Date: Sat, 9 Mar 2002 11:59:00 -0800 (PST)
From: Orrin Rush <orrinrush@yahoo.com>
Subject: The Lifeguard 56
Disclaimer: The following is a work of fiction. If you are
offended by graphic descriptions of homosexual acts, go
somewhere else.
Copyright c 2002 by Orrin C. Rush. All rights reserved.
Neither this story nor any parts of it may be distributed
electronically or in any other manner without the express,
written consent of the author.
This is a work of fiction, any resemblance of the characters
to anyone living or dead is pure coincidence and not
intended. They are all products of the author's imagination.
--------------------------------------------------------------
THE LIFEGUARD
Chapter 56
"In a word, PLASTIC," Bill said.
"What're you talking about?" I asked.
"Give me a minute to explain," he said. "Over the holidays,
I got to thinking about all the stuff we buy - parts,
components and so on, that go into our products.
"We produce everything that's made out of metal ourselves,
either own or control the production of most everything else
we use a lot of, except plastic. That's something we have
absolutely NO control over, and it's now the largest item,
other than steel, that we buy.
"Every product that we sell has plastic components, and we're
at the complete mercy of the nine suppliers that we use."
"Is there any reason to believe that they won't continue to
supply us?" I asked.
"Quite frankly, yes," he said. "The first thing to come up
was when a couple of our smaller suppliers refused to accept
additional business. They said that they were uncomfortable
with Metalco taking such a high percentage of their total
output, and wouldn't accept any more from us until they
expanded. They want to 'diversify' their customer base to
reduce their dependence on us. Now, it's prices."
"What's happening there?" I asked.
"Over the past six months, prices have increased an average
of 10% on all the components we buy, and we've just gotten
word that there's another 5% increase coming up real soon."
"If they're all doing it, isn't that collusion?" Eric asked.
"Sure, but we'd never be able to prove it," Bill said. "They
all blame it on higher oil prices since just about all of
their raw materials are petrochemicals."
"Can't we go to other suppliers?" Annie asked.
"Sure," Bill said. "We own all the molds, but that wouldn't
solve the problem, only shift our dependence to another
company that may not be as reliable as the ones we already
have."
"What are you suggesting?" I asked him.
"The only way we can be absolutely safe is to control
production ourselves, and I think we'd better give that some
thought before we find ourselves in a corner."
"Do you think we could buy any of our suppliers?" I asked,
winking at Eric.
"Maybe," he said. "Them or others. Or... we could start
from scratch and build our own, more modern and efficient
plant. The only problem there is nailing down a supply of
raw materials. There's a shortage now, and if the Arabs keep
cutting production, it's going to get worse."
"Let's explore all of our options," I suggested, "both buying
and building." The germ of an idea was forming. "Can you
get me a list of the raw materials we'd need if we built, and
an idea of the quantities we'd need if we did it all
ourselves?"
"Our Chemists provide all the specifications to our suppliers,
so I can get that for you in a couple of hours," Bill said.
We all agreed that a concentrated effort needed to be made to
learn a whole lot more about the Plastics business, and
assignments were split up between Bill and Jeff. We'd meet
again in a week.
- - - - -
"I know you've got something up your sleeve," Eric grinned.
"Give."
"It's only logic," I told him. "Petrochemicals - Oil - Big
George!"
"I see," he laughed. "When're we going to Texas?"
"Tomorrow, if we can get in to see Big George," I told him
and grabbed the phone.
Big George was beaming as he led us into his office. "What
kind of trouble are you boys stirrin' up today?" he laughed.
"We're trying to stay OUT of trouble, for a change," I told
him.
"What's goin' on, men?" he asked when we were seated around
his desk.
"We're looking for some petrochemicals, and where else would
we go? We're thinking of going into the plastics business."
"Now why would you want to do that?" he asked.
"We use a lot of injection-molded components in all our
products, and we don't like being dependent on others.
Particularly when they're playing games with us. I've got a
list here of what we're going to need," I told him.
"I already have a pretty good idea," he said, and literally
read us the list.
"They're all refinery by-products," he said. "Used to be we
couldn't give 'em away, now everybody wants 'em. How much
volume we talkin?"
I read off the estimates Bill had given me.
"You all're talkin some major money here," he observed.
"I honestly have no idea," I admitted. "I do know that we're
spending around $4 billion a year for components."
"How long do you figger it'll take to get set up?" he asked.
"We're working on that right now. I'd guess it's going to
take a year, at least."
"How're you going to keep it quiet that long? The minute you
start ordering equipment, the whole world's gonna know."
"Maybe not," Eric added. "Most of the equipment's made by
Koenigsburg in Germany, and Hans Koenigsburg might soon
become Dave's son-in law."
"You sly devil," he said to me. "Got all the bases covered!
Which one, Annie or Tina?"
"Annie," I told him, "and it certainly wasn't planned. Just
turned out that way."
"Just a minute," he said and grabbed his phone. He talked
and we both tried to act like we couldn't hear what he was
saying.
"Looks like I might could help y'all, but we may have a time
problem. One of my refineries in Louisiana has contracts for
that stuff coming up for renewal in about seven months. The
question is... what do we do with the stuff between then and
the time you're ready for it? That's something we're going
to have to work on."
"Would you be able to supply everything we need?" I asked.
"Purdy much, and I'm sure I could hit up a few of my buddies
for the rest," he said. "Something you may not know," he
added, "is that the stuff we sell you has to be processed
before you can use it. I've been thinking of setting up to
do that myself, and this'd be as good a time as any.
"How long a contract do you want?" he continued.
"As long as you'll give us," I said. "How about 20 years
with all the usual adjustments and a rollover option?"
"Sounds damned good to me," he said, "assuming your credit's
any good," then burst out laughing.
Big George took us to the "Top of the World" club for lunch.
It was evidently the hangout of Dallas's Oil Barons. As we
walked through the room, Big George stopped at just about
every table, joking with his buddies and introducing us. We
already knew quite a few from Claire's hoedowns.
At our booth, Big George ordered us all "Bourbon and Branch",
and business talk resumed. "One thing you don't have to
worry about is whether or not them Arabs cut production. All
the feedstock for that refinery comes from mah own wells off
the coast. Figger I got 'bout 300 years' worth," he laughed.
"Where you boys gonna set up?"
"We don't know yet," I told him. "This whole thing only came
up yesterday!"
"Damn! you boys don't fart around! I like that!"
"Now, we're really going to have to go to work," Eric said,
"this is just the beginning."
"Take a look at Louisiana," he suggested. "They're mighty
friendly and, come to think of it, I've got a couple hundred
acres fairly close to the refinery that I'd sell ya real
cheap. We could pipe that resin directly to you and save a
few bucks in transportation."
"We'll definitely look at it," I told him.
When our drinks came, George hoisted his glass "Here's to a
$30 billion deal between friends," he toasted. "When we
takin' that cruise?"
- - - - -
Annie was home when we rolled in, so I talked to her about
what we'd learned that day. I also told her that Hans'
Company made the molding machines that we'd be needing, and
that I'd like to talk to him about deliveries. She gave me
all of his numbers and the best time to call, which was early
morning.
The following morning we all got together again. Bill and
Jeff didn't have much to report except that our current
suppliers' price increases were totally out of proportion to
the price of oil. They also had ruled out four of them as
possible buyout candidates because they were divisions of
mammoth chemical companies and we were not their largest
customers.
"I'm not so sure we'd be interested in the other five," Jeff
said. "Their plants are old, inefficient, and would require
major refurbishing to meet our standards."
"Then maybe we should take a hard look at starting from
scratch," I said.
"But, can we get raw materials?" Bill wanted to know.
"I think so," I told him and winked at Eric. "We can lock in
a 20-year supply right now, but there's a time limitation.
We have to be ready to start taking deliveries in a year or
less. That means we've either gotta work fast or build some
huge storage facilities.
"I also talked to Koenigsburg this morning. I didn't have
much to go on, but they can start deliveries in six months if
we tell them what we want within a few weeks."
"Aren't we getting ahead of ourselves here?" Bill asked. "We
don't have any idea what we're going to need or where we're
going to put it."
"Can't we work backward?" Eric suggested. "We know the
products we're going to need to produce, so we get the
equipment we'll need to accomplish that."
"I'm real sorry to say this, but we're NOT going to build in
California," I said, getting very surprised looks from
everyone. "It seems to me that the climate here is becoming
more and more unfriendly to business. This energy mess is
the last straw."
"Where do you suggest we go?" Jeff asked.
"Regardless of where we go, we're going to have to move
product around the country," I said, "and I believe it'd be
more efficient and economical to build one large plant rather
than several smaller regional ones. We're offering clean
industry and a lot of jobs, so I'm sure there are a lot of
places that'd welcome us and not tax the hell out of us like
California does."
"Then, I take it that you've decided to go ahead?" Bill asked.
"Isn't it inevitable?" I asked. "Our goal over the years has
been to be fully integrated. Our needs have changed and now
we NEED to have control of this component that goes into
everything we make. We have the best production people
around, and I believe that we'll be able to produce this
stuff for less than we've been paying for it. Our suppliers
have been making money or they wouldn't still be around, and
I'm sure we can do as well or better."
"That brings up the question of what do we do with our
current suppliers," Bill said.
"I've been thinking about that," I told him. "We can try to
keep what we're doing quiet, then rip the rug out from under
them when we're ready, or... we can level with them now and
give them a chance to find other customers and make an orderly
transition. I like the second idea, but we'd better have all
our 'ducks in a row' before we say anything."
"And we have no idea whatsoever what all this is going to
cost," Bill said, chuckling and shaking his head.
"Nope," I told him, "maybe we ought to get to work on that
too."
"If we get everybody working on it, we should be able to come
up with some ballpark figures in a week or two," Bill said.
"We can get some others working on a site, and others working
on the facilities that we'll need."
"I realize that we're 'flying blind' at the moment," I said,
"but I'm confident we can pull this all together in a short
time."
- - - - -
"We may have another timing problem," I told Eric.
"What's that, babe?"
"The kids," I said. "Tina and Rick are getting married in
May. Annie is going to Germany in February, and just might
announce her engagement to Hans."
"What's the problem?"
"I don't want anybody or anything to steal the spotlight from
Tina and Rick. If Annie and Hans get engaged, it's going to
be a major event because of WHO they are, and I don't want
that to interfere with Tina and Rick. Their wedding will be a
major event too, but I don't want it overshadowed."
"Have you talked to Annie?"
"Not yet, I wanted to get your slant first, partner," I said,
grinning.
"I don't think Annie'd have any problem with waiting until
after the wedding," he said. "Her engagement may not happen
that fast anyway, but I'd let her know how you feel."
"I'll do that."
"By the way, I've been talking to Rick, giving him some
insight on how you 'operate'," he said. "I think he's
beginning to understand that you're not a manipulator, just a
nice, generous guy."
"I just want to give them a head-start. Tina could do it
herself, but I think Rick would resent that even more."
"It'll take him a while, just like it did me," he said.
I talked with Annie about my concerns. She understood and
agreed. If Hans did propose, they'd wait until June to
announce it formally.
I also had a long talk with Tina. Wedding plans were well
underway. It would be a church wedding then a reception on
the back forty.
"I'm really sorry Mom can't be involved," she said, "but I
just don't trust her. It's a damned shame, but this is going
to be MY day, and I'm not taking any chances."
"What have you told her?" I asked.
"That I'm engaged, but not when the wedding is going to be."
"She'll have to be here," I warned. "Have you thought about
talking with her, explaining the situation?"
"I'd have to tell her that I'm making all the arrangements
myself," she said. "If she found out that Sarah's helping
me, she'd go ballistic!"
"Handle it however you feel best," I told her. "It's your
decision, and whatever you decide, I'm behind you."
"She's not going to make it easy - for any of us."
"How's Rick coming along about the house?" I asked.
"Better than you think," she giggled. "He's working on the
plans and we've found a lot that we love."
"Somebody better nail down the lot," I suggested.
"I have," she giggled, "quietly."
- - - - -
I was in regular contact with Big George. He was working
feverishly too, planning the processing plant that he wanted
to build. In one conversation he announced "I've got good
news for you and bad news for me.
"It's going to take me at least a year and a half to get my
plant on stream, so that'll give you a little breathing
room," he continued. "Now, all I have to do is figure out
what to do with the raw resins in the meantime."
"Would your present customers take them?"
"Don't know yet. I'm not even going to mention it until you
and I have a firm deal."
"Our guys are working around the clock," I assured him. "We
should be able to give you a hard answer in another week."
They were. Bill and Jeff had set up teams, one was working
on equipment, another on facilities, another on a site, and
another preparing production and profitability analyses.
They gave Eric and me daily progress reports. They were
still working on the 12-month timeframe. The only one I'd
told about Big George's problem was Eric. We'd need the
extra time in any event. A project like this never went off
according to plan.
A list of required equipment was the first to be completed.
Even though our engineers had opted for the most automated
equipment available, the total cost was less than I
expected.
The site group had it narrowed down to Louisiana and
Mississippi. The transportation savings were making their
decision lean toward Louisiana.
Finally, we had it all together. Our total outlay would be
less than $1 billion, with a five-year payout.
The decision was made to go ahead. All this had taken just
about three weeks. When I told everyone that we actually had
a year and a half to be up and running, there was a major
sigh of relief, but I reminded them that the pressure WASN'T
off!
I called Big George. "Get the papers ready," I told him.
"As far as we're concerned, it's a deal."
He was delighted, and we agreed to keep it quiet until he had
a chance to talk to his old customers and we talked to our
suppliers. We were to meet in Dallas in two weeks, and he
invited us to spend the weekend.
- - - - -
Bill volunteered to talk to our current plastic suppliers.
They were scattered around the country, and he was taking our
Manager of Purchasing with him as well as the buyers who
dealt with them. I was damned glad it was him instead of me
making the trip.
They made a whirlwind trip and came back with fairly good
news. Our suppliers appreciated that they were being given
18 months' notice, but all wanted price increases. Bill
agreed to that, but refused to agree to some of their demands
to "shut us off", without notice, whenever they were able to
find other customers. They had already accepted orders from
us covering the next twelve months, and he demanded that
those be filled. To avoid lawsuits, they capitulated.
Others were more cooperative, even agreeing to accept larger
orders during the last six months and beyond that if needed.
Overall, Bill and I felt that we wouldn't be too badly
crippled during the changeover, but this increased the
pressure on both Big George and us to move full speed ahead.
- - - - -
We left Friday morning for Dallas. On Sunday, we'd continue
on to New York to check on the Restaurant's progress.
Up until now, we'd dealt strictly with Big George himself.
This time, a whole herd of his executives were present. We
were introduced around, and then they made a big deal out of
the actual signing of the contracts.
The last item to be signed was a Press Release. I handed
Eric a copy then read it over carefully myself. It was brief
and to the point. Metalco had agreed to purchase $30 billion
worth of petrochemicals from Matheison Petroleum. Let the
newspapers take it from there.
Big George had his own release to accompany that one which
outlined his construction of a chemical plant in Louisiana,
and we added ours which told of our plans.
An Email would go out to all Metalco and Hydra employees that
afternoon, giving them the news before they read it in the
papers.
Once everything was signed and the pictures taken, we went
back to Big George's office. "I'm just a nosy old bastard,
and tell me if this is none of my business, but how come Eric
wasn't a signer on those contracts?" he asked.
"That's easy," Eric said with a grin. "Metalco belongs to
Dave. Lundborg Rush and Hydra, which includes Lovebird, the
Railroad and the Development Company, is 'community
property'."
This brought a roar of laughter from Big George. "I like the
way you put that! What's Lundborg Rush? Never heard of it."
"It's a company we set up a year or so ago," Eric explained.
"Hi-Tech. We produce software for Micron and quite a few
others."
"Knowin' you guys, it'll be the biggest in the business in a
year or two," he said.
"That's our intention," Eric told him.
"I've been doin' some thinking about this Louisiana thing,"
Big George continued, "we may have a lot of synergy if we
work together. Here's just one idea: My refinery produces a
little Natural Gas. What we don't use ourselves isn't enough
to make it feasable to pipe to a market, so we flare it off.
But you boys, bein' just down the road, might be able to use
it to produce your own electricity."
"Would it be enough to power our whole plant?" I asked.
"Maybe not all of it, but I'd guess most of it," he said.
"Definitely worth looking into because I'd sell it to you
real cheap. It'd be 'Found money' for me."
"We'll definitely look into it," I assured him.
- - - - -
Although Big George and Claire had invited us to stay with
them, we decided to stay at one of our hotels. We liked our
privacy. We were, however, going to their house for dinner
that evening.
It was like another "homecoming". The rest of the "Texas
Widows" and their husbands were all there, but it certainly
wasn't a hoedown. Very formal. Cocktails in an enormous
salon, dinner in a chandeliered dining room, then all the
Gentlemen went to Big George's study for Brandy and cigars.
Business had not been discussed until we got to the study,
then all the Texas guys wanted to know if the rumors they'd
heard were true, that Big George and I had a big deal cooking.
"No big secret anymore," he told them, "be in tomorrow's
paper. Old Dave here just bought $30 billion worth of my oil."
The details were discussed. Big George seemed to be pleased
as punch over the whole transaction, telling them how easy we
were to deal with, and how he was himself spending a lot of
money to build a conversion plant, and that our plastics plant
would be just "down the road" and his resins would be pumped
or conveyed directly to us.
All of these guys were in the Oil business in one way or
another, and several told us that if Big George couldn't meet
our needs, they'd be happy to do so. That was nice to hear.
Now we had backup.
When we rejoined the ladies, all they had on their minds was
another cruise. They didn't care where or when, just that we
went on another one.
"You wanna go?" Eric asked me quietly.
"It's up to you," I told him. "It might be fun, but not
before September."
Several destinations were discussed, but there was no
consensus, so Eric suggested that he put our Travel Agent Dan
to work which was agreeable to everyone. All the husbands
made it real clear that they wanted to go too. I wasn't so
sure about that.
- - - - -
I must have misunderstood Big George. I thought we were
invited "for the weekend", but when we learned that nothing
was planned for Saturday, that obviously wasn't the case, so
we packed up and headed for New York.
En route, Eric called Maurice to let him know that we'd be in
early and asked if he wanted to get together that evening.
They'd be waiting at the Penthouse when we arrived.
We weren't even allowed to sit down. Maurice and Philippe
had us in a taxi and headed for the restaurant before we had
a chance. Mark and Brucie would meet us there.
The building looked the same from the outside. The only
change was a covered walkway from the building to the curb
with "MAURICE" stenciled on it. When we walked up the steps,
it was a different story. The room didn't look anything like
the last time we'd seen it.
I walked inside and looked around. The place had been
transformed. The peeling paint was gone, the wonderful
woodwork on the columns, walls and ceiling had been stripped
and repainted a soft off-white. The floor was covered with a
patterned carpet in various shades of dark red and marroon.
It was dusk and all the lights were on. Sparkling crystal
chandeliers hung from the ceiling and gold-finished sconces
shot light upward on the walls and accented the fluted
columns. The paned windows out to the street sparkled. The
overall effect was starkly elegant but still warm and
inviting.
The room seemed a little smaller than before, then I saw that
the back wall had been brought out several feet. Only half
of the room was furnished with tables and chairs. Tables
were mostly round, a few square, functional, and the chairs
were dark wood upholstered in a cream fabric.
While I was gaping, Eric was standing with Brucie and Mark
who were both excitedly talking at the same time. I joined
them and gave Brucie a hug and congratulations on a job
beautifully done. He almost purred, and wanted to know if I
REALLY liked it.
Maurice had me by the arm. "Come," he said. "You have to
see the kitchen of my dreams!" He led me back and through
the doors. Eric and the others followed. All I could see was
the shine of stainless steel. There were the biggest goddam
stoves I've ever seen, some with eight or ten gas burners!
There were ovens, broilers and a lot of stuff I had never
seen before. Maurice was trying to explain how it all
worked, but mostly raved about how wonderful it all was.
I noticed that all of the small appliances were made by
Metalco, and that a lot of the cookware was Metalco's Excilar
coated. "These are the best," Maurice said, pointing to an
Excilar coated saute pan. "Now, if you'd only design them for
COOKS!"
There were banks of refrigerators and freezers, as well as
walk-in boxes. The dishwashing area was flanked by shelving
holding dishes and glassware of every conceivable kind.
I expected a huge wine cellar, but this one was rather
small. "We're going to offer a small selection of only the
very best," Maurice explained.
There were two service bars, well stocked. I'd recognized
something missing but hadn't figured out "what" until I saw
these. There was no "Bar" as such. I asked Maurice about
this and he explained that this would be a place to EAT, not a
place where the focus was on booze.
Once the "Official" tour was over, Eric and I wandered off by
ourselves to have another look, comparing notes on our
observations. We agreed that we couldn't find anything that
we didn't like. It had been designed by professionals and the
results were spectacular.
- - - - -
Maurice insisted that we all come back to his apartment for
dinner and "talk". There was no way that either of us would
pass up one of Maurice's home cooked meals!
It quickly turned into a business meeting among the five of
us while Philippe worked in the kitchen. Bruce led off,
telling us that the rest of the furniture would arrive the
next week, and his work, except for touch-ups, would be
complete.
Mark then told us that since the place was ready, he and
Maurice had decided to open a month early, March 15th instead
of the end of April and that he was recruiting personnel now.
Maurice, totally agreeing, said that he had already hired all
of his kitchen staff, and was anxious to get started.
Mark, it appeared, was also a good PR man. He'd "leaked" the
opening date, and the restaurant was already fully booked
through April. He also told us that he'd like to have a
high-profile Charity Event for Opening Night, followed by an
invitation-only Grand Opening.
Eric jumped in with an offer to help with the Charity event,
and we all agreed that the Grand opening was a good idea.
"It's wonderful working with someone who isn't constantly
screaming at me to cut corners," Maurice said, giving Mark a
playful jab. "I think that this's going to be the most
successful restaurant in New York."
"I think you've been very reasonable... so far," Mark added.
Mark's partner joined us, about Mark's age, quite goodlooking
and as affable as Mark.
When Brucie's "boyfriend" showed up, I got the surprise of my
life. Joey was the butchest stud I'd seen in a long time,
and a real hunk to boot.
- - - - -
"Make you a bet," I told Eric. "Within a year, those guys
are going to want to open another restaurant, then another..."
"Wouldn't surprise me in the least," he said. "I'd be all
for it if the quality didn't suffer, and I don't think
Maurice'd stand for that."
Eric spent the next morning with Sarah and I went out to the
plant in New Jersey. Hopefully, the "old" plant would soon
move into a new building. Bob and I checked out progress.
If the new plant that they'd recently moved into was huge,
this one was gargantuan. Acres and acres of concrete floors
had been poured, and the building's skeleton was going up.
Bob estimated that they'd be moved in by Fall.
With all Annie was involved in, I wondered if she was still
interested in making a Shopping Mall out of the old factory.
When I got home, Eric and Sarah were conferring with Mark in
the den. They asked me to join them. "You didn't say a word
about this restaurant of yours," she chided me.
"It was just in the planning stage the last time we were
here," I told her.
They went back to planning. Just listening, I learned that
Sarah would sponsor the charity fete, 400 guests at $1,000
per plate. Mark would provide the food, wine and service at
cost. One of Sarah's pet projects would make a bundle and
Mark would definitely get the publicity he wanted.
They had already checked out the place, and Sarah had nothing
but praise for the job Bruce had done. "In my humble
opinion," she said, "there's only one thing missing. You
need some Art on that back wall."
"We thought about that," Mark told her. "Posters just
wouldn't cut it, and we didn't want to spend the amount of
money necessary to buy 'appropriate' paintings to go up
there, so we left it bare."
"I just may be able to help you," Sarah said, smiling. Oh
shit, I thought, what's she going to do now?
"Have you heard of Brad Jacoby?" she asked Mark.
"Isn't he the hot young artist who's in all the papers?"
"Yes, that's him. Eric 'discovered' him, and I'm very sure
that Eric and I could talk him into hanging several of his
paintings there. They'd be on display and rotated as they
sold. Are you interested?"
"That would be fantastic!" Mark bubbled, "but I'd want to get
Bruce's approval before I made a commitment."
"Let me know, and I'll take care of it," Sarah said. I
looked over at Eric who was just shaking his head. Leave it
to Sarah!
- - - - -
When we got home, Annie was getting ready for her trip to
Germany. She wanted to fly commercial, but I insisted that
she take the Gulfstream. Make an entrance!
Tina would be taking over Annie's responsibilities while she
was gone, and when I talked to her about the additional
workload, she wasn't concerned. "Annie and I have been
watching how you and Eric 'operate'," she told me. "We're
getting pretty good at delegating ourselves. You and Eric
are around to help me if I need it, too."
I asked her how the "house" was coming along. At this she
giggled. "Rick's spending all his spare time on the plans,"
she reported. "He's accepted your offer, but I think he
wants to play 'Hard to get' for a while, not give in too
fast. We'll let you know, officially, one of these days
soon. We're planning to rent a condo until it gets built."
The subject changed to wedding plans. She assured me that
everything was under control. She and Sarah had worked up a
checklist, and she was following it. The "Georgia" issue
hadn't been settled, but Tina planned to stop off in
Indianappolis on her next trip East to try to work something
out.
"Just don't forget that Eric and I'll be in Egypt most of
April," I reminded her.
- - - - -
I noticed that Eric was doing a lot more reading than usual,
mostly about Egypt. "I'm trying to learn as much as I can
before we go," he told me.
"May I make a suggestion?" I asked.
"Sure, babe."
"Don't try to learn it all now. You already have a good
background, and on your first trip there, you'll be so
overwhelmed by what you're seeing that details won't matter.
After you've seen everything, you'll know what you're
interested in and can learn more then. Don't ever think that
this is the only trip to Egypt we'll be making."
"That makes sense," he said.
"That's what happened to me on my first trip," I told him.
We talked about the places he wanted to see, starting an
itinerary. "We'll see them all," I assured him. "I just
want to be in Luxor on the 14th."
"Why?"
"That's our anniversary, and that's where the 'Holy of
Holies' is located, in the Temple of Karnak."
He was thoughtful for a few moments, then asked sheepishly
"Do you think there's any chance we could re-enact the
Pharaoh's ritual, in the place where it originally took
place?"
"I'm planning on it," I told him, grinning.
"Ohmigawd, really?" he asked as he pounced on me.
"I have friends over there who should be able to arrange it."
"Now I'm really getting excited!" he said. "You'll be the
Pharaoh this time, no arguments!"
"Get out your oils," I chuckled at him, "and something to
prop me up."
- - - - -
"I believe that getting into Plastics is going to prove to be
one of the smartest moves we've ever made," Bill declared.
"It's more than just having control over our supply, it's
going to change our way of thinking."
"How?" I asked.
"We've always been focused on 'Metal', making every part we
could out of metal since that was our business. Possibly
that same part could be molded out of plastic cheaper and
faster and end up making a better product.
"That very well may be true," I said, "but we're a helluva
long way from actually being in the plastics business. I
have a strange feeling that we're going to have some problems
before there's smooth sailing.
"Eric and I know Big George socially, but I really don't know
that much about his background. I'm sure you checked him out
thoroughly?" I continued.
"The usual," Bill said, "credit checks, a little nosing
around about his reputation. Everything we found out showed
that he's just what he says he is, and he's got a sterling
reputation."
"Would you do me a favor and dig a LOT deeper? I want to
know as much as you can find out about his finances, his oil
wells - where they are, how much they pump, and his
refineries too. I'd like to know just about everything there
IS to know about him. A whole dossier, so to speak."
"I'll get somebody to do that," Bill said. "It'll take a
little while if we're thorough, and I know that's what you
want."
"There may be a few others who I'll need dossiers on too,"
I added. "I'll try to get their names for you sometime today."
I wandered down to Eric's office. "Do you remember the
conversation we had in Big George's study the other night?" I
asked.
"Pretty well," he answered. "Why?"
"Do you remember those other guys who offered to help supply
our resins if Big George couldn't?"
"Uh huh."
"Do you happen to remember their names?"
He thought a minute then started rattling off names. "Whoa,"
I said, "can you go a little slower so I can write them down?"
He repeated, I scribbled.
"Thank God one of us can remember names! Thanks, babe."
"Now you've got me curious," he said. "Why are you
interested?"
"It's just a gut feeling," I told him. "Maybe it's because
I'm still pissed about the way we were 'dismissed' in Dallas,
but I want to do some digging into that whole crew."
"You were pissed too? You didn't say anything," he said.
"I didn't want to make an issue over it. In my way of
thinking, it was sure as hell a snub, something I don't get
over in a hurry. At first, I wanted to think it was a
misunderstanding, but the more I thought about it, I
remembered that he specifically said 'for the weekend' on
several occasions."
"I wonder what happened?" he asked. "I was a little more
than furious myself. Let me know what you find out."
I had put a hold on anything beyond surveying at the
Louisiana plant site until we completed our "check" on Big
George. Bill and I talked about it a lot, and every time, we
came up with something else to check out. By now, he was
getting nervous too. Legal was going over our contract
literally word by word, and had found several ways we could
get out of it. That would be a last resort.
- - - - -
Annie was ready to go. She did her best to seem nonchalant
about the whole thing, but her excitement couldn't be
hidden. From what Tina told us, Annie packed and unpacked
several times before she was happy with the wardrobe she was
taking - just about everything she owned, I guessed.
Before we left for the airport, I went over the essentials
with her, money, credit cards, passport, satellite phone with
220 charger, and anything else I could think of. She had
them all.
Eric and I drove her, and her luggage, to the airport. There
would be three pilots and a steward on board, and the flight
was timed to arrive in mid-morning in Germany.
We all hugged, then they were off.
- - - - -
Waiting is stressful, and with Annie gone, and Tina at
Rick's, we had some privacy and the hot tub helped relieve it.
Without bubbles, we could talk...and play. I loved to sit on
Eric's lap, impaled, and let my internal muscles do all the
work. It felt sensational to me, and Eric liked it too, not
moving at all until he was close, then banging the hell out of
me, bringing me off too.
We'd switch off, him sitting on my lap, but he preferred to
face me so we could kiss. After that, we slept like babies.
- - - - -
As we took a harder look at the Louisiana location for our
plant, more and more negative aspects were cropping up. The
labor market was tight, and there wasn't much to draw people
to the area.
Transportation was another drawback. We'd be shipping all of
our product out by truck, and the roads would definitely
require improvement for the amount of traffic we contemplated.
When information started coming in on our potential "backup"
suppliers, all of their wells and refineries were in the
strip between Houston and Beaumont, in Texas, where there was
a ready labor market and good transportation.
The first comprehensive "dossier" to come in was on Billy
Griggs. He'd inherited his Oil Company, consisting of many
wells and a medium-sized refinery. He also had a conversion
facility that turned out the resins we needed, but only about
25% of what we would need if we took his entire production.
On the financial side, his personal net worth was
conservatively estimated to be around $600 million, with
virtually no debt.
Reports on the other four were very similar. Some were
bigger, some smaller, and all were strong financially and had
excellent reputations as businessmen. Between the five, our
requirements were covered almost double.
Before we made any changes of plans, I wanted to see the
report on Big George. When Bill brought it in, it was far
from complete. All the numbers were "estimated" and even
those were footnoted as "guesses".
"This isn't near good enough," I told Bill. "We're about to
stake our future on somebody we know nothing about, and I
don't think that's such a great idea. We'd actually be in a
weaker position than we were before."
"This is all we could come up with," Bill apologised.
"Have you used every source, including our 'hackers'?" I
asked.
"Yes, and we couldn't get in. They're tight, and if our guys
can't get in, nobody can."
"I'd like a list of everybody else in the country who
produces these resins, where they're located, and an estimate
on their production volume," I requested.
"I'm starting to get scared," Bill admitted. "Why the
secrecy?"
"I don't know," I said. "We may find ourselves in one
helluva corner."
To be continued.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I appreciate hearing your comments on the
story, my writing, and anything you would like to offer -
good or not so good. Send me a message at
orrinrush@yahoo.com
Also, any story ideas would be welcome.