Roskov, Book 10, page 16
‘We are beyond angry, but the police say that this man Robert was the target.’
‘He was holding Katerina when the man pulled his gun.’
‘My god. We will deal with them, they will have nowhere to hide in Italy.’
‘If you try and increase the security for the baby … I will fight you in courts and in the newspapers and on the TV screens.’
After a long pause he said, ‘We wish her safe, only this.’
‘Then a few guards are OK, when she’s not in the contessa’s house, because I wish her safe as well. How’s the boy in the hospital?’
‘They operated, the best teams, and he should be OK. Another miracle.’
‘Only to those who see miracles, I saw a bulge in an eye and remembered a magazine article.’
‘You remembered for a reason,’ he insisted.
‘Perhaps, and we can agree to disagree. Katerina is safe, you have more publicity, and soon the film will have tens of millions of people seeing a miracle.’
‘And you, what will you see?’
‘I … will keep my thoughts to myself. Did you see the documentary?’
‘Yes, and they proved scientifically that it did not happen … but that it did.’
‘So when science ends religions starts, eh?’ I posed.
‘Religion explains that which cannot be explained.’
‘Don’t worry about the baby, she’s not the Pan Am baby, and she’s always safe when I’m around.’
‘Safe when you are around … is not very scientific,’ he pointed out.
‘Don’t start that.’ Call ended, I told Ross, ‘Get ready for a fight with the authorities if they try and take Katerina away.’
‘They’d have everyone in Italy against them!’
‘Not if they point towards the danger that she faces.’
Ross began, ‘They may think it a miracle, but the courts could never make a special exception, they would have to judge Katerina as an ordinary child,’ he insisted. ‘No idiot is going to stand up in court and say that God sent her … therefore we need her inside the Vatican vaults!’
David put in, a glance over his shoulder at Robert near the door, ‘And if they find out about her … talents?’
We exchanged worried looks.
Wives and girlfriends
Ross Daniels’ wife turned up with a police escort, and looking bewildered. I greeted her, and she was a fair few years younger than Ross, tall and slim.
‘Ross, you old dog, your wife is very young and pretty.’
She was immediately embarrassed.
‘Should see her first thing in the morning.’
I laughed as she gave him a pointed finger, and I hugged her. ‘Did this nasty man make you pregnant as a teenager?’
‘I was twenty-two, and no – it was not planned. But the kids are a God-send, and now bookworms, which suits us fine.’
Luka came down with the social worker and the baby, and I handed the baby to our guest, Katerina pulling at the lady’s hair as we sat and ordered more food.
Explaining what had happened shocked Ross’s wife, who was terrified that the baby was in line of shot.
The Chief of Police came in half an hour later and motioned me to one side. ‘We have seen the camera footage, and we see this man from behind. You moved quickly.’ He waited, as if I had done something wrong.
‘His face was angered, and he did not look like a rich old man playing golf.’
The Chief studied me. ‘You killed him like a man trained to kill…’
‘As I said, I had the training for the movies, but also to defend myself. Do I … need an attorney? I have two with me.’
‘No, not at all, just that it is … unusual. People run away from gunmen, not towards them.’
‘If someone pulled a gun on the baby … I would put myself in the way and let them shoot me,’ I adamantly stated.
He nodded, took in the others and withdrew after asking how long I would be here, for interviews.
Sat back down, Ross asked, ‘Problems?’
‘No, he’s just … perplexed that I ran at the man instead of running away.’
‘Me too,’ Ross quipped. ‘Us mere mortals don’t tackle armed men.’
‘If someone pulled a gun on your kids … you would without hesitation,’ I insisted. ‘You and your wife.’
He glanced at his wife. ‘I’d hope so, yeah.’
Burt Chablonski called next. ‘You still alive?’
I stepped away from the others. ‘Yes, not hurt, available for re-shoots, boss.’
‘You trying hard to plug the damn movie or what?’
‘The gunman was Mafia, and he was after someone sat with us, not after us. Is it on the news?’
‘Here in the UK, yeah.’
‘You still there in Leicester?’ I puzzled.
‘We checked your scenes first, and then did a few city and streets shots, some at the factory. I fly tomorrow, to LA.’
‘Safe flight.’
‘It’s a bitch of a flight, too long to sleep through it. And I have a three hour layover in New York.’
‘Via Chicago is better?’ I asked.
‘Some of the time, yeah.’
‘Let me know if you need me.’
‘They’re speeding up the post-production, best teams on it, and the Kudulov movie team now has like fifty people working around the clock. Got the kid lined up to play him, a set in Greece up in the mountains.’
‘Hope we make it in time.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The publicity may peak too soon. The … accidental publicity, I mean.’
‘Film could be ready in two months or less, good teams on it, rushed through. I’m happy with it, so … we’ll see what the producers say.’
‘Final minutes?’
‘Hour and fifty.’
‘A good compromise.’
‘Try and avoid the gunmen, eh,’ he complained. ‘Can’t fucking re-shoot if you’re dead.’
‘I’ll try, I really will, and I would have stayed in the UK if so requested, not that it’s safe there either.’
Back with the guests, I explained the filming and the issues with the length of the movie.
Rita called next. ‘What did you do?’ It sounded like a complaint.
I stepped away again. ‘A man with a gun came at us, so I hit him and … he died.’
‘Oh my god.’
‘He was Mafia, and it wasn’t about us, it was about a man that we just met, a rich man that wanted to work with us.’
‘He is Mafia, this man?’
‘No, he gave evidence against the Mafia. Relax, we’re all fine, no one hurt, and the police don’t want to arrest me – not yet.’
‘Where are you?’
‘At the Kudulov house, but it’s being turned into a rich man’s nursing home; the gardens are fantastic. Maria and the contessa are here, and Luka and the baby, and Luka’s new sister.’
‘New sister?’
‘Kudulov made the lady’s mother pregnant, a DNA test showed that, so Luka has a new sister. And a brother somewhere, Kudulov had a few kids.’
‘You said, yes. Good that Luka has someone.’
‘You finished shooting?’
‘No, we have a short break, but it is easy enough.’
‘Don’t forget to smile and be happy, the camera picks that up. And Rolf told me about a good stock to buy so I made three million pounds, he made two million.’
‘My god, so much.’
‘Don’t stop work just yet, you need to stay busy.’
‘We have training, how to run a business, we get better – for when we are older.’
‘Don’t worry about me or the baby, we’re fine, enjoy the photoshoot.’
‘We have time off after, no shoot for eight days, we can come there…’
‘It’s winter, so … no swimming.’
‘We can look around places that we don’t know, and the Kudulov place.’
‘I’ll be here unless the studio calls for me, so let me know if you fly.’
‘I will call you later, but we are in Berlin and they have many cheap flights.’
Back at the table, I told the gang that the twins might fly in and join us. Maria appeared a bit saddened, but she knew the score, just like Jenny Patrick, and now I was starting to think that I had made a mistake.
When I found Maria alone I broached the subject. ‘It was just a massage, and the twins won’t mind – they suggested it, so don’t worry. Claudia has had a few massages from me, Jenny Patrick, others.’
‘I will be OK,’ she offered, but it did not sound genuine.
‘I hope so, I have enough to worry about.’
She looked like she just realised that. ‘Yes, you have much to do, many worries. I will not be a burden.’
‘Well, if you were, you’d be a very pleasant burden.’
She smiled before she walked off.
The local news was soon showing the police rushing to the estate, the mainland French news then showing it, and then the mainland French news showed the CCTV, the one I requested not be released.
Ross was livid, and someone would hang, but I told him to calm down; it was done and I didn’t look bad out of it. And some local policeman had made himself some money.
The Police Chief appeared half an hour later. ‘I am very sorry, sir, but someone sold the tape, and quickly.’
‘It doesn’t harm me, just that I don’t like people to see me being violent.’
‘We may find the person, sir, and they will regret it.’
‘There are other things that you can concern yourself with I’m sure, so don’t worry about it. And next time I’ll sell the damn tape myself.’
Jenny called. ‘Can you stay out of the fucking news!’ She cut the call, and I exchanged a look with Ross. ‘That was Jenny Patrick, screaming at me.’
‘She cares for your safety.’
‘Why the hell are people blaming me, eh? I wanted to save the baby.’
‘Get some armed men, and let them do it.’
‘I have good armed men in Britain, my Interpol men allowed to carry guns in some places some of the time. And if Row-bair was not with us … this would not have happened.’
‘The baby … pointed him out?’ he whispered.
I nodded.
‘Jesus.’
‘Who needs a bodyguard when we have the little nappy-filler, eh?’
‘Let’s show her the DOW Jones chart…’
I smiled widely at that suggestion. And then stopped to consider it.
New recruits
Ignoring the police, I took Ross and David for a drive, hotels to look at, and we examined three, including Ross’s favourite. It would soon be labelled as a Roskov Hotel.
The staff there photographed me, and that photo would be put up on the wall to bolster the claim that I visited now and then.
About to leave, a tall and fit man in his early forties approached, our police detail alert. But the man had a wife and two lovely daughters about ten years old with him. I waved the man through to me.
‘I’m Chuck Naval, like the US Navy naval, and I run nursing homes in the States and here in Europe.’ We shook.
‘In that case you got yourself a beer and a chat.’ I led his family to the bar, and we sat, the wife taking the kids for a walk.
‘What does your wife do?’ I asked.
‘Doctor, Dermatology. We have a place in Florida, and a house in Paris, an apartment here; her father was from here.’
‘Hopefully not Ari Kudulov.’
He puzzled that. ‘Name was Luciani. And he’s still alive. How … many kids did Kudulov have?’
‘Officially … none, unofficially … we’re still counting but running out of fingers and toes to count on.’
‘Ah, I see. I was thinking of writing to you, for a job, not that I need a job, more of a calling.’
‘Are you religious?’
‘No, not at all, but I am leaning towards social issues and not … making a buck from fat old ladies in Florida. And my wife has done a few stints in Africa.
‘I’m a computer expert, I write my own systems, and systems for nursing homes and drug regimes, and I often get involved in supply chain and cost analysis – for the drugs.’
‘Is it really a total rip-off?’ I asked.
‘A pill costs ten cents off the boat from China or Mexico, it sells for six dollars.’
‘Hell of a mark-up,’ I noted, Ross agreeing. ‘You’ve been following my Three-Phase ideas?’
‘Yes, had a similar idea myself, but trying to tell the backers in America that it saves money is like telling them you burn money for fun. They want profit, they don’t give a fuck about anything else; sick people are commodities.
‘I had New York State interested, they’re Democrats, but they still wanted to make a buck.’
‘I want to make a buck as well, to keep my investors happy, can’t do it any other way. Not yet at least. But I do want to sell forty percent of the nursing homes to the state, here and in Britain.’
‘You’d never see that in the States. They’re either well-run private hospitals or badly run state hospitals.’
‘You familiar with the French system?’
‘Yes, my current job, and it’s a mess, a hell of a mess, lots of red tape. Best way is your way, private money; set it up, sell a stake later on. Trying to get the French politicians to cooperate with each other and plan something is hell.’
‘So I’ve been learning, from their own ministers! So what type of a job are you interested in?’
‘Head of planning and implementation, supply chain analysis and implementation.’
‘We’re many months away from opening a nursing home, and I was planning on finding someone like you two months before we open. You may be sat around doing little.’
‘I can leave where I am in a month.’
‘Got a card?’ I asked.
He handed me a card, which I handed to Ross. ‘Check him out, and if he doesn’t check out … make sure his body is never found.’
Our new friend stiffened, his eyes widening as I grinned at him.
‘It’s OK,’ David put in. ‘He hasn’t killed anyone for … two or three hours.’
‘There was some talk here about you…’
‘An armed man came at us, I killed him – with my bare hands. But I’d rather just have a quiet life, if the world would leave me alone that is. So, where do we source the drugs, Mister Naval?’
‘Doctor Naval actually. Each government has an approved list of countries and suppliers. France has one, Britain will have one, and there’s a general EU list.’
‘Would you be homesick?’ I posed.
‘No, we prefer it in Europe, and the kids spend much of their time here, my wife grew up here and went to school here, and the kids already speak French and Italian.’
‘We can meet in my home town, you can visit for a weekend maybe, and we can chat more there - not least about drug supply chains, since I would be tempted to supply more than just our nursing homes.’
‘There’s no chain of pharmacies here yet,’ he told us. ‘Just private operators, expensive drugs from Marseille.’
‘Then I could open a chain, yes.’ I turned to Ross. ‘Something to look at soon.’
‘I know the people to talk to, and the prefect would back you.’
‘The supply chain needs to be in place before we open a nursing home,’ I told him.
‘So … four months. Two months at least to do something. A month to plan that something.’
I nodded. ‘So we start soon. Our warehouse will be erected soon anyhow, we can go check the plans tomorrow maybe.’
Ross began, ‘I can start the paperwork for a pharmacy franchise, we can take over the existing ones – to keep the locals happy, then re-sell to the existing small nursing homes and doctors – but we’d need to be state registered to supply doctors.’
‘Will that take time?’
‘Anything up to a year,’ he cautioned.
I shook my head at him. ‘French Government wants things from me, so they can damn well speed it up.’
Chuck put in, ‘There is a way, in that you take-over or partner with an accredited and licenced re-seller. There must be a few here already.’
I turned to Ross.
He said, ‘I’ll find one, just in case. I’ll ask the local pharmacist, he plays golf at the club.’
‘Soon please.’ I faced Chuck. ‘Can you join us tonight?’
‘Sure.’
‘Tell the taxi driver you want the Kudulov Golf Hotel, then stop at the gates to the very large house with some building work.’
‘Saw it in magazines. It will become a nursing home?’
‘Yes, building work underway, no goats to inconvenience.’
‘Goats?’
‘There are endangered Long-Horn Goats in Mandoch Valley,’ I told him. ‘Where we’ll build.’
‘My wife’s uncle will shoot them for you and eat them,’ he quipped.
‘Might come to that.’ I stood and shook his hand. ‘Good to bump into you. Arrive later, any time, say 7pm-ish.’ I faced Ross. ‘Make sure no one shoots at them, eh.’
‘I’ll alert the staff.’ Ross shook the man’s hand, then David shook, and we left the man to his holiday.
Driving back in a minibus, Ross began, ‘You want to do more than just supply the nursing homes with drugs?’
‘Yes. We can supply the homes, we’ll supply local pharmacies, other nursing homes here, and … a year from now, if all goes well, a few large pharmacies in the UK will be competing with me head on.’
‘You’d undercut them?’ David asked.
‘I’d like to cut their fucking balls off!’
‘With Labour in power, you may do so,’ David began. ‘And then you’d have even more people shooting at you. It’s a lucrative market for the elite, and our hospitals pay over the odds.’
‘If they pay the same to me, I collect the profit and use it on social programmes, so … no complaints about undercutting, just that I muscle in on their action. Slowly. And quietly.’
At 7pm our guests arrived, and the doctors’ polite daughters practised their Italian with Maria and the contessa. Ross had checked the man out, as well as his local wife, and they were legit, and not a pair of highly trained assassins with cute assassin kids.
‘He was holding Katerina when the man pulled his gun.’
‘My god. We will deal with them, they will have nowhere to hide in Italy.’
‘If you try and increase the security for the baby … I will fight you in courts and in the newspapers and on the TV screens.’
After a long pause he said, ‘We wish her safe, only this.’
‘Then a few guards are OK, when she’s not in the contessa’s house, because I wish her safe as well. How’s the boy in the hospital?’
‘They operated, the best teams, and he should be OK. Another miracle.’
‘Only to those who see miracles, I saw a bulge in an eye and remembered a magazine article.’
‘You remembered for a reason,’ he insisted.
‘Perhaps, and we can agree to disagree. Katerina is safe, you have more publicity, and soon the film will have tens of millions of people seeing a miracle.’
‘And you, what will you see?’
‘I … will keep my thoughts to myself. Did you see the documentary?’
‘Yes, and they proved scientifically that it did not happen … but that it did.’
‘So when science ends religions starts, eh?’ I posed.
‘Religion explains that which cannot be explained.’
‘Don’t worry about the baby, she’s not the Pan Am baby, and she’s always safe when I’m around.’
‘Safe when you are around … is not very scientific,’ he pointed out.
‘Don’t start that.’ Call ended, I told Ross, ‘Get ready for a fight with the authorities if they try and take Katerina away.’
‘They’d have everyone in Italy against them!’
‘Not if they point towards the danger that she faces.’
Ross began, ‘They may think it a miracle, but the courts could never make a special exception, they would have to judge Katerina as an ordinary child,’ he insisted. ‘No idiot is going to stand up in court and say that God sent her … therefore we need her inside the Vatican vaults!’
David put in, a glance over his shoulder at Robert near the door, ‘And if they find out about her … talents?’
We exchanged worried looks.
Wives and girlfriends
Ross Daniels’ wife turned up with a police escort, and looking bewildered. I greeted her, and she was a fair few years younger than Ross, tall and slim.
‘Ross, you old dog, your wife is very young and pretty.’
She was immediately embarrassed.
‘Should see her first thing in the morning.’
I laughed as she gave him a pointed finger, and I hugged her. ‘Did this nasty man make you pregnant as a teenager?’
‘I was twenty-two, and no – it was not planned. But the kids are a God-send, and now bookworms, which suits us fine.’
Luka came down with the social worker and the baby, and I handed the baby to our guest, Katerina pulling at the lady’s hair as we sat and ordered more food.
Explaining what had happened shocked Ross’s wife, who was terrified that the baby was in line of shot.
The Chief of Police came in half an hour later and motioned me to one side. ‘We have seen the camera footage, and we see this man from behind. You moved quickly.’ He waited, as if I had done something wrong.
‘His face was angered, and he did not look like a rich old man playing golf.’
The Chief studied me. ‘You killed him like a man trained to kill…’
‘As I said, I had the training for the movies, but also to defend myself. Do I … need an attorney? I have two with me.’
‘No, not at all, just that it is … unusual. People run away from gunmen, not towards them.’
‘If someone pulled a gun on the baby … I would put myself in the way and let them shoot me,’ I adamantly stated.
He nodded, took in the others and withdrew after asking how long I would be here, for interviews.
Sat back down, Ross asked, ‘Problems?’
‘No, he’s just … perplexed that I ran at the man instead of running away.’
‘Me too,’ Ross quipped. ‘Us mere mortals don’t tackle armed men.’
‘If someone pulled a gun on your kids … you would without hesitation,’ I insisted. ‘You and your wife.’
He glanced at his wife. ‘I’d hope so, yeah.’
Burt Chablonski called next. ‘You still alive?’
I stepped away from the others. ‘Yes, not hurt, available for re-shoots, boss.’
‘You trying hard to plug the damn movie or what?’
‘The gunman was Mafia, and he was after someone sat with us, not after us. Is it on the news?’
‘Here in the UK, yeah.’
‘You still there in Leicester?’ I puzzled.
‘We checked your scenes first, and then did a few city and streets shots, some at the factory. I fly tomorrow, to LA.’
‘Safe flight.’
‘It’s a bitch of a flight, too long to sleep through it. And I have a three hour layover in New York.’
‘Via Chicago is better?’ I asked.
‘Some of the time, yeah.’
‘Let me know if you need me.’
‘They’re speeding up the post-production, best teams on it, and the Kudulov movie team now has like fifty people working around the clock. Got the kid lined up to play him, a set in Greece up in the mountains.’
‘Hope we make it in time.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The publicity may peak too soon. The … accidental publicity, I mean.’
‘Film could be ready in two months or less, good teams on it, rushed through. I’m happy with it, so … we’ll see what the producers say.’
‘Final minutes?’
‘Hour and fifty.’
‘A good compromise.’
‘Try and avoid the gunmen, eh,’ he complained. ‘Can’t fucking re-shoot if you’re dead.’
‘I’ll try, I really will, and I would have stayed in the UK if so requested, not that it’s safe there either.’
Back with the guests, I explained the filming and the issues with the length of the movie.
Rita called next. ‘What did you do?’ It sounded like a complaint.
I stepped away again. ‘A man with a gun came at us, so I hit him and … he died.’
‘Oh my god.’
‘He was Mafia, and it wasn’t about us, it was about a man that we just met, a rich man that wanted to work with us.’
‘He is Mafia, this man?’
‘No, he gave evidence against the Mafia. Relax, we’re all fine, no one hurt, and the police don’t want to arrest me – not yet.’
‘Where are you?’
‘At the Kudulov house, but it’s being turned into a rich man’s nursing home; the gardens are fantastic. Maria and the contessa are here, and Luka and the baby, and Luka’s new sister.’
‘New sister?’
‘Kudulov made the lady’s mother pregnant, a DNA test showed that, so Luka has a new sister. And a brother somewhere, Kudulov had a few kids.’
‘You said, yes. Good that Luka has someone.’
‘You finished shooting?’
‘No, we have a short break, but it is easy enough.’
‘Don’t forget to smile and be happy, the camera picks that up. And Rolf told me about a good stock to buy so I made three million pounds, he made two million.’
‘My god, so much.’
‘Don’t stop work just yet, you need to stay busy.’
‘We have training, how to run a business, we get better – for when we are older.’
‘Don’t worry about me or the baby, we’re fine, enjoy the photoshoot.’
‘We have time off after, no shoot for eight days, we can come there…’
‘It’s winter, so … no swimming.’
‘We can look around places that we don’t know, and the Kudulov place.’
‘I’ll be here unless the studio calls for me, so let me know if you fly.’
‘I will call you later, but we are in Berlin and they have many cheap flights.’
Back at the table, I told the gang that the twins might fly in and join us. Maria appeared a bit saddened, but she knew the score, just like Jenny Patrick, and now I was starting to think that I had made a mistake.
When I found Maria alone I broached the subject. ‘It was just a massage, and the twins won’t mind – they suggested it, so don’t worry. Claudia has had a few massages from me, Jenny Patrick, others.’
‘I will be OK,’ she offered, but it did not sound genuine.
‘I hope so, I have enough to worry about.’
She looked like she just realised that. ‘Yes, you have much to do, many worries. I will not be a burden.’
‘Well, if you were, you’d be a very pleasant burden.’
She smiled before she walked off.
The local news was soon showing the police rushing to the estate, the mainland French news then showing it, and then the mainland French news showed the CCTV, the one I requested not be released.
Ross was livid, and someone would hang, but I told him to calm down; it was done and I didn’t look bad out of it. And some local policeman had made himself some money.
The Police Chief appeared half an hour later. ‘I am very sorry, sir, but someone sold the tape, and quickly.’
‘It doesn’t harm me, just that I don’t like people to see me being violent.’
‘We may find the person, sir, and they will regret it.’
‘There are other things that you can concern yourself with I’m sure, so don’t worry about it. And next time I’ll sell the damn tape myself.’
Jenny called. ‘Can you stay out of the fucking news!’ She cut the call, and I exchanged a look with Ross. ‘That was Jenny Patrick, screaming at me.’
‘She cares for your safety.’
‘Why the hell are people blaming me, eh? I wanted to save the baby.’
‘Get some armed men, and let them do it.’
‘I have good armed men in Britain, my Interpol men allowed to carry guns in some places some of the time. And if Row-bair was not with us … this would not have happened.’
‘The baby … pointed him out?’ he whispered.
I nodded.
‘Jesus.’
‘Who needs a bodyguard when we have the little nappy-filler, eh?’
‘Let’s show her the DOW Jones chart…’
I smiled widely at that suggestion. And then stopped to consider it.
New recruits
Ignoring the police, I took Ross and David for a drive, hotels to look at, and we examined three, including Ross’s favourite. It would soon be labelled as a Roskov Hotel.
The staff there photographed me, and that photo would be put up on the wall to bolster the claim that I visited now and then.
About to leave, a tall and fit man in his early forties approached, our police detail alert. But the man had a wife and two lovely daughters about ten years old with him. I waved the man through to me.
‘I’m Chuck Naval, like the US Navy naval, and I run nursing homes in the States and here in Europe.’ We shook.
‘In that case you got yourself a beer and a chat.’ I led his family to the bar, and we sat, the wife taking the kids for a walk.
‘What does your wife do?’ I asked.
‘Doctor, Dermatology. We have a place in Florida, and a house in Paris, an apartment here; her father was from here.’
‘Hopefully not Ari Kudulov.’
He puzzled that. ‘Name was Luciani. And he’s still alive. How … many kids did Kudulov have?’
‘Officially … none, unofficially … we’re still counting but running out of fingers and toes to count on.’
‘Ah, I see. I was thinking of writing to you, for a job, not that I need a job, more of a calling.’
‘Are you religious?’
‘No, not at all, but I am leaning towards social issues and not … making a buck from fat old ladies in Florida. And my wife has done a few stints in Africa.
‘I’m a computer expert, I write my own systems, and systems for nursing homes and drug regimes, and I often get involved in supply chain and cost analysis – for the drugs.’
‘Is it really a total rip-off?’ I asked.
‘A pill costs ten cents off the boat from China or Mexico, it sells for six dollars.’
‘Hell of a mark-up,’ I noted, Ross agreeing. ‘You’ve been following my Three-Phase ideas?’
‘Yes, had a similar idea myself, but trying to tell the backers in America that it saves money is like telling them you burn money for fun. They want profit, they don’t give a fuck about anything else; sick people are commodities.
‘I had New York State interested, they’re Democrats, but they still wanted to make a buck.’
‘I want to make a buck as well, to keep my investors happy, can’t do it any other way. Not yet at least. But I do want to sell forty percent of the nursing homes to the state, here and in Britain.’
‘You’d never see that in the States. They’re either well-run private hospitals or badly run state hospitals.’
‘You familiar with the French system?’
‘Yes, my current job, and it’s a mess, a hell of a mess, lots of red tape. Best way is your way, private money; set it up, sell a stake later on. Trying to get the French politicians to cooperate with each other and plan something is hell.’
‘So I’ve been learning, from their own ministers! So what type of a job are you interested in?’
‘Head of planning and implementation, supply chain analysis and implementation.’
‘We’re many months away from opening a nursing home, and I was planning on finding someone like you two months before we open. You may be sat around doing little.’
‘I can leave where I am in a month.’
‘Got a card?’ I asked.
He handed me a card, which I handed to Ross. ‘Check him out, and if he doesn’t check out … make sure his body is never found.’
Our new friend stiffened, his eyes widening as I grinned at him.
‘It’s OK,’ David put in. ‘He hasn’t killed anyone for … two or three hours.’
‘There was some talk here about you…’
‘An armed man came at us, I killed him – with my bare hands. But I’d rather just have a quiet life, if the world would leave me alone that is. So, where do we source the drugs, Mister Naval?’
‘Doctor Naval actually. Each government has an approved list of countries and suppliers. France has one, Britain will have one, and there’s a general EU list.’
‘Would you be homesick?’ I posed.
‘No, we prefer it in Europe, and the kids spend much of their time here, my wife grew up here and went to school here, and the kids already speak French and Italian.’
‘We can meet in my home town, you can visit for a weekend maybe, and we can chat more there - not least about drug supply chains, since I would be tempted to supply more than just our nursing homes.’
‘There’s no chain of pharmacies here yet,’ he told us. ‘Just private operators, expensive drugs from Marseille.’
‘Then I could open a chain, yes.’ I turned to Ross. ‘Something to look at soon.’
‘I know the people to talk to, and the prefect would back you.’
‘The supply chain needs to be in place before we open a nursing home,’ I told him.
‘So … four months. Two months at least to do something. A month to plan that something.’
I nodded. ‘So we start soon. Our warehouse will be erected soon anyhow, we can go check the plans tomorrow maybe.’
Ross began, ‘I can start the paperwork for a pharmacy franchise, we can take over the existing ones – to keep the locals happy, then re-sell to the existing small nursing homes and doctors – but we’d need to be state registered to supply doctors.’
‘Will that take time?’
‘Anything up to a year,’ he cautioned.
I shook my head at him. ‘French Government wants things from me, so they can damn well speed it up.’
Chuck put in, ‘There is a way, in that you take-over or partner with an accredited and licenced re-seller. There must be a few here already.’
I turned to Ross.
He said, ‘I’ll find one, just in case. I’ll ask the local pharmacist, he plays golf at the club.’
‘Soon please.’ I faced Chuck. ‘Can you join us tonight?’
‘Sure.’
‘Tell the taxi driver you want the Kudulov Golf Hotel, then stop at the gates to the very large house with some building work.’
‘Saw it in magazines. It will become a nursing home?’
‘Yes, building work underway, no goats to inconvenience.’
‘Goats?’
‘There are endangered Long-Horn Goats in Mandoch Valley,’ I told him. ‘Where we’ll build.’
‘My wife’s uncle will shoot them for you and eat them,’ he quipped.
‘Might come to that.’ I stood and shook his hand. ‘Good to bump into you. Arrive later, any time, say 7pm-ish.’ I faced Ross. ‘Make sure no one shoots at them, eh.’
‘I’ll alert the staff.’ Ross shook the man’s hand, then David shook, and we left the man to his holiday.
Driving back in a minibus, Ross began, ‘You want to do more than just supply the nursing homes with drugs?’
‘Yes. We can supply the homes, we’ll supply local pharmacies, other nursing homes here, and … a year from now, if all goes well, a few large pharmacies in the UK will be competing with me head on.’
‘You’d undercut them?’ David asked.
‘I’d like to cut their fucking balls off!’
‘With Labour in power, you may do so,’ David began. ‘And then you’d have even more people shooting at you. It’s a lucrative market for the elite, and our hospitals pay over the odds.’
‘If they pay the same to me, I collect the profit and use it on social programmes, so … no complaints about undercutting, just that I muscle in on their action. Slowly. And quietly.’
At 7pm our guests arrived, and the doctors’ polite daughters practised their Italian with Maria and the contessa. Ross had checked the man out, as well as his local wife, and they were legit, and not a pair of highly trained assassins with cute assassin kids.
