Code of Silence

Code of Silence - Chapter 7

As we started working on the voice synthesis project together Alex had often commented on the close relationship that my dad and I enjoyed. It always seemed to be tinged with a hint of jealously and, from our chats, I gathered that Alex's father was more devoted to his work than to his family life.

Alex, the twins and their mother had been settled back in the UK for several months, leaving their father rattling around the luxury apartment in Moscow, free to work whatever hours were required, to wine and dine, socialise, and whatever else he pleased himself with during the fragments of spare time he had.

According to Alex, their father had been an important figure in some recent mergers in Moscow, helping to negotiate and close deals worth billions of dollars. It all sounded pretty amazing, like something from a TV box set, but Alex sounded unimpressed by it all. Now, with the family settled back home, he could devote all of his time to his work in the run-up to his own return and eventual semi-retirement. The long running takeover deal between a Russian technology company and his client Anthony Varkanopolis, which was about to conclude, would be demanding his time for sure.

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Anthony Varkanopolis had started out in life with very little. His parents arrived in the UK with their young children as immigrants from Greece seeking new opportunities and a better life. His father and mother held down menial jobs while saving enough money to start their own restaurant, serving traditional Greek cuisine to the ever-changing British public's dining tastes. Following years of hard work, and with the growing trend for dining out, the restaurant business became a success and grew steadily, providing a stable income for the family.

Anthony and his siblings attended local schools and did well considering their late arrival into the UK schooling system. Anthony eventually left school with just a handful of qualifications, but a burning desire to do well, just like his father had. He tried his hand at several jobs, eventually proving to be adept at selling photocopiers to local office managers for a large American company. Hungry for success, he rapidly climbed the corporate ladder before branching out with his own business ventures.

Now in his late fifties, and with a controlling stake in his Varkasoft computer and software company, he was on the verge of realising his dream: wealth beyond his imagination, not quite rubbing shoulders with the billionaires he followed in the media, but a self-made man soon to be worth many millions. The Varkasoft sale was what he'd worked towards for all these years, and he'd arrived in Russia with a desire to seal the biggest deal of his life.

Previously, while establishing the Varkasoft office in Moscow, he had relocated there for almost two years along with his wife and Theodore, their youngest child. Theodore's older sister was more independent and had decided to stay at home. Recently graduated after a long stint at medical school, she was in the middle of a gap-year trip to South America before committing to full-time employment. Initially, Anthony thought he might commute to Russia on a weekly basis, but it became clear that a move for the family was essential: he didn't want to be apart from them for an extended period, and the business opportunity dictated he had to be on the ground in Moscow.

Theodore was enrolled in the best international school available, to continue his studies. He was reaching the end of his high school years and needed the focus; university beckoned on their return home to the UK. Despite being present in Russia, Theodore and his mother still didn't see that much of Anthony, as he threw himself into the new venture. Life for the family was much as it had always been: long days at the office, or travelling, for Anthony. But at least he was there the majority of evenings, rather than just two or three times a month. Business was important to him, but family even more so.

Tony, as he was known to those close to him, had started out by importing computer hardware from the USA in the infancy of home-computing when the size of the monitors and machines occupied most of the desktop. He'd struggled to strike deals with the big players, who shunned his approaches, so instead collaborated with the smaller, disruptive businesses that welcomed his entrepreneurial style and visionary approach. These lucrative partnerships enabled Tony to rapidly exploit markets in the UK and across Europe, reacting quickly as trends evolved but without the requirement for significant investment, this pain usually endured by his American suppliers.