The Fifth Season. Kerry B Collison

I guess they are probably going to experience some tough times until the economy recovers from its slump,’ he replied, not at all happy with the change in the conversation’s direction. ‘I have a few meetings in the morning before returning to Hong Kong. How about I check with Perentie first to see if they would be happy with an interview?’ Mary Jo understood the rebuff and accepted this, wishing to leave the door open for a later opportunity.

      ‘Wow,’ she said, light-heartedly, ‘brushed off twice in the same evening!’

      With this, they both laughed, and she could see that he was relieved to be off the hook. She made a mental note to do some digging into the Perentie group’s activities in Indonesia. Mary Jo looked around the bar, and the staff took this as a signal that they required service. By now, O’Reiley’s was all but deserted, the band had packed up and disappeared, the bartender struggling to contain a yawn as he went about cleaning his station.

      A waiter approached to refill their glasses but Hamish raised his hands and politely refused.

      ‘Enough for now,’ he said, recognizing that he was tired.

      ‘Perhaps we can get together again sometime,’ Jo suggested sincerely, having enjoyed their brief encounter.

      ‘You can count on it, Jo,’ he promised, pleased that they had met.

      It was getting late, and they agreed to part company. Hamish escorted Mary Jo out through the lobby, waiting until she climbed into her taxi before he too retired, in preparation for what he anticipated would be a most difficult day.

      As he lay in bed, tiredness gently flowing from his body, it was not matters relating to Perentie’s exposure in Indonesia which occupied his thoughts. Instead, images of Mary Jo flowed through his mind and, as his breathing slowed with the promise of sleep, he imagined that he could smell the delicate perfume he had detected earlier in the evening, and his lips curved slightly as he smiled.

      The following morning Hamish McLoughlin rose, refreshed, and in high spirits. But his demeanor soon changed as the day wore on, once he discovered Cendrawasih Taxis’ true financial situation and the resulting effect this would most surely have on the Hong Kong financiers.

      At first, he refused to believe the incredible change in fortunes his former company would undoubtedly undergo as a result of this one failed investment in Indonesia, until one of the Taxi company’s directors alluded to where the money had gone. Only then did he accept for certain that the situation would be unrecoverable.

      The Indonesian President’s daughter had issued the instructions, and the directors had obeyed, leaving their company short by almost two hundred million American dollars.