Майкл Ридпат - Fatal Error

She was there with Guy. I smiled at her. A mistake.

‘Sit down, please,’ she said, her voice unfamiliarly cold.

I took a seat at her small conference table, on which she and I had strewn papers many times in the past. She sat facing me, next to Guy.

Guy stared at me coolly. He seemed to have aged in the last few days, the lines around his face had deepened. His forehead was creased in a frown of worry. There were bags under his eyes.

It was finally getting to him.

‘Hello, Guy,’ I said.

He didn’t answer. I sat down.

‘We want to speak to you about your role in the unsolicited offer Ninetyminutes has just received from Champion Starsat,’ Mel said.

‘I see.’

‘Do you deny you spoke to them?’ Mel’s voice was dispassionate, lawyerly, precise.

‘No, I don’t,’ I said simply.

Guy snorted. ‘What were you thinking of? You know Champion Starsat are the last people in the world I’d want to sell Ninetyminutes to. We discussed this a couple of months ago. The board voted to tell them to get lost.’

‘I went to them as an independent shareholder.’

‘You’re still a director of the company,’ Mel said. ‘You should have abided by the decision of the board.’

‘But Guy fired me last week.’

‘Technically you remain a director until you are removed by a resolution at a board meeting. We haven’t had the board meeting yet. It’s scheduled for later on this morning.’

‘Whatever. It’s still the only way out for Ninetyminutes. How much have Champion Starsat offered?’

‘Eighteen million pounds,’ Guy said.

Eighteen million. I ran the numbers in my head. At that level we’d all get out whole, Orchestra, me, Guy, Owen, Ingrid, my father. In fact, we’d make a small profit.

‘That’s not bad.’

‘Not bad? It’s bloody awful! Two months ago this business was worth two hundred million. It’s grown since then and now it’s worth a poxy eighteen. I don’t know why I ever hired you as a finance director, Davo. You’re really not very good at sums.’

‘I can do the sums,’ I said. ‘In a couple of weeks’ time Ninetyminutes will be worth precisely zero. Eighteen million pounds is eighteen million pounds more than that.’

Guy sighed in frustration. ‘You make me sick. I chose you as a partner because I thought you were one person I could rely on. Someone I could trust. I thought you understood the vision. I thought you got it. Instead, you’re just as bad as the rest of them. Worse. You betrayed me, Davo. I won’t forget that.’

He had touched a nerve and he was pressing hard. I was determined not to let it hurt, or at least to ignore the pain.

‘You need more than imagination and vision to be a successful businessman, Guy,’ I said. ‘You have to be able to see what’s around you. The world has changed in the last few months. The Internet is not the way to make money. I can see that. The smart money can see that. If you can’t, that’s your problem.’

‘Christ, Mel, you talk to him. I can’t,’ muttered Guy.

Mel spoke. ‘David, I am giving you notice that you are obliged to sell your shares in Ninetyminutes back to the company at their nominal value.’

‘What? Sell them? Why?’

‘Because you were dismissed “with cause”.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘It means that since you were passing confidential information to another company to be used against Ninetyminutes, Guy had cause to dismiss you. Under the terms of your contract, in those circumstances Ninetyminutes can require you to sell your shares at their nominal value. Which is one p, by the way.’

‘One p?’

‘That means you get fifty thousand pennies,’ said Guy, with an unpleasant smile.

‘That’s ridiculous. I didn’t talk to Champion Starsat until after Guy had fired me.’

‘You were gathering confidential information while you were at Ninetyminutes with the intention of using it against the company.’

‘Bollocks. You can’t prove any of that.’

‘Oh, can’t we?’ said Mel.

‘No. I’m getting a lawyer.’

‘It had better be a good one.’

‘It will be.’ I stood up. ‘You’re dragging Ninetyminutes down, Guy, and screwing me won’t save it.’

I left the building, seething. Guy couldn’t get his hands on my fifty thousand investment for five hundred quid. That would be totally unfair.

As I thought it over, I realized that Mel and Guy almost certainly had no case. They were trying to intimidate me, or infuriate me, or both. But I would go and see that lawyer.

Mel was clearly enjoying the whole thing. She was sitting where she wanted to be, next to Guy. Ingrid was right, she was filling the role of trusted adviser that used to be mine, and she was loving it. Mel and I had historically been on the same side. It was sad to see her as an adversary. But if I was Guy’s enemy, I was hers too, I could see that.

I met Ingrid for lunch in a café near Baker Street, only a few tube stops from Farringdon. We didn’t want to run the risk of bumping into anyone from Ninetyminutes. I told her about Mel and Guy, and asked her how the board meeting had gone.

‘It was tense,’ Ingrid said. ‘Guy was in a foul mood after seeing you. We began with the resolution to remove you as a director. It should have been a formality, but Guy wouldn’t stop ranting about what a traitor you were. Silverman had to calm him down so we could focus on the offer from Champion Starsat.’

‘Was Clare there?’

‘Oh, yes. There were the four of us: Guy, Silverman, Clare and me. And Mel was there as the company’s legal adviser.’

‘So, what happened?’

‘Silverman told us the deal. Champion Starsat are offering eighteen million in cash for the whole company, subject to due diligence on their part. Guy can stay on if he wants, but their plan is to integrate ninetyminutes.com with their existing internet businesses. The offer expires at midnight on Thursday.’

‘Midnight on Thursday? But that’s only two days away!’

‘Yep. Madden is piling on the pressure.’

‘Did the board go for it?’

‘Guy made an impassioned plea for independence. You’ve heard it all before, but he was pretty eloquent. Then Mel started trying to pick holes in the Champion Starsat offer. Clare would have none of it; she said it was very straightforward and there was no reason to doubt it. She and Mel had a real fight; Silverman had to break it up. Clare won, though. Mel had to shut up.’

‘So Orchestra want to sell?’

‘Yep.’

‘Yes! What about Silverman?’

‘You know the way the shareholders’ agreement is with Orchestra. In times like this, they call the shots. Silverman knows that and he went with Clare.’

‘Which left you?’

‘I abstained,’ Ingrid said, smiling. ‘It seemed the best thing to do in the circumstances.’

‘So they’ve accepted the offer?’

‘Not quite. They’ve agreed to let Guy see if he can find an investor before Friday. If he has a firm unconditional offer on paper before then, they’ll reconsider. Otherwise they’ll accept.’

‘He’ll never manage that, will he?’

Ingrid shrugged. ‘You should never underestimate Guy,’ she said. ‘He’s going to see Mercia Metro TV in Birmingham this afternoon. He reckons they’d be an ideal fit.’

Ingrid was right, you never should underestimate Guy. But I felt a huge surge of relief. It looked as if my investment was safe. Much more importantly, my father wouldn’t lose any money. And I would be proved right. Guy would be devastated, of course, but after that morning’s meeting that didn’t concern me too much. In fact, I was rather pleased. I was also pleased for the staff, especially Gaz, whose website would continue.