Numbered Account

Ott slammed his hand on the table. "There will be no trip. Not now. Not ever! My dear, did you truly believe that your dalliance with the Chairman would insulate you from the rest of us? Did you think it would hasten you along your chosen path?"

"My personal life is no concern of yours. I have never tried to gain any benefit from my relationship with the Chairman, but in this matter I won't hesitate to speak with him directly."

"Do you think you can run back into the arms of Herr Kaiser now? Dear child, the Chairman is finished with you. He is a disciplined man. Should he require the company of a woman, we will choose someone far less grasping than you. Preferably, a woman with no ties whatsoever to the bank."

"You can't control his heart, who he loves, who he desires…"

"Desire is one thing, my dear. Utility, another. The Chairman requires me. Today, tomorrow, and for as long as he shall manage the bank. I am the oil that makes this intricate machine run smoothly." Ott stood, pausing for a moment to glory in his exalted position. He extended a stubby finger in Sylvia's direction. "You didn't actually believe that a Swiss bank would allow itself to be represented in the United States of America by a woman? A child practically?"

Sylvia moved her mouth to respond but nothing came out. Of course, Ott was right. Switzerland was light-years behind England and France and America in its treatment of women. Just look at USB. How many women were on the executive board? None. How many women were executive vice presidents? Still, she knew that things had to change soon. And she had seen herself as the one changing them.

"You did," said Ott, at once incredulous and supremely certain. "I can see it in your eyes. How quaint!" He walked from the office, calling over his shoulder, "Have that letter ready for me by five o'clock this afternoon without fail, Fraulein. We must have our votes."

Sylvia waited a few minutes after Ott had left, then walked to the ladies' rest room. She made her way to the farthest stall, and after shutting the door, collapsed against the tile wall. Ott's words burned like acid in the space behind her eyes. He had won. He had broken her. Another soul vanquished so that he could strengthen his alliance with Wolfgang Kaiser.

Ott was such a bastard! she thought, and then a fresh wave of self-pity swept over her and she cried. She lamented her short affair with Wolfgang Kaiser even as she remembered the day they had met. It had been at the bank's annual picnic on a warm July afternoon almost two years ago. She had never expected to speak with him, let alone flirt. No one at her level even knew the Chairman. There was no telling where the discussion might lead. The chances for disaster were simply too high. So when he drew her aside and asked if she was enjoying herself, she had been reticent, even afraid to meet him in conversation. But instead of hearing some dry rot regarding the bank's newest hiring policies, she had listened as he enthused over the visiting Giacometti exhibition at the Kunsthaus. Instead of a dreaded "do tell" about her colleagues, he had asked if she had ever rafted down the Saanen River, and then related his own trip two weeks before. She had expected a severe but polite functionary but had met a warm and effusive man.

Two weekends at his summer home in Gstaad, that had been the extent of their liaison. He had treated her like a princess. Dinners on the veranda of the Palace Hotel; long walks roaming the grassy hills; romantic and, she still had to admit, passionate evenings drinking exquisite wine and making love. She had never been so blind to think it would continue forever, but neither had she dreamed it might be used against her.

Fifteen minutes later, a becalmed Sylvia ran cold water over her face. She kept her head near the sink and ladled handful after handful of water onto her swollen cheeks. She looked into the mirror for a long time. Trust. Dedication. Effort. She had given her whole being to the bank. Why would they choose to treat her this way?

The United Swiss Bank was an internationally active bank. Should anyone hope to rise to the directorship of the bank's personnel division, he- Sylvia wouldn't waste another breath considering herself- would be required to supervise hiring not only in Switzerland but in New York, in Hong Kong, in Dubai. Should that person be blocked by the Chairman's eminence grise from representing the bank abroad, his career would be at an end. That was that.

Sylvia straightened herself up and dried her face. She needed to unburden herself of the grief that sat on her chest robbing her of oxygen. She needed to escape the confines of her office. But that was impossible. Activity in the bank was running at a fever pitch: every department gearing up for presentations to be made at the general assembly; managers nervous to learn the annual operating results; the Adler Bank hovering ever closer. She couldn't consider taking a day off for at least a month.