Page 27 of The Facilitator, Part 3

“Maybe you need to get your eyes checked,” I said, holding open her jacket for her.

“Maybe. Or a good massage,” she said, smiling at me.

“Yeah, a massage might do the trick, especially if you’re not watching your posture,” I said, ignoring her baiting.

She chuckled, I was sure she’d know I had seen the text but she was playing along.

“Perhaps we need to look at the furniture in here,” I added, as I escorted her to the elevator. To change the subject, I then told her about the charity evening we’d been invited to.

“Oh, that sounds nice. When is it?” she asked.

“Can’t remember, it’s on an email, I’ll forward it.” I held open the elevator door so she could walk ahead of me.

“It would be lovely to get all dressed up to go out,” she said .

I held the car door open while she climbed in. I slid in the rear seat beside her and we both opened our phones. I forwarded the message to her and she made an entry in our joint schedule about her next clinic appointment. If we didn’t have the shared diary, we’d forever be changing meetings.

“That’s a worthwhile cause,” she said, mostly to herself as she read the email.

“I thought so, too.”

The event was to raise funds for a children’s charity, one specifically set up to deal with trafficking. I knew it to be a worldwide issue of pandemic proportions and I was eager to be involved in some way.

“There’s an American guy, he lives in Italy, I think.

He uncovered one of the largest pedophilia rings in Europe that contained lots of American politicians,” I said, remembering something I’d read in the press.

I was struck by the piece because, although a huge property developer in the States, rumor had it that he was also part of the mafia.

“Will he be there?” Lauren asked.

“No idea,” I replied. I’d be interested in meeting the guy.

“Must be awful to have discovered that,” she said.

She went back to her emails and I did the same. When we arrived home, we shut off work, as was our rule, for the evening .

“Who else should we invite?” Lauren asked, as we walked through the front door.

“Alex and Gabriella, maybe. How about Henrietta?” Alex’s mum was a great source of entertainment and they could kill two birds as such. Bring the baby over and attend the event.

“That sounds fun. You know who else would be fun? Veronica. Can you imagine all the faces there that would be hiding?” Lauren said, laughing.

I couldn’t remember how many the table held but it was usually ten for these types of events. I would be expected to ‘buy’ a table and fill it, of course.

“How about Jerry as well?” I asked. Lauren hadn’t seen much of him since he’d finally retired, and it worried me. They didn’t seem as close as they once were.

“Yes, that would be good. I think he has a partner now as well,” she added, her voice rose a little and she sighed.

“Give him a call, arrange a night out with him. You haven’t done that for a long time,” I said.

We were in the kitchen and I’d made her tea. “I might do,” she said and the might concerned me more.

Jerry hadn’t been the most supportive of Lauren over the past couple of years and I was sure he was aware of my displeasure at that, but I’d never get between them or do anything to affect their friendship.

He didn’t seem to have the respect for my wife I would have liked by picking her up and dropping her whenever he wanted.

For her not to know his partner, or even if he had one, was poor on his part, I thought.

I wanted to speak to him but I also knew that should Lauren find out, she’d be upset by my interference.

Two days later we had confirmation that Alex and Gabriella were coming over for a three-week break.

Lauren was over the moon, considering they had a house not that far from us.

That would give Alex’s mom plenty of time to meet her grandson.

Vivienne would be accompanying them and they’d be leaving Dominic in the charge of his grandmothers while they attended the event with us.

Vivienne and Henrietta had met a few times and it was like foreign royalty meeting up.

They were of the same ilk and immediately became friends.

They wrote to each other, proper letters, no electronics for either of them.

They called each other and we would laugh because one hour in to their conversation, they’d disconnect and whoever hadn’t called first would then do so in the thought they’d split the bill .

On the odd occasion, we’d added Elaine into the mix, it was like a gaggle of witches.

Their laughter was raucous and their conversation hilarious .

They were a magnificent group of women from three different cultures who got along amazingly and made our lives so much easier.

“We should take Mary,” I said, musing over the details for the charity event.

“Oh, that would be wonderful. I bet’s she’d love that,” Lauren replied.

“Let’s get your mom up as well. They’d get on so well,” I added.

That would be the ten, and what a ten it would be! Lauren and me, Alex and Gabriella, Jerry and whoever, Veronica, Henrietta, Elaine, and Mary. Although I did feel bad leaving Vivienne on babysitting duty.

“Oh, I’ve booked dinner tonight, a new place that I’d like to try,” I said, as I left for work earlier than Lauren. I had a meeting with my man in the government.

I thought about the man I was about to meet and how I’d originally met him. He had history with Alex, and we still had no idea exactly which department within the government he worked for, but it had something to do with the military contracts that Trymast had.

We met in a gentleman’s club in London, The RAC Club in Pall Mall. I was shown to the terrace where Don Wilkins was sitting with a pot of tea, waiting for me. He rose and smiled when he saw me approach.

“Mackenzie, it’s great to see you again,” he said, holding out his hand .

I took his hand and shook it. “And you, Don,” I said. As much as Alex and I actually liked the guy, there was a lot of secrecy surrounding him. We were always on alert and wary.

“Coffee?” he asked, looking for a server.

“Coffee would be great,” I replied. I noticed a small brown folder on the table.

Once my coffee had been brought to the table, he tapped the folder. “Shall we get straight to business?”

“Of course, what do you want to speak to me about?” I asked.

He slid the folder over to me but kept his fingers on it. “The Saudis want to speak with you about a communications system for their vessels. It would be hugely advantageous to us if they had the same systems as we do,” he said, smiling.

“So you can access their system should you wish to?” I asked.

“You, old boy, are right up there in thinking with us,” he said, laughing. He wasn’t purposely being disrespectful, it was simply his way.

“How do you know the Saudis are going to contact me?” I asked, it was a silly question, one I knew the answer to, but wanted his confirmation.

“Because we advised them to,” he replied laughing. It was the answer I thought I’d get.

He slid the folder to me. It would contain the details of who would contact me and what they wanted so I could have a quote prepared.

It would also list the agency that would earn a fat commission on passing the deal over to Trymast. There was nothing illegal in what had taken place.

Underhanded? Possibly, but not illegal. The British government did a lot of arms dealing with the Saudis, something I steered well clear of.

Communications systems were pretty standard; it was the cryptographyelement that differed.

And it was that element the British security agencies would love to have access to.

I slid the document back. “Don, you don’t know me if you think I’m going to do that,” I said. I chuckled and shook my head. “If you know I can allow you access to their systems, then you’ll always be wondering if I’ve done that to another country with yours, won’t you?”

“Mackenzie, of course not,” he said, holding his hand over his heart.

“Each system we make is unique to the purchaser. That is my promise and that is why the British government gives me the contract. I don’t need foreign ones.”

He pursed his lips and nodded. He took the document back and smiled at me. He raised his teacup. “That, old boy, is exactly what we wanted to hear.”

He laughed, and I had no idea if I’d passed some sort of test or not. I raised my coffee cup in return. “I don’t need the British contract, either,” I said, stopping any threat that might follow .

“Ouch,” he said, laughing. “Would your refusal at the Saudis offer of a contract be the right message to take back with me?”

“Yes, that would be the correct message.”

Even if I hadn’t been given forewarning, I had no desire to be involved with the United Arab Emirates simply because that would be a conflict. Not because I had anything against the country or its people, working with the two countries meant being held over a barrel by them both.

I left the club with a membership pack and a smile on my face.

Don Wilkins was a strange one. We met once every six months and I’d walk away totally unaware of exactly what the meeting was about, other than it was a checkup and a test each time.

Obviously I passed since the contract had been renewed for the past few years.

I knew there would come a time when it would be taken away, and only then would I pitch to the many countries that had been after a similar system for years.

As I sat in the taxi I took a call. “Hi, Veronica,” I said.

“I just wanted you to know everything is set as requested. I’ve also sent over the monthly accounts. We’ve made a huge profit,” she said, chuckling.

“Those are words I like to hear,” I said, also laughing .

“Thanks for the invitation to the charity event, I’ll RSVP officially, of course. And it would be wonderful so see so many of our members there,” she said, and I could just picture the devious smile on her lips.