Heritage

Former CEO wants me to spy for him

ceo

Former CEO wants me to spy for him

I must say that I have become a fan of the club and I am even considering starting golf lessons very soon. I like to pass by on Thursday evenings, where I usually get the chance to meet all manner of characters, most of whom are players in government and in the private sector.

As expected, most of the conversations today are mainly political with people offering their views on who is going to win and by what margins.

It is also quite fascinating listening to people providing their views on the economy and its performance. Some managers think that the economy is  just experiencing some minor turbulence,  which we shall overcome after the elections while others are prophesying doom.

Last week, some guys invited me to join their table for a drink. One of them who later introduced himself as Raymond asked me rather bluntly, “what do you do?”  I told him that I work in business development and logistics and I named my employer as I presented my business card.

He squinted his eyes and said, “I do not seem to know these people.”  Just as I was  deciding on how to word my response, the other guy (his name is Peter) responded and said, “Raymond, Kwani (Do) you think you should know everything? This guy works for a solid company. I know about it and I have done some work with them.”

This  seemed  to convince  Raymond somewhat and he appeared to welcome me by buying me a beer. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening, never mind the fact that it was approaching 11 pm and  I had an early start the next day.

As I was leaving the club,  I bumped into our former CEO. He actually looked pleased to see me and gave me  big man hug. He told me, “I  did not know you are a member here, Sit! I must buy you a drink.” I told him, “I just joined a few months ago so I am pretty new.” On the offer for a drink I said, “I have had too much today so maybe we do it next week.”

He said, “Rubbish! No way you can refuse a drink from me, Let’s just have one.” I figured that  maybe one drink would not hurt at all so I decided to humour him.

Two hours later, I  really regretted my decision for I ended up quite drunk and having to listen to my former boss whine and sound rather miserable. He said , “No one calls me these days; people say I stole from the company, I have become like an outcast.”

I was not sure how to respond so I asked him, “Did you steal from the company?’ Maybe I was seeing my own things, but I did notice that his eyes were a bit shifty as he laughed a bit nervously and said, “Never ever! I am a man of integrity. Had I been stealing, I would at least have ensured that you my boy also got a cut!”

Somehow I found that hard to believe, but I humoured him and listened. After a long monologue, I finally realised why the CEO had wanted this drink.

He said, “I hear there is some investigation going on. Since you are  my boy, why don’t you find out what they are saying ahead of time.” I was frankly taken aback by this and so I said, “It is hard to find out what is going on since I am not in the investigating team.”

He  went on to tell me how I must support him  since he supported me ( I wondered how) and how he really was innocent. 

We finally parted ways at about 1 am and by this point I was regretting the entire evening. I got into the car and tried to start my car only to realise the battery was dead; and so was my phone.  What was I to do?