Tuesday, May 2, 2017

seekers - a wildetect style story


As a child I realized when playing hide and seek, one really only needed to hide as close as possible to the seekers, whilst they were counting down. I would carefully position myself in front of them, concealed as best I could. The seekers invariably would shout,” coming ready or not” and whirl away from the position they had been closed eye facing. Which was Exactly Where I was hiding, then they would run looking for the hiders on the horizon. I would wait awhile before reaching out to the den and declaring the usual, “Nicky not on.” Or that’s what we said when we reached the safety of the selected den tree.  We are all grown up now , so this game is not played formally anymore,  however I really did enjoy the intrigue of hiding as close to the seekers as possible.

Living in a very modest home, in what could be termed a working class suburb, I have managed to eke out a living. My debt is the same as the next guy and my overheads much higher than my income. Pretty normal I suppose, I work for a big company that makes billions of dollars, however what I really enjoy most, is coming home to the normality of my everyday life. The complete fear of being hunted by the seekers for one’s wealth and possessions doesn’t over whelm me when I walk in my front door. as I am sure it does a truly wealthy man with lots and lots of possessions.

Kobus Visagie, a work colleague, pops round from time to time, we share a few beers and discuss the rugby or the issues he is facing at work. Kobus is going to make it very big one day, his dreams are massive, and I enjoy the discussion of imagining what’s beyond his horizon line. Kobus does this type of conversation very well. He lives way beyond his means and keeps company with some really rough characters. People he assures me I wouldn’t consider being friends with.  I don’t encourage his stupidity in my house.  However watching someone else making interesting life choices is an experience shared and a life simultaneously lived. All be it through a process of conversation and shooting the ol breeze moments. A simple guy like myself gets to inadvertently see what life’s like over that illusive imagined horizon line.

Kobus came to me several months ago with a sure fire scheme to, as he put it, “redistribute some of the companies wealth portfolio.”   Listening carefully to his scheme, I felt it was ingenious. I told him he needs to be very, very careful, as it sounded like serious embezzling to me. Kobus just said that he wasn’t fearful of the theft or being caught or even the police. He said what was really scaring him most about going through with the plan, was the rumors about the companies silent mystery owner. A truly ruthless individual, far,  far worse than the people he currently was friends with, (for Kobus to say this , judging the company he currently kept, meant the person must be extremely frightening)   this owner of the multibillion dollar company we worked for, man or woman, nobody had ever seen and nobody really knew who they were. It was said that whomever saw them, never lived to tell any tales.  It was also said that they were extremely dangerous. This shadowy boss had taken on an all-encompassing persona and when it came to loyalty towards the brand, “this BOSS was not to be trifled with at all.” I thought it was a strange word for a man like Kobus to use – “trifled” – I couldn’t help smiling. I told him he shouldn’t trifle with this cake owner then. I thought it was a funny comment for me to make, however the silly nuance was lost over his head. He was too absorbed about his long con that he was carefully planning. Well once we had finished a few more whiskeys – Kobus’s brilliant plan was neatly laid out. Superbly crafted and amazingly simple and effective. As I worked in the computer division of this multi-billion dollar company, I myself had a few skills and with the framework of Kobus’s plan I could clearly see the intricacies of his effective thinking. Kobus was going to be very, very rich, without too much work at all. However was it really worth the risk though?

Now that Kobus had taken me into his confidence he came round to my little house in the suburbs much more often, to discuss his master plan of action.  He had solicited the help of several other employees in his department. I told him I didn’t want to be associated with the scheme so my involvement was never to be mentioned.  I was truly amazed how easily people are swayed when the talk of big money is brandished around. Greed and the thought of an imagined materially rich future clouds the most honest of us it seems, this has always saddened me to realize.

I didn’t feel like I was too involved in the scheme, as I told Kobus time after time,  I didn’t want to share in the spoils of his undertaking. Only it was fun to fathom out his thinking process and share in the excitement of his long Con. I was just a sounding board as he counted down his plan. Much time and planning had gone into the small intricacies of his vision. To think more clearly he had the habit of closing his eyes to block out all influence so his mind could race to its wonderfully wealthy end.
I did tell Kobus that it was rumored that the illusive company owner had dealt with similar threats on the companies recourses, by somehow making the perpetrators completely disappear. After years of planning, Kobus was now ready to execute his plan. So it was with a small measure of surprise to me, when Kobus phoned me to say he had been asked to attend a meeting with this shadowy BOSS figure, who owned our multibillion dollar company.  I told him he shouldn’t go and he should resign and move on immediately. But Kobus already had the wealth greed virus really bad and nothing I could say would change his money fueled little mind.

Kobus told me he was meeting the mystery owner of the company through a series of chauffeured driven stops. The first pickup was that evening at 6pm. He was not to speak to the chauffeur who would be masked and he would be dropped off and picked up at undisclosed destinations around the country. The drive could take a while, possibly days.  He was to eventually be taken to a secret hidden away villa for a very private meeting. I begged him not to go, however it was to no avail.
I had to tell him that I was once used in the past to chauffer people as 1 part of 10 pickup and drop off drives. Nobody ever new the eventual location of the villa, except the last driver and the frightening thing was that these people where never ever seen or heard from again. Kobus was confident that he had this one in the bag. He was traveling armed and totally ready for business.

It was with slight amusement for me when Kobus got into the car at way past midnight that night.  the relief on his face when he saw it was me as the chauffeur was over whelming – he said “man nicky, am i so glad to see you, please  get me out of here, I’ve had enough and im very, very scared.”


The end