by David Archer
“Esmeralda, we think the situation is pretty well in hand in DC,” he said. “Your team can return to England. Wally needs your help with some programming, so I’ll alert the Gulfstream that you will be flying back this evening.”
“Yes, sir,” Esmeralda said. “Is there anything else we should do before we leave here?”
“No, you’ve done well. I’ll have the airplane ready for you at eight o’clock this evening your time. I’ll send Neil to pick you up at the airport, and we’ll see you all tomorrow.”
He turned back to Allison. “They’ll be back tomorrow, sometime. Molly, would you arrange for the Gulfstream to be fueled and ready to bring them back by eight o’clock DC time tonight?”
“I’m already on it,” Molly said. She had her phone to her ear. A moment later she gave him a thumbs up and ended the call. “All set.”
They spent the majority of the day just getting the offices set up, arranging furniture and getting the phones and computers the way they wanted them. Neil was in charge of a lot of that part of the operation, and Wally disappeared out into the production floor, where new employees were learning about the machines they would be operating and the parts they would be assembling. It was a very well-designed system, and each of the assembly lines could turn out a completed unit every twenty minutes.
The only aspect that was not part of the assembly line was the stamping presses that created the external body and internal chassis components. These were set up in a separate part of the building, and would run only part of the time. A single eight-hour shift could produce enough components for a full workweek of the assembly lines, so those hours were offered to other employees who wanted to earn extra money.
Allison, as Judy Walker, was introduced to the middle management people they had hired, the ones who would act as liaison between the offices and the production floor. This included the personnel manager and a few other lower-level executives, and she made a proper impression on all of them.
“This place is really coming together,” she said. “To be honest, I’m amazed at how much you’ve accomplished here, Wally.”
“It’s all thanks to Noah,” Wally said. “This was his idea, and I think it was a brilliant one. Besides, it’s kind of nice to be making something that doesn’t kill people, you know what I mean?” He giggled again.
“Yes, well, just don’t lose your edge. Some of your gadgets have made the difference for a lot of our agents, and we can’t afford for you to stop coming up with those ideas.”
“Oh, no risk of that,” Wally said. “I’m a mad scientist, remember? This is the only place I can get away with being myself.” He leaned forward conspiratorially. “Remind me to show you my secret lab. We found a hidden basement that isn’t even on the blueprints, so it was perfect. I’ve got some of my guys running power down to it now, and building a freight elevator so we can get all of our heavy equipment down there.”
Allison grinned. “Can’t wait to see it,” she said. “Let me know when it’s ready.” She turned to Noah again. “Noah, like I said, I don’t anticipate being quite as busy as we were back in Neverland, but I do expect that we are going to run into some complicated missions. I need to ask you point-blank, how do you feel about going back into the field?”
“I’ll do what I’m ordered to do,” Noah said. “However, as conceited as this is going to sound, I think I should be held in reserve. As the reputed founder of this company and majority owner of Feeney Manor, I’m going to be under a lot of scrutiny around here. I don’t think we want to try to explain too often why the CEO of the company is out of the country and inaccessible.”
“I don’t disagree, but I know there will be times when your talents are going to be required. Considering that you now have an actual family, I’m reluctant to send you out anytime I don’t consider it absolutely necessary. The last thing in the world I would ever want is for Norah to grow up without both of her parents.”
“I agree, but I also know my duty. Just let me know when you think my services are necessary. In the meantime, I’m going to continue acting like I’m running a company here.”
“As you should,” Allison said. “Now, let’s look at what we need to do to make that company profitable. If it fails, it’s not going to be a good place for us to operate out of, so we need to make it work.”
“Agreed. I’ve already asked Molly to start working on a marketing plan. Molly? You got anything to show us yet?”
“Just some basic stuff,” Molly replied. “I have written some articles that I plan to publish in various magazines, but of course I have to wait until the first prototypes are finished and tested. Wally says that will be within the next five days, so that’s not too long. I’ve also scripted out some commercials that I want to produce once we have working production models. I’m looking at a marketing budget of around thirty million for the first six months, including television and magazine advertising, along with some Internet promotions.”
“Now, wait a minute,” Allison said. “Neil showed me the website you built, and there are some photographs up there already. We don’t have any finished production models yet?”
“No, those aren’t actually photographs. Those are just some very detailed renderings of what we expect them to look like. I’d even constructed some simple animations that look very real, showing how the laundry system works, but I would really prefer to use video of the actual system in operation.”
Allison blinked. “Yeah, I can see why. Okay, this sounds good. And you’re convinced all of these things will really work the way Wally says they will?”
“His designs are very detailed, and as he said, the components are readily available. With the software that Esmeralda has written, they will do everything they’re supposed to do. I’ve done some market analysis and I expect that we can have as much as ten percent of the market share on home appliances within less than a year, which will give us approximately eight billion in revenues. Now, we could increase that to more than thirty billion by licensing the designs to other manufacturers, and I think that would be the best way to go.”
“What? Give up our secrets?” Allison looked doubtful. “Why would that make more sense than just producing them ourselves?”
“For a couple of reasons that I think are valid,” Molly said. “First, it would increase our revenues by more than four hundred percent, which means the company is making a lot of money. Second, and more important, it would take a lot of the focus off of our company, and considering what we’ll be doing behind the scenes, we don’t need a lot of attention. The fact that Wally has found a hidden basement to put his real R&D lab in means we are less likely to be exposed, but the last thing we need is a lot of reporters trying to learn our secrets, and even worse would be the problem of industrial espionage. If we make it clear that we will license the technology, there’s not really going to be any point in anyone trying to steal it from us.”
Allison nodded. “Okay, I see your points. What about patents? All of the stuff is patentable, right?”
“It is, and I’ve already worked with one of the best patent attorneys in the world to get them filed on a global basis. It cost almost two million dollars altogether, but our corporation now holds patents on these designs and functions in every country. That was actually a little tricky, because some of the other appliance manufacturers have been working on some similar devices for a while, but we found loopholes that let us claim many of the functions entirely as our own. We did have to refer to some prior art, so there will be a relatively small amount of royalties to pay out each year.”
“As long as we are protected,” Allison said. “Now, fill me in on my job here. What am I supposed to be doing?”
“As COO, your job is to oversee our business operations, which includes reporting back to Noah on any issues or developments. I’ll actually handle most of that for you, but I want to brief you at least a couple times a week on what’s happening with the business. That way, if you find yourself in
a position of having to answer questions, you’ll know what to say.”
Allison grinned and looked at Noah. “Sounds like you have it all figured out,” she said. “This is actually a brilliant idea, Noah. Setting up a business like this to cover activities is very smart. It will also give us a way to receive payments for our services.”
“Payments?” Noah asked. “I set this up so that we wouldn’t have to worry about getting a budget from the government.”
Allison’s eyebrows rose. “You don’t think we’re going to work for free, do you? Every time we handle a mission, there will be a payment of half a million dollars. That’s the deal I worked out with the president, and it won’t be any problem to get us set up as vendors to the government. That way, on paper, we can show that we were doing some kind of legitimate work for the government for the money we get paid.”
“That would fall under operations,” Noah said, “so that’s up to you to handle. I’m going to concentrate primarily on trying to run this business, as well as helping with any mission planning when necessary. And of course, I’m ready to go into the field whenever I’m needed.”
“I hope that won’t be very often,” Allison said. “I’m going to enjoy being ‘Grandma Judy’ to little Norah, and I can’t wait to see you as a daddy.”
Molly grinned. “He’ll be a good one,” she said. “I think it will come naturally to him.”
“I agree,” Allison said. “I look back on my own childhood and I could easily wish that my dad was as calm, cool and collected as Noah. Oh, some of the whippings I got!” She winked. “Of course, I deserved them, but that didn’t make them hurt any less.”
Neil, who had been working on setting up computers in other parts of the office, suddenly stuck his head into Allison’s. “You people do know it’s lunchtime, right? Anybody hungry?”
“I’m getting there in a hurry,” Allison said. “What’s good to eat around here?”
“There’s a restaurant in Guildford called The Baron’s Kitchen,” Neil said. “The food is excellent and the prices aren’t bad. Shall we head over?”
Noah got to his feet. “I think that’s a good idea,” he said. “We need to maintain a presence in the community, anyway.”
Noah had assigned one of the Mercedes SUVs to Allison, and he and Molly rode with her while Neil brought the rest of them in the van. Allison adjusted to driving on the wrong side of the road easily, and they arrived at the restaurant fifteen minutes later.
“Welcome,” said a gentleman standing just inside the door. “It appears that there are quite a few of you, so may I put you in one of our extra dining rooms?”
Noah nodded. “That will be fine,” he said. The maître d’ led them through the main dining room into a somewhat smaller room with a single large table and more than a dozen chairs. When they were all seated, he passed out menus and asked them what they would like to drink.
Almost all of them opted for coffee, with only Wally and Jenny choosing soft drinks instead. Sarah had remained at home with the baby, getting to know Rachel and resting up after her childbirth ordeal.
A waiter appeared a moment later and took their orders, and then they were left alone in the room. They continued to chat amongst themselves about business matters, and both Noah and Allison noticed that quite a few people were watching them through the open double doors.
“I take it most of the townspeople already know who you are?” Allison asked.
Noah nodded. “It seems that way,” he said. “We tend to be greeted by name whenever we come into town to go shopping. It’s a little disconcerting at first, because we don’t have a clue who the people speaking to us are, but you get used to it. By tomorrow, it’s a safe bet that anyone here will know who Judy Walker is, and you will be surprised at how many people will say hello when they see you.”
“I’ve been in England before,” Allison said. “People in the smaller, rural areas like this tend to be pretty friendly. It’s not going to bother me at all.”
“It will when they start asking for favors,” Neil grumbled. “I’ve had people call me by name, then asked me if I can pull strings to get their brother-in-law a job, stuff like that. I have absolutely no idea who they are, but they seem to think I’m their old friend. That gets annoying, trust me.” He glanced over his menu and looked out into the main dining room. “There’s a couple of them out there right now, just wait and see. They’ll try to catch me before I get out of here, you can bet on it.”
Allison looked at him for a moment, then grinned. “If that’s the worst thing that happens to you all day, then you probably ought to count yourself lucky.”
FIFTEEN
“There it is,” Ralph said to his team. “That’s her weak point, when she stops for coffee every morning.”
They were sitting outside a high-end coffee shop, watching Senator Mitchell as she climbed out of the back of her limousine and walked inside. She had two bodyguards with her, a couple of men who looked like they had spent some time wearing Special Forces uniforms. Both of them were obviously armed, and Ralph had no doubt that either of them could handle just about any situation that came up.
“Yeah, right,” Diana said. “And how do you plan to get past Tweedledee and Tweedledum? Using that capsule means you have to touch her, and I suspect they are not going to be too happy about that idea.”
“I don’t necessarily have to touch her,” Ralph said. “I just have to get the stuff on her skin. The weather is warm, and she’s got a lot of skin on display. I just need to think of how to apply it without those guys seeing what I’m doing.”
“Might be easier to get it into her coffee,” Benny said. “Think about that for a minute, yeah? How could we get it into her coffee, so it can dissolve and she could just drink it down?”
Ralph frowned. “I don’t see how that could work,” he said. “We’d have to have somebody behind the counter, and somebody new working there all of a sudden would look suspicious, might set off her bodyguards.” He thought for a moment. “What about using something like a blowgun? I could cut a little piece of a straw and hold it in my mouth, then blow it out onto her. Think that would work?”
Diana shook her head. “It’d draw attention,” she said. “She’d probably feel it and turn around to see what happened, which would point her bodyguards directly at you. No, we need to think of something else.”
“The problem is those bodyguards. I wonder if there’s any way we can distract them, make them look away while I make my move.”
“That’s not going to matter if she reacts,” JC said. “If you do anything that makes her turn and look at you, they are bound to spot it. Something happens to her a few minutes later, they’re going to make sure they know where to find you, trust me on that.”
Ralph chewed his bottom lip for a moment. “Then, we may have to go for something altogether different. What about using the car accident idea? I could steal a car, ram it into that limousine. The only problem is knowing whether or not it actually would kill her.”
“Which is why I’m not a fan of that plan, either.” Diana sat and watched the coffee shop for a moment, then turned to look at Ralph. “Those guys are watching her every minute of the day, right? That means the only time she’s not where they can see her is probably when she goes to the bathroom. Only trouble with that is knowing when that might be. If we could pinpoint a time when she was certain to be in the public restroom, I could go in and find a way to do it.”
“Good luck with that,” Ralph said. “With that much security on her, she probably wouldn’t go into a public restroom for any reason.” He bit his bottom lip again. “There’s always the ‘wrong place, wrong time’ method. What if this coffee shop were to get robbed tomorrow morning, while she’s there? I could take out the security guards first, then blow her away.”
Tommy made a face. “I think that would look too obvious. The place is getting robbed, but the only people who get killed are the target and her bodyguards? The conspiracy nuts w
ould go crazy with that one.”
“Well, I’m open to better ideas, if you’ve got any,” Ralph said. “Otherwise, I think I’m going to have to make an attempt at her in the morning, right here.”
They watched as the senator and her bodyguards came out of the coffee shop, headed toward the car. A man suddenly stepped toward them and began speaking, but the bodyguards held him back. The senator spoke to the man for a couple of seconds, then broke out into a smile and held out a hand.
Diana’s eyes suddenly narrowed as she watched. “Wait a minute, we’re not looking at this the right way,” she said. “This woman is a politician, right? What is it politicians do more than anybody else?”
“Lie?” JC asked.
“Besides that. Politicians love to shake hands, they’re always meeting people, right? ‘Hi, I’m so-and-so, vote for me.’ And if you watch, that’s just about always matched up with shaking hands, just like that guy. That’s all you have to do, just act like you’re excited to meet her, then shake hands with her. The stuff doesn’t hit her for a few minutes, right? You shake hands, tell her you’ll vote for her and then beat it back to the car and we’re gone.” She looked smug. “Even if they think there’s a connection, the drug won’t show up in the autopsy, so there really isn’t anything they can do. All you have to do is make sure you don’t touch one of us until it wears off.”
“Wally says it’s only good for about fifteen minutes after the capsule is broken,” Ralph said. “After that, it’s not dangerous anymore.” He turned and looked at her over the seat. “I think it’s the best idea I’ve heard yet. They always stop here every morning at a quarter to eight, so I need to be here five minutes before that. I go inside and wait till the limo shows up, get my coffee while she’s coming in, then I recognize her and tell her I’m one of her supporters. We shake hands, I promise her my vote and then I’m out the door. She should be back in the limo before it hits her, and we’ll be long gone by then.”