Deadlock by Robert Liparulo

Author:Robert Liparulo [Liparulo, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Thriller, ebook, book
ISBN: 9781595541666
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2009-12-22T05:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-FOUR

Operators answered calls to Page Industries headquarters twenty-four hours a day. Its employees—engineers, programmers, and janitors alike—were renowned for working at all hours. Business gurus relished debating the benefits and dangers of encouraging workers to spend so much time on the job. The Wall Street Journal had once praised the conglomerate for innovatively providing free gourmet coffee bars, NoDoz, and sleep chambers. A year later the publication decried the practice as being antifamily and ultimately unproductive because of the burnout factor. Through it all, Brendan Page stayed true to form, neither basking in the praise nor defending his company’s practices. He was more interested in end results than in how his people achieved them.

In turn, Page kept a staff of personal assistants around the clock. Hutch had read a Time magazine profile that claimed the man slept only four hours a day. His business was global. “Daylight’s burning somewhere,” he had told the reporter.

Hutch waited for the operator to connect him to one of these assistants now. He was at a pay phone in the customer service area of a grocery store. He thought the clerk was eavesdropping, the way he leaned on the counter without moving. Then the man’s head slumped down, and he jerked it up with a wide-eyed expression.

A female voice came through the phone. “Mr. Hutchinson?”

Hutch turned his back to the tired grocery worker. “Is this Candace?” He’d spoken to her many times, trying to get an interview.

“This is Mrs. Avery. Ms. Davis is off for the evening. How may I help you?”

“I need to speak to him.”

“I’m afraid Mr. Page isn’t available.”

“Tell him it’s me.”

“Mr. Page is unavailable to anyone.”

“He wants to talk to me.”

“One moment, please.”

You’d think that with a billion bucks you could find somebody who could mask her disgust over the phone.

He looked over his shoulder and saw that the clerk had fully succumbed to the pull of slumber.

Hutch thought about getting home. When he had made the reservations the night before, all the late-night flights had been full, or their routes to Denver had been so circuitous that it wasn’t worth trying to get back the same night. Now he would pay any price and allow a layover in London if it got him home quickly.

“Mr. Hutchinson?” Total boredom.

“Yes?”

“Mr. Page is indeed unavailable.”

“You told him it was me?”

“I spoke to him directly, sir, and I did tell him that Mr. John Hutchinson was on the phone.”

Hutch shifted the handset to the other ear. What he really wanted to do was smash it into the phone box, as though it were Page’s head. “What did he say? Exactly?”

“That he would contact you tomorrow.”

“I need to talk to him now! Do you understand?”

“Sir, I—”

Hutch slammed the phone down. It was as though nothing had changed, as though he were still just a journalist vying for a scoop with the great Mr. Page. The man had attacked him and his family and refused to take his call. He leaned his shoulder against the phone.

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