Chapter 10 In which Pangloss gets the consultants' first bill

At the end of the meeting when the councillors and business leaders had all gone Pangloss went up to Derek Poundsign.
'I can't believe we just got away with that, said Pangloss.
'Then I'm afraid you have a lot to learn about presentations by consultants, replied Poundsign. Oh, by the way, when we checked into that hotel by the station I didn't have a sea view, so I went down to reception to complain. I was remonstrating with the manager for a good two minutes before I realised that I didn't have my glasses and I was talking to a life-size cardboard cut-out. What's that all about?'
'Hmm, yes, I've seen that, but I'm not really sure as to its purpose,' replied Pangloss.
'Well, I think you need to have a word in the guy's shell-like, and get him to remove it, otherwise the town is going to get a reputation for eccentric hotel managers. Once your town's got a reputation like that it's very difficult to get rid of.'
'OK, I'll bring it up when I next see him. Now what's your next presentation going to be on?'
'Oh, that'll be on the computer, said Derek. On Powerpoint.'
'No, I mean what will next idea be - what subject will it be on?' added Pangloss.
'Oh you don't need to worry about that. We'll dot the i's and cross the t's later. All you need to know is that the presentation will be flash. We might use a laser pointer. Do you know what that is? It's a great bit of kit. Say something stupid and people will laugh in your face. Write the same thing down , transfer it to a screen and point at it with a laser beam and people will believe it's one of the Ten Commandments. That's what I love about new technology - it has made our job so much easier. Making bullshit believable is so much easier with new technology.'
'Oh well, if you say so.'
'Oh, I do say so, Dr Pangloss, I do say so. By the way, here's the first installment of our bill.' said Derek, handing Pangloss an envelope.
Pangloss wasn't entirely sure what a heart attack felt like, but he was fairly sure he was in the early stages of one when he unfolded the bill from Complete Commercial Upgrading & New Town Solutions. It said £10,000.
'My God, what did they actually do for that?' thought Pangloss. He suspected the answer was very little, so he tried not to think about it too much. Oh well, he thought, there must be about 100, 000 people in Westpahlia-on-Sea, so spending ten grand of their money is just the same as asking everybody for 10p. Hmm, when you thought about it like that it wasn't much at all. Pangloss quickly resolved to consider all his future spending (particularly that going on consultants) in these terms, for the sake of his heart, if nothing else.