Chapter 10: Bernard Gui
So I sit here in my office drinking my anejo and smoking a cigar. One reason I'm in the office is because my wife does not like "those smelly stinky things" in the house. I assume that means the cigars, not me. Bernard Gui has just left for the airport and I'm writing this to get my thoughts in order.
Bernard, "Bernie" to his friends, had come to us as a lead though my New Orleans club. Bernie was in town for a conference. From what I could tell he had gotten to New Orleans, checked into his hotel and gone straight to Burdon Street and our club on Sunday night. He came back for more on Monday and I got a call on Tuesday from the club manager. He had, as usual, run Bernie's ID through my software and pulled up lots of information on him – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks are great sources.
"So, boss, this dude, Bernard Gui...." Patrick, the local manager started to explain
"His name is actually Bernard Gui? Does he hang with Tom Torquemada?"
"What? Are you being a history geek again boss?" Patrick laughed.
"Yeah. His parents might as well have named him Joseph Mengele or Lavrentiy Beria."
"Who?"
"OK - great monsters of history 101." I explained. "Mengele was the Nazi doctor who conducted savage experiments on the prisoners in Auschwitz."
"Right, yeah. Him I heard of" Patrick replied.
"Good. Beria was Stalin's head of the NKVD, Stalin's secret police. He ordered the murder of millions."
"Not a nice man." Patrick said.
"To say the least. Tomás de Torquemada was a Dominican friar who invented the Spanish Inquisition and ran it for a time."
"Well I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition."
I laughed. "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition. But anyway, there were three historical inquisitions. The Spanish one focused mostly on Jews and Muslims in Spain and Spanish colonies. We even had it in Spanish colonies in the Southwest USA. The Roman inquisition focused on Protestants after the Protestant Reformation and the medieval inquisition focused on heretics called Cathars. Bernard Gui ran that one. He also wrote manuals on how to torture that are still used today for 'enhanced interrogation' at Gitmo."
"What's a Cathar?"
"That shows you how vicious old Father Gui was. You know Jews, Muslims and Protestants, right? Ever met a Cathar? Ol' Bernie burned them all at the stake. He only stopped 'cause he ran out of fuel."
"So this dude's parents made a bad name choice?"
"I'd say so. Anyway what's the deal with him?"
"Well he's come in twice so far. He's here at that conference and droppin' lots of expense account money. He's usin' his corporate card to pay for everything. He's dropped about $1300 so far. First night he went to the Champagne room with one chick... umm ... let's see.... Monica.... After dropping about $100 on lap dances. Last night he took two chicks back, Elsa and Kim. So far its blondes brunettes and Asian chicks. He's not into huge tits. He turned down Olga three times for lap dances."
I snorted. "Yeah and she's what, quintuple E?"
"Not quite." I could hear Patrick grinning across the phone connection. "but close enough. Also, doesn't seem to like black chicks. He turned down a double with I'Satta and La'Toya"
"That's like turning down Beyoncé and Halle Barrey at the same time." I observed.
"No accounting for taste." Patrick added. "Anyway, past that he is what you expect. Paunchy middle aged lower level VP at an oil and gas company. He's one step down from the CIO and runs the IT organization for the USA out of their Dallas office."
"Well that's a good start. I've got some sales folks at that conference. I think if we have Jayne, Natsumi and Saul look him up." I concluded. Jayne would cover the blonde, Natsumi the Asian and Saul would be able to take Bernie out for a few lap dances at the club and steer him to our Dallas club. Saul could get him a "VIP" card. If nothing else, we'd have this guy dropping lots of coin at our club.
Two lunches with our two rather lovely sales ladies and a night of lap dances later we had our first contract for $100,000 in consulting.
Long term, well I could not say that a $20 lap dance was good for $20,000 in consulting but it sure felt that way sometimes. Of course, we still had to produce and we did. When have a 300 year life span, you take a long view of things.
I had, as a matter of course, visited with Bernie several times and taken him out to our clubs, treating him to champagne rooms whenever I was in town. My typical approach was to take him out to dinner or some event like a ball game. I would listen to him tell boring stories of what a great athlete he had been in high school and college. In truth he had been above average in high school, below average in college and a sedentary slug since graduation. He still fancied himself a jock and a lady killer, and, as proof, he would point out all the strippers and professional ladies he had satisfied. I hire these women, so I know they are great actors.
After a few drinks, suggest we take advantage of the excuse we had to be away from our wives. We would head over to the local club, get into the VIP room and I would treat him to lap dances and, ultimately the champagne rooms. He always left needing to drop his pants off at the dry cleaners the next day, if you know what I mean.
Over the course of a year, Bernie had reached a point where we would give him the full court press at my ranch. We were very close to signing a deal where his company would outsource their entire North American IT operation to our consulting company. The total deal had a base of $100 million per year, plus additional fees for new projects and development. For this I pulled out all the stops.
I picked a weekend when I knew my wife would not be around. She was heading to a horse show to compete in hunter jumper. I spent the week saturating the ranch with pheromones. I would work out hard then put my sweat drenched clothes into the HVAC air intake system. I had set up a sauna so that the air coming out of the sauna, filled with my pheromones, pumped directly into the HVAC system as well. My house and office shared the HVAC system so very little work got done. Tee, Christine and Kate would sneak off separately or pair up to relieve themselves. I would hear their moans of pleasure and the hum of vibrators through the walls.
Hector got a few afternoon surprises from his wife Maria. Maria would be in the ranch cleaning, leave and ambush Hector in the barn. She would return with hay stuck to her back and a big smile.
"Jefe, I am sorry I am not getting all that much done this week." He told me on Wednesday.
"That's ok Hector. I understand. Something has gotten into all the women here this week."
"Si. That always seems to happen just before you have business guests."
I smiled and said nothing.
"Tú eres el diablo, Jefe." Hector laughed
"No, just a minor demon." I laughed in return.
Of course, my wife was insatiable during this week. I barely got through the door before she was ripping off my pants and sucking my dick in the evenings. She would come over to the office and drag me away several times per day as well. On the day she left for her show I took her to the barn's office which did not share heating and cooling with the house, and made sure she was completely satisfied. We made love on the desk, the chair, and the couch with me releasing the "you will be completely satisfied" pheromones the entire time.
Tough work but someone has to do it.
I try to pay close attention to details and make sure everything was perfect. As you know, the ranch is in a ski town. I hired the chef from one of the more expensive tourist restaurants in town to cook for the weekend. Tee, Christine and Kate would be around on Saturday to help close the deal. I gave them each a large allowance for buying clothes for these occasions but insisted on pre-approving their outfits, including their underwear and shoes. I also hired Colette to help with serving food and making sure everything was in order.
