Silent Treatment

Chapter5

Galahad. . Gawaine. . Merlin. .Tristram. . they arrived at the nineteenth-floor conference room atprescribed times, in prescribed order, and by prescribed routes. Galahad hadchosen the hotel and meeting room and set up the protocol. He had also checkedthe room for listening devices and cameras.

Although the women from the escort servicewere hired to stay the night, Kevin Loomis — Sir Tristram — had sent Kelly awayan hour or so before he left his room. He loved his wife and was satisfied withtheir sex life. But every man had his limits. Nancy did not like givingbackrubs as much as she liked receiving them. Five minutes of uninspiredkneading was about the best effort she could muster. But Kelly was tireless,and the sweet-smelling oils she produced from her bag would have pleased apotentate. Spending an entire night with her would have stretched his willpowerbeyond the breaking point.

Now, reasonably relaxed from the perks ofpower, Kevin checked the time, dialed Merlin's room, and allowed the phone toring six times. Certain that Merlin had left, he took the elevator to thesecond floor, then a different elevator up to the eighteenth. The securitymeasures seemed excessive to him, but they did heighten the sense of alwaysbeing on the edge of danger and discovery, and from games of highway chicken inhigh school to several dozen jumps in his thirties with a skydiving club, Kevinhad always been drawn to that feeling.

He took the stairs to the final story,checked the corridor, and slipped inside room 1902, the Stuyvesant Suite. Threeother knights were already there, seated at places marked with their Roundtablenames on small gold plaques. They greeted him with businesslike smiles andnods. Percivale, Lancelot, and Kay arrived next, exactly three minutes apart.

Except for Galahad's having taken absolutecontrol over security, there was no leader of the knights. They took turnschairing the meetings, which began at seven-thirty and continued until therewas no more business to transact. In Tristram's four months with the group, twosessions had already gone well past midnight. Both of them had focused on thesecurity breach by the reporter calling herself Desiree. For an exhaustingthree hours, the knights had grilled Kevin and Gawaine, dissecting theirrecollected conversations with the woman word by word.

Did she ask you about what yourbusiness was?. . What did you say?. . Did you mention any of our names?.. What did she seem the most interested in?. . Did she ask your lastname?. . Did you tell her?. . Did you make love with her?. . Getundressed with her? Fall asleep while she was with you?. . Did you leave heralone in the room with your wallet?. . Your clothes?. . How about yourbriefcase?. . Is there any way she could have drugged you?. .

Throughout the questioning, Galahad, asprime inquisitor, had never been antagonistic. But there was a coldness abouthim, a professionalism, that Kevin found unnerving. Even more disconcerting wasKevin's feeling that the interrogation focused much more on him than onGawaine, who radiated self-assuredness, entitlement, and breeding. Kevin hadkept himself on red alert during the session and felt indescribable relief whenit was over. Tonight, at some point, Galahad would bring them up to date on hisinvestigation of the woman. Kevin hoped it would be the last he ever heard ofthe matter.

He surveyed the group as the men settledin and readied their notes. At thirty-seven, he was probably the youngest, withGawaine a close second. Lancelot, Pat Harper, was probably the oldest — mid-to-late fifties, he guessed. Every one of the men was accustomed to power andstatus. Less than half a year ago, Kevin was nothing more than the employee ofa Roundtable member. Now he was their comrade in arms. And he felt certain thatin time, as they came to know his resourcefulness and commitment, they wouldcome to accept him as their equal.

'Okay, campers,' Merlin said. 'Let's getstarted.'

Merlin, who was leading the Augustmeetings, was in his forties and prosperously endomorphic. He was intelligentand insightful, but his flippant sense of humor seemed to Kevin to be out ofplace given the seriousness of the business of The Roundtable. If anything wenthaywire, each of them risked disgrace, unemployment, fines, even prison. And whilethe CEOs of their companies certainly knew of the existence of their smallsociety, there was no proof whatsoever of that connection.

'Any comments, anecdotes, new jokes, orbawdy stories before we begin?' Merlin continued. 'Okay, then. Finances first.Lancelot?'

Lancelot put aside the unlit panatela hewas chewing, cleared his throat, and distributed computer printouts around thetable from the top of a small stack. Such printouts were the foundation onwhich The Roundtable was built.

'Our private account currently stands atjust under two hundred and sixty-two thousand dollars,' he began. 'That meanswe're going to need fifty thousand dollars per member company to bring us backover the six-hundred-thousand-dollar operating capital we have agreed on. Everyone'sstayed pretty much within his budget except Percivale. You'll have a report onthat, yes?'

There was a silent, tense exchange betweenthe two men, which Kevin was in a perfect spot to observe. Clearly Percivale,the man from Comprehensive Neighborhood Health Care, did not enjoy beingsingled out. This was Tristram's eighth Roundtable session, but he was only nowgetting a handle on the various knights. The one most respected, and perhapsmost feared, was Galahad, an officer with a managed care company. Percivale, onthe other hand, seemed to have less influence and carry less responsibilitythan the rest.

If there was a clique, the insiders seemedto be Galahad, Lancelot, Merlin, and possibly Kay, a wizard with numbers whowas the group's actuarial expert. Tristram and Gawaine, still undermiscroscopic scrutiny, were regarded as fraternity pledges. And Percivale,though tolerated, seemed like an outsider. Kevin had once asked his sponsor,Burt Dreiser, whether or not there was an inner circle of knights on TheRoundtable. Dreiser's reply had been a reassuring pat on the back and anenigmatic reminder that total trust takes time.

'I've put the figures together from thepast two months,' Lancelot went on. 'They are excellent, as you'll see foryourselves. Perhaps the most significant statistic, provided courtesy of SirKay, is that the average age of our companies' subscribers now is four pointone years below the average for the rest of the companies doing businessin the metropolitan area.'

The knights acknowledged approval of theinformation by tapping their pens on the table. Kevin did not know the exactfigure, but he did know that each of those years translated into tens ofmillions of dollars in payout savings annually. The trick was to avoid groupsubscribers who were slow to terminate their older employees, or worse, thosewho actually hired people over forty. Weeding out such groups was a skill TheRoundtable had mastered.

One by one, the other knights made theirreports. Gawaine was applauded for obtaining the names of at least 80 percentof the women in southern New York State who had had abnormal PAP tests in thepast year. The tests, even those showing only minimal inflammation and nosuspicious precancerous cells, would be used to label as a preexistingcondition any cervical cancer occurring within the twelve months allowed bystate law, or to exclude those women from coverage altogether. Other insurers,or perhaps Medicaid, might take them on, but that was their problem.

Percivale distributed a printout givingupdated information on the benefits managers of the largest 250 businesses andunions in the area — not only such data as income, marital status, education,automobile make, home value, and religious affiliation, but also hobbies, alcoholconsumption, cocaine and marijuana use, sexual preferences, and a grade on aone-to-ten scale of 'approachability.' The knights voted to court seven of themanagers aggressively.

Merlin called on Sir Tristram next. Kevin,still self-conscious in the spotlight, felt he stammered far too much in hispresentation. His area of responsibility, political action, had been BurtDreiser's. The insurance industry already had strong lobbies in bothWashington, D.C., and Albany, so Dreiser had concentrated his efforts on a fewkey state legislators, the insurance commissioner, and one of his deputies. Inmost cases, the only leverage needed was money. But the commissioner had been aharder nut to crack. It took Dreiser's private investigator nearly six monthsto get decent photos of the man — videos, actually — sharing his hunting cabinwith a seventeen-year-old summer intern from Oneonta.

'The information Merlin presented at thelast meeting proved correct,' Kevin reported now. 'The commissioner had spokenwith some aides about retiring. I have contacted him through our channels andmade it clear that this would be an unwise decision at the present time. At themoment, he is reconsidering. I think he will see things clearly.'

Kevin had no idea how The Roundtable wouldhandle matters if the commissioner decided to call their bluff. According toBurt Dreiser, such a situation had never arisen. The secret, he said, wasmeticulous research and preparation — that and never making a request that wastoo far beyond the previous one.

There were nods of approval from aroundthe table. Kevin tried for the matter-of-fact expression with which the olderknights acknowledged success. Despite the Desiree debacle, their regard for himwas clearly on the rise. And he loved it. Next to Nancy's saying she'd marryhim, Dreiser's offer of a seat at The Roundtable was the most significant eventin Kevin's life. The fact that the group was breaking the law meant little tohim. In a highly competitive industry, the strong grew stronger, and the weakwere doomed. Collaboration among corporations, while technically illegal, madeperfect business sense.

'Okay, brethren,' Merlin said. 'Any othercomments on Tristram's information? Suggestions? Good enough. Excellent job,Tristram. Excellent. Now, if there's no further business, let's have an updatefrom Galahad.'

The security chief cleared his throat, seta portable tape player on the table, and took over the meeting. Kevin hopedthat his expression at that moment did not reflect the anxiety he was feelingat having the subject of Desiree come up again.

'Let me bring all of you up to speed onour mysterious escort. Lancelot has spent a good deal of time interviewing PageProctor, the woman who runs the escort service. My own man has spoken with severalof Proctor's employees. We've been trying to identify this Desiree, but so farwith no luck. She never gave Proctor a phone number. Instead, she called in oncertain nights to see if work was available for her. Somehow, she learned thatProctor had found out she was a reporter. She didn't call in for almost amonth. Then, last week, she called to see if Proctor would grant her anexclusive interview. Unfortunately, Page lost her cool completely and cost us achance to find out who Desiree is. The only thing she did right was to recordthe conversation. Here's a portion of it.'

He switched on the tape player.

'. . I've got to know why you've donethis to me.'

'I did nothing to you.'

'My clients are very upset.I've lost an account that was paying over ten thousand dollars a month. Somevery angry and anxious people are still after me to find out what you havelearned, and what you intend to do with the information.'

'Page, I told you. I'm workingon a story about upscale escort services. Yours was just one of several Iworked for.'

'What are you going to do withthe story?'

'I can't tell you that justyet.'

'Those people want to know.'

'Then tell me who they all are,and I'll invite them to come and ask me.'

'You 're a very selfishperson.'

'Do you have any otherquestions?. .'

'She goes on,' Galahad said, 'but that'sthe gist of it. All the woman ever admits is that she's working on a storyabout escort services. She didn't mention us or the insurance industry once toPage. We've checked with people at the local TV stations, newspapers andmagazines, and even a friend at 60 Minutes. No one knows anything aboutan escort service story.'

'I was certain you would have found outwho she is by now,' Percivale said nervously. 'Do you think we're safe?'

'What options do we have?' Lancelot chimedin. 'How can we buy her off if we can't find her?'

'First of all,' Kay said, 'we don't haveany idea whether she even knows about us. Second, we're not going to allowanyone to blackmail us. That is inevitably a losing proposition.'

Kay had aristocratic features and a gentlebut persuasive voice. From the expressions around the table, it was clear hisopinion carried weight.

Galahad shrugged. 'Tristram and Gawaineswear she didn't ask more than a few passing questions about their line ofwork. But neither of them has recordings of their sessions, and you can betthis woman does. My sense is that she's probably telling the truth when shesays she's working on an escort service story and nothing more. But obviously Ican't be certain.'

'So?' Percivale said.

'I don't see how she could have any harddata on us,' Kay said, before Galahad could answer. 'My guess is the wholething's a coincidence.'

'Even so, maybe we should hold off meetingfor a while,' Percivale offered. 'In fact, I move we suspend operations for twomonths.'

No one bothered commenting on the motion.Merlin handled the vote, which was initially six to zero in favor of continuingon the second and fourth Tuesdays. Percivale at first abstained and then madethe decision unanimous.

'So, we're done, then,' Merlin said.'Galahad, do you intend to keep trying to find out who this reporter is?'

'I do. We've come too far to allow anyoneto threaten our work.'

'Just don't do anything too rash,' Merlinsaid. He smiled and added, 'At least, not until you're certain none of ourcompanies is carrying a policy on her.'