Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Cyrus Martin was the CEO of Core Point.
“I appreciate the aggressiveness you’ve shown in validating what was sent to me,” Mika said. “Nevertheless, I wish you would have consulted us before taking it this far. Tom knows one of the survivors.”
“Yes, but his name, and all of your names have been kept out of this thus far,” Kateri replied.
“There will likely come a time when she’ll know of my involvement,” Tom put in.
“I understand. And we can handle that how you wish,” Kateri told him. “But that particular offense occurred in England. The other three…that we know of…happened here, in New York, and would most likely be considered second- or even third-degree rape, both having statutes of limitations. And the crimes were committed outside those limits. There are no limits on any criminal offenses in Britain. Which means he could be extradited and tried in England for raping Ms. Trainor who has dual citizenship, American and British. But she’s lived in England since she was fifteen, and she always competed as a British competitor. They will consider her theirs. Because of that, the British press will eviscerate him.”
Everyone at the table was quiet.
“She hasn’t decided that this will be her course of action,” Kateri continued. “But all four of the survivors have agreed to be named.”
“Brave,” Judge murmured.
“Yes,” Georgiana agreed. “Because they’re breaking thirty-page NDAs that, if Core Point decides to go that route, which we feel is unlikely, considering they’ll already be dealing with a raging public relations fiasco, and they won’t want to add more fuel to that fire, things could get very tricky for all four of them.”
Kateri looked at Tom. “You’re going to need to create a strategy to talk to the athletes and the organizations. Anyone who wears the CP circles while they compete is going to need to dump them, and anyone who doesn’t will need to be pressured to do so or ostracized. The professional organizations are going to have to penalize them or ban them. This isn’t a coverup for a talented player so he’d be free to keep winning matches wearing their gear and encouraging people to buy it. This is a corporate philosophy. They have only one female executive in a multi-national corporation that employs seventy thousand people. Murmurs of sexual harassment payoffs are rampant. And according to the mole, they’ve covered up similar situations in the last twenty-five years with a boxer, a quarterback and a snowboarder. Georgiana is working those, and we hope to lessen the scrutiny on the First Four by adding more to their number. Although one voice should be heard, that isn’t the world we live in. There’s strength in numbers. As the Nassar case proved.”
Learning this was bigger than just Andrew Winston, Tom’s voice was a rough, infuriated rumble, when he replied, “Although I’m sadly unsurprised Winston isn’t isolated in these incidents with them, I don’t have ubiquity with every sport and I’m not omnipotent. And Core Point is the former, and close to the latter.”
Kateri lifted a hand and pointed a black-lacquered finger at Hale and said, “That’s where you come in.”
Hale didn’t hesitate.
He turned to Jamie and asked, “You in?”
Jamie answered, “Definitely.”
Tom knew what that meant.
This story was going to make Core Point vulnerable.
When it did, and probably before, Jamie was going to do his voodoo to make it even more vulnerable on Wall Street.
Then one, or the other, or both of them would buy it and scuttle it.
“And the reason my father was highlighted in this mess?” Jamie queried.
“Because he and the senior Martin, Doyle, who started the company, were tight,” Kateri informed him. “They were then. They were until Doyle died two years ago. The whistleblower says, in the beginning, AJ Oakley crafted their response to issues like this. It was then adopted by Cyrus when he came in. AJ being the author of this, considering the number of boards he’s sat on, not to mention the running of his own companies, who knows how far he’s sown the seeds of his philosophy.”
“We think there’s a good possibility this isn’t a story,” Georgiana said, her tone cautious. “It’ll be the first domino falling. Strong women embolden women to be strong. The First Four come out, considering the reach of all of the key players involved, Cyrus and Doyle Martin and AJ Oakley, we have no idea where this will end.”
Again, taking that in, everyone at the table was quiet.
Mika broke it.
“I’d like to go back to the women,” she put in.
“We’ll take care of them, Ms. Stowe, you have my promise on that,” Georgiana said.
“Please, call me Mika, and please take no offense when I remind you, I barely know you,” Mika replied.
“Do you know the work of The Worldist?” Georgiana asked.
Tom did.
It was a web news site that started only a few years ago. Their remit was touted as bare bones, objective journalism. They not only published articles, they also had “on-air” personalities that appeared live on their site for morning and evening slots to share encapsulated reports of recent news.