Glass Ceilings (17 page)

Verity exhaled slowly through pursed lips. She
knew the animal
was in real trouble if it had
ventured too far in from the shore. The only safe way
t
o travel across the surface of these
lake
s
was on a
‘mud duck’, a
purpose-built
amphibious vehicle. But the duck
was
slow,
way
too slow to be
of assistance in most rescues
.
In some instances
the services of a
professional shooter
had to be called upon,
to
humanely destroy
animals in distress.

Verity
hoped
t
hat
wouldn’t
be the case
this time.

‘There, you should be able to see it now, out of the right hand window.’ Ben pointed as the helicopter turned to do a
low
pass
.

Verity looked down
and spotted
the ka
ngaroo, a
young red
,
floundering around in the deadly sea of mud. She lost sight of it as the helicopter swung around for another pass over the lake.
As soon as
she could see it again,
she
tried to
estimate
the distance from the
distraught
animal to the shore. Was it close enough
to moun
t a rescue
?

Ben
handed
the binoculars to Verity, saying,
‘I think we should be able
to g
et ’
im out
. He’s not
too
far from the shore
, a
nd by the look of his coat,
he hasn’t been in for too long.
’
He unclipped
the land-based two way radio
from
his belt
, but before
transmitting,
he looked
questioningly
at Verity. She’d been staring at the kangaroo through the binoculars
,
but put them down to turn and nod at Ben
.

He clicked the button on the two-way.
‘RCL base, this is Enviro Ben
, over
.
’

‘
Gentle
Ben, this is RCL base, over.’

A lop
-
side
d grin crossed Ben’s face but
he
quickly
became serious again.
‘RCL base, a
lert roo rescue team to proceed to BRDA two, ASAP.’

He
glanced across
at Verity,
adding,
‘Rescue has CEO authorisation.’

Chapter
N
ine

Royce strode into the Orix
building
and nodded at the security guard before making his way
to the lifts. He
hit
the button and
waited impatiently, ru
n
ning
a tired hand over his face
. It had been a
long trip
and he was jet-lagged,
but
he refused to take a break
.

Why delay
this meeting,
he
prompted
himself,
when
it’s
the real purpose of my trip over here.

The h
ead of Orix Corp, Guy
Wallace
,
was one of the most powerful members of RCL’s board of directors, and Royce
wanted
—needed—
to
put his propo
sal to him as soon as possible.

N
o point
in shutting
the cage once the bird has flown.

Or
in
waiting to
o
long to ask
a
n important
question
....

His face hardened as he stepped into the lift and punched the number for the ninth floor. He was smoothly carried aloft, thankfully without the annoyance of canned music issuing from crackly speakers.
W
h
en the lift doors swished
open,
he
walked
purposefully
in
to the
presidium’s light-filled foyer
, barely noticing
the shiny trophies and framed awards on display above the
polished reception counter
.

A
young
woman
looked
up from the desk and
smiled
at him
.

‘Royce James,
’ he announced without preamble, ‘
here to see Guy Wallace.’

She
gaz
ed into his eyes.
‘
Yes, good to see you again, Mr James.
Mr Wallace is expect
ing you
, p
lease go in.’

Royce nodded
,
and she fluttered her
eye
lashes
at him
.

T
here are
advantages to being considered RCL’s most eligible bachelor
, he mused
absently,
pushing
open the door to Guy’s office.

‘Royce! Come on in,
boy
. How was the
trip?’ Guy
rose
,
beaming, and
ex
tended
a hand in warm greeting.

Royce strode
over
to him
,
grinn
ing at the other man
’s good-natured American drawl.
‘Good to see you again
,
Guy.
’ They shook hands.
‘
Yes, the flight was
OK, but
that
trip’s not getting any shorter
.’

‘
Yeah, wish we could somethin’
‘bout that, but even I don’t
have
that
much
power,’ Guy
chort
led. He
sat and
indicated a chair
. ‘Have a seat.
Can I getcha a coffee?’ At
Royce’s refusal he added, ‘S
ometh
in’
stronger maybe?
Y’
look done-in, if ya don’t mind me sayin’.
’

Royce
smiled
again
and shook his head.
‘No
, thanks.
I’m fine
. Just a bit weary from the flight
.
’

‘Well then,
i
f I can’t get anything
for
ya,
I
guess we should get down to business. I
know
y
’
didn’t fly all the way over here to make small talk
, and I can see you’re a man with a mission
. S
o, w
hat
’s on y’
mind
?’

Guy’s
wide smile had settled into a
measured
expression, and
his
bluntness
caused a stirring
of unease in Royce’s belly, which he
firmly ignored
.

‘
I’m
over here to finalise research on
the
viability of the
process
extension
project.’

‘
Oh, r
ight
,
that
Bayer expansion proposal. Y’
mu
st be gettin’ close to finishin’
the feasibility study b’
now?’

‘Yep
,
only
a few small ends to tie up
.’

‘So,
’
bout ready to seek
implementation
approval from the board?
’

Royce nodded and
Guy
leaned back
in his chair
.
He had
n’t been an executive for thirty
-odd
years without gaining
some valuable insight into people’s behaviours
.
Although
Royce had
kept
him
informed on
progress
,
Guy was curious
he’d heard no
mention of the
project from anyone else. It
was a pretty big deal, but it appeared that
neither the other b
oard members
,
n
or
RCL’s
new
CEO,
had been kept in the loop.

All t
his secrecy made Guy
suspicious
.
In
a
contemplative gesture, he spread
his fingers
wide,
bounced
the tips together
,
and
considered Royce
over
them.

It was
as good a moment as any
for Royce
to launch into his spiel.
‘
The rese
arch has so far proven that
implementation of this method will succeed in increasing ove
rall
plant
productivity, while initial ou
tlay will be ... manageable.’ Royce
cleared his throat. ‘Long term
benefits
include
workforce
reductio
ns
,
a
healthier bottom line
, and an enhanced industry profile both in Australia and abroad
.
’
He
paused to
look
carefully
at Guy, who
nodded at
him to continue.

‘
Following commissioning
of the liquor burner
,
production
is expected to
increase
to the target level of eight
and a half
thousand
tons per day
. In addition, we predict
significant changes in
quality
,
through the reduction of coarse fra
ction and calcium
in the product
.
Targets of less than twenty millimetres
are expected
.
’ He
paused for
emphasis.
‘
Less
than twenty,
Guy. U
nheard of before now!
’

The other man
rested his hands on the desk,
but remained silent.

Roy
ce’s confidence began to flag. T
his wasn’t the response he’d hoped for, but he carried on.
‘
And, accordin
g to our research
, the improvements to efficiency
,
combined with increases in
productivity
and
reduction
s
in
operating costs
, will
make RCL
one of
the
best performing
alumina producer
s
in the world.’

Guy
s
till didn’t speak
, but
studied
his colleague
through narrowed eyes
.
Many a devious executive had squirmed under
that
frank gaze, but Royce was careful to
maintain
an
air of confidence and
equanimity
.

G
uy
took his time to speak, considering
his
words carefully.
‘Yeah, the
initial results look encouragin’
.’
He
rubbed
his chin
and frowned
.
‘But
this
new pr
ocess
comes with risks
.
For a start
,
there’s no benchmark, we’d be inventin
’
the wheel here. W
e’d have to shut down production while
the new equipment is installed, a
nd what if the new process do
es
n’t work
straight off?
What if
there a
re bugs that take time to work through?
And in the mea
ntime, production’s in a holdin’
pattern. Dangerous waters, those.
’