. On top he was called Robert Garner from now on.

Then Fred gave him an overview about the situation in Berlin: As feared, his friends and the members of the finance ministerium in Kiev were dead. They would cover up all the rest which was supposed to be easy given the provincial character of the Berlin press.

Bob asked him to find the phone numbers of Nikolai, Natascha‘s son, and the replacement of Pjotre in the finance ministry in Kiev as well as to set up a secure line to Wolfgang and Joao in their respective banks in Frankfurt whenever needed. Fred promised to take care of that and already in the afternoon Bob had what he needed.

Happy to be able to do something constructive, future-oriented Bob called Natascha‘s son. He was totally unprepared which was not at all his usual style. He was lucky. The young man knew exactly who he was because ‚my mother has told me a lot about you‘. Bob asked him what he had heard from the events in Berlin and wished to tell him carefully that his mother was among the many dead people.

But Nikolai surprised him: “You know, Mr. Horner, after what my mother has told me about my father and you I had to decide and I have done that to take the same way my mother has taken and not the one of my father.“

“Since that time she has introduced me step-by-step in our companies and the UFin. It was as if she had to hurry to get me prepared and I can only hope that I can fulfill her expectations. If I had doubts she recommended to call Mr. Horner. All this shows me that her risk assessment was totally correct.“

Obviously he stayed relatively calm: “Even if you don’t know me can I count on your support when I need you?“

Later Bob had an idea. Nervous about Sandrine‘s problemes with her pregnancy, he called her from his secure phone. He wanted to give her something positive to do during the final time before the big event.

So he proposed to her to start planning for the house he thought of buying for her. She should put special focus on the connecting part between the two old farm houses and not forget the pool for the kids. “And don’t forget to integrate the kids and Jela in the planing process”, he added to make it more challenging for her.

So he had done something for Sandrine but he was not sure how he could help Jela. After thinking for a long time without results he reviewed the work of this evening.

Scene 3: Presentation at the ‚Holy Grail‘

The first point was breaking up with the Mega bank at the head officer’s office in New York, the so-called ‚Holy grail.“ Looking back it was the surprise effect which neither he nor Laura had expected which was still active. Full of compliments about his excellent work to unfreeze the money of the oligarchs and to buy participations for the government of the Ukraine, both were rather prepared for an unrealistic praise than what really happened.

With a tired smile Bob remembered: without the usual phrases of politeness the new relatively young CEO of the monster bank had asked Bob to present his view of the situation in the Ukraine. So he gave an overview in form of statistics^*: The number of companies, for which he opened the money faucets and the parts he had bought with the guarantees of the Mega bank for the state of the Ukraine. No word about the billions he had given to the governments of the US and the EU!

The same way, Bob didn’t mention that his friend Sybil had proposed to put more than half the money needed into the Ukrainian fund, which he had planned to create in Berlin. This were no subjects which could interest the young man in charge, he assumed.

“The Lock Keeper of Kiev. Ukraine Early 2014“ by the same author

But obviously the new boss wanted to impress his management comittee and attacked Bob quite rudely:

“Mr. Horner! You are the risk manager in Europe or you were in this position until today. By giving guarantees in a country that is in war with Russia you broke all rules of our bank.“ To underline the effect of what would come next, he added:

“We will make you responsible for any potential losses you might have caused by freeing up immense amounts from our accounts.“ He played the super-clever: “And the worst thing is: What is all of that good for, if the Russians take back the control in Kiev? Our country manager in Moskow has informed us that the responsible people there are really angry of what you have done in our name!“

Already relatively slow in normal situations, Bob was not the fastest in his reactions but now he was shocked. He was in front of someone who obviously wanted his skalp. He looked at Laura who helplessly moved her arms.

“When I got the highest civil medal from the minister of finance he told me that I had done a significant contribution to protect the country against the aggressor from the East. Sometimes one has to decide which side to support. It seems as if your values and mine are not very compatible, Mr Chairman.!“ Bob added quite calmly.

In the dead silence that followed, Bob packed his presentation material and left the room. He was furious and washed his face four to five times with cold water. When back in the lobby, he had to wait a while until Laura showed up. She had a red head, took Bob without a word by his arm and they left the building. Then it broke out of her:

“What a mother-fucker! I told him that it is a tactical mistake to eliminate potential competitors in the power game too early.“ Excited she continued : “Nobody would open their mouth after that. The excellence of leading the company would suffer!“ He told me to get lost quickly.

Heavily chocked, both were sure that their days with the Mega bank were counted. The only thing Bob remembered was that Laura came to his bunk on the flight back to kiss him on his cheek: “I’m proud of you, young man!”

Back home Bob prepared his clan for harder financial times in case the Holy Grail didn’t want his contributions any more, what made especially Sandrine uneasy. Bob put on a smile when he remembered that he played the role for her of not being too touched by being fired. He had tried to relax the atmosphere:

“With ten members of the clan and the phantastic salary of a french teacher and a part-time scientist at the CERN we need to sell everything we have except our house.“ Grinning he had continued: „Possibly we need to sell even Lena‘s toys on the monthly fleamarket on the Place des Trois Fontaines! Perhaps Jela and Sandrine have to help out during the weekends in the red-light district of the Pâquis in Geneva.“

He remembered that the ladies were not too amused about his sick humor and as mathematician Jela asked him how he had arrived at ten. He explained that he had included Lise and the baby of Sandrine in the count.

Sandrine‘s teacher salary had been rounded up since months by payments of Bob. She saw all of that disappear and could only be calmed down by mentioning his real salary at the Mega bank. Her mouth stayed open for a long time when she heard the real amount. Bob had not even mentioned the bonus payments. In the naive world view in the typical french culture of the leftist teachers one could live a whole year with Bob’s monthly income.

In fact, nothing had hapened for a long time. The much awaited lightning from New York only hit them after the ‘Helvetia conference’ which was important for Bob.

Scene 4: The ‚Helvetia‘ Conference

The door bell was ringing which was surprising for Bob as nobody should know that he was living here! He listened behind the closed door just to hear a dark female voice sounding familiar to him:

“Hi, Bob. Open the door, it’s Maryann, your guardian Angel! How is Lena doing?”

Bob remembered very well the black lady with the body of a catcher and fighter heart. “Are you still chasing kidnappers in the Salève-Mountain, Bob? Come to visit your neighbors!”

So he embraced the woman who was smiling all over her face and almost squeezed him to death. She offered a coffee and both exchanged their views of the good old times at the beginning of the year when they were hunting the kidnapper of Bob’s daughter. When Maryann heard about Bob’s current situation though, she quickly lost the kidding tone. Her body streched out like the one of a tiger before he left to go hunting. “To play with the boys of the KGB is in a different ligue.“

When he left Maryann‘s apartment, Bob noticed that it was packed with technical equipment which explained the strange containers on the roof. Here someone was listening to all phone calls on the Swiss and the French side of the lake with Evian and Thonon.

Here the billionnaires from Quatar have their villas which they use only a few weeks of the year like the Saudis on the Swiss side. Here they also have all important managers of the UNO organisations and international companies sitting.

Maryann had asked Bob to provide her with a shopping list. He was happy to get rid of this task and if needed he had support right next door when he needed some. When he called back with his list he had a question for his girl-friend:

“Do you guys film everything I am doing here and listen to all my conversations?” Maryann didn’t hesitate for a second: “Do you still believe in Santa Claus, Bob?”

Up to lunch time Bob had some time left to go through his notes of the previous evening. He was a bit irritated that his friends controlled him during the day and at night; but he was probably to important and not known to be obedient.

Thanks-to-God, the insecurity about his job situation had not gone on at the beginning of the year. At the end of the ‘Helvetia‘ Conference end of February Laura informed him. She had had a call from the ‚motherfucker’ in New York to make a handshake of five ‚biggies‘ if Bob would get out of his life.

“Five hundred thousand?” Bob asked positively surprised.

“No, five millions in US Dollars, and that without any conditions.”

„After what we have discussed today I even allow him to violate me for seven and a half ”, Bob heared himself say. He had the feeling to be blackmailed out of the bank and all his financial problems ended before they began!

As he remembered, the conference was something like the good-bye performance of Mr. Horner in the circle of the mega bankers. In front of his eyes he still saw the symbolic picture of the enormous pistons of the old paddle wheel steamer at which one could look through a small window at the lower deck. As an example of the Russian economy in 2014 the Mega Banker saw it pumping billions of Rubels out in the world.

Laura had pulled him out of his daydreams and they started an analysy of the economic events in Russia and the Ukraine. Next to the experts of her bank, all well known to Bob, Laura had invited some personnel of the US embassy in Geneva.

One of them was from the CIA. Bob and his dutch business friend from Frankfurt called him the ‚general‘, after they already had had an unfriendly conflict with him. All at the table knew that he was one of the highest-ranking CIA officers in Europa. His nickname stemmed from the old-fashioned haircut but with his glasses he looked more like a member of the US general staff. His voice gave the impression almost to be shy but not what he said.

Laura defined the objectives of the meeting:

“We got an order from the Holy Grail in New York, to be very forthcoming if individuals or organisations offer us russian capital even in the form of cash. But we have to control what they plan to do with their money. The general will provide us with guidelines among others for assets they are not allowed to acquire. To define the risks I would like to fix the rules until tonight which we will have to apply.“

“Before that I would like to do an analysis with you of what happens in the Ukrainian economy and how we can help,“ Laura continued, “the general will support us as expert in it.“

Quickly they found out that since the european ‘Bail-Out’ of the banks of Cyprus in which the mostly russian investors had lost up to eighty percent of their capital, the russian values had been put into Swiss banks. One quarter of the total went to subsidiaries of US banks half of which to their Mega bank.

“In total, Russia had to deal with eighty billions of Euros of capital flight and that at constantly falling exchange rates”, Bob‘s collegue summarized. Our credits to Russians were frozen at the level of three billions total. New credits are not allowed according to the embargo. The credit-rating of Russia is just a tiny bit above ‘Ramsch’ which means ‚mud‘ and I expect export controls for capital via the Russian Central bank latest in a few months.”

Bob had given his view regarding the loss of value of the rubel but saw the most important consequence in the inflation rate which would make the support ratings for the government sink soon. Makro-economic bottlenecks would only be blown up because of problems in the energy sector:

“In the moment, Gasprom is not selling any gaz to the Ukraine and the price of oil is sinking a bit. For next winter they certainly have to get to an agreement because otherwise the Ukraine will disconnect the supply of electricity for the Crimea. This would be unpleasent for both sides.”

“By the way, the exchange rate of the Grwinja, the Ukrainian money is almost stable after it fell at the beginning of the crisis from 11 to 16 for a Euro. This is surprisingly moderate given the bad strategic situation, but I don’t know of any support program of a big central bank. Or do you have other inputs, General?”

While the general shook his head, Laura threw in: “Our chart-specialists see a critical line for the ruble at fiftyfour; should it fall further the government will have to intervene strongly.

We expect this to happen in November or December 2014. In clear words, this means that Russia has lost two thirds of its external Rubel value because of its Ukraine adventure. Some one out of our circles“ and she looked at Bob, “predicted this already a few days after the Majdan Revolution. He said that that Russia had lost the economic war already in April.“

“The value of the Russian shares and the Rubel confirm this tendency up to now. Should the price of oil continue to fall this could become a catastrophy for Russia. ”

This brought the general back into the discussion: “It is clear that the US has nothing against a weakening of Russia financially but not too extremely, please! One consequence would be that private Russians would place their money in countries of secondary rating like Turkey.

And on the other hand this could make the Russians even more aggressive. In both cases our means of influencing the geo-political situation would be further reduced.”

Bob‘s collegue had also done her home work. She brought in a point which would have a direct consequence for Bob:

“We should not forget that a critical success factor in the economic war is the health of the economy of the country in question. For the Ukraine this means that roughly fifteen to eighteen billions are missing now because of the corruption of the old president and the top oligarchs. After the elections which are expected for fall the International Monetary Fonds-IMF will provide credits but we don’t know how many. Roughly four billions of state securities have not been served lately with interest payments.“

“The remaining obligations of fifteen billions could benefit like the others from an exchange into papers with a long running period but with lower interest rates. This ‘Debt Swap’ (exchange of depts) should be profitable for the Ukraine..”

They discussed for quite some time how they could help the demokratic Ukraine to get healthy on the finance side. This would cement the defeat of Russia in this asymmetrical war. They isolated four critical factors:

A ‘Buy-Back’ of eighteen billion Euros in papers with long running periods,

Buying participations parts of companies which were basicly owned by the state from the oligarchs; this would provide the state with cash and reduce the power of the oligarchs and the corruption,

Making sure that the exchange rate would not fall further which would not be easy given the debts against Gasprom and the constantly falling reserves,

Stabelizing the gaz delivery at reasonable prices.

Bob had to tell the truth now. He explained that he had been approached by the government of the Ukraine to realize exactly the first two points of their critical successfactors. He would act as official consultant of the government.

“But I have not agreed yet and work for Laura.”

The lady was rubbing her nose: “Before the elections in fall there will not be a lot of movements but the banks that react now can make a good profit if everything goes in the direction of the West – or lose a lot. In any case, the risk is enormous!”

On paper, everything was clear for Bob. His lay-off and the first job as consultant were basically fixed. He only had one hurdle to take. The lay-off contract was not as said without conditions. They wanted Bob to stay away from all forms of business who would have ‚a potential impact on the interests of the Mega bank. With that it was basically impossible for Bob to do consulting in Europe. Laura was really ticked off and qualified her boss with terms that were not lady-like.

“I will call the turkey”, she had said and Bob smiled.

The next day she was happy, though. “I proposed to add one word in the contract. Congratulation! Tell me when I can join your company!”

Bob wanted to know what the word was. „The sentence now reads like this“ she said: “Transactions which could have a negative impact on the Mega bank’. I called him in the middle of the night as he likes to do that. He was so surprised that he agreed. Sign quickly before he comes back!”

With that the exit of Bob was perfect and proudly he announced it to his ladies. He remembered that his enthousiasm had blinded him a bit and Jela had proposed as name for his consulting company “Bobby-goes-to-Hollywood, SARL, Geneva”. Bob now explained that his lawyers had proposed a company name with his family name as he was so well known internationally. The disadvantage would be that there was a possibility to have an interference regarding his family and Divonne.

When Bob saw Jelas eyes, it was clear: he was stupid and had made a serious mistake. Naturally he had informed the family council about the offer from Kiev and Jela now added one and one together. She trembled and Bob could just pick her up:

“I dont want anymore that someone shoots at you, me Sandrine or someone else, do you understand!?“ she wispered and Bob placed her on the couch. The meeting of the family council was over but the shocked Sandrine needed some explanations:

“Jela is not so far away from the reality”, Bob told the woman who would soon have a child from him. „“Who plays with the Russians is playing a dangerous game.”

So the meeting ended in a catastrophy. Bob asked Sandrine, not to contribute to Jela’s fears. She promised but he knew now he had two problems from now on.

For lunch, Maryann brought several bags full of food. He even found several bottles of wine. She invited herself and prepared a good old american lunch: Steak with ‚corn on the cobs‘ and a ‚baked potatoe’. As desert she fed her ‚customer‘ waffles with maple syrup. She replaced the beer with a good french wine and they were happy. The CIA-lady was curious and wanted to know whether he was still with the bank.

So Bob told her that his old boss had organized him a so-called ‚Fiducière’ in Geneva, a company which was doing consulting mostly in tax questions. In fact that meant that they were doing sytematic tax evasion for dozens of companies ownned by non- Swiss.

The set-up was nothing new for the friends of Laura and so Bob was the boss of a little company: ‘International Finance Vision IFV-SA’, Geneva‘ since a few weeks. Maryann laughed. “Welcome to the club“, she said quite cocky. Bob wanted to defend himself until he saw that she was kidding him. He was honest enough to tell her that it had been hard to get an agreement with Jela which basically meant that she would not move until she found a reason. He had asked their mutual friend Elena to convince his wife.