softening slightly.
"Somewhere in the City, not on the ground floor and preferably near Threadneedle Street," he suggested.
"Near the Bank of England, I suppose?" she suggested, somewhat sarcastically but Pascoe either didn't realize it or else he ignored it.
"Where better? It needn't be large, but it should have an ante-room, a safe, telephone and possibly telex, as well as the usual furniture. We will need somewhere small, easy to decorate. Somewhere with an entrance common to several floors.
“For how long?"
"I expect the shortest lease we will be able to get will be three months, although a month will do for our purposes. Tell them it's for temporary use while we're having our main offices decorated."
"I think I can manage that," she said, "I take it we will want it from April?“
"Yes, from April 1st! It'll be good to start on All Fools Day ."
"What will you be doing in the meantime?"
"I shall start printing the stationery. It should be fairly straight-forward and it will give me time to get used to the equipment before I start on the cheques."
"Will there be much stationery?"
"All the paperwork, such as letterheads, business cards and the Purchaser's Agreement form. There's also a booklet which tells you what to do should you lose the cheques or have them stolen and finally, I want to print a circular to send to all the clearing banks, advising them of the launch of our cheques, informing them where to send the cheques for encashment," he explained.
"Won't we be sh owing our hand by doing that?" she asked, looking puzzled.
"No. That's the beauty of it. The Bureau-de-Change have to sell the che ques to somebody - usually the clearing banks, which forward them to its own travelers’ cheque division to be sorted and returned to the issuing companies. This is when they might become inquisitive, but if we have already informed them of the launch of our cheques and provided them with samples, it should forestall the problem. The circular will instruct them to clear the cheques as normal through the New York clearing bank. That way, we should be safe until the cheques reach the States, which is where the computer numbering system will come into play!"
"How?" s he asked.
"I've listed the che que numbering sequences from the leading suppliers. If we duplicate them on our own cheques, the computer system will accept them as real and pay the English clearing banks accordingly. Don't forget that the more confusion we cause, the better it'll be for us," he explained. "You see, the cheques are sorted initially by machine and the machine only reads the codes we give them. Once it's accepted those numbers and there is no reason why it shouldn't, the computers will make the appropriate debit from one account and the corresponding credit to the clearing bank in the U.K.!"
" But our cheques won't be real." She insisted.
“I know that and you know that, but the machines are only interested in the numbers printed in magnetic ink. As far as the sorting machines are concerned, the che ques could just as well be blank pieces of paper!" Slowly, the full import of what he'd been saying, sank in.
"You bastard, Tom. You conniving, scheming, underhand brilliant bastard. They won't even know they've been taken." She smiled at the thought.
"Not for some time if we're lucky. Even when they do find out, it'll take them years to unravel the mess, by which time we'll be far away."
"I'm sorry I blew my top earlier," she said, with a new-found admiration for him." It's flattering to know you were jealous even if I do hate it on principle. Mind you, there'd have been trouble if you hadn't been. Perhaps I can make it up to you ... "
Next morning, Pascoe drove to the workshop refreshed, excited at the prospect of beginning the real work. He started with the Purchaser's Agreement Form, using his own copy, kept from the time in the summer when he had bought some travelers' che ques, as a prototype.
He sat at the retouching desk and fixed
"Somewhere in the City, not on the ground floor and preferably near Threadneedle Street," he suggested.
"Near the Bank of England, I suppose?" she suggested, somewhat sarcastically but Pascoe either didn't realize it or else he ignored it.
"Where better? It needn't be large, but it should have an ante-room, a safe, telephone and possibly telex, as well as the usual furniture. We will need somewhere small, easy to decorate. Somewhere with an entrance common to several floors.
“For how long?"
"I expect the shortest lease we will be able to get will be three months, although a month will do for our purposes. Tell them it's for temporary use while we're having our main offices decorated."
"I think I can manage that," she said, "I take it we will want it from April?“
"Yes, from April 1st! It'll be good to start on All Fools Day ."
"What will you be doing in the meantime?"
"I shall start printing the stationery. It should be fairly straight-forward and it will give me time to get used to the equipment before I start on the cheques."
"Will there be much stationery?"
"All the paperwork, such as letterheads, business cards and the Purchaser's Agreement form. There's also a booklet which tells you what to do should you lose the cheques or have them stolen and finally, I want to print a circular to send to all the clearing banks, advising them of the launch of our cheques, informing them where to send the cheques for encashment," he explained.
"Won't we be sh owing our hand by doing that?" she asked, looking puzzled.
"No. That's the beauty of it. The Bureau-de-Change have to sell the che ques to somebody - usually the clearing banks, which forward them to its own travelers’ cheque division to be sorted and returned to the issuing companies. This is when they might become inquisitive, but if we have already informed them of the launch of our cheques and provided them with samples, it should forestall the problem. The circular will instruct them to clear the cheques as normal through the New York clearing bank. That way, we should be safe until the cheques reach the States, which is where the computer numbering system will come into play!"
"How?" s he asked.
"I've listed the che que numbering sequences from the leading suppliers. If we duplicate them on our own cheques, the computer system will accept them as real and pay the English clearing banks accordingly. Don't forget that the more confusion we cause, the better it'll be for us," he explained. "You see, the cheques are sorted initially by machine and the machine only reads the codes we give them. Once it's accepted those numbers and there is no reason why it shouldn't, the computers will make the appropriate debit from one account and the corresponding credit to the clearing bank in the U.K.!"
" But our cheques won't be real." She insisted.
“I know that and you know that, but the machines are only interested in the numbers printed in magnetic ink. As far as the sorting machines are concerned, the che ques could just as well be blank pieces of paper!" Slowly, the full import of what he'd been saying, sank in.
"You bastard, Tom. You conniving, scheming, underhand brilliant bastard. They won't even know they've been taken." She smiled at the thought.
"Not for some time if we're lucky. Even when they do find out, it'll take them years to unravel the mess, by which time we'll be far away."
"I'm sorry I blew my top earlier," she said, with a new-found admiration for him." It's flattering to know you were jealous even if I do hate it on principle. Mind you, there'd have been trouble if you hadn't been. Perhaps I can make it up to you ... "
Next morning, Pascoe drove to the workshop refreshed, excited at the prospect of beginning the real work. He started with the Purchaser's Agreement Form, using his own copy, kept from the time in the summer when he had bought some travelers' che ques, as a prototype.
He sat at the retouching desk and fixed
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