Saturday, 8 December 2012

Chapter seven

Jason

“It’s Michael isn’t it?” Jason asked, as he pulled one of his members of staff to one side. 

The guy was a skinny man, no older than his mid-twenties. He was carrying a tray of drinks over to Adam Gammon’s table. 

“Yes sir.” He said. 

“Whose drinks are they?” Jason asked. 

“They’re the ones ordered for Mr Gammon’s table sir.” Michael answered. 

Jason examined the tray, a glass of wine, three pints of bitter and one of his trademark cocktails. He took a smell of the cocktail and shook his head the moment he smelt the alcohol. 

“This is wrong,” Jason said, taking the tray from Michael. “Any drinks to be made for that table need to be made by me. That was made quite clear.”

“I’m sorry sir, it’s just that you seemed quite busy so I thought-“

“Don’t think,” Jason interrupted. “No matter how busy I may look, that table is my priority and I will always make sure that I make the drinks for them.”

“Okay sir,” Michael stuttered out his response. “I will make sure that I will come to you from now on.”

“Good.” Jason said and took the tray back to the bar. 

“Surely you don’t have to pour some more sir,” Michael asked as he followed Jason back to the bar. “I haven’t got the order wrong, I can show you the tab if you like.”

Jason threw Michael an icy glare. He opened his mouth to retort but then thought better of it. The poor guy didn’t know why these people were there, how was he to know the special requirements that table needed? 

“This is not a bad reflection on you Michael, but the clientele at that table are very important to this establishment and they have asked that all drinks be made by the head barman. We do not want to upset them, I assure you.”

Michael nodded and waited patiently for the new drinks to be made. 

“These will take me a moment to prepare, there’s a table over there that needs to be cleared, please see to that in the meantime.”

Michael threw Jason a look that suggested he had something to say about this but kept his mouth shut and stalked off. No doubt to complain about the new boss to his colleagues. Jason sighed, envious of the ignorance his staff held. It would only last for so long until he would have to start in on the lies that he had been instructed to carry out once the noises and the gossip began. The more his mind worked over this, the more he found his hands begin to shake. He put down the bottles of drink that he held and took a deep breath. Relax Jason, He thought, You’re doing this for Mark, think of Mark.

With that thought re-imbedded in his mind, he found his strength and picked up his bottles of drink once more, finishing off the order, ensuring that all drinks were now non-alcoholic with the exception of Adam’s. His mind fell back the speech Michelle had given him a few hours prior. 

“There are three groups of people who will be coming into this building today.” Michelle gave him a list of people, divided into three columns. “Group A are the members of staff who will be coming into this place disguised as customers. They will be asking for alcoholic drinks, they must not be given alcoholic drinks and neither will they expect to be drinking these drinks. They need to stay sharp for what the day has in store for them. This is important Jason, they do not know what exactly is going to happen but they have been inadvertently training in the skills needed for what we predict is to come. They also know that they will most likely need to use these skills throughout the course of the day. They are working on a need to know basis and are trained to undertake actions without asking questions. You, at this moment, know more about this day than they do. Do not attempt to discuss this with them because they will not know what you are talking about. They will be told as and when we deem they need to know. There will be a large array of non alcoholic drinks available to use as a substitute for their orders, all of which are available at the bar. 

“The second group of people are the people in the building who will be needed throughout the course of the day but are not aware that any danger is coming at all. The majority of these people will be your members of staff. In these cases, there are a set of situations and excuses set out for you and your fellow managers to let the staff know, it is your main responsibility to keep the peace around your staff. They must not know for as long as possible what is occurring as it will be up to them to keep the peace for the remainder of the customers. I encourage you to read through these scenarios thoroughly in order to ensure that you are able to respond to any such situation that occurs. Although, as I said, the majority of these people will be your staff, there are a few that will be customers. You will see these people highlighted in bold. These people will probably ask for alcoholic drinks throughout the day, you must not provide them with these. Instead you are to provide them with virgin equivalents. All these customers will be dealt exclusively by you. Please familiarise yourself with their names, especially Ms Daniela Davids. She is crucial to the survival of everyone in this place. She also has no clue what is about to happen. Under no circumstances should she become at all impaired, her brain is far too important.

“Finally, the third group consists of everyone else that we have brought into this establishment for future needs but who are not needed for the initial onslaught. These are the people that we want to keep out of the loop for the longest amount of time. The last thing we need today is mass panic which is what will happen should any of these people find out. Our main plan is simple. Alcohol. Get the people drunk. Move them to smaller rooms and keep them away from any knowledge of what is going on outside. They have each been assigned to one of our team who have strict rules to get them as inebriated as possible within the shortest time possible. Although this group will have individual people looking after them, this will need policing from you, as later in the day their guardians will be needed elsewhere. As I said when you entered, it is up to you and your staff to monitor this and move any over the top behaviour to a private room so as not to cause too much damage. We have the space to use and enough rooms to house all people in this building. Any questions?”

Jason had had many. And now there was no more time to ask. He just had to go along with the plan, chanting Mark’s name over and over in his head each time he began to panic. He finished the drinks, now holding only one alcoholic beer and the rest virgin drinks and motioned for Michael to come and take the tray from him. Michael did with a brisk nod, clearly still not happy with how he had been spoken to. 

“Um, sir?” A female voice called his attention. It was another member of his staff, her name was Caroline if he had remembered correctly. “I was told to contact you should table 7 need any drinks?”

Jason glanced over the list she presented him and noticed another two people from group B.

“That’s correct,” Jason said. “Grab the order for table 14 whilst I get these, will you?”
“Yes sir,” Caroline said and walked off to make the next order.

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