Robert Young - Gatecrasher

'Well fuck, Dan. You forgot to bring beer, you've been buried in the laptop for hours and it's not even porn. Either it's a girl, a job hunt or you've found some weird online forum to indulge your inner nerd. Something is up.'

'None of the above actually. Actually, perhaps a tiny bit of each of the first two.'

'You need a new job because you shagged some girl at work and you're afraid she's going to tell everyone about your tiny weiner?' There it was, thought Campbell. Imagine if I had an actual problem to talk to you about.

'Nothing major really. Just a bit cooped up in the flat after all the shit of the last few days.'

'Yeah, you now how to throw a party,' Luke smiled and shook his. Equal parts sympathy and morbid fascination.

Campbell couldn't help but smile back. His brother may be employing bravado in the face of all the things he had told him about the gatecrasher and the burglary and the police, but maybe a little false courage and nonchalance was what was required here. Campbell had scarcely switched off thinking about things and as much headway as he was making with the research this evening, what he'd most like was a bit of a mental block, something to numb.

He had been surprised how edgy he had been at the sharp incessant ringing of the doorbell. There could surely be no way that anyone could know where he was, but they new where he lived and Campbell harboured dark thoughts of being trailed and watched, stalked from the shadows by determined, malevolent figures.

'So when are you off then?' Campbell said through a mouthful of garlic bread.

'Two days and then it is wall to wall sunshine, food and booze. And when I'm finished burning and bingeing it is back to the room with the missus.' A broad grin and an entirely unnecessary wink.

'She excited?'

'She has no idea. I sorted the time off with her boss, and as far as she is concerned we're off to her parents for the weekend.'

'So they're in on the big surprise too?' Campbell looked quizzically at his smiling brother, obviously pleased at the smooth planning of a surprise holiday trip for his girlfriend of a year.

'So won't they be disappointed when you come back and she isn't any more engaged than when you left?'

'I'm not proposing. Why would they think I'm proposing?' Luke replied, the grin dropping a little.

Campbell's smile moved in the other direction.

'I never said anything about that. I'm fucking miles away from any of that…' he said and after a moment more of Campbell's broadening grin, added 'Fuck off.'

'You've paid for and organised a surprise holiday for their only daughter and you have involved them in the deception. The thought won't have crossed their mind that you have a plan here of some kind?' He was enjoying this, particularly the slowly dawning realisation of the corner that Luke may have painted himself into.

'I've got one very simple plan which involves a pool, a bar, an all-you-can-eat-buffet and copious nudity.'

'You might want to keep those relatively separate. There's a limit to what "all-inclusive" means at these paces. Bringing your own sausage to breakfast is considered poor form.'

But Luke wasn't playing along and the look on his face was getting sourer by the moment.

'I was just trying to do a good thing,' Luke protested to nobody in particular. 'Now I'm right in the shit.'

Daniel Campbell felt the smile fade from his own face.

'Well that backfired on me,' Luke said. 'How the hell do I get out of this?'

Campbell shrugged at him. 'No good deed goes unpunished.'

Tuesday. 10.30pm.

Michael Horner quietly replaced the telephone receiver in its cradle and turned up the volume on the television. There was a calm serenity about him that was directly at odds with the tone and manner he had taken during the previous brief conversation.

Geoffrey Asquith was not a man given over to unnecessary worry or drama but he had certainly sounded rattled as the conversation wore on. At first he had sounded relaxed, almost confused — that what he had called Horner to talk about couldn’t possibly be the truth but some terrible misunderstanding. Horner, for his part had begun by responding in a vague and noncommittal manner until Asquith pushed him, revealing that information had come into his possession that indicated strongly that Horner had, whilst the two were business partners, engaged in corrupt and illegal activity. This, Asquith had speculated, would have been of great personal profit to Horner and great risk to the business at the time and to both men for some time to come.

Reluctantly Horner had been forced to admit it. It certainly sounded as if Asquith had convincing evidence.

‘I’m not entirely sure that you appreciate the magnitude of this Michael,’ Asquith had said indignantly when Horner tried to play it down and whose apologies did not allay Asquith’s obvious sense of injustice and betrayal.

‘Please Geoffrey, there’s no cause to panic. It was many years ago. I took numerous precautions. The money and transactions have been layered and laundered countless times. Do you really think I would have put you or the company in any real risk?’

‘Michael, that is precisely what you have done,’ Asquith countered sharply. ‘If this information finds its way into the public domain it will ruin both of us, not to mention Griffin and the staff it employs. This is no game.’

‘Everything is a game Geoffrey, it just depends on how you play it.’

‘For God’s sake! You can dispense with the fortune-cookie wisdom. I am seriously upset about this. You may have the luxury of a low profile but my own life is now very much lived in public. There are grave implications. I'm probably in breach of any number of rules or regulations just having this conversation with you. This could destroy everything I’m working for. Do you know the number of foreign development contracts we are negotiating at the moment? The number of companies and jobs that could be affected if I am forced out of office?’

‘I think you’re jumping the gun a little. Has anyone contacted you yet? Threatened you? To what end? Think clearly man. You’d have heard by now if this were about you or I. It’s probably some bungled industrial espionage — one of Griffin’s competitors stealing the wrong bloody information.’

‘How can you be so blase?’

‘I am not being dismissive Geoffrey but with all due respect, until someone comes forward and declares their intent then there is nothing we can do. Except of course work yourself into a lather of paranoia and panic if you really want to. But until then we have no problem to tackle and if we do, then we will deal with it. I rather fancy the two of us can dispense with a couple of small time blackmailers or troublemakers if they do deem to come into the open. Stop borrowing trouble. And more to the point please don’t dump this nonsense on me.’

Asquith had paused, surprised by the stinging rebuke from Horner who had long played the understudy to Asquith’s wise old hand. Horner would relive that moment over again in his mind.

‘I thought you ought to know at the very least,’ Asquith had said sounding a little more reserved. ‘But this is potentially very serious and we need to remain alert.’

When the conversation had ended with Asquith making a further pointed comment about what Horner had done and how shocked and let down he felt by the younger man, Horner had apologised again. But he had not missed the opportunity to underline that as upset and angry as Asquith might be, any sense of injustice or instinct toward retribution would not only be counterproductive but foolhardy in the extreme. Like it or not, he reminded him, they were still partners, even now. Particularly now.

It was quite obvious from what Asquith had said, what he had learned about Horner’s past, that the implications were extremely serious. The consequences could be far reaching, could impact on the lives and livelihoods of a very many people if the situation was not handled correctly. Horner could hardly deny what he had done, not in the face of what Asquith had quite demonstrably discovered and in any event such a course of action struck him as futile. No, in order to control and contain this it was important that Asquith did not panic. The old man had sounded scared and Horner would have to be in charge of the situation to guide them safely through it. And so he had done.