‘Indeed.’
‘We have also prepared a counter-claim, here,’ said Brogan holding up a document.
San Marino looked a little surprised. ‘Mr Brogan,’ he said slowly and courteously, ‘we have had no prior warning or submission of such a response from your client. I regret the Council cannot receive or acknowledge such a document without due notice.’
Brogan didn’t sound surprised by the response. ‘I understand, Mr President. I will, nevertheless, draw from elements of my client’s counter-claim in our repudiation of Massarella’s gratuitous allegations.’
‘I am sure you will…’
‘…at the very least, Mr President,’ said Brogan quickly before San Marino was able to cut him off, ‘it should be declared to the Council that my client has approached yourself on two separate occasions so far this season, sir, with concerns of sabotage they believe to have been perpetrated by the Massarella team. The Ptarmigan team, including Mr Straker, who is here today, presented you with their concerns in both Monaco and Spa.’
This was clearly new news to most of the Council members around the table.
‘At the Spa meeting,’ Brogan went on, ‘those assertions were presented to you in the presence of Mr Joss MacRae.’
Again there were murmurings around the table at this disclosure.
Straker recognized the canny game their barrister was playing. Brogan wasn’t answering the charges, yet — but was trying to throw up enough dust to show that this was not a clear-cut, one-sided situation.
San Marino levelled his attention at Brogan. ‘I thank you for bringing that to the attention of the meeting,’ he said. ‘Can we revert to the business of our agreed agenda — your client’s statement of facts and the answers to the FIA’s questions?’ This time, it was San Marino who kept talking — to retain control of the floor: ‘In addressing Massarella’s allegations, I would like to refer to your client’s answer to Question 1: that Ptarmigan first came up with the design for the spiral surfaces — or the Fibonacci Blades, as I believe your client calls them, on the Monday after the Bahrain Grand Prix, May 25th?’
‘That is correct, Mr President. We have, in the statement of facts under Tab 1, set out a schedule of our development of this device from inception to its presence on the car in Belgium.’
There was a theatrical grunt from Van Der Vaal. Without an invitation to speak, the Massarella boss growled: ‘We have proof of development of this device as long ago as March 12th.’
There were mutterings around the table — both at the intervention and the information imparted.
San Marino looked mildly irritated. ‘Eugene, please, let us conduct this meeting with some order. I will call for comments at the appropriate time.’ He paused, looked at Van Der Vaal, and waited — as if to receive some form of acknowledgement of his point. None came.
‘Mr President,’ said Brogan very quietly. ‘May we see some evidence to this claim by Mr Van Der Vaal of 12th March?’
There was a flurry of papers from the Massarella section of the table before a document was passed all the way round — between the council members — to reach San Marino. Repositioning his half-moon glasses, the patrician-looking President read the page indicated by Massarella.
For the first time the room remained quiet while this evidence was assessed. San Marino looked up. ‘Mr Brogan, it would appear that Massarella are correct. They do seem to have an earlier start date for their development of these spiral surfaces than Ptarmigan’s. Would you like to comment?’
Straker watched Brogan intently to see how he would react to this.
‘Certainly, Mr President. The surfaces, we admit, look vaguely similar. However, is it not possible for two people or two organizations to come up with the same idea concurrently but independently? Let us remember that all cars are faced with the exact same challenges. The exact same Formula, no less. Are not the exact same problems likely to inspire hugely similar solutions? After all, the way the teams deal with their braking, cooling, aerodynamics, etc., are all remarkably similar, are they not?’
‘We accept that, of course, Mr Brogan. But we are considering, today, the possibility that ideas were not developed independently, but that they were actually transferred.’
‘Indeed, Mr President. Thank you for raising my very next point. Transference. For an idea to be transferred, it needs to have someone to give it and someone to receive it. Can I ask Mr Van Der Vaal who it was in his own organization that supposedly made this idea available in the first place, and presumably breached Massarella’s own security systems — and trust — to do so?’
San Marino’s face clearly registered the point. ‘An interesting observation, Mr Brogan. Eugene, would you like to comment?’
‘That’s irrelevant, Mr President,’ snapped Van Der Vaal. ‘In any case that would be a Massarella problem and concern. It has no bearing on the benefits Ptarmigan have derived from our work on the ASD. Can we please focus on that and the violation of Massarella’s intellectual property rights?’
‘Sorry, Eugene, what did you say? A.. S.. D?’
‘Yeah, ASD — A.. S.. D,’ repeated Van Der Vaal impatiently. ‘Massarella call this the Aero-Spiral Device. You’ve referred to our innovation as “spiral surfaces”. Ptarmigan refer to our idea as Fibonacci Blades.’
‘Thank you.’ San Marino refocused on the Ptarmigan contingent: ‘Mr Brogan, you’ve made an interesting point about the source of information inside Massarella — one we will put to them later. Can we turn to the evidence that a transfer took place?’
‘Certainly, Mr President,’ said Brogan. ‘To help with this, we were grateful to the FIA for asking Question 4 in your letter, in which you asked my client for details of all contact with Massarella by any of my client’s team. If you turn to page 25 of our statement of facts you will see that my client identifies a handful of face-to-face contacts, but they categorically deny any transfer of data, ideas, or intellectual property. Ptarmigan have produced for you comprehensive schedules showing the telephone and email traffic of all other members of staff. There are no records to indicate that there has been any electronic communication between Massarella and Ptarmigan.’
‘Thank you for the confirmation, Mr Brogan. Eugene,’ said San Marino turning to Van Der Vaal. ‘Do you wish to comment?’
‘Indeed I do,’ came a growled reply.
Being behind and to one side of him, Straker only had an oblique view of Van Der Vaal’s face. He saw enough to gauge the expression of self-satisfaction as the gruff Afrikaner addressed the President. ‘We know that the design for the ASD — this crucial performance-enhancing development — was transferred to Ptarmigan after Bahrain.’
ASD! A memory went off in Straker’s head like a thunderclap. Hang on a minute! he screamed to himself: A — S — D!
That was it! He suddenly remembered where he’d seen that acronym before. Hurriedly he pulled Charlotte Grant’s iPhone out of his pocket, turned it on and waited impatiently for it to power up. When it finally did, he scrolled through the texts in her inbox.
There!
Yes — there — there it was!
He found the message to Charlie Grant from that mysterious — unidentified — Italian mobile number, which, just as he remembered, referred to this ASD acronym.
No wonder Treadwell had been unable to recognize it when Straker had asked him what this term meant — ASD was clearly one of Massarella’s own. Whatever this coincidence meant, Straker had found a connection between proprietary Massarella terminology and Charlie Grant.