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start saying that word around this place?’
    ‘Just thought I’d give it a try.’
    ‘He has to have them. And he’ll pay full factory floor, no volume discounts, if we can deliver.’
    ‘We’ll deliver. I’ll get right on it.’
    ‘If Ken doesn’t think the factory can handle the full order, even with overtime, tell him to look at farming some of the work out,’ Jennifer instructed. ‘It shouldn’t be a problem with the market the way it is right now.’
    ‘Tell me about it.’ Cindy retraced her steps to the door, paused. ‘Oh Jen? It’s eleven o’clock. You wanted to be reminded.’
    Jennifer followed Cindy out of the office. ‘That’s right. Come and watch.’
    ‘More on Kaplan’s?’
    ‘Yes. A judgment is expected this morning.’
    At thirty-nine, Jennifer was still tall and slender but the girlish gawkiness had long since been replaced by the graceful carriage of an independent woman. The innocent, wide-eyed look was more focused now, her features more pronounced, knowingly serene.
    The LED screen was built into the wall of the oval shaped meeting room. Cindy reached for the remote on the conference table and the screen flicked to life with the morning news program. Familiar theme music and the electronic logotype came together with a series of well known recent news scenes, then altered just as quickly to the presenter. ‘Minutes ago in the Macquarie Street courts, Judge Roland Hetherington handed down his judgment on the crumbling fortunes of the Kaplan Corporation. The decision came as no surprise to the business community. The financial empire founded by Henry Kaplan has been declared insolvent. Judge Hetherington appointed chartered accountant Warren Stokes, of Parkhill Stokes, as receiver.’
    Jennifer gave a long, low sigh. ‘I never thought I’d see the day.’
    ‘Despite everything that’s happened over the past twelve months?’ Cindy queried.
    ‘Despite everything. If you’d followed Henry Kaplan’s career as long as I have, then you’d understand. He had an answer for everything, and he always bounced back from every possible predicament.’
    ‘Do you think he will this time?’
    ‘See what he has to say himself,’ Jennifer said, indicating the screen. The image of Henry Kaplan strode defiantly down the steps of the courthouse, flanked by aides. At sixty-one, he still cut a dashing figure, as robust and dynamic as he had been twenty years before. Broad features, tanned, with the attractive roughly hewn lines that age brings to some men, doing them even greater justice than in their younger days. The iron-grey hair was perfectly cut and styled. He could have been a statesman or a legendary actor. Perhaps the millionaire businessman was a bit of both, Jennifer thought, and more.
    Despite the bankruptcy, Kaplan beamed at the cameras, not at all flustered by the dozens of TV and radio microphones pushed towards him.
    ‘Any comment, Mr. Kaplan?’
    ‘Is this the end, Mr. Kaplan?’
    ‘Do you have anything to say to your shareholders, sir?’
    The questions came thick and fast.
    ‘They really don’t want answers,’ Jennifer commented to Cindy. ‘They just want to be heard to have asked the question.’
    ‘The same old questions,’ Cindy added.
    ‘Oh yes. The same. No wonder Henry always knows the answers.’
    Both women laughed. God, thought Jennifer, am I really this cynical at thirty-nine? Then she heard Henry’s reply to the media and she smiled inwardly. Just what she expected.
    The irascible old devil.
    ‘I’ll be back,’ he declared triumphantly. ‘Down for the count but certainly not out.’ He waved as he and his aides clambered into the back of a waiting limousine. A moment later it sped away like a knight in shining armour retreating from the battlefield.
    ‘I think we both knew he’d treat this as only a temporary set-back,’ Cindy said. ‘What do you think? Can he come back from this?’
    ‘I’m sure he can.’ Jennifer’s tone was reflective.