CHAPTER
22
CHAPTER
22
Claudia and Christoph waited impatiently. Every time the coffee shop door opened they looked up, expecting Thomas and Andrew to arrive. ‘It’s not two-thirty yet. They’ll be here soon.’ Claudia said reassuringly.
Christoph smiled and nodded. He looked calmer than he felt. He was anxious about meeting the two men; it had been over a year since he’d seen them both, and his last telephone conversation with Thomas had been strained.
He was unable to speculate on the reception they would give him, especially after his recent, unorthodox, departure from the New York office. Although Claudia had assured him neither man had said much about his resignation, and she reminded him they were not prone to gossip; but he was still apprehensive. On one level he was keen to share his suspicions with them. He respected their work greatly, and he was looking forward to the opportunity to discuss the tampered data with them. However, on a personal level he was anxious that they would be judgemental and condemning of him. He knew how committed to quality standards they were and he doubted they would understand his position.
Exactly at two-thirty the door opened and Thomas and Andrew entered and glanced around the room. When they spotted Claudia they waved and walked to the table at the back. The lunch hour rush was over so the coffee shop was almost empty.
Claudia rose and hugged them both. ‘Hey boss, what’s all this. My birthday’s not until next week.’ Thomas said brightly.
Andrew returned the hug and smiled. ‘It’s good to see you Claudia.’ He extended his hand to Christoph. ‘Hi there Christoph. It’s good to see you too.’ He paused, then added ‘I must say our little meeting has me intrigued.’ The two men shook hands firmly.
‘Thank you both for coming.’ His eyes reflected the gratitude and relief he felt.
They chatted until their order arrived. ‘Now’ Andrew asked as soon as the waiter was out of earshot. ‘What brings you ten thousand miles to meet us like this Christoph?’
‘It’s a very long story Andrew.’
‘That’s ok. Thomas and I have all afternoon free. Our boss is out of the office.’ He smiled broadly. ‘And we’ve got nothing planed all evening.’ He nudged Thomas, ‘Isn’t that right Tom?’
‘Sure is Buddy. There’s no place we’d rather be.’ Christoph glanced at Claudia who nodded and smiled reassuringly. Thomas and Andrew both noted the way her eyes sparkled when she looked at the man beside her. They knew their boss well and they knew the melancholia she’d been carrying around for so long had finally vanished, leaving her bathed in a warm gently glow.
Christoph began his story, and as he spoke he felt all the initial anxiety melt way. Finally he was with people he could trust. People who could work with him to plan the best course of action for the problems he faced. The three days he’d spent with Claudia had shown him how much he needed true friends, and it had also let him see how much love he had to give. The time with her provided an amazing benchmark for him to measure every relationship against. With her he finally discovered the true meaning of love. In three days she had shown him that love, trust and friendship were united. They were the holy trinity.
Christoph also discovered that Claudia’s capacity for unconditional love had no boundaries. She played no mind games; she trusted completely and she understood the importance of sharing treasured moments. She had helped him unlock a part of himself that freed him from the grind of business and to reconnect with the wonder of life again. She reminded him that having fun is as important as breathing. It is the fuel that helps to keep passion burning and hearts alive.
In Andrew and Thomas, he knew he had found two men who shared her attitude to life. Unlike so many New Yorkers, these men did not trade their support and trust. For them, friendship was not a day trading commodity. It was given freely to people they admired and respected.
When he had finished talking, Andrew suggested they go to Claudia’s. ‘We can talk openly there.’ he winked at her, ‘That is of course if she’s not worried about what her neighbours might think when they see her bringing home three blokes.’
‘My neighbours all work, so no one will notice.’ She rolled her eyes, ‘Sorry to burst your bubble Andy.’
After preparing a pot of coffee, they sat at the balcony table. ‘The way I see it Christoph, if your data has been compromised, then our stuff will be worthless too.’ Thomas said.
‘But you check everything. EcoLogic has fail-safe systems. You have never found any unexplained discrepancies.’ Christoph replied.
‘That’s true, but you’re forgetting we sometimes use your algorithm tables.’ Thomas said, ‘If they’re wrong, then we’re stuffed. We might as well take our work to the Great Sandy Dessert and bury it.’
‘Only partly true, partner.’ Andrew said firmly, ‘Tim Powell is in charge of all the tables, he checks everything before he sets them up in AtmosFear. He’d notice if the tables were wrong. Nothing slips by him.’ He said firmly, ‘Tim’s the validation king. Check it once, check it twice and just for fun check it again.’ Thomas shook his head, ‘No our tables are OK.’
‘Well let’s just say they are, and then let’s look at New York. Christoph is certain the errors haven’t been corrected. Our problem is that we’ve relied heavily on their projected what-if calcs. That’s the real problem. We’ve speculated on doggy data.’ Thomas said.
‘And there’s no way we can rework all those models. I mean where would we start?’ Claudia added; her voice high with stress. ‘We don’t have enough time.’ She stood and looked down at the others. ‘We are meeting with the PM again next week. What do we tell him?’
‘Nothing.’ Thomas said firmly ‘We tell him nothing. We don’t tell anyone anything until we have something concrete to go on. At the moment we’re stumbling around in the dark.’
‘I’m ok with keeping quiet for the moment. But only until we sort out stuff like, who’s the New York crook? Who else is involved, and how much of EcoLogic data is landfill?’
‘Good point Andrew.’ Claudia smiled at him, then looked directly at Christoph. ‘If Angus and Victor are tampering with the data we need to find out why. If we know why they're doing it, we might be able to find out who is benefiting from the falsified info. Then we can work out why they’re doing it. That’s when we will be in a position to decide if our office is part of the conspiracy. If it’s just a States thing, then we can totally isolate ourselves. We sever all ties with Weather Scope and we go back to being the stand alone company we initially were. We’ll do all our own calcs and check all our earlier work. If we identify any areas that our models might have been compromised, we fix them.’ Claudia waited for the others to digest what she’d said and for them to raise their objection.
‘Fair call’ said Thomas, ‘but this will set us back months.’
‘Better a delay than predictions made on false data.’ She replied.
‘OK how do we find out who Angus and Victor are in bed with?’ Thomas asked.
‘No wait.’ Andrew chipped in, ‘Why spend energy on them. It’ll take too bloody long to find out what they’re up to; that’s a waste of precious time. Why don’t we just cut them out now and go straight to the bit about checking our data to make sure it’s ok?’ he said earnestly and then turned to Christoph. ‘Why don’t you work on the Angus problem, while we do our own thing here?’
‘That makes sense. I’ll return to work, apologise for my absence, tell everyone Ursula and I have been having problems, and I needed to take some time out to work out my future.’
‘Will people buy that?’ Claudia asked.
‘Who cares? They can think what they want. It’s more important for me to get back to work as quickly as possible and keep and eye on them. We need to find out what’s going on at Weather Scope. I can’t do that unless I’m back in the office.’