~*~
Two weeks later Mike once again sat in the presidential conference room. He had the conference room phone in his hand and his smart phone on the table. Mike was an artist on the phone.
“Yes, Don. I just talked with President Ballinger and he said his parliament unanimously approved granting the port privileges. So, since defense has asked Congress to approve it and no one expects any opposition then we are all set, but this port isn’t extremely large and it lacks facilities for large warships. It barely suffices for the small freighters they get now. It really needs to be deeper for heavy freighters and warships. I figure your people can correct that in pretty short order though,” he ended with a chuckle.
“You never quit do you, Mike? But it just so happens we had a team in that port a year or so ago. We survey all ports all the time with submarines and sounding equipment. It will suffice. We expected to put some money into improvements.”
“Figured that, Don. You don’t want your ships coming in to an inadequate harbor and grounding out on some reef. Plus, it might tend to completely ruin the career of some fine junior officer who happened to have the watch.
“So, how about those codes? Dan Bonnard and his team are here now and instructing the fishermen on how to use those mini-receiver/transponder contraptions that the Johns Company so graciously supplied.”
“The army wasn’t happy about that, Mike.”
“Don’t worry, Don. I know for a fact that they won’t be left out just because of this. You know the Johns Company has been after the army to pick up an exclusive on those things for years. I wouldn’t be surprised if Johns didn’t want to make sure he could continue to supply the needs of Keykan though. I expect he would limit sales to only Keykan if the United States picked up an exclusive and guaranteed him a minimum order per year for say 5 years.”
“What!”
“Now calm down, Don. I don’t speak for Johns. You know that. He could have a lesser figure in mind.
“So how about those codes? The radio telescope is on board a ship and half way through the Panama Canal. Dan Bonnard needs the codes now to start the set up on paper. His computer expert has to write a program for it. That can’t be done overnight and every week or so there is another storm down here in paradise.”
“I’ll get on it, probably have something tomorrow.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to Dan and tell him to expect to hear something tomorrow. Thanks, Don,” he said mildly, as he hung up, looked over at Joshua, and smiled.
Joshua asked, “Mr. Donaldson is a little concerned about the equipment going somewhere else?”
“Wow. I guess so. Man did I light a fire under the Pentagon. I’m thinking a couple of senators on the Senate Arms Committee are hopping mad, but more at themselves than anything. They have been footballing this thing for years and now they see that they may have missed the boat. No pun intended,” he finished with a laugh.
“Johns’ little gadgets are going to increase in popularity real quick now and supplying a few hundred to you and your people will be the best investment he ever made,” Mike said with a smile and continued, “now for those husbandry experts I promised you.”
“But everything is free to us so far, Mike. Why do we need to get in a rush to increase cattle production?”
Mike smiled and said, “Well, Johns isn’t going to supply the batteries for those navigational aids forever and if you are a port of call for the United States Navy then you need to have power twenty-four hours a day.”
Storm Ports Page 5