CHAPTER
24
CHAPTER
24
Claudia drove back from the airport alone. She didn't cry when she kissed Christoph goodbye. They held each other for a few minutes and neither spoke. When the last boarding call was announced, Christoph kissed the top of her head, picked up his cases and headed towards the departure lounge. She watched him until he disappeared from sight, relieved that he had not turned around; she knew neither of them could stand to see the pain in the other’s eyes.
To avoid all the places they had recently visited, Claudia took the long way back to the city. Returning to the office was hard enough; she didn’t need the avalanche of memories that would invade her head if she went anywhere near the markets and the other places they’d been to.
Claudia smiled at Sarah, and headed for her office. Sarah greeted her warmly and brought a coffee to her desk. Andrew had spoken to her earlier and told her to keep a special eye on the boss when she arrived. He gave no details; he just said Claudia had some huge problems to sort out and she needed a lot of support from people who cared. Sarah had assumed they were work related, but when she saw Claudia, she could tell her pain was very personal. Personal pain dulls the spirit and the eyes.
Around midday Katherine dropped by. ‘How was the break girlfriend? Did you burn a hole in the credit card?’
Claudia smiled thinly, ‘No, but I did buy a lot of useless stuff at the markets.’
‘Really? Good for you. Useless is good. Best therapy ever. Got time for a quick coffee? My one o’clock meeting has been cancelled.’
Claudia was about to decline the offer, but she knew Thomas and Andrew would not have anything to report until late in the day. ‘Sure. Why not?’
They went to the cafeteria on the ground floor and headed for the self service bar where they poured themselves coffee and then found a vacant table at the rear of the room. After they had chatted for a while Claudia asked Katherine very calmly about Christoph’s email.
‘Oh shit. You know about that. I’m sorry Audi. I was going to tell you about it. Remember when we had dinner at the Menzies and I asked you what you would do if Christoph contacted you?’ Claudia nodded, ‘When you said you’d tell him you were moving forward and getting on with your life, I decided it was not a good time to tell you about the email.’ She paused, ‘I’m really sorry Audi. I was going to tell you about it, I just never got the chance again.’
‘I know. It’s ok.’
‘So you’ve spoken with him?’
‘Yes. On Saturday.’
‘How is he?’
‘He’s ok. He explained a lot and I know he still wants me in his life.’
‘Really? Tell me more.’
‘It’s complicated Kate.’
‘You always say that.’
‘Because it’s true. It’s even more complicated than I realized.’
‘So what happens now?’
‘We have a few big issues to work out.’ She paused, ‘Issues about Weather Scope and EcoLogic. We can’t make any plans about the future until we sort out the problems with the two companies.’
‘What’s going on Audi? You’re usually more direct. What sort of problems are we talking about here?’
‘I can’t tell you much right now, but I’m meeting with Andrew and Thomas at four. I think you should be there too.’
‘Well you can at least give me a leg up here. A bit of background info would help.’
‘You’re right. You need to know what’s going on.’
‘You’re damned right I do. If we’re in trouble I need to have a heads-up on what kind of trouble.’
‘This is not a good place to talk, let’s go back to my office. Sarah needs to hear this too.’
Katherine and Sarah stared at Claudia in disbelief. ‘You mean to tell me Christoph was here and you spent four days together?’ Katherine challenged. ‘And Andrew and Thomas met up with you both?’ She didn’t attempt to hide her anger. ‘And you didn’t even contact me?’
‘Don’t be angry Kate. We had a lot to talk over. We needed to be alone.’
‘Yeah, until Andrew and Thomas joined the party. How alone were you then?’
‘O.K., I need to tell you both the full story. Then you’ll understand. We had so little time and we had some huge problems to sort out.’
Katherine settled back, folded her arms and rested them in her lap, ‘Shoot. We’re listening,’ she turned to Sarah, ‘aren’t we?’
‘All ears.’ She said softly, giving Claudia a sympathetic look.
Claudia told them everything, and neither woman interrupted her. When she finished they still remained silent. ‘So Thomas and Andrew are running checks now? Christoph will return to the CEO’s job and we just have to wait?’
Sarah finally said. ‘Oh my God. This is amazing. If anyone else told this story I would swear they were making it up.’
‘I wish we were making it up.’ Claudia said, ‘then we could just unmake it. Unfortunately, this is for real. And I know I don’t have to spell it out for you; if our data has been compromised, then all our modelling is useless. We might be predicting a disaster that isn’t real.’ Her voice wavered, ‘The ramifications are horrific.’