The Janson Directive

Ludlum, Robert

ISBN 10: 1559277637 ISBN 13: 9781559277631

Casa editrice: Audio Renaissance, 2002

Riassunto

Paul Janson has a difficult past, which includes a shadowy, notorious career in U.S. Consular Operations. Now living a quiet life, nothing could lure him back into the field. Nothing - except Peter Novack, a man who once saved Janson's life, who has been kidnapped by terrorists and is set to be executed. Janson hastily assembles a team of former colleagues and proteges to rescue Novak but the operation goes horribly wrong. Now Janson finds himself marked for death and his only hope is to uncover the truth behind these events - a truth that has the power to foment wars, topple governments, and change the very course of history

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Informazioni sull?autore

Robert Ludlum's twenty-four internationally bestselling novels have been red by hundreds of millions woldwide. His books include The Bourne Identity and The Prometheus Deception.

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The Janson Directive

By Robert Ludlum

Audio Renaissance

Copyright © 2002 Robert Ludlum
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9781559277631

Chapter One

The worldwide headquarters of the Harnett Corporation occupied the toptwo floors of a sleek black-glass tower on Dearborn Street, in Chicago'sLoop. Harnett was an international construction firm, but not the kindthat put up skyscrapers in American metropolises. Most of its projectswere outside the United States; along with larger corporations such asBechtel, Vivendi, and Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, it contracted for projectslike dams, wastewater treatment plants, and gas turbine power stations-unglamorousbut necessary infrastructure. Such projects posed civil-engineeringchallenges rather than aesthetic ones, but they also requiredan ability to work the ever shifting zone between public and private sectors.Third World countries, pressured by the World Bank and the InternationalMonetary Fund to sell off publicly owned assets, routinely soughtbidders for telephone systems, water and power utilities, railways, andmines. As ownership changed hands, new construction work was required,and narrowly focused firms like the Harnett Corporation had come intotheir own.

"To see Ross Harnett," the man told the receptionist. "The name's PaulJanson."

The receptionist, a young man with freckles and red hair, nodded, andnotified the chairman's office. He glanced at the visitor without interest.Another middle-aged white guy with a yellow tie. What was there to see?

For Janson, it was a point of pride that he seldom got a second look.Though he was athletic and solidly built, his appearance was unremarkable,utterly nondescript. With his creased forehead and short-croppedsteel-gray hair, he looked his five decades. Whether on Wall Street or theBourse, he knew how to make himself all but invisible. Even his expensivelytailored suit, of gray nailhead worsted, was perfect camouflage, asappropriate to the corporate jungle as the green and black face paint heonce wore in Vietnam was to the real jungle. One would have to be atrained observer to detect that it was the man's shoulders, not the customaryshoulder pads, that filled out the suit. And one would have tohave spent some time with him to notice the way his slate eyes tookeverything in, or his quietly ironic air.

"It's going to be just a couple of minutes," the receptionist told himblandly, and Janson drifted off to look at the gallery of photographs inthe reception area. They showed that the Harnett Corporation was currentlyworking on water and wastewater networks in Bolivia, dams inVenezuela, bridges in Saskatchewan, power stations in Egypt. These werethe images of a prosperous construction company. And it was indeedprospering-or had been until recently.

The company's vice president of operations, Steven Burt, believed itought to be doing much better. There were aspects of the recent downturnthat aroused his suspicions, and he had prevailed upon Paul Janson tomeet with Ross Harnett, the firm's chairman and CEO. Janson had reservationsabout taking on another client: though he had been a corporate-securityconsultant for only the past five years, he had immediatelyestablished a reputation for being unusually effective and discreet, whichmeant that the demand for his services exceeded both his time and hisinterest. He would not have considered this job if Steven Burt had notbeen a friend from way back. Like him, Burt had had another life, onethat he'd left far behind once he entered the civilian world. Janson wasreluctant to disappoint him. He would, at least, take the meeting.

Harnett's executive assistant, a cordial thirtyish woman, strode throughthe reception area and escorted him to Harnett's office. The space wasmodern and spare, with floor-to-ceiling windows facing south and east.Filtered through the building's polarized glass skin, the afternoon sunlightwas reduced to a cool glow. Harnett was sitting behind his desk, talkingon the telephone, and the woman paused in the doorway with a questioninglook. Harnett gestured for Janson to have a seat, with a handmovement that looked almost summoning. "Then we're just going to haveto renegotiate all the contracts with Ingersoll-Rand," Harnett was saying.He was wearing a pale blue monogrammed shirt with a white collar; thesleeves were rolled up around thick forearms. "If they're not going tomatch the price points they promised, our position has to be that we'refree to go elsewhere for the parts. Screw 'em. Contract's void."

Janson sat down on the black leather chair opposite, which was a coupleof inches lower than Harnett's chair-a crude bit of stagecraft that, toJanson, signaled insecurity rather than authority. Janson glanced at hiswatch openly, swallowed a gorge of annoyance, and looked around.Twenty-seven stories up, Harnett's corner office had a sweeping view ofLake Michigan and downtown Chicago. A high chair, a high floor: Harnettwanted there to be no mistaking that he had scaled the heights.

Harnett himself was a fireplug of a man, short and powerfully built,who spoke with a gravelly voice. Janson had heard that Harnett pridedhimself on making regular tours of the company's active projects, duringwhich he would talk with the foremen as if he had been one himself.Certainly he had the swagger of somebody who had started out workingon construction sites and rose to the corner office by the sweat of hisbrow. But that was not exactly how it happened. Janson knew that Harnettheld an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwesternand that his expertise lay in financial engineering rather than in constructionengineering. He had put together the Harnett Corporation by acquiringits subsidiaries at a time when they were strapped for cash andseriously underpriced. Because construction was a deeply cyclical business,Harnett had recognized, well-timed equity swaps made it possible to builda cash-rich corporation at bargain-basement prices.

Finally, Harnett hung up the phone and silently regarded Janson for afew moments. "Stevie tells me you've got a real high-class reputation," hesaid in a bored tone. "Maybe I know some of your other clients. Whohave you worked with?"

Janson gave him a quizzical look. Was he being interviewed? "Most ofthe clients that I accept," he said, pausing after the word, "come recommendedto me by other clients." It seemed crass to spell it out: Jansonwas not the one to supply references or recommendations; it was theprospective clients who had to come recommended. "My clients can, insome circumstances, discuss my work with others. My own policy hasalways been across-the-board nondisclosure."

"You're like a wooden Indian, aren't you?" Harnett sounded annoyed.

"I'm sorry?"

"I'm sorry, too, because I have a pretty good notion that we're justwasting each other's time. You're a busy guy, I'm a busy guy, we don'teither of us have time to sit here jerking each other off. I know Stevie'sgot it in his head that we're a leaky boat and taking on water. That's nothow it is. Fact is, it's the nature of the business that it has a lot of upsand downs. Stevie's still too green to understand. I built this company, Iknow what happens in every office and every construction yard in twenty-fourcountries. To me, it's a real question whether we need a securityconsultant in the first place. And the one thing I have heard about you isthat your services don't come cheap. I'm a great believer in corporatefrugality. Zero-based budgeting is gospel as far as I'm concerned. Try tofollow me here-every penny we spend has to justify itself. If it doesn'tadd value, it's not happening. That's one corporate secret I don't mindletting you in on." Harnett leaned back, like a pasha waiting for a servantto pour him tea. "But feel free to change my mind, OK? I've said mypiece. Now I'm happy to listen."

Janson smiled wanly. He would have to apologize to Steven Burt-Jansondoubted whether anyone well disposed toward him had called him"Stevie" in his life-but clearly wires had got crossed here. Janson acceptedfew of the offers he received, and he certainly did not need thisone. He would extricate himself as swiftly as he could. "I really don't knowwhat to say, Mr. Harnett. It sounds from your end like you've got everythingunder control."

Harnett nodded without smiling, acknowledging an observation of theself-evident. "I run a tight ship, Mr. Janson," he said with smug condescension."Our worldwide operations are damn well protected, always havebeen, and we've never had a problem. Never had a leak, a defection, noteven any serious theft. And I think I'm in the best position to knowwhereof I speak-can we agree on that?"

"A CEO who doesn't know what's going on in his own company isn'treally running the show, is he?" Janson replied equably.

"Exactly," Harnett said. "Exactly." His gaze settled on the intercom ofhis telephone console. "Look, you come highly recommended-I mean,Stevie couldn't have spoken of you more highly, and I'm sure you're quitegood at what you do. Appreciate that you came by to see us, and as I say,I'm only sorry we wasted your time...."

Janson noted his use of the inclusive "we" and its evident subtext: sorrythat a member of our senior management inconvenienced us both. No doubtSteven Burt would be subjected to some withering corporate scorn lateron. Janson decided to allow himself a few parting words after all, if onlyfor his friend's sake.

"Not a bit," he said, rising to his feet and shaking Harnett's hand acrossthe desk. "Just glad to know everything's shipshape." He cocked his headand added, almost incidentally: "Oh, listen, as to that `sealed bid' you justsubmitted for the Uruguay project?"

"What do you know about it?" Harnett's eyes were suddenly watchful;a nerve had been struck.

"Ninety-three million five hundred and forty thousand, was it?"

Harnett reddened. "Hold it. I approved that bid only yesterday morning.How the hell did you-"

"If I were you, I'd be worrying about the fact that your French competitor,Suez Lyonnaise, knows the figures, too. I think you'll discover thattheir bid will be precisely two percent lower."

"What?" Harnett erupted with volcanic fury. "Did Steve Burt tell youthis?"

"Steven Burt gave me no information whatsoever. Anyway, he's in operations,not accounting or business affairs-does he even know the specificsof the bid?"

Harnett blinked twice. "No," he said after a pause. "There's no way hecould know. Goddammit, there's no way anyone could know. It was sentby encrypted e-mail from our bean counters to the Uruguayan ministry."

"And yet people do know these things. Because this won't be the firsttime you've been narrowly outbid this year, will it? In fact, you've beenburned almost a dozen times in the past nine months. Eleven of yourfifteen bids were rejected. Like you were saying, it's a business with a lotof ups and downs."

Harnett's cheeks were aflame, but Janson proceeded to chat in a collegialtone. "Now, in the case of Vancouver, there were other considerations.Heck, they had reports from the municipal engineers that theyfound plasticizers in the concrete used for the pilings. Made it easy tocast, but weakened its structural integrity. Not your fault, of course-yourspecs were perfectly clear there. How were you to know that the subcontractorbribed your site inspector to falsify his report? An underling takesa measly five-thousand-dollar bribe, and now you're out in the cold on ahundred-million-dollar project. Pretty funny, huh? On the other hand,you've had worse luck with some of your own under-the-table payments.I mean, if you're wondering what went wrong with the La Paz deal ..."

"Yes?" Harnett prompted urgently. He stood up with unnatural rigidity,as if frozen.

"Let's just say Raffy rides again. Your manager believed Rafael Nuqezwhen he told him that he'd make sure the bribe reached the minister ofthe interior. Of course, it never did. You chose the wrong intermediary,simple as that. Raffy Nuqez took a lot of companies for a ride in thenineties. Most of your competitors are wise to him now. They were laughingtheir asses off when they saw your guy dining at the La Paz Cabana,tossing down tequilas with Raffy, because they knew exactly what wasgoing to happen. But what the hey-at least you tried, right? So what ifyour operating margin is down thirty percent this year. It's only money,right? Isn't that what your shareholders are always saying?"

As Janson spoke, he noticed that Harnett's face had gone from flushedto deathly pale. "Oh, that's right-they haven't been saying that, havethey?" Janson continued. "In fact, a bunch of major stockholders are lookingfor another company-Vivendi, Kendrick, maybe Bechtel-to orchestratea hostile takeover. So look on the bright side. If they have theirway, none of this will be your problem anymore." He pretended to ignoreHarnett's sharp intake of breath. "But I'm sure I'm only telling you whatyou already know."

Harnett looked dazed, panicked; through the vast expanse of polarizedglass, muted rays of sun picked out the beads of cold sweat on his forehead."Fuck a duck," he murmured. Now he was looking at Janson theway a drowning man looks at a life raft. "Name your price," he said.

"Come again?"

"Name your goddamn price," Harnett said. "I need you." He grinned,aiming to disguise his desperation with a show of joviality. "Steve Butt toldme you were the best, and you sure as shit are, that's obvious. You know Iwas just yanking your chain before. Now, listen, big guy, you are not leavingthis room before you and I come to an agreement. We clear aboutthis?" Perspiration had begun to darken his shirt in the areas beneath hisarms and around his collar. "Because we are going to do a deal here."

"I don't think so," Janson said genially. "It's just that I've decidedagainst taking the job. That's one luxury I have as a consultant workingalone: I get to decide which clients I take. But really-best of luck witheverything. Nothing like a good proxy fight to get the blood racing, right?"

Harnett let out a burst of fake-sounding laughter and clapped his handstogether. "I like your style," he said. "Good negotiating tactics. OK, OK,you win. Tell me what you want."

Janson shook his head, smiling, as if Harnett had said something funny,and made his way to the door. Just before he left the office, he stoppedand turned. "One tip, though-gratis," he said. "Your wife knows." Itwould have been indelicate to say the name of Harnett's Venezuelan mistress,so Janson simply added, obliquely but unmistakably: "About Caracas,I mean." Janson gave him a meaningful look: no judgment implied;he was, speaking as one professional to another, merely identifying a potentialpoint of vulnerability.



Continues...

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Dettagli dell?edizione

• Editore: Audio Renaissance
• Data di pubblicazione: 2002
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 1559277637
• ISBN 13: 9781559277631
• Rilegatura: Audio CD
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile