The Zurich Conspiracy

men in the space of a few weeks. Doesn’t that seem a trifle odd to you?”
    “Paul, I don’t have time for this.”
    “We must get together as soon as possible. I’ll e-mail you. Ciao.” And he was gone. Why does he scare me with these calls? an irritated Josefa thought to herself. As if I don’t have enough worries already .
    Making her way to the conference room shortly before nine, Josefa still didn’t know Claire Fendi’s whereabouts. Her assistant was normally in the office by seven, like clockwork.
    Werner Schulmann was standing with Richard Auer, the head of sales, at one end of the room. They seemed to be having a wonderful conversation, both flashing their toothy grins.
    Josefa joined the half-dozen others already sitting at the table, mainly people from marketing and media relations, without greeting Schulmann.
    “Sorry I’m late,” Claire whispered, taking a seat beside Josefa. “I had to change a tire.”
    Josefa poured her a mineral water. “We’ll talk later,” she whispered back.
    She felt the others watching her; all eager to see how she’d react to the new man, no doubt. Pius entered and collapsed into a chair in the corner, a safe distance from the conference table. Then Bourdin stormed into the room and marched directly over to her.
    “Terrific to have you back! How was your vacation?” he asked, a little too exuberantly.
    Josefa was so taken aback by the greeting that she only managed an awkward, “Great, thanks for asking.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw Auer and Schulmann taking their seats.
    “Frau Rehmer, you already know Werner Schulmann, don’t you?” Bourdin said in a wheezy voice. He clearly had a cold.
    “Yes, we’ve already met,” she said coolly.
    “Good,” Bourdin replied, and, to her surprise, left it at that. “Start the meeting, I can’t talk much today.”
    Josefa was on safe ground here, and it was easy for her to work Schulmann into her formal words of welcome, glancing at him with a politely disinterested look. She then ran through the next client event: a golf tournament on Lake Geneva in five weeks, at the beginning of September. Almost two hundred and fifty guests were invited, and some of them would have the opportunity to compete on the fairway against Colin Hartwell, one of the world’s best golfers. She went over the program, the selection of VIPs, the extent of the targeted advertising, Hartwell’s public appearances, the cultural events that were to take place in the evenings, and the dinner at the Grand Hotel. Closing with the words, “The Lake Geneva Golf Tournament is the most popular event for our guests. We have a fantastic advertising presence and the media coverage has been growing year by year.”
    Bourdin had propped up his head with his left hand and was toying distractedly with his fountain pen. Then he straightened up and said, “Herr Schulmann, you’re next.”
    Josefa’s muscles tensed up. Schulmann began his welcoming remarks in a clipped, factual tone of voice as he adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses.
    “…I should like to express my special appreciation and thanks to my colleague Josefa Rehmer for her solid preliminary work.”
    At the word “preliminary” Josefa pricked up her ears. This was the preamble to a declaration of war.
    Schulmann went on to say that the Lake Geneva tournament had been a great success until now, but it would be dangerous to rest on our laurels. The planning for this event—he could see from the reports from previous years—had been more or less the same for a long time.
    “If you do not think ahead”—now Schulmann was enunciating a touch too precisely—“if you are not constantly developing new ideas, you will be left empty-handed when the old model plays itself out. That can happen faster than you think. You have to always be one step ahead of the customers’ expectations. No, not one step—three steps.” Schulmann’s voice was now imploring. “To be innovative means to always question what you have achieved, to think the unthinkable, to create through dynamic destruction.”
    Josefa quickly glanced at Bourdin, who hadn’t stopped rolling his pen back and forth. He didn’t look at Josefa or Schulmann.
    “For this reason” Schulmann continued, “I will make some important changes to Frau Rehmer’s plan.”
    Josefa was thunderstruck. An electric silence filled the room. But Schulmann said nothing more, just leaned back in his chair. Since Bourdin did not respond,