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“Very wise. I’m trying to give it up, but it’s hard when you get to my age.”
Draco took the cup and saucer offered to him and tried not to let it rattle as he sat down.
“Feeling better?” Compton raised his eyebrows and studied him over the rim of his teacup.
“Yes, thank you, Sir.”
Compton put up his hand. “Stop with the sir business, please, no one calls me sir. You can call Mr. Compton, for now.”
“Thank you, Mr Compton.” Draco braced himself. “Before anything else is said, I feel I need to give you full disclosure on my background.”
“Your stepbrother is the hacker who managed to access our systems remotely last year, is that it?”
Draco nodded, astonished.
“Lara cleared the decks, it took a long while to get around that particular hurdle, but we did. Mind you, she hunted you down, so it’s just as well you turned out to be a fairly decent sort.”
“Actually, Sir, I mean Mr. Compton, my stepbrother Sean is a pretty decent sort too. It was just a challenge really, trying to see how far we could get.”
Compton stared at him silently for some time.
“Lara meant well, and I was hoping to keep her out of this.”
Compton gave a dry laugh. “An impossible task, given that this was all her doing. A madcap scheme if ever there was one, fraught with problems, and it’s just as well you owned up when you did.”
“That being said…I did underestimate my daughter. I didn’t even think she’d be interested in being part of the company for any great length of time. I took it at face value when she said she needed to do a student placement as part of her degree course.”
“She tried to find a way to impress you, even though she doesn’t have a stake like her brothers do.”
“She has a stake, that’s not an issue.”
“She wasn’t aware of that. The way she described it to me, it sounded like she was disadvantaged because of her gender.”
Compton laughed, and it was a real belly laugh. “Let’s not get into the sociology of it, please. I’m an old-fashioned man. I suppose deep down I wanted Lara to be wooed by a gentleman millionaire.”
A millionaire? Give me time, Draco thought to himself.
“I’m delighted she’s interested in the company.” He put down his teacup. “Now, to business.”
That was just the opener? Draco wondered what was coming next.
&nbs
p; “You were right, I instigated the macro. I did it to see who out of my sons would shake things up, because they badly need to be shaken up. I’m almost ready for retirement. I’ve got competent managers but they don’t often think about the company in the long term. The workers are good, but again I want to find ways to make loyalty a priority.”
He appeared to be thinking aloud, but paused and looked directly at Draco. “You’re sharp, you notice things. Tell me, what did you notice about the working environment?”
“I didn’t get any sense of the managers, not from the shop floor, as it were. Apart from Susanna.”
“That needs to change, for a start. The team managers need to be with their staff, not on the floor above. What did you think of Susanna?”
“Easy to talk to. She’s good with people, which has to be the number one requirement for a Human Resource Manager, but she’s not good on the tech stuff. She needed an assistant to take care of that. The database was a mess, and I understand it was outsourced?”
Compton nodded. “And?”
Did he really want to hear this? “I don’t know your sons very well, but personally I need a solid goal, something to work toward.”
Compton nodded. “My fault. When you get somewhere in life, you don’t want your kids to have the struggle you did. The way it’s turned out, Lara’s been the most challenged and she’s the most motivated.” He was silent a moment, thoughtful. “Jamie’s leaving the company anyway...” He glanced quickly at Draco, but didn’t comment further. “I think Charles needs a change of direction too.”
