The Game (2 page)

Jane proceeded to tell him about the goings on in the office, as well
as about the company’s decision to pursue the contract in Singapore.  He already knew that, but she went over the details as far as she knew.

“That is an interesting project,” Edmund said.  “I did some work with some of the Singaporean Ministries back in the 80
’s.  They like to run a tight ship.  I am assuming Damon is heading the bid.”

“Yes,” Jane confirmed.  Edmund seemed to stare out the window for a bit as he did when he was considering something.

“It could be a lucrative contract, more importantly it could lead to bigger projects.  I believe they have some extensive land development projects going on.  Damon must be aware of this.”

“I’m sure,” Jane said.

“He is a cool operator,” Edmund said.  “Clever.  You should watch him.”

“I try to
.  He is wary of me.”

“That is understandable,” Edmund said.  “Irrespective, I want you to keep close tabs on this project.”

Jane nodded and tried to work out how she could do that.  It would be nice if her oversight activities would fit neatly into her official job description, but sometimes more involvement was required.  In truth, she hated the politics.  They were all on the same team, all this in-fighting and suspicion was unnecessary, they were all trying to achieve the same thing.  She used to truly believe that, before the reality of the business world had sunken in.  They were all officially on the same team, but there were all these alliances and agendas.  Sometimes it felt like a battle field, there were people who were out to hurt her, not physically, but they were out to discredit and to undermine her.  Damon was definitely one of them.  She didn’t have the luxury of just keeping her head down and getting on with her work; she was deeply entrenched in one camp.  A powerful camp, and one that wasn’t trusted by others.  This was her job, it was the fantastic opportunity that had been given to her, she just hadn’t expected it to be so hard.

Jane mentally prepared for another day as the elevator doors opened on her floor.  The sun was streaming into the office as the morning bustle started.  She walked past Damon D’Arth’s office, but as usual, he was not there first thing in the morning.  He was never the first to arrive nor the last to leave.  Believing time slaving at your desk sent a message of importance and dedication was a rookie mistake, it gave the impression you weren’t coping.

Damon
D’Arth was hardly ever slaving away at his computer.  He was out at meetings, long lunches and probably the occasional golf round.  That was where the real business was done.  Not that she could get away with that, she needed to be at her computer, analysing, writing, and emailing.  No, Damon had Sarah for that kind of thing, his personal assistant.  If you wanted to get to Damon, you had to go through Sarah and she could even be tougher than him all things considered.  Sarah looked at you like she was gauging how big of an idiot you were.

Jane had a fairly good working relationship with Sarah
, having worked hard to keep on her good side even through difficult tasks.  Jane would have to say that she insisted, which was code for Mr. Carmichael insisted.  Sarah had a great deal of power, but Mr. Carmichael was one of the few people she would not over rule, which meant that Jane could not be over ruled.

“Jane,” Sarah called
as Jane walked past toward her desk.  “Should I send you an invite to the Singapore planning session this afternoon?”   Sarah was really asking to what degree Jane would be involved in the whole process.  Her answer would send a few messages about Edmund Carmichael’s interest in the project.

“Yes,” Jane said.  “I think that would be best.”  Sarah nodded and Jane kept walking.  She could feel Sarah’s eyes on her back.  She was
good at her job, scary, which was a good quality in an effective PA.  The message had been sent.  She could imagine Damon D’Arth would not be happy when he found out.  Then again, he was never happy as far as Jane was concerned.

Jane busied herself with an evaluation report she was supposed to complete before
lunch.  Something caught her attention and she looked up as Damon walked into the office.  She watched as he strode to his desk and took off his camel hair overcoat while doing his typical morning rundown with Sarah.  She had no idea what they talked about, but she watched as he discussed team business with his PA.  They were talking quietly and intently, then he looked up and over at her.  His eyes were hard and Jane practically blushed.  He’d obviously been told that she’d invited herself to the in-depth planning meetings.  Then he disappeared into his office.

Damon settled himself at his desk.  The Singapore bid loomed.  It was a large piece of work and it would take up more resources than he had.  Things weren’t helped by the fact that Edmund Carmichael was scrutinizing every step.  His spectre hung around like a menacing shadow.  The man looked like a pushover, but he had true power, power that reached everywhere in this city.

Time was of the essence and he
didn’t have time to deal with this, he’d just have to put up with his presence through the non-descript girl who was his agent.  They’d finally winged an invite into the bidding process, but it meant a late entry and they now had a mountain of work to get through.  He needed to pull in some resources.  He needed experts on this deal and he needed to get hold of the best. 

First he needed a first rate
project manager, someone who could handle the pressure and pull together a decent bid out of this company.  He knew exactly who he wanted, but he’d need to steal him away from some telecoms project in Melbourne.  It would cost a bit, but you had to pay to get the best, and it was worth it.  He himself needed to focus on the Board, they needed some quick decisions to get this bid into shape, which meant that he needed to work on some of the trickier members.

This stupid girl was only going to get in the way, but Carmichael insisted.  He would just have to ignore her and get on with it.  Hopefully she would be wise enough to stay out of
his way.  He did not have time to deal with some jumped up office girl.

He knew full well that he intimidated her.  He could see her discomfort.  He had to give her credit for not quitting yet. 
Things were likely to get rougher for her.  He wasn’t going to be led around by the nose by Carmichael, and she would have to learn that the hard way.

She was there when they kicked off the
planning meeting.  She snuck into the room like she always did.  She wouldn’t be long out of university.  He knew she had practically nothing of note on her CV.  She was truly out of her depth; he hoped the girl understood this. 

He let the architects do their thing, they were clearly excited.  The structural engineers looked murderous, but they always did.  They all knew that they had till the end of the week to agree
on design.  They’d have to stay every night until they had something they could propose to the client, something that showed functionality, flair and creativity.   It would have to be a statement piece of architecture as well.  The clients had high standards, and they had to deliver something extraordinary.  He hoped this team could pull it off.  The fight he’d had to acquire some extraordinary architecture talent was about to pay off.  It had better pay off, if they delivered something substandard, it would be on his ticket.

Unfortunately, he knew full well that some of the other managers would choose this time for some political point scoring.  It would be the ideal time, as he was completely distracted.  It would be the time he would cho
ose if he were in their shoes.  Luckily, he was never that distracted that he couldn’t see an ambush coming.  He was prepared; he just had to watch for the players’ manoeuvres, and hope it wasn’t Carmichael, he wasn’t sure he could handle such an assault right now.  It might actually be a good idea to keep tabs on the girl.

He watched her as s
he sat down in her seat, neatly dressed in a black skirt suit.  Predictable office clothes for your typical work horse.  She had a nice figure as far as office girls go, but too serious for an office girl on the prowl.  He knew the prowl type well, their shirts were a little tighter and their heels a little higher, and their aim seemed to be a little fumble in a dark Board room.  Their underlying aim was power, they just didn’t quite realize how misguided they were.  When it came down to it, lifting your skirt wasn’t a useful commodity beyond mere diversion.  They just ended up being fodder for the office gossips - and not just the girls’. 

He’d learnt to never underestimate the effectiveness of the office girl gossip channel, which is why he didn’t deal with the
crass girls who wanted to meet him alone in a darkened boardroom.  It was typically more trouble than it was worth as those girls always had expectations of promotion afterward.

He’d learnt his mistakes early in his career and knew the tricks to watch out for. 
Jane definitely wasn’t one of those girls.  She would never had gotten Carmichaels patronage if she was, and it meant there was more to her than the non-descript office clothes and seeming efficiency.

The week was a flurry of meetings, some of them quite heated.  The architects and engineers agreed on precious little and they sometimes didn’t show each other due respect. 
Jane noticed that Damon D’Arth didn’t attend all of the meetings; he was off doing whatever it was he did.

Jane
walked into the end of week summary meeting which was in one of the smaller meeting rooms.  She felt a little out of place as it included the core managers on the project.  They all had tasks to report on, while she had been stuck reporting on compliance issues for the project.  It was dog work, but someone had to do it.  Actually she was glad to have something to contribute.  It was an exciting project, even if her presence wasn’t exactly encouraged.

“So we need to relocate parts of the project to Singapore.  We need to start pushing our agenda with the relevant parties.  I am sending
Stephen and his team over next week.  Andrew will deal with the Melbourne designers.  How is the logistics planning going?”  Damon demanded.

They started
discussing about the logistics planning for a while and Jane tried to follow along.

“We should look at partnering with
Sovent.  Clarion Terra is likely partnering with a competing bid, so we need to be wary of that when dealing with them.”

“Will you be joining us in Singapore?” he suddenly asked Jane.  Jane hadn’t even considered her
on-going role and she was being put on the spot to give an answer.  She was about to say no, but remembered Mr. Carmichaels wish for her to keep close tabs on Damon, and Damon would be in Singapore.  She felt his scrutiny on her, it made her want the floor to open and swallow her up.  He seemed to make her lose her cool and she hated it.  She cleared her voice, hoping it didn’t sound too distressed.

“Yes,” she said, not wanting to convey the uncertainty she felt.  She could always cancel if she was overstepping her mark.  Overstepping at this point was better than saying no and coming back to change her mind
after she’d been told her response by her leader. 

Damon
leaned back in his chair and ran his forefinger along his lips while he considered her answer.  She could see him thinking through the implications of Mr. Carmichael’s actions.  She wished she could just say that they were not nefarious; Mr. Carmichael just wanted to know what was going on.  She wasn’t an evil presence they were being subjected to.  Finally Damon nodded and moved onto the next topic.

She continued to watch him as he dealt with his team.  She was technically part of the team, although everyone knew her loyalties were divided.  His
fingers were gently undoing the cap of his expensive pen while he listened.  She was pretty sure he might not be aware of this small action.  He had lovely hands, strong, tanned and neat.  She noticed a scar that ran across the back of one of his hands.  She wondered how it’d gotten there.  Maybe a childhood injury?  She would have thought it would humanize him a bit, but scars actually just made him more intimating.

If it had been a thousand years ago, he would have a sword to her throat by now, probably would have run her through already.  He’d be a
knight, rich, powerful and scary.  He would not have to put up with the presence of inconsequential enemies like her.  But times were different, luckily, because her cat would miss her dearly if she was killed by office politics.  Crap, what was she going to do with her cat if she went to Singapore?

Jane sat down on her couch and fed her cat a piece of stray tuna from her sandwich.  It wasn’t a fancy dinner, but it did the trick.  Some might think her life was boring, but she loved her evenings with her cat and her favorite TV shows.  Her evenings were relaxing and she did the things she enjoyed, which included a guilty pleasure involving some trashy magazines, a home manicure and occasionally some indulgent baking.

She had her ho
me set up like she wanted it.  It was a modest flat, but she had spent a great deal of time picking the things she put in it.  She liked a bit of a tropical island look and she felt she’d managed to achieve it.  She might change next year, maybe try a completely different look.  Redecorating was one of the joys in life as far as she was concerned.