Betrayed Chapter 8

Did I happen to mention everything was moving so fast? People weren't really surprised Lance Layton took his commission and ran for the door as fast as he could. There wasn't an employee in the firm who didn't wish they could produce the same results for themselves. The rumors ran rampant: he had purchased his own seat and started his own firm; he was trading through the Internet from his new home in Aruba; his marital problems had so devastated him, he had quit the business entirely and now ran a charter boat in Key West (my personal favorite); he had secretly been Michael Jackson all along, hiding out from the glare of publicity while attempting to re-build his fortune.

Nor were they really surprised Rob and Jim had 'gone outside' to acquire their new Executive Vice-President. Lisa Layne had come highly recommended. She and Lance had been classmates and friendly competitors in the Finance curriculum at their university, so the gossip went. They had both gone into futures trading and, according to the departed Mr. Layton, she had done quite well herself. When he decided to leave the firm, he had floated her name as his best possible replacement. The two senior executives had planned to make him their choice for V.P., but valued his judgment and had tendered her an offer, which she had accepted. Angie had been proud to come up with, then disseminate, that plum piece of disinformation. One very real aspect of this move was: Major Trades was being re-vamped into the "Strategic Trading Group", and its direction would be the new Vice-President's - my - primary focus.

Another rumor spread immediately, and unbidden; the new Veep was "a real looker". That rumor probably began in the Transportation Department. I hadn't known we even had a 'Transportation Department'. Most likely, it was just three or four guys from Maintenance who had been Shanghai-ed into going down to the garage, loading Lisa Layne's recently-arrived personal effects onto carts, then bringing them up the service elevator to the top floor and delivering them to her new office.