'Would you like a fucking drink?' Russ begrudgingly proffered a Budweiser and indicated that the Englishman should sit in the armchair.

'No thanks!' He went and looked in the fridge for something better. But there was only more tasteless American beer. 'Sorry, but I prefer a man's drink. Not this fizzy shit!' He held up another of the red and white cans. He felt that if rudeness was to be the norm, then he should state his position early.

'I said fucking sit down!' Russ was yelling, despite the efforts of Suzanne to calm him down.

'Don't you ever say please?' After a pause, he sat down deliberately almost expecting the chair to be booby-trapped.

'Not to Limey Shit like you!' Russ had now sat on the sofa next to a very apprehensive Suzanne.

He wasn't going to take much more of this abuse. 'If you're going to talk to me like this, I'm not going to listen.' He stood up and made to leave. 'I'll have some courtesy or you can swear at these four walls.'

'I told you to fucking sit down!' Russ had now stood and was threatening to push the programmer back into his seat. 'You've ruined my company, my marriage and my life and you're going to fucking listen.'

He saw Suzanne give an I think you had better look from the sofa, unseen to Russ. It made him decide that discretion was much better than being a hero, so he did as he obeyed. After sitting, he turned to Suzanne. 'I would like a drink. Is there a Coke or a glass of wine anywhere?'

***

It was the longest two minutes of his life as he sat there being eye-balled by an obviously angry, but totally controlled Russ. He was extremely relieved when Suzanne returned with at least half-a-dozen cans.

'You accused me of ruining your company.' Russ made to stop him, but he continued. 'In the first place, it was basically your father's company, which you happened to have a small say in. So you might have setup some good structures, but you know little of computers.'

Russ finally got his way. 'That's fucking rich! All you programmers, think you run the fucking show. Without my style of management, Zyzzx would have been a fucking great zilch!' He used his fingers to illustrate a zero.

'What about Greg! And Lucinda! Didn't they do anything!'

'Greg's alright! He does a very good job!' He smiled broadly. 'But that Limey Tart. She's a devious, ugly slut, who get's round everybody, sleeps with any dick she can find ...' The Englishman was almost laughing, as Russ described someone he didn't recognise. 'She's not even a good fuck. She doesn't like it with more than one at a time. And she doesn't like it up her arse ...'

He could take no more. 'Russ, I'm leaving, unless you can stop insulting my friend and the mother of my child.'

Russ stood and faced him, laughing loudly. 'Well at least you got it in the right place.' He laughed even more. 'Perhaps you didn't. What if the baby turns out to have a touch of the tar brush? Or a DNA test, says that someone else did the honour? Can't you see you've been fucking used? He laughed again. 'I can see, why I never employ dickheads like you in Zyzzx.'

'Take all of that back!' He had walked forward and was staring upwards at the American.

'No you take this!' Russ did not hold back the punch, that should have caught the Englishman full in the face. But Russ was not an athletic man, his delivery was slow, and helped by their difference in height, he was able to avoid anything more than a glancing blow.

But it did make him angry and he moved in again to seek some form of revenge. Suzanne was now screaming and trying to get between the two men, without much success and she received a punch in the ribs for her trouble.

***

The commotion had been heard by Greg and as his room adjoined, he rushed into the room perhaps twenty seconds, after Suzanne had first screamed. With her help, they were able to wrestle Russ into the chair and finally get him to calm down.

As he gasped for breath, Russ carried on his abuse. 'He fucking attacked me... Unprovoked... Ruined my company... Marriage...'

'Shut up, Russ! You attacked me, if you remember!' He looked at Suzanne, who turned away. He understood why! 'Calm down, Russ! If you've got anything to say to me. Say it! But I want it said in front of a witness! Is Greg acceptable?'

Russ nodded before continuing. 'We have to sort this out. I'm not sorry though!' He stared across. 'I wished I'd got you full with that blow, you'd have regretted what you've done for the rest of your life.'

'You must obviously sleep well.' Russ had asked for it and he was now going to get everything the programmer knew about Russ and the negotiations with Medusa. 'For a start, I never liked you when I first met you in Vegas. The way you treated Lucinda and the other girls in Jacob's ...'

'They liked it!'

'Shut up, Russ! You're going to hear me out!' He took a sip of Coke, smiled and continued. 'Let's start with Lucinda! I had some of the best days of my life last year at COMDEX in Vegas. And most of it was spent with a lady, you have variously described as ugly, devious and a slut. Disregarding the fact, that she's carrying my child, I have never found her anything but extremely pleasant and extraordinarily competent!' He saw Greg nod in agreement.

'Show's what rotten lovers you Limeys are, if you only thought she was only a competent fuck!' He laughed and made to get up, but Greg restrained him.

Ignoring Russ, he continued. 'I know how you tried to break the contract with all of the worst lawyers you could find and I also know about the Hungarians, who tried to clone my software.' He smiled as he remembered the two frightened programmers sitting on his sofa. 'You might have chosen someone more competent.' He had used the word deliberately.

'I didn't ...'

'That's not what they told me.'

'How come the viruses on the disc I gave them, turned up on Greg's computer?'

'Ask Greg?' Russ turned towards Greg. 'You probably put them there yourself.'

'This man's insane!' He struggled in Greg's strong grip, but could not release himself.

***

As everything calmed down, Russ at last got his chance to speak.

'Look, I'm fed up with all you lot!' He looked round to emphasise it. 'And I'm up to here with fucking lawyers! They all stick together and tell me, that my company is now not mine. My wife has left me and even my fucking father, thinks I should kiss the fucking lot good-bye ...'

'There's no need to be so bitter.' Suzanne spoke for the first time, since she had screamed for help in separating the two men. 'You've always got little me!'

'Yes!' He shrugged and half-smiled at her. 'But it doesn't alter one thing. Despite, the lawyers, the advice, my father and everything else, I'm not going to give up control of Zyzzx!'

'But ...'

'Shut up you stupid Limey!'

'No!' Five minutes later, he was to regret every word he said. 'Tell you what! I hate lawyers! You hate lawyers! I hate you! You hate me! I'll fight you for the company, no rules, the ballroom at midnight tomorrow, if by then you and Chris haven't sorted out a deal. If you win, I walk away. If I win, you sell your shares to the consortium!'

Before he could withdraw, Russ had offered his hand and they had shaken on the deal.

Copyright 1999 by Ewart Higgins