The Rackham Family

1:a upplagan
Copyright © 1984 by Mikael Bonnier, Lund, Sweden.
All rights reserved.

Richard Rackham is just about to land at the Sturup airport after eight hours in the air. He has been in Brasilia and sold the AXE telephone system. He is a business manager in the Ericsson company and has been so for five years now. He likes to travel over the world and to do business. But he wants to build something of his own - he doesn't feel comfortable being a small person in a large multinational company. When he was young he had a small company of his own. He had developed a computer interface called X-25. The interface sold very well. But Ericsson also sold a similar interface. So in order to get rid of the competition Ericsson started to buy up stocks in the Rackham company. After one year Ericsson had full control over the Rackham company. Richard Rackham was now offered a job in Ericsson. He took it, he could see no other option. But in his head a fire was burning, the fire of revenge. Even now five years after the fire still burns with full strength.

At the airport Richard Rackham orders a limousine.
"It will be here in ten minutes", the lady says.
"Fine", Richard says.
As you might know, you can order limousines at the Sturup airport. And Richard Rackham has a habit of always ordering a limousine to drive him home after he has landed.

The car drives up to his villa, which is situated a mile outside Lund. It's a large white villa and there are tall trees in his garden. "Hello, anybody home?", he says when he enters the hall with the high ceiling. There is no answer to be heard. He is walking up the stairs when the telephone rings.
"Hello, this is Richard."
"Hi Mr Rackham, it's Peter Anderson. I'm calling from Moscow. There seems to be no obstacle."
"Fine", says Richard. "Have you been talking to General Ivanowitch."
"Yes, he agrees to our price."
"The software from Intel has just arrived from US via South-Africa to Malmoe. I want you to get it to Leningrad."
"No problem", Anderson says.
"Well, goodby then."

Rackham has fixed this illegal computer software deal, so that it will seem as if it was the Ericsson company that had made it. It is illegal to export American software to the Sovjetunion, and Rackham intends to reveal this deal and blame Ericsson. USA will then cut off the shippings of American software and components to Ericsson. And without the components they can no longer survive. This will be Richard Rackham's revenge.

But in the kitchen his neglected wife, Eve Rackham, sits. She refills her glass with the Sandeman red port wine. She has heard everything and she doesn't like it, neither the deal nor Richard Rackham himself. She is thinking of taking a divorce, but since she has a drinking problem she might run the risk to be judged as an unfit mother. Richard and Eve have two children, one boy and one girl. She loves them both, but especially the girl, Sauza. She thinks that the boy, Pehr, reminds her too much of his father. She can only see one way out of the dilemma.

"Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to be a widow after all", she thinks. "Or she could kidnap her daughter and go abroad where no one could find her..." Before she has concluded her thinking the doorbell rings. It is the police. They say that her daughter, Sauza, has been involved in an accident and now lies in a coma at the Lund University Hospital.

To be continued.