A Deeper Dimension (8 page)

“I tried that about twenty minutes ago. We should hear from him soon if they found him.” Owen shook his head. “I’m going back down to my office. Let me know if you hear anything.”

“I will,” she promised as she walked him to the door. “Owen?” He looked at her questioningly. She asked hesitantly, “What do you think they’ll do?”

“I don’t know, my dear. I don’t know.”

Concentrating was hard after the curiously intense meeting with Owen. His belief that Alicia Payne was capable of such maliciousness had shaken Diana’s little delusion that she had fed last night when she had tried to convince herself that such vengefulness did not exist. She fidgeted around the office, wishing the phone would ring. It was crazy, she thought as she gazed out the window into the bright, sunny morning. I’m really a part of this team, and it all happened so quickly. I care what happens to Mason Steel, to Alex’s company. I’m sweating along with everyone else. As she thought this, she suddenly realised how Mason Steel had occupied her thoughts, to the exclusion of everything else since she had started work. Nothing else in her life seemed quite as important any more to her. All her concentration was centred on something beside herself for the first time in her life.

Carrie arrived, and Diana told her in an outpouring of words of Owen’s conviction and their dread of what the morning would bring. Carrie merely nodded her head with no surprise.

“I don’t find it hard to believe,” she said, when asked by Diana. “I’ve met Alicia, and you haven’t. It makes a difference.”

Diana could only shake her head blankly, at a loss for words.

The shrill sound of the telephone in the other room made both women jump. They looked at each other silently. “I hope it’s Alex,” Diana whispered. “I hope he shouts at us for being fools.” She moved quickly to the desk and picked up the receiver. At first she instinctively held the phone away from her ear, the noise was so loud. Then she was shouting back into the phone, “Calm down, for God’s sake! I can’t understand you!”

“—it doesn’t make any sense!” the voice on the other end was shouting back. There was a slight pause. “Diana?”

“Yes, Neil.” Neil Stratton was the head accountant in their accounting department.

“Have you heard what happened yet? Payne lowered his price of steel this morning—it’s down almost twenty-three per cent of what our prices are! Diana, he’s starting a price war with us!” His voice was rising as he became more agitated. “He’s committing financial suicide! What in Hades’ name are we supposed to do, Diana?”

After the first stunned moment when she heard his words, she began to think furiously, her mind working quickly and clearly. “Neil—listen to me! I’m going to call Alex and ask him what we need to do, and I’ll be right down. In the meantime, you and the others start figuring out how much we can afford to knock off our prices without going under. Figure it down to the bare minimum. If Payne wants a price war, then that’s what he’s got to expect. Be right there.” She hung up without listening for a goodbye.

For a moment she simply sat there, her body motionless as her mind continued to race frantically. She then called for Carrie, telling her to try and reach Alex.

“Don’t stop trying. We’ve got to find out where he is,” Diana told her. “I’ll be leaving to go down to Owen’s floor, and then to the accounting department. Send the call through to me if you reach him.” Carrie hurried back to her office and Diana picked up her own phone. She looked around for the phone booklet; she had a few calls to make too.

Fifteen minutes later, Diana walked into Owen’s office. He looked up from the jumbled pile on his desk. Sitting back, he immediately asked, “Have you got in touch with Alex?”

Sighing, she replied, “No.”

“I suppose you’ve tried to get in touch with the vice-president, Jim Marshall?” Owen looked down at his hands as he spoke. There was little hope in his voice, for the vice-president of the company was a mere figurehead, a title bestowed on an incompetent who earned the seat on the board of directors of Mason Steel by virtue of his large share of stocks in the company. He was invariably absent from the day-to-day working at Mason Steel, a fact that in the past had brought many sighs of relief from Owen and Alex, and showed up rarely at any of the board meetings. He was usually away on some fishing trip, out in the obscure reaches of the wilderness with no modern conveniences and no troublesome phones.

She slumped in her chair. “Yes,” she sighed again. “He’s away. Some new fishing spot, Mrs. Marshall said. He’ll be gone for weeks.” Diana had never met Jim Marshall.

Owen was savage. “We don’t even have a figurehead of authority to work with!”

She was invaded with a sense of panic. Something had to be done right away, or Mason Steel could be ruined beyond repair. Derrick Payne’s move had been a dead giveaway as to who had been the culprit behind the disasters at both of the steel factories. His company was smaller than Mason’s, therefore his output was smaller. There was no chance in the world for Payne to win a price war under normal operating circumstances, for Mason could afford to cut their prices far lower than Payne could. It was, as Neil had exclaimed, financial suicide for Payne. However, one factory was behind schedule at Mason Steel, and the other, as far as Payne knew, was damaged if not destroyed beyond repair. With Mason’s output cut drastically, Payne could deliver the final crippling blow to the company by cutting prices Mason could no longer afford to cut, creating panic selling of the Mason Steel stocks. Diana knew that she was envisaging the ruin of Alex’s company if something wasn’t done soon.

“Owen,” she said urgently, “you’ve got to help me. We’ve got to tell everyone what Alex wants us to do, and it’s got to be done right away, now, this morning, before we lose any more money. There’s only one thing we can do—Payne has left us no choice. We have to cut our prices lower than his, and maintain our present output, God knows how. Get Jack Dobson on the phone and explain to him what’s going on. They’re going to have to work overtime until the Pittsburgh factory is back on its feet. After that, meet me down in the accounting department. I think that I’m going to need you to help me convince them that the price change is exactly what Alex has told us to do. It’s the only thing we can do.”

He nodded. “I know, Diana. I just hope we can convinces them of that.” He picked up his receiver as she headed out of the door. “Diana.” His voice stopped her as she put her hand on the doorknob. She turned enquiringly. “I hope you’re a good liar. I hope we’re very good liars.”

She said soberly, “I just hope that Alex agrees with what we’re about to do. If he’s angry, then I take full responsibility.”

She was out of the door and gone.

The accounting people were a little skeptical at first, but the habit of taking orders from someone in authority dies hard in some, and Diana and Owen represented the authority. Besides which, they both lied with an excellent show of credibility. Diana insisted on doing most of the talking with Owen only backing her from time to time, adding his own considerable influence only when the most reluctant balked. She was determined that nobody but her was going to get the blame for what she had decided. Owen, at first trying to reassure her that what they did was the only thing that they could do, later became nervous himself when Alex’s plane arrived in New York that afternoon. Diana was unable to come to the phone when Alex called and when she learned that he had arrived at the airport, was quite alarmed at the thought of picking him up. In the end, Owen offered to go for her and pick Alex up himself, taking pity on her agitated state. She gratefully accepted.

“However,” she told a sympathetic Carrie, “this only postpones the inevitable meeting. Oh, Carrie, I hope what we did was right!”

Chapter Four

Diana sat back in her chair and rested her head tiredly. After staring at the ceiling for a few moments, she closed her eyes. Alex is going to be here any minute, she thought to herself. He’s going to roar at me, tell me what a stupid fool I am, tear my ego to little tiny bits and then fire me. She got a morbid sense of satisfaction out of thinking about it. It’s either that, or promote me, she told herself, and smiled at the thought.

She had been so engrossed with herself, she didn’t hear the door open to admit a very quiet Alex. His footsteps were nearly noiseless on the carpet, but some sixth sense made her look up calmly. Alex walked over to his own chair behind his desk and sank into it, one hand going up to rub his eyes which, even to Diana across the room, looked red-rimmed and tired.

“Hi,” she said softly. He turned his head and glanced at her. “Are you going to fire me?” It was asked in a matter-of-fact way, almost cheerfully, as if it didn’t matter at all.

One side of Alex’s mouth curved upwards. “No, I’m not going to fire you, you little idiot.” Diana’s back relaxed and she sagged in her chair, relieved. His gaze sharpened at the movement and he asked incredulously, “Did you really think I would?”

She shrugged, a small movement of the shoulders, trying to seem unconcerned. Alex was watching her face. “I didn’t know what to expect, I guess,” she watched the ceiling as she spoke. “To me, I couldn’t see any other action to take; it was the only thing we could have done. But I didn’t know if it was what you wanted to do.” She rolled her head a little on the chair. “I didn’t know if you wanted to resolve it another way.” I didn’t know if you wanted to talk to Alicia instead, she thought, but didn’t have the courage to say.

His face hardened. “What else could I have done?” he asked sharply. “Go to them and ask them if they might change their minds, maybe reconsider?” Diana winced at his tone. “No, there was nothing else to do but that. Now we can only wait and see who cracks under the strain first, Payne or us. I only hope that the Pittsburgh plant can handle the extra work load until the Philadelphia plant is repaired. Otherwise Payne just might win.”

She moaned, “I can just see it now. Late hours, hard work, no lunch breaks, no weekends relaxing at home…”

He continued the line of thought, “…no dinner dates, no days off, no theatre, no picnics until this is all resolved! Lord, it makes me tired just to think about it!”

Mason Steel had a hard time in the next few weeks. The Pittsburgh plant was worked to the limit, filling in for the Philadelphia plant, and also taking new orders for steel due to the price war that waged between Mason and Payne. Alex transported workers from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh so that the plant could be manned in three shifts until the other plant was operable. He was often gone from the New York offices to manage working conditions in Pittsburgh, and from time to time to check up on repairs in Philadelphia. Diana was indeed promoted to the proud office of Operating Manager, a title which gave her authority to make decisions in case she was unable to get in contact with Alex in case of emergency.

The price war was, in the meantime, waging strong. Payne lowered their prices two more times, but each time Mason Steel was able to beat them with even lower prices.

Diana, becoming too tired to commute from her apartment to the New York office, began to stay in Alex’s apartment at his insistence while he was away. She was too tired to even feel nervous about the situation or to care if he were to come home unexpectedly. She was working an average of twelve hours a day, and sometimes more than twelve, so when she finally got to the apartment she barely took time to strip off her clothes before she fell into bed. It was a big relief when Alex called her one night to let her know that the repairs on the Philadelphia plant were finished, and that it should be producing normally within the next three days. That meant that he should be home and able to take over most of the decision-making within the next week. Diana felt a surge of triumph at his words. With the Philadelphia foundry back in operation, there was no doubt. Mason Steel could beat Payne at the price war.

Diana made a mental note to herself, as Alex was talking, to be out of his apartment in the next few days. That way, she would be able to avoid any unforeseen contact with him and keep things on a comfortable and businesslike basis. Circumstances had been a little unusual, but in a short time things would be back to normal. She hung up at the end of the conversation, telling herself that she was only pleased that he was coming home so that he could take some of the work load off of her hands. However, that did not account for her ridiculously happy feeling whenever she thought about seeing him again.

The next day, she left work to go to Alex’s apartment for the last time. She was too tired to pack her few odds and ends that night, so she went to bed promising herself that the next morning she would put her things into her overnight case and be gone by the time Alex would be back. As she stood in the spare bedroom she’d been using, she flexed her shoulders tiredly. She had put in another twelve hours today and she was beginning to feel the strain. I can’t keep this up much longer, she thought. Alex, please come home. She crawled into bed slowly, falling asleep almost before her head hit the pillow.

A sound woke her up. She lay in bed frowning sleepily into the darkness, trying to figure out what had woken her. Then she heard a door somewhere in the apartment close softly. It was a small and furtive movement, as if someone was trying to make as little noise as possible. As if, Diana thought, somebody knew she was there…Alex. Alex was back before he had planned.

“Oh, blast it!” she muttered, throwing off her covers with exasperation. She would never sleep until she’d found out for sure if it was Alex or not, which meant a meeting that she had wanted to avoid. She put on her dressing gown and, belting it tightly around her waist, went out into the living room. The lamp by the couch was turned on, a soft and mellow light which nonetheless made her blink. She ran a hand through her hair impatiently to get it out of her eyes. Alex was standing with his back to the hallway, over by the bookcase pouring himself a drink of whisky. He had on a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows and dark pants which emphasised his lean height. Diana closed her eyes at the sight and tried to stifle a huge yawn.