“Dinners at the House of Lords,” he replied, shrugging his shoulders.
“I can take you there any time,” I said.
“Contacts, but then you can introduce those. I don’t know. The meeting tonight will give me some more details, I guess.”
“I’ll come along, just for the crack,” I said, also wondering what was on offer.
“Thanks. Two sets of ears and eyes, and all that. I’m just not sure why they chose me.”
I nodded. It wasn’t unusual to have prominent businessmen of other nationalities as ambassadors, but it seemed rather coincidental since he’d just taken over Trymast and they had one contract for military communications equipment.
“Shall I tell Mary that you need a suit as well?” he asked, as he backed out of the office.
I widened my eyes. “Err, no, thanks, I’m sure I can nip home at some point and grab one.” Mary scared the shit out of me, I had no desire to anger her further.
I heard his laughter as he walked across the floor to the lifts. I shook my head and settled down to work.
It was a good couple of hours later that Gabriella called. “Hello, I was checking in. I’m on my new cell,” she said, and then sighed. “The police called, absolutely nothing to identify my attacker but they started to ask some odd questions.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“Well, about my work and Mackenzie and you. I thought it very strange.”
“Where are you?” I asked.
“I’m just heading into a meeting. I’m fine, please don’t worry. It was just odd. You and Mackenzie have your dinner tonight and that’s important, but we’ll catch up tomorrow and I can tell you all.”
“I don’t want you to wait until tomorrow, you might stew on it all night,” I said.
“Stew on it, how funny,” she said, and then laughed. “Honestly, I’m pooped, I had a rather exhausting evening so I’m all for curling up in bed with a hot chocolate and a good book.”
“Right, but tomorrow we meet up, okay?” I made sure my voice was firm enough so she understood I wasn’t messing.
“Understood, my Lord,” she replied, quietly.
“Do you know what that does to me?” I asked, equally lowering my voice.
“Yes.”
“You’ll be the death of me,” I said, and then chuckled. I disconnected the call and headed home to change.
Chapter Nine
It was a strange meeting, for sure. Two lower standing members of the government entertained us and spent most of the first hour just skirting around business talk. We thought the purpose of the meeting was to talk to Mackenzie about the ambassador role. Although not an ambassador in the traditional sense, it was a created position and they edged around wanting a professional, upstanding, and exemplary American businessman.
“I assume you can access any records you like, can’t you? You’ve mentioned exemplary twice now. Are you asking me if I have a criminal record?” Mackenzie was getting bored, as was I.
“No, not really,” one of the officials replied.
“Well, I don’t, certainly not here in the UK,” he said. The two looked at each other and I wanted to laugh.
I shook my head. “What exactly is this position? Maybe if we start there we might get somewhere. As much as this dinner is superb, I’m already a member of the House of Lords, so I’m well versed in the traditions you’ve spent the past hours detailing. I think we need to get to the point.”
There was a small amount of uncomfortable coughing. “We understand your ex-father-in-law had some troubles—”
Mackenzie cut in. “What on earth has he to do with me?”
“We understand that you and your ex-father-in-law have had some clashes resulting in takeovers of companies in perhaps a not so desirable way,” came the clarification.
