Glass Ceilings (19 page)

Royce brea
thed a sigh of relief
, but it was short-lived.

‘
Bu
t what y’
want from me
today
,
Royce,
we
both know, I can’t give ya. Not right now. I
’m behind y’
on this, but i
f ya want the gree
n light for this project, ya
gotta go through the normal
channels.’

Royce’s heart sank, but he still wasn’t prepared to give in.
‘Oh h
ell, Guy,
can’t
the
proposal
be put
to the b
oard via a round-robi
n? We could get approval
faster that way, and cut all the crap.’
He was sure
the other members would pass the notion
if
it
had
Guy
’s
endorsement
.

‘
Look, I th
ink I know how y’
feel, but ya gotta accept it
sometime
,
boy. She’s ya
CEO, y’
answer to he
r and she represents y’
on the b
oard. Ya gotta take this
proposal to her an
d convince her to put it forward
. Hell’s bells,
son,
the executive committee meeting is only a we
ek or so away. That means y’
got time to sell the
plan to her, and then
it’s
only
a
short
wait
for the b
oa
rd’s response. We’re not talkin’
decades here.’

Royce
exhaled slowly. He
knew he was beaten.
He had
f
ive days to give his report to Verity and convince
her to table the proposal
at the EC meeting. He knew he could
do it;
he just didn’t
want to have to defer to her like that
.

‘Y’know, Royce, that ’lil lady didn’t shaft ya. She
simply
took advantage of an oppo
rtunity that came her way. Ya
should
give her
credit for havin’
the
gumption
to throw her
bonnet
in the arena
in the first place
. In her shoes,
ya would’a
done exactly the same without a second thought.
’

Royce star
ed at him but didn’t comment.

Guy sat
forward and said in a
gentler
tone. ‘Look, we all know y’
were the obvious choice for the
CEO
job, and nobody’s sayin’ ya wouldn’
a
handled it brilliantly. B
ut all’s fair in love and war, remember?’

Something akin to angst flashed across Royce’s face, and
Guy knew
he’d
said
enough
.

‘
C’mon Roy
ce, enough talk about work. How’
s about ya come with me for a hit or
two on the
golf course
tomorrow
afternoon
?
It’s been mighty fine weather recently, and I haven’t had a chance to try out my new wood yet. I’ve a hankerin’ to loo
k over the course at Tall Oaks ’
cos the social club
’s plannin’
to hold
an Ambrose competition there. Naturally
,
I’d like to have a practice hit,
just to familia
rise myself with the course, y’
realise
,’
he winked, ‘
and
make sure I’m in the runnin’
for tha
t spiffy trophy
.
And
I hear tell
the clubhouse is
the home of the “biggest and best ever”
porterhouse steak. We could have
dinner
there
, after
the
game. What d’ya say
,
champ?’

Royce shrugged off his disappointment,
and did his best to smile.
‘Sounds great
,
Guy. Wha
t say we meet on the course at five
-thirty
?’

‘I’ll be there w
ith bells on
, m’
friend.
’
A
s
both men rose to their feet
,
Guy added
, ‘And
I’ve got
one last
pithy
sayin’ for ya ... when
a door closes, a window opens.’

‘Yeah,
someone already told me that.’

Guy chort
led and thumped Royce on the shoulder. ‘Always glad to know a boy who listens to his elders!’

Outside
, Guy’s secretary was in the middle of a whispered conve
rsation on the telephone. When she saw
Royce
emerge
from Guy’s office
, she quickly changed the subject until he was out of earshot.

‘It’s OK
,
Kerry, he’s gone. Now, as I was saying
, the button just happened to be pres
sed on the intercom,’ and she gave a wicked giggle, ‘so I
over
hear
d
....
’

When Royce arrived at the golf course the
following
afternoon, he wasn’t surprised
or pleased
to find two other Orix executives joining their game. He knew both men, and liked neither of them. Peter Connell was technical m
anager for Orix Corp and a director
on the
RCL
b
oard. His side-kick, Walter Lewis, was head of Or
ix
’s commercial department.
Both men were universally unpopular, and consensus was that Lewis held a PhD, with honours, in the art of crawling.
At their somewhat strained pre-game drinks in the club’s bar, overlooking the eighteenth green, Royce wondered wha
t had induced Guy to invite the other two
to join the game.
As it turned out, they’d invited themselves.

When the four men had collected their buggies and were heading for the first tee, Guy nudged him saying, ‘What d’ya say, Royce? Should we play off the blue or the gold tees?’

‘Your choice Gu
y, you’re the golf nut,’ Royce
smile
d
.

Guy slapped him on the back
.
‘OK, gold it is. So, ho
le number one is three hundred ’n
eighty-three yards, with a slight dog-leg to the left. Hmm, think I’ll use my ‘Big Bertha’ nu
mber one wood for this shot. Y’
might wanna co
nsider a similar weapon. If I remember rightly, t
he angle on this hole should suit your natural hook.’

Royce grinned
and bent over his bag to choose a club.

‘So
,
Royce, how’s life in Oz with your new CEO?’
The sneer in Peter Connell’s voice made
the hairs tingle on
Royce’s neck.

‘
F
ine.’ His abrupt reply onl
y seemed to
amuse Connell
further
, and he
dug an
elbow into Lewis’ ribs.

All eyes were on Royce as he prepared to take his tee shot.

‘Watc
h yourself with that wood
,
now
.
It’s a man’s club and
won’t take kindly to
anyone t
hat hits like
a girl
,
’
Lewis sniggered lo
udly
.

Royce ignore
d
him
. With a
crack,
h
e
launched the ball
down th
e fairway, which, as
predicted, veered s
lightly left
.

Guy gave a long whistle.
‘Da
mn it boy, there was
some aggro
in that
!’

Connell couldn’t hide his
disappointment at what had been a
fine first shot
. He scowled when Royce threw a victorious grin over his shoulder, saying,
‘You’re up next
,
Peter.’

T
he game was only half over and
Royce
was already
wonder
ing
how m
uch more
he could stand
of
the
snide remar
ks
by Conne
ll and Lewis
.
Although
they were sometimes
only voicing sentiments he himself had felt, Royce resented their interest in him and his female boss.
A
nd he felt
twinges of
disloya
l
ty
for stand
ing
by while
his CEO was
bad-mouthed
.
He could feel his tolerance stretching to
breaking point
,
and was glad when Guy came over to
stand beside him.

‘So, what’
s ya strategy for this hole
? She’s another long one, ’
though not as long as that number six. Man, I thought I was never gonna make it to
that
hole. Let’s see,
’ and Guy glanced at the course map in his hand,
‘
this one’
s three hundred and eighty-nine yards, fa
irly straight but with a left
twist
at the end. Another that s
hould suit y’
nicely.’

‘Yeah,
like his little boss lady at home.
Bet she suits him nicely
,
too,
’
Connell
sneered
,
as he and
Lewis walked past the other two men.

Royce straightened to
his full height, with a
face like thunder. He turned and snarled,
‘
You want to know my
strategy
,
Guy?’

The ol
der man frowned at him with silent concern
.

‘F
irst I’m going
to hit the next ball
right
down Connell’s throat,
and
th
en I’m going to stand
by
and watch while he chokes on it
, and
bites off
Lewis
’s
helping
hand
in the process
.’

Guy
grasp
ed
his arm.
‘Don’t let ’em
get to ya
, Royce, they’re
just tuggin’
ya chain
,
lookin’
f
or a reaction. Connell
’s like that, the
mangy mongrel
, and Lewis is
just
his brainless
disciple
.
They’re f
rom the same
useless
litter as that Reardon bastard y’
got at home.’
Guy could see his efforts to soothe his friend’s ragged temper were not being very successful. He decided to
distract him with another subject
.

Now
t
his
w
ould be interesting....

‘Forget Connell,
’ he ordered,
‘
it’s Reardon ya
should be
worry
in’ ’
bout.’

‘
Reardon?
’ Royce gave a bemused frown.
‘
What the hell’
s he done now
?’