Chapter Six

Close Encounters

The lift door slid smoothly open and Eve Waugh stepped out into Lord Greyhaven's office. She hadn't known what to expect of it - the headquarters of Greyhaven’s company, EG, was an unprepossessing Victorian edifice near the Old Bailey. On the way up she had pictured the office one of two ways. It could have been a room like Sherlock Holmes' with antiques on the mantelpiece, leather-bound chairs and oil paintings on the wall. Either that or a chrome and steel symphony of state-of-the-art technology with a wall of flatpanel TVs. In the event it was a messy compromise of both styles that was rather less than the sum of its parts.

From this building, from this room, EG, a multinational string of electronics companies, component manufacturers and the like all across Europe were all co-ordinated. It wasn't a large company by international standards, but it was influential. The company's main asset was its chairman, who was standing by the window, talking to a couple of men in trench coats. His office gave an impressive view out over St Paul's Cathedral.

'That will be all,' he told the two men. There was a bulky canvas kit bag on the desk, which the taller of the two men took with him as he left. 'Oh, could you ask Adele to bring in a pot of coffee?' Greyhaven called after them.

'Very good, Lord Greyhaven,' the tall man responded gruffly. He glanced at the new arrival appreciatively as he passed her.

'Good afternoon, Eve,' Greyhaven said.

'Hi.' She looked around the office, taking it in. The desk was mahogany, and looked like an antique. 'This room is a lot smaller than I thought it would be.'

'We British are a modest race, Eve: we don't share the American taste for ostentation.'

'You're a billionaire, sir, I think you're allowed to buy yourself a new carpet.'

'I'm only a dollar billionaire,' he noted lightly, removing a couple of tumblers and a decanter from a small cabinet.