Balance of Power Shifted

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Balance of Power Shifted Page 33

by Karl, Victor


  Fiona said, “Mike look at the bottom screen on the right.” Looking behind me I saw a beautiful Mack truck with an overnight cab and attached was a gleaming stainless steel tanker body. Fiona said “the tank capacity on that one was about 4800 gallons and the capacity of this straight body is 2200 gallons” as she put up a second picture. “I worked up the numbers with Kristen and it looks like we would be much better off if we purchased our own trucks. Using an average of 8 gallons of Electricus to the average car, one tanker truck will support the outfitting of 600 cars per tanker. To outfit 100,000 cars we would have to make 166 deliveries to each major car company. We have 100 tanks on site when fully-operational, and the full reaction process and pumping process cycle is two days, so every 2 days we can ship 500,000 gallons enough for just over 62,000 cars. That’s 100 tanker trucks every 2-days and that is if everything is working like clockwork.” “Wow”, I said. “Logistically we do not even know how long a truck will be on the road for a round trip. I think we need a person trained in logistics and fleet management as soon as possible!”

  Luckily we built into our contracts a ramp up period, which was mutually beneficial since the car companies have to re-tool their production lines however they are raring to go since the average consumer is now holding off buying gas powered vehicles knowing that Electricus powered vehicles are just around the corner. The drop off is so severe, that the car companies are working 24 hours a day to re-tool and are already prototyping the Power Pad component and testing power controls.” Fiona then added, “Mike, we need to place truck orders as well as rent trucks until we have the new trucks as well as certified drivers. I want to put in a 50 million dollar order across three truck and tank manufacturing companies, or we could just buy a freight company and change them over.” “Put the orders in, and get that logistics person onboard ASAP and pay them whatever they are asking. I think this is an area, I totally let fall through the cracks. Thanks for catching it.” You probably will not see me for a few days since I need to be at the New Gretna and San Diego sites getting them up and running. Is there any way you can get away and come out to San Diego with me?” Fiona asked. “Ummm, let me think about that and I’ll call you later,” I said as I thought about my old pad out there and wondered if my roof top plants were still alive.

  As I was walking out of Fiona’s command center, Sean was walking in so I stopped and asked him how it was going. Sean immediately started babbling saying “I’ve finally worked out the safety issues with Electricus and how to safely store it, transport it and transfer. We, when I say we, I mean Efficio and anyone storing Electricus should do so in a non-conductive container. I think we have been very lucky to date not having anyone injured or killed. It was pure luck that our culture containers were fiberglass and the tanker used for the Army delivery, lined in ceramic. “Damn” I responded, “I had no inclination that it was dangerous, but how can it not be with all that electricity involved.” “I think we were lucky the whole time because Electricus formed this neutral zone between the positive and negative charged organisms which helped provide some kind of buffer,” said Sean with a roll of his eyes. “I’m going to finalize safety requirements with Fiona and make sure our contracts are clear on it with our customers. See ya later.” I had five minutes to get to a special soundproof room to connect to Bill over an encrypted voice channel. This was their daily meeting to keep each other up to speed on the day’s events.

  Slipping into a conference room with acoustic sound tiles on the walls, specially lined glass to block electronic signals and prevent lip reading and sound vibrations, I sat down to a special workstation that allowed me to establish a voice and video call to a similar device in Bill’s Vatican office. In the event we could not be in these spaces, we each carried and encrypted satellite phone. I initiated the connection and in seconds, Bill’s face appeared on the screen. I said “Yo Mr. Bill how’s it hanging?” Bill laughed at Mike’s innuendo and responded, “Further south than yours Rico.” Slipping to the first item on my agenda, I said to Bill, “You know both of your parents are becoming a pain in the neck. They are suing us for your share of the company, even though our contract clearly states that all shares would be transferred to the other partner in the event of a death or severe mental disability.” “Sorry about that partner, but they really don’t have much.” Don’t be sorry, your parents are good people, which is why Julius and I worked out a payment of a million dollars each over 10-years. I hope you know this is coming out of your end.” Bill smiled and said, “Thanks man, I appreciate that since after all I am dead as you know.”

  “Why don’t I run through my items and then let you run through your side after that?” I offered to Bill. Bill just shrugged his shoulders in agreement so I proceeded to relay the conversation I just had with Fiona and Sean. At the end, I recommended hiring a comparable logistics and fleet guy over there and use similar metrics for trucking product. I added, “And learn the metric system so you can explain it to me.” I then slipped into finances and talked about the accounts receivables based on the contracts signed to date. Bill let out a long whistle to the numbers especially the year two projections and added jokingly “maybe we should have given my parents 2 million dollars each.”

  The last thing I discussed was the 20% of revenue funding for our needy projects and the series of bank accounts to be setup in international banks with deposits once we had 2 billion dollars in the bank for operating costs. This included a payoff of our initial investors who made a cool 20% on their investments. “Perfect” Bill excitedly spoke, “that fits in nicely with the efforts over here by my Vatican friends to create dialog with the spiritual and secular movers and shakers around the globe. To say there was interest in what we are trying to do would be an understatement. The acuity of all those involved in what this means to the traditional poor has helped foster a groundswell of support. I think one of the first things I would like to do is subsidize the building of manufacturing plants in poorer areas to create the Power Pads and power modules needed and provide training and decent paying jobs.”

  Sean finished up with a summary of efforts to build Electricus production sites and had one site almost complete, two more under construction and five in contract discussions. He also made a note to retrofit the designs for the new safety requirements from Sean. He added that Charlene has been an immense help and has become a proficient contract negotiator. Did you know she speaks French fluently and is already doing well learning Italian. Who would have thought?” Lastly Bill added in a conspiratorial tone, even though we were the only ones on the call, “our security here at the Vatican has identified at least two individuals who have been spying on the team. We don’t believe they have put two and two together and are just tracking our people coming and going.” “Are you sure about that Bill, we can’t have you or Charlene put in any more danger?” No man, we’re cool here. It is amazing how well they do security around here and you never even know it was going on around you.”

  Bill seemed to have a revelation and said hey, “you or Fiona should look up Donny when out in San Diego. He was, if I remember correctly, high up in the food chain for a large chemical company and I believe he was in charge of fleet services.” “Absolutely,” I said, “Donny is a good guy and I would love to have him on our team. We could probably make him responsible for West Coast operations as well.” “You got my blessing on Donny,” Bill said and have you heard anything from those airbags in DC? “Not a peep to be heard from them. I think I messed with their heads by telling them some of the details on our fallback plan.” “Got to go Mike, Charlene has made some homemade beef Braciole which if it tastes half as good as it smells will be to die for,” Bill bragged and dropped the connection.

  Looking at my watch, I decided to call Donny right away since he was probably sitting at his desk drinking his second cup of coffee. Telling Siri to dial Donny, I heard the ‘ringing Donny’ and a few rings later I heard, “Fleet Services, this is Don speaking.” “Man, you sound
like you clean up nicely and I can’t believe that they actually let you answer the phone, “I led into the conversation with to see if he recognized my voice. It only took him a couple of seconds until he burst out with “Mike is that you? I cannot believe such a big shot like you would take the time to call a peon like myself. How are you?” Doing pretty good Don, life is a little hectic as you might guess.” “I know, you and your company are in the news constantly and I am really sorry about Bill,” he responded sadly since he had gotten to know Bill well. “So what can I do for you” Don asked?”

  Feeling his curiosity oozing across 3000 miles of phone line, I asked him what he did at his current job. He said, “To put it simply my job is to get raw material and finished product to and from the chemical manufacturing plants by trucks or freight trains.” Donny let that hang in the air until I responded “interested in coming to work for Efficio?” “What do you have for me Mike?” Don asked indicating some interest. Well first, I would like you to meet our CIO Fiona, who will be coming out there shortly. She wears multiple hats, including setting up our production sites, and can fill you in on all the details. “To put it simply,” I answered, “we need a professional who can put together a strategy to get a lot of trucks delivering a lot of product in a short period of time as well as run our West Coast operations and salary should not be an issue.” I spent another five minutes talking about the company and catching up with what he had been doing since I last saw him and before I hung up I told him I would be tagging along with Fiona and would see him in two days.

  By the time, I called Fiona to fill her in on Don; she was already halfway down the Parkway to the New Gretna site. “What’s up good looking” she answered the phone with to which I responded, “you better have known it was me.” Jokingly she feigned “Tom, this isn’t Tom, who is this?” “Yeah, yeah, yeah, funny, funny I replied.” “What’s up,” she asked?” I then told her of Bill’s idea and my conversation with Donny and a little background on him. She ended up thinking it was a great idea and wanted me to invite him to dinner at Chez Rico for a pseudo interview and to get to know each other when she found out I was tagging along.

  Due to security issues, we chartered a Clavis private jet to San Diego complete with two security professionals for the duration of our visit. Clavis maintained two planes that they used for high profile clients to get around public transportation and had one on the west coast and one on the east located at Teterboro airport. During the flight we talked about business for the first two hours and then kind drifted of the track and started talking about getting married and finding time to hang together with all the pressure of running Efficio and a second charitable organization which still needed a name.

  “Face it,” Fiona said, “we are both adrenaline junkies and will need to get juiced on a regular basis, but who would have predicted that we would live our lives like we are in a war zone every day. I for one can’t wait for it to level out and get our adrenaline fix in more traditional ways such as jumping out of planes or hiking through crocodile infested wet lands.” “Having five kids will make sure you’re never bored,” I kidded. “How did you know I always wanted five kids?” she said. I started to make a joke about how it got to five from four until I saw she was not kidding and had an intense look in her eyes as she searched mine. “Lucky guess” I said and smiled thinking about what it might be like since being an only child. “I’m game if you are.”

  When we landed at the airport, a Clavis armored SUV met us out front. When we got in, we said hello to the driver who had a chauffer’s hat pulled down low across his face. He responded in retrospect with a poor imitation of an Aussie accent. Fiona caught on first, and dug her elbow into my side and said, “It’s Jeremy.” “Do you mind if I hang out with you guys as you check out you production plant?” he asked. “Sure” I responded “and I’ll even buy lunch if you’re interested.” As they were driving to the production site, I confirmed with Jeremy that we no longer had any security guards at Chez Rico and were relying strictly on the alarm system and video surveillance. He confirmed it and added “and just so you two know, Mary and I have been watering all your plants and making sure the place doesn’t fall down, since you never come out to visit anymore. “In that case why don’t you and Mary come over for dinner tonight? We are going to interview someone that Mike knows out here for an important position.” “Sounds great but I need to check with Mary first, but what is the candidate’s name? “Donald Shintone or Donny as Mike calls him.” “Donny? I know Donny, he is a great person. What is his specialty?” Jeremy wanted to know. Mike chimed in and said “Donny is going to figure out how to deliver Electricus to all our clients and manage West Coast operations…if he agrees that is.”

  Neat place I said to Fiona as we walked around the facility. Space was more at a premium here, but the warehouse building had tall ceilings that allowed Fiona to design a two-tier tank system, which essentially got twice as many gallons per square foot than the New Gretna site. The new pumps were in and a pipe ran out 200 feet into the bay and anchored to ensure it could not affect navigation per the city’s requirement. Similar to the New Jersey site, they were still waiting on more than half of the fiberglass tanks.

  As Fiona was talking about the design, Jeremy also talked about the high tech security controls, motion detectors, guard rotation and a few other surprises. He also reminded me that they were set up to perform the background checks for all site employees and drivers. The beauty of this site was the open parking lot in front that could handle a lot of truck traffic and was only two blocks from the freeway. An hour later and with Fiona happy about the progress she saw, Jeremy dropped us off at the house and said to call if they needed a security detail if they were moving around.

  A quick check of the house showed that it was immaculate and all the plants looked healthy. The refrigerator looked stocked with essentials, most likely thanks to Mary. There was even a vase of fresh flowers sitting on the counter. I had no idea what kind of flowers they were, but they had a light aromatic smell that was very pleasant. While on the rooftop, I popped the lid on the hot tub and took in the crystal clear water and a light rise of steam. Hey, how about a dip I asked Fiona. I didn’t bring a suit she replied. “A suit,” Mike echoed, “just look around.” Fiona looked around, and took in redwood tub surrounded by a specially made Gazebo shrouding the tub in privacy. I grabbed two cold waters from the small fridge, shucked my clothes, and jumped in. The hot water felt freaking great.

  Fiona was not rushing to get in, making some excuses, so I said “some adrenaline junky!” That seemed to do the trick, and with one last quick look around, dropped her sun dress, kicked of her shoes and in a flourish removed her bra and butt floss she called panties and slipped in the water with an audible moan of appreciation. Luckily, I knew the cameras were not trained anywhere near the hot tub and that our security team was not being distracted as we relaxed and made out for almost a half hour before the prune skin became too much to take. Putting our clothes on over our wet skin, we headed in to rinse off the chlorine smell.

  A half hour later, I fired up my poor Camaro that has been sitting here neglected. It’s a shame I only had to go a mile down the road with the car and would have liked to drive it up the coast for a couple of hours. Running into the food store I picked up everything on Fiona’s list, which was mostly fresh vegetable and organic chicken. She was going to make a Southwestern style chicken dinner that required puree of Asparagus with lots of roasted garlic added and Cayenne Pepper for a little low heat. Long grained rice was cooked and then placed in a mold similar to a cupcake pan and baked in the oven until it would hold together. The rice would end up sitting on the Asparagus puree while the grilled chicken with some light seasoning added along with whole steamed baby carrots with the tops still on completed the dish. I got all the ingredients for a nice fresh salad and for a chocolate torte cake, she was going to make with a rum icing. Oh yeah and some Amp drinks since I was out.

  With
the house smelling like a five star restaurant I went down to answer the door at 6:15 and greeted Mary with a hug and Jeremy with a fist bump. Mary immediately said, “It smells great in here and directed herself upstairs saying she wanted to see if Fiona needed a hand. I was just about to walk up with Jeremy when the doorbell rang. Opening up the door, there stood Donny not looking any different than when I last saw him other than being better dressed than normal. It did look like Donny was getting a little thinner up top. He was only about 10-years older than me, but I thought him and his hair would be soon parted. He gave me a high five and Jeremy a handshake I guess since he did not know him as well as me or in deference to age. “Good to see you Donny, you are looking very snazzy” I said. “Hey what did you expect, this is a job interview you know. In a more conspiratorial whisper he leaned in close and said “when your CIO Fiona called to confirm everything she sounded very nice on the phone and I’ve been hot to meet her ever since.” Jeremy playing along saying to Don “if I wasn’t married to the hottest woman and my best friend I certainly would make a run at her, even though she is only half my age. What do you think Mike, but you have to answer and put aside political correctness in the office first.” “Jer, I would have to agree with you my friend, however she a little brainy for my taste” I said as I continued the joke. Anyway, Donny lets head up for cocktails and dinner and we will leave you and Ms. Paschel alone to discuss the details of the job.

 

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