Read Online Disclosure: A Novel by Michael Crichton - Free Book Online

anything. But I hope you're okay. About this new reorganization."

    Sanders concealed his surprise. In twelve years, Kaplan had never said anything so directly personal to him. He wondered why she would do so now. He was instantly wary, unsure of how to respond.

    “Well, it was a shock," he said.

    She looked at him with a steady gaze. "It was a shock to many of us," she said quietly.
    "There was an uproar in Cupertino. A lot of people questioned Garvin's judgment."

    Sanders frowned. Kaplan never said anything even obliquely critical of Garvin. Never.
    But now this. Was she testing him? He said nothing, and poked at his food.

    "I can imagine you're uneasy about the new appointment."

    "Only because it was so unexpected. It seemed to come out of the blue."

    Kaplan looked at him oddly for a moment, as if he had disappointed her. Then she nodded. "It's always that way with mergers," she said. Her tone was more open, less confidential. "I was at CompuSoft when it merged with Symantec, and it was exactly the same: last-minute announcements, switches in the organization charts. Jobs promised, jobs lost. Everybody up in the air for weeks. It's not easy to bring two organizations together-especially these two. There are big differences in corporate cultures. Garvin has to make them comfortable." She gestured toward the end of the table where Garvin was sitting. `Just look at them," she said. "All the Conley people are wearing suits. Nobody in our company wears suits, except lawyers."

    "They're East Coast," Sanders said.

    "But it goes deeper than that. Conley-White likes to present itself as a diversified communications company, but it's really not so grand. Its primary business is textbooks.
    That's a lucrative business, but you're selling to school boards in Texas and Ohio and Tennessee. Many of them are deeply conservative. So Conley's conservative, by instinct and experience. They want this merger because they need to acquire a high-tech capacity going into the next century. But they can't get used to the idea of a very young company, where the employees work in T-shirts and jeans, and everybody goes by first names.
    They're in shock. Besides," Kaplan added, lowering her voice again, "there are internal divisions within Conley-White. Garvin has to deal with that, too."

    "What internal divisions?"

    She nodded toward the head of the table. "You may have noticed that their CEO isn't here.
    The big man hasn't honored us with his presence. He won't show up until the end of the week. For now, he's only sent his minions. Their highest-ranking officer is Ed Nichols, the CFO."

    Sanders glanced over at the suspicious, sharp-faced man he had met earlier. Kaplan said,
    "Nichols doesn't want to buy this company. He thinks we're overpriced and underpowered. Last year, he tried to form a strategic alliance with Microsoft, but Gates blew him off. Then Nichols tried to buy InterDisk, but that fell through: too many problems, and InterDisk had that bad publicity about the fired employee. So they ended up with us. But Ed isn't happy about where he landed."

    "He certainly doesn't look happy," Sanders said.

    "The main reason is he hates the Conley kid."

    Seated beside Nichols was John Conley, the bespectacled young lawyer in his twenties.
    Distinctly younger than anyone around him, Conley was speaking energetically, jabbing his fork in the air as he made a point to Nichols.

    "Ed Nichols thinks Conley's an asshole."

    "But Conley's only a vice president," Sanders said. "He can't have that much power."

    Kaplan shook her head. "He's the heir, remember?"

    "So? What does that mean? His grandfather's picture is on some boardroom wall?"

    "Conley owns four percent of C-W stock, and controls another twenty-six percent still held by the family or vested in trusts controlled by the family. John Conley has the largest voting block of Conley-White stock."

    "And John Conley wants the deal?"

    "Yes." Kaplan nodded. "Conley handpicked our company to