Business Case

Tom was a sharply dressed man. Always. You noticed him as soon as he walked into a room, and this particular room was an office on the second floor. “Thanks for going over the financials in my business case”

“Of, no problem Tom, always happy to help”

“You’re a champ Sarah” Sarah tucked a lock of her curly auburn hair behind her ear. In the process dropping a bundled up tissue out of her sleeve. “Ah, sorry. I just can’t get used to the cold here. I feel like I’ve been sick for months.”

“It’s chilly out there alright” The two of them looked out of the small window in Sarah’s office. The white of the snow bent and curved and somehow managed to make lines against the other whiteness that gave impression that there was maybe something under the snow.

“So, does it look ok to you? Do the numbers all seem to stack up?”

“Oh yeah, it’s all fine really. Just maybe a thing or two” Sarah seemed a little uncertain. Tom looked back at her expectantly, waiting for her to speak first.

“I mean, the hurdle rate you’ve used is correct. And the NPV looks good… the payback period should get signed off…” She was looking more uncomfortable.

“What is it Sarah? I’m happy to relook at the numbers if need be. You know, when you go and see the Big Guy, it’s more of a sales pitch than a math lesson. The detail needs to stack up, but he’s more about the whole scheme”

Sarah had seen plenty of sales pitches that relied on inflated sales to make the business case stick. “Yeah, I understand. The numbers are all fine, they’re good in fact.”

“Great” a beaming, charming smile.

Sarah didn’t like to have her name associated with something if she wasn’t entirely comfortable with it. “If there is a weakness… well, it’s that, the whole thing kind of hinges on this one revenue item for it to work. This um… ransom amount. If you receive the full billion then there shouldn’t be any problems with the financial side of things.”

“Look, I know what you’re thinking, and to be honest I thought I’d leant more on the conservative side with that figure. The whole thing with a Death Ray is that well, it’ll cause a whole lot of death, and destruction. The world governments will do anything to stop the Big Guy from using it. In fact, I think he’s going to love this proposal. It’s classic stuff, the sort of thing he made his name on.”

Sarah sighed, at least internally she sighed, she didn’t want to get into an argument. She’d had so many since she’d arrived here at the hidden building in the middle of nowhere, frozen into secrecy. The conversation paused for a moment and they found themselves looking out the window again, each taking a metal deep breath in silence. The contemplative mood was broken suddenly though, when the siren started to sound, and gunfire could be heard from the floor below.  Sarah was panicked, looking around for her coat and hat. Tom, for his part was clam, he just pulled a pair of gloves from his suit pocket and started putting them on. “Don’t you have a coat or something warmer?” Sarah asked him as she gathered up the papers for the business case and stuffed them into a file as they were rushing out into the hallway and towards the stairwell “I’ll be fine. And unless that’s your CV, I wouldn’t bother bringing it. I don’t think there’ll be any cause to show up for work tomorrow.”

Stunned and panicked, Sarah didn’t quite take in what Tom was saying, she clutched the file to her chest, maybe just for warmth as they stepped out into the pale milky cold of the afternoon. This had always been a possibility, and she had a bag packed in her car at all times. It was time to put the plan into action, straight to the airport and onto the first flight going somewhere warm.

Bullets were flying but she hardly noticed as she ran to her car. She glanced back to see where Tom was but he wasn’t behind her. It looked like there was a man, lightly dressed, maybe just in a suit, walking in the snow away from the building. “Oh well” she muttered to herself “I don’t care if you freeze anyway” and she drove away from the chaos and cracking of gunshots. It was halfway to the airport when she looked down to the passenger seat. She still had the business plan. Maybe a billion dollars was optimistic, but a death ray could still be made to work financially.