Chapter 487

It took the team a couple of weeks to put the word out, get resumes and applications and then a whole day of Mel and Rick and Casey doing second round interviews before they finally narrowed down to a few candidates that Arthur had to speak to himself. It wasn't just a single job they were hiring for though, since they decided that they might as well fill out the rest of the organisation with some additional helpers, so individuals were tested, slotted into new places or kept on file for addition for later.

In amidst all of that, Uswah and Yao Jing put together a secondary series of candidates, security personnel and spies as Arthur liked to think of them. Uswah's own sojourn during the orchestra session had come back with nothing, but as though her lack of result was a personal affront, she had taken to disappearing regularly in attempts to learn more.

That had resulted in a slow, but growing, file on their rival corporation. Some of it was simple print outs on the top candidates, but there was also a decent variety of less public information available. Everything from favorite restaurants to family lines to common vices. No surprise that most of the managers had a vice or two, ranging from the ever common gambling problems, family medical illnesses and sugar babies or mistresses. 

 It amused Arthur to read over those files, but right now, he had a lot more pedestrian and boring ones to go over. The resumes, along with a bunch of links and snapshots taken of social media information of their upcoming interviewees. With the prevalence of social media and the almost constant online nature of many, it was not hard to get full - verified - employment and social histories of others. 

There were even programs that you could purchase to scan social media and other sites for information on individuals where they weren't tagged, everything from police reports to background information. Bigger corporations had a tendency to run those programs constantly, so that their workers couldn't slack off and 'be sick' when they were attending a concert.

For Arthur, that had never been a problem. He’d mostly worked gig jobs, and the ones he hadn’t, he had showed up – mostly because in those cases, he was seasonal help, moving boxes or putting boxes in boxes during the Christmas months or pulling apart sludge. And when it got too much, he’d quit.

"Ever both you, how much they can track?" Arthur said, tapping the files.

"You can pay to have your information wiped from most databases. It's actually not that expens-" Rick trailed off at the glare the less fortunate members of the Clan gave him. "Right. Uhh..."

"Leave him alone," Arthur said, gently to the team. "We got to do the interviews. It's time."

"We could make them wait..." Casey offered. "See who really wants it. We do have a few other things to discuss..."

"No," Arthur said, firmly. "That's a putah move. And we're not that. Send them in, we'll talk." He drew a deep breath, let it out. "It can't be that bad."

Who he was trying to convince, he was not certain.

 

***

 

Mousy, tiny and kind of cute, the first interviewee sat there with sparkling glasses and a straight back. He had cut his brown hair short, wore a well-made suit that probably had been in fashion a decade ago and even had a pocket protector.

Another advantage? He was Malay, so he’d fill part of the bumi quota that would keep the government happy.

“So, Hamid. Studied in Harvard?” Arthur said, frowned. “Malaysia branch?”

“Yes.” A firm nod. “There’s no major difference in the curriculum-”

“But there is in teachers and who you meet.” Rick sniffed. “Nowhere near as good as the real thing.”

“You aren’t a Harvard alumni, are you?” Arthur asked Rick.

“No.” He shook his head. “Yale. But these branch universities…”

“Forced to create them, when you all started restricting access to the US,” Casey smirked. “And not because you US universities wanted more money.”

“That’s-”

“Not worth arguing,” Arthur cut the two off. “So, business administration.”

“Yes. With a specialization in Guild structure and management.”

“We’re a Clan.”

“I understand, and I took what courses there were for Clan management too. I’ve also been independently studying them…” Arthur let the others take over, as he read through the file. He had other questions really, most of all…

“Your father was the former Minister?” Didn’t matter which one, they shuffled around on the top. Most importantly, it meant he had contacts. Maybe.

“He was. Grandfather served in the government too, and his grandfather with the British,” Hamid said. “Father retired from being a politician but works in a few corporations as a director.”

“And you didn’t want to go into politics yourself?” Mel asked.

“My elder brother is a councilor in KL.”

Arthur nodded, falling silent. His own question answered.

 

***

 

Stocky, short and with a fierce demeanour, the Chinese woman before him seemed to be assessing him as much as he her. Clad in a pant suit that did little to flatter her body, she carried with her an old ‘aunty’ vibe that Arthur was all too familiar with – the kind that saw those women crash through objection and trouble with equal fervour.

“When the Clan Head was killed in the Intermediate Tower in Penang, we had to restructure. Obviously, with the loans that had been taken out, most of the banks wanted their collateral, but we managed to pull enough of our assets together to keep them from buying all of it out,” Gina Liu explained to the fascinated group. “We managed to save enough to keep the first headquarters, above Clan Head Qin’s parents shop and their shop too. The old clan members still meet there, though we’re not an official Clan anymore, of course. Just a group of people who know one another.”

“It must have been hard, picking up the pieces when he died,” Mel said, commiserating with the woman.

“It was not easy. Which is why I want to know, has he planned for his death? How much of a risk taker is he?” she asked Mel.

“I’m right here…” Arthur said.

“We can talk later,” Gina replied to Arthur. “I want to know what she thinks.”

Arthur snorted, but leaned back, amused a little. Still, Gina knew how to run a Clan – had even run one before. A tiny one, that had lasted for a decade, an organization that had never wanted to be more than a neighborhood organization but their boss had chosen, after time, to take a risk and grow. It had ended badly, but maybe for the best for the Durians.

If he managed to pass her assessment.

 

***

 

“I’m surprised you wanted to work with us,” Arthur said, tapping the file before him. “You run your own company, don’t you?”

“It’s mostly automated nowadays, and my children do the day-to-day. I’ve been looking to give them control, so if I’m hired, I’ll let them have it.” The last applicant was the oldest, an Indian gentleman who sported a bushy beard and a turban. Like most Sikhs, he was a little on the corpulent side, though the plague of diabetes and weight gain had been mitigated somewhat with changes in diet and drugs.

“Also, business is slowing down, no?” Casey said, quietly. “The government has reduced the incentive for replanting, so its been harder to buy up land and get the credits for reforestation.”

“We do okay, but it’s not like it was a decade ago,” Ravi Sandhal Singh said. “Back then, we couldn’t work hard enough.”

"So why a Clan?" Mel said. "You don't have much experience in it."

"My grandchildren all want to be Climbers. Or are already," Ravi said. "I'm too old for that, but I started looking into it. I'll admit, it's more because it's an interesting challenge. How do you build a business, when income, communication and personnel are so... arbitary."

"It's a challenge for sure, especially at the lower levels of Clan development," Casey said.

"And Guild," Rick added. "Why many push to upgrade and cross to the next level as soon as they can."

"That's the trap isn't it?" Ravi said. "Most businesses face that sameissue, really. Grow too fast and you are more likely to fail, but if you don't grow fast enough, your competitors will swallow you whole."

"And what do you know of our competitors?" Mel asked.

"Not much." Ravi said, frankly. "But I'm open to learning, and I'm good at it. I know how to run a business and I know how to glean the relevant information fast. More importantly," he gestured around the building, "I know how to work with a lot of people, some of who might be new to this. I might not be a Climber or studied the Towers, but you're a business and I know business and the people needed to run them."

Arthur had to admit, the man had charisma. Of those he had met, he was the one who shone with it, who made his case the best. The others might have their own skills, but they lacked the same drive Ravi did.

"Now, I have some questions of my own-"

Leaning back, Arthur let the others take over. His part, at least for the moment, was done. He'd still listen, of course, but he had a feel for the three. The question of who still had to be answered though. But that was for later.