Non-Negotiable
by
C V Ford
"So", Wanyudo called from the porch, "did it go well miss?"
The somber young lady in black fuku raised her sight from where she was walking to the three on the porch.
"As could be expected. He's ... thinking it over."
"They often do." Hone Onna demurely sat lotus fashion to the left of the small house' main entrance. The 'bone womans' role in this case as an office secretary revealed much about their client. "Though this one's not known for hasty descisions to begin with. Ren may have a long wait."
"He didn't get to the top of one of the worlds' largest corporations through hastiness." Wanyudo looked out over the crimson tinted lakeview. "He is, after all, quite the ... uh ... wheeler dealer. I'll never understand this working away behind the scenes. It was there in my day but less so. We were more ... direct then."
"He was ... direct enough."
The two adults looked at Ai quizzically while Kikuri sat seemingly unconcerned as she gazed on a spiderweb at the end of the porch.
"He tried to negotiate a price of his own."
Hone Onna, knowing something more of price said, "of course there's only one acceptable."
"Yes ... "
Ken Fuyutsuke sat at his desk, both hands flat on the top. "Staring" up at him, the straw doll with red thread about the neck lay as stark testimony to the only one deal he couldn't talk down. A deal that could make his company ahead in the field for possibly decades but also "break" him for eternity.
Yes, the object of his hatred was ruining the company. The advocacy of outmoded methods & misguided policy was bound to wreck everything. It was as if the firms' journey on the road to ruin was deliberate. The old fool was seemingly determined to destroy everything Ken & others had painstakingly built up. And Fuyutskes' hands were tied, unable to do anything to stop it. Unless ...
He tried buying the young ladys' services to no avail. Perdition had more than enough of its' own resources & of what use was money to the eternal anyway? No, only the usual one time fee would suffice. One he could not pay ... Or could he?
A conversation from long ago came to mind. Over cocktails in New York City with a journalist & author by the name of Peter Fallow. The writer made a reputation for himself in writing a first hand account of a civil rights case in which a one Sherman McCoy was exonerated.
It was a philisophical conversation about compromise of principle & resulting loss. A passage from the Christian Bible came to mind & he asked it of the author:
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36)
He remembered Fallow looking at him & without hesitation firing back a pithy reply that only Americans seemed good at giving.
"It has its' compensations."
Indeed ...
Storyline (only) copyright © 3-28-2012 C V Ford
Disclaimer: The preceding is a NON-PROFIT work of fan fiction for entertainment purposes only. I make no claim to ownership of the copyrighted names/characters, places, & events mentioned in this work. They are the sole properties of their respective owners. Please, by all means support the owners of such properties in the purchase & enjoyment of their products.