Duncan Pryde Series

Chapter 3

The Haynes Corporation was one the largest tech giants in the entire sector. Jeremy Haynes was the CEO of the mega corp and was the person who Pryde had arranged to meet.

It was early in the morning when he arrived at the Central Office of Haynes Corp. A towering edifice to capitalism, over one hundred and fifty floors of Plascrete and glass. The lobby on the ground floor was watched over by a receptionist desk that was manned by a young woman flanked by two security guards, who all sat behind a circular desk in the centre of the large area.

The young woman, the face of the company, the first point of contact when anyone entered the building, looked up when he entered.

“Good morning sir, how can I help you?” she asked, giving him a warm smile.

“Yes, I’m here to see Mister Haynes please,” Pryde replied, returning her smile.

“Who shall I say wants him, sir?”

“My name Pryde and I’m from the Ministry of Intelligence.”

The smile faded just for a second, but was back in place in an instant. To the casual observer it would have been missed, but Pryde was a trained observer and the momentary slip did not go unnoticed, which told him they were afraid of scrutiny. Something was not quite right here.

She checked the screen in front of her and typed something onto a hidden keypad and read the reply. Looking up, her smile firmly back in place, she said, “Mister Haynes will see you in his office. He’s on the Penthouse floor; the elevator is behind us. William will escort you.”

William, the security guard in question, stood up from his seat next to her.

“Come this way please,” he said, ushering him in front of him.

Pryde walked in front of him, knowing William was keeping him in front so he could keep an eye on him, a security measure and standing operating procedure.

Inside the elevator William placed his wrist against the sensor in the control panel, which gave them access to the floors above a certain level. The top five floors were inaccessible except to certain personnel in the building, the top echelon in the business.

The ride to the top was fast and smooth. When it ended, the doors opened and William led the way out into a well-lit corridor. There was just one door in this area and William pointed him in that direction.

“I’ll wait out here for you, sir, and escort you back down when your meeting is through,” the tall, craggy-looking security guard said.

Pryde entered through the door into a lush office that had a panoramic view of the city below through the wall to ceiling windows that ran around two of the walls. It was a corner office and the largest of those on this floor. The furniture was made from indigenous wood that resembled mahogany. Haynes stood up from behind the desk set in the corner to greet him.

The floor was carpeted with a thick pile wool covering that could have been Axminster. The walls had paintings on them and, from his brief knowledge of art, they looked to be classics.

The room was tasteful yet subtle, but still reeked of wealth.

“Welcome. Mister Pryde, is it? What has the Ministry sent you here for?” Haynes asked as he came around his desk to greet his visitor. Holding out a hand, he walked over to Pryde to get a better look.

Pryde took the offered hand in a firm grip then said, “We are interested in how the Raptor F 95 program is coming along?”

The shock of the sudden directness showed on Haynes’ face. He wasn’t expecting him to be this direct, perhaps to go around the bush a while before coming to the point, feeling him out before asking the real question. This caught him off guard, which was his intention.

“Down to business, I like that, not wasting any time,” Haynes replied. Pryde recognised his answer for what it was.

“Unlike I, sir, you didn’t answer my question, so I’ll ask it again. How is the new Raptor F 95 program coming along, or more to the point, has it been hacked, stolen or did you sell it to someone else?” he said.

“I’m offended by your assumption and quite frankly I think this meeting is over. We’re done here.”

“So that’s a yes then. In that case there will be repercussions, legal ones seeing as how the design you sold to a third party was used in a terrorist attack recently.”

“Now wait just one minute. What happens when we sell anything is not our responsibility, it is down to the buyer to decide how it is to be used,” Haynes floundered as he tried to regain some ground but instead dug himself even deeper into the hole he just fell into.

“So, you admit to selling the design to a third party,” Pryde said, hoisting Haynes on his own verbal petard.

Haynes leaned against the desk—fell against it, really—as he realised the mistake he just made.

“You have to understand, we were falling behind on the testing. We were never going to meet the deadline we set, and then they came along with extra funding and said they would take the designs when we had fixed certain bugs in the design and that the building of the prototype would be done by them. It was a deal too good to pass up. We were back on track with the testing and we could fulfil our order to the Coalition, it was a win-win situation.”

“Not really, a squad of soldiers were slaughtered by your design and a raft of experimental ordinance was stolen. I can only imagine that they plan to use what they stole and that more lives will be lost. I hope they paid enough to ease your conscience, Mister Haynes.”

“I’m so sorry. What can I do to help put this right?”

“First off, you can give me all you have on the buyer, and secondly you can put all your resources into getting the Raptor F 95 ready for combat. We will be needing it sooner than you said,” Pryde said.

“You’ll have everything you need; you have my word.”

“Thank you, sir, I’ll be in touch,” Pryde said, then turned to leave the office.

Outside he was escorted to the elevator once more by Williams, who held a finger to his ear as a call came through. It was from Haynes.

“Williams, the meeting is over, kill him,” Haynes said.

“Copy that,” Williams replied as he ushered Pryde into the elevator.