Bahama Crisis

by Desmond Bagley

  Billy was looking at the lagoon.

  "This is artificial," he said abruptly.

  "I hoped you'd notice." I pointed.

  "The channel out to sea is there by the Lucayan Beachfr Hotel. That's where the BASRA Marathon begins."

  "BASRA?" he said interrogatively.

  "The Bahamas Air-Sea Rescue Association. The Marathon is run by and for BASRA to raise funds. It's a voluntary organization a good crowd. If you're coming in here it wouldn't do you any harm to donate a few dollars or offer facilities."

  "Do you do that?"

  "Yes. We have the company planes…" I broke off and laughed.

  "Not big jets like yours, but we have four Piper Navajos seven-seaters we use to take tourists to the Out Islands, part of our tours division. And they're used on other company business, of course. But if a boat is lost and BASRA wants an air search the planes are available."

  He nodded.

  "Good public relations." He switched his attention back to the lagoon.

  "So this has been dredged out?"

  "That's it. This lagoon, and others like it, stretches for about three miles up the coast."

  Billy looked at the lagoon and then back at the house.

  "Not bad," he said, 'having a house with a water frontage. And it's protected, too; no big waves. "

  "You've got it. Now I'll show you something weird. Let's take a drive." We said farewell to Pete, left the house, and I drove about four miles east into Lucaya.

  "Notice anything?"

  Billy looked around.

  "Just trees -and the traffic is light."

  That was an understatement; there was no traffic. I had not seen a car for the last two miles. But there were many trees. I pointed.

  "That's a street. See the name plate? Now keep your eyes open."

  I drove on and presently the trees thinned out and we came on to a plain dotted with mounds of limestone. I said, "We're coming to the Casuarina Bridge. It crosses the Great Lucayan Waterway."

  "So we're going to cross it."

  "I don't get it," said Billy.

  I said, "We've been passing streets, all named and paved. Those poles carry power lines. Now, I don't know how it is in the States where any wide place in the road can call itself a city, but to me a road is something that goes from one place to another, but a street is a place, and it usually has houses on it."

  Billy was momentarily startled.

  "Houses!" he said blankly.

  "No goddamn houses! Nary a one."

  "That's it. But I've more to show you or, rather, not sh ow you. We'll get a better view from Dover Sound." I carried on driving, following the signposts to Dover Sound and Observation Hill. It is not really a hill just a manmade mound with the road leading up and a turning circle at the top I stopped the car and we got out.

  "What do you think of that?"

  Billy looked at the view with a lack of comprehension. I knew why because I had been baffled by the sight when first I saw it. There was land and there was water and it was not easy to see where one stopped and the other began. It was a maze of water channels. Billy shrugged helplessly.

  "I don't know. What am I supposed to think?"

  I said, "Think of my house and the lagoon. This is the Grand Lucayan Waterway it cuts right across Grand Bahama, nearly eight miles from coast to coast. But it has forty-five miles of water frontage." I flapped open the map I held.

  "Look at this. You can see where the streets and waterways fit together like fingers in a glove."

  Billy studied the map then took out a calculator and began punching buttons.

  "At a hundred feet of water frontage to a house that's nearly 2500 houses. Where the hell are they?"

  "There's more. Look at the map." I swept my hand over an area.

  "Twenty square miles of land all laid out in paved streets with utilities already installed the un fleshed skeleton of a city of 50,000 people."

  "So what happened?"

  "An election happened. Pindling got in and the investors ran scared.

  But they're coming back. Take a man who runs his own business in Birmingham, Alabama, or Birmingham, England, come to that. He sells out to a bigger company at, say, the age of fifty-five when he's still young enough to enjoy life and now has the money to indulge himself. He can build his house on the canal and keep his fishing boat handy, or he can take one of the dry land plots. There's sun and sea, swimming and golf, enough to keep a man happy for the rest of his life. And the beauty of it is that the infrastructure already exists; the power station in Freeport is only working to a tenth of its capacity. "

  Billy looked over the expanse of land and water.

  "You say the investors are coming back. I don't see much sign."

  "Don't be fooled." I pointed back the way we had come.

  "You can see the landscaping has begun tree planting and flower beds. And that big parking lot, all neatly laid out. It looks a bit silly, but it's probably earmarked for a supermarket. There are houses being built right now, but you don't see them because they're scattered over twenty square miles. Give this place a few years and we'll have a thriving community. That's one answer to a question you asked what's the future of the Bahamas?"

  He rubbed his jaw.

  "Yeah, I see what you mean."

  "Don't take my word for it look for yourself. I'll lend you a plane and my chief pilot, Bobby Bowen, and you can do some island hopping.

  Go to Abaco; we have a hotel there the Abaco Sands at Marsh Harbour.

  Go on to Eleuthera where we're building a hotel. Have a look at some of the other islands and don't leave out New Providence. I'll give you a list of people you can talk to. Then come back and tell me what you think. "

  "Okay," he said.

  "I'll do just that."

  Billy went on his tour a couple of days later after looking around Grand Bahama, but Debbie stayed on at the Royal Palm. Billy confided in me that he had brought her along in an attempt to cure a fit of the blues; apparently Debbie had been having man trouble an affair had turned sour. Anyway, she fell into the habit of going to the house and using the pool, and she and the children became friends in jig time. Debbie would pick up the kids from school and take them home and then stay on to lunch with Julie. Julie must have liked her because she put off her trip to Florida until Billy came back.

  As for me, I was damned busy. I rousted Jamieson, the chief accountant, who fairly set the computer smoking as we figured the net worth of the company as at the end of that month. I wanted to have all my ammunition ready and dry for Billy when he came back because I had the notion he would be ready to talk turkey.

  One evening after Julie had put the girls to bed I told her about Billy's proposition and asked what she thought of it. She was ambivalent. She saw the possibilities for expansion, but on the other hand she said, "I don't know if it would be good for you you're too independently minded."

  I knew what she meant.

  "I know I like to run my own show and that's my problem how to extract forty million bucks from the Cunninghams without losing control. I have a few ideas about that and I might be able to swing it."

  She laughed at me.

  "I always knew I married a genius. All right, if you can do that then it won't be a bad thing."

  I had to consult my sisters, Peggy and Grace. Both had stock in the West End Securities Corporation, enough for them to have a say in any decision as big as this. Peggy lived 3i on Abaco with her son and daughter and her husband, Bob Fisher, who ran the Abaco Sands Hotel for the corporation. Grace had married an American called Peters and lived in Orlando, Florida, with their thee sons. It seemed that the tendency of the Mangans to produce girls was confined to the males. It meant some flying around because this was not something that could be settled on the telephone, but I had written agreements by the time Billy came back.

  He returned to Grand Bahama after eight days, having gone through the Bahamas like a whirlwind. He was armed with so many facts, f
igures and statistics that I wondered how he had assembled them all in the time, but that was like Billy he was a quick student.

  "You were right," he said.

  "The Bahamas have potential, more than I thought. You didn't tell me about the Hotels Encouragement Act."

  I laughed.

  "I left you to find out yourself. I knew you would."

  "My God, it's like stumbling across a gold mine." He ticked the points off on his fingers.

  "No customs duty on anything imported to build or equip a hotel; no property taxes for the first ten years; no company taxes for the first twenty years. And that applies to hotels, marinas, golf courses, landscaping anything you can damn near think of. It's incredible."

  "It's why we're going to have two million tourists next year."

  He grunted.

  "I've been thinking about that. I was talking to that tourism guy, Butler. He told me that eighty per cent of your economy and two-thirds of your population are supported by tourism. That's a hell of a lot of eggs in one basket, Tom." His voice was serious.

  "What if something happens like war breaking out?"

  Something told me I had better come up with the right answer. I said lightly, "If World War III breaks out everybody's eggs get broken."

  "I guess you're right at that."

  "Are you ready to talk business yet?"

  "No. I'll be speaking to Billy One and Jack today. I'll let you know the decision tomorrow."

  I grinned.

  "I promise I won't bug the switchboard. I won't be coming in to the office tomorrow. Julie is leaving for Miami and I like to see them off. Why don't you come to the house and bring Debbie along?"

  "I'll do that."

  So Billy and Debbie arrived at the house next morning at about ten o'clock. Debbie joined the girls in the pool and I winked at Julie and took Billy into my study. He said, "I think we're in business."

  "You may think so, but I'm not so sure. I don't want to lose control."

  He stared at me.

  "Oh, come on, Tom! Forty million bucks swings a lot of clout. You don't want us busting in as competitors, do you?"

  "I'm not afraid of competition. I have plenty of that, anyway."

  "Well, you can't expect us to put up all that dough and not have control. That's ridiculous. Are you joking or something?"

  "I'm not joking," I said.

  "I'm perfectly serious. But I'd like to point out that there are different kinds of control."

  Billy looked at me speculatively.

  "Okay, I'll buy it. What's on your mind?"

  "I take it you'd be setting up a corporation here."

  "That's right, we would. I've been talking to some of your corporate lawyers over in Nassau and they've come up with some great ideas, even though they'd be illegal back in the States. This sure is a free-wheeling place."

  "Rest easy," I said.

  "As an offshore tax haven we're positively respectable, not like some others I could mention. What would you call your corporation?"

  "How would I know? Something innocuous, I guess. Let's call it the Theta Corporation."

  I said, "I run three hotels with a fourth building for a total of 650 rooms. That's a lot of bed linen, a lot of crockery and cutlery, a lot of kitchenware and ashtrays ana anything else you care to name. Now, if the Theta Corporation is going to build and equip hotels it would be better to consolidate and keep the economy of scale. You^et bed sheets a damn sight cheaper if you order by the 5000 pair rather than the 500 pair, and that applies right down the line."

  "Sure, I know that." Billy napped his hand impatiently.

  "Come to the point."

  "What I'm suggesting is that the Theta Corporation take over West End Securities in return for stock."

  "Ha!" he said.

  "Now you're saying something. How much stock?"

  "One-fifth."

  "We put in $40 million, you put in West End and take a fifth of the stock. That makes it a $50 million corporation, so you estimate West End as being worth $10 million. Is it? What's the book value?"

  I said, "Jamieson and I have been working it out. I put it at $8 million."

  "So you put in $8 million and take stock worth $ 10 million. What kind of a deal is that? What do we get for the other two million bucks?"

  The," I said evenly.

  Billy burst out laughing.

  "Come on, Tom! Do you reall y think you're worth that?"

  "You're forgetting quite a few things," I said.

  "If you come in here on your own you come in cold. I know you've picked up your facts and statistics and so on, but you don't know the score you don't know the way things get done here. But if you come in with me you begin with a firm base ready for expansion, eager for expansion. And you don't only get me, but you get my staff, all loyal to me personally.

  And don't forget the Bahamas for the Bahamians bit. Call it goodwill, call it know-how, call it what you like, but I reckon it's worth two million. "

  Billy was silent for a long time, thinking hard.

  "Maybe you're right," he said at last.

  I gave him another jolt.

  "And I get to be President of the Theta Corporation," I said calmly.

  He nearly choked.

  "Jesus, you don't want much! Why don't you just pick my pocket of forty million bucks and have done with it?"

  "I told you. I don't want to lose control. Look, Billy; you'll be Chairman and I'll be President the Cunninghams retain financial control but I have operational control. That's the only way it can work. And I want a five-year contract of service; not a cast iron contract that fractures too easily an armour plate contract."

  Billy looked glum, but nodded.

  "Billy One might go for it, but I don't know about Jack." He drummed his fingers on the desk and said cautiously, "If we take over West End we get everything? Not just the hotels part of it?"

  "You get all the trimmings," I assured him.

  "Tours division, car hire fleet, merchandising division the lot."

  "Before we go any further into this," he said.

  "I'd like to have your ideas about expansion. Have you given it any thought?"

  I pushed a folder across the desk.

  "There are a few ideas here. Just a beginning."

  He studied the papers I had put together and we discussed them for a while. At last he said, "You've obviously been thinking hard. I like your idea of a construction division." He checked the time.

  "I need the telephone. Will you give me half an hour? I might have to do some tough talking."

  I pushed the telephone towards him.

  "Best of luck."

  I found Julie holding Karen in her arms and looking faintly worried.

  Karen was sniffling and wailing.

  "But I want to go!"

  "What's the matter?"

  "Oh, Karen's not well," said Julie.

  "I don't think she should come with us. That cold in the head has sprung up again and she's got a temperature."

  "It's notfairV cried Karen.

  "Sue's going."

  I put out my hand and felt her forehead; Julie was right about the rise in temperature, but it was not much.

  "Maybe we should cancel the trip," saidJuhe.

  "Put her to bed and we'll talk about it." I looked around. Where's Sue? "* " On Lucayan Girl helping Pete or, rather, getting in his way. I'll be back soon. "Julie walked into the house carrying Karen who had burst into tears.

  I found Debbie relaxing by the pool and dropped into a chair next to her.

  "Poor kid," she said.

  "She's so disappointed. How ill is she?"

  "Not very. You know how kids are; their temperature goes up and down for no apparent reason. She'll probably be all right in a couple of days. But Julie is thinking of cancelling the trip."

  "I've noticed something about this household," said Debbie.

  "Apart from Julie and the girls there are no women in it. If Julie wants someone to
look after Karen I could do that."

  "It's a kindly thought," I said.

  "But ifit comes to the push I'll take Karen to the Royal Palm. We have a very efficient and charming young nurse there whom Karen knows very well. I've done it before when Julie has been away."

  "Then talk Julie out of cancelling. It would disappoint Sue so much."

  "I'll do my best." Presently Julie came out of the house, and I asked, "How is she?"

  "Rebellious."

  "You don't have to cancel the trip. I don't want two gloomy kids sulking about the house. Debbie has offered to look after Karen, and there's always Kitty Symonette at the hotel."

  "Thanks, Debbie. That's good of you. " Julie thought for a moment.

  "Very well we'll go." She looked at Debbie.

  "Don't let Karen play you up; that little minx is full of tricks."

  I stood up.

  "If everything's aboard I'll come and see you off."

  Just then Billy came striding out of the house and beckoned me with a jerk of his head. He said, "There'll be a squad of lawyers and auditors flying in to look at your books. If everything checks we have a deal." He laughed and put out his hand.

  So it was with a light heart that I saw Julie and Sue away on Lucayan Girl. I told Julie about the deal and she was delighted, and then we went out to the lagoon where the Girl was ready to cast off, her engines already ticking over. Sue was running about taking photographs with the camera I had given her for her birthday; her teacher had set her the exercise of a photo-essay as her homework for the Christmas vacation. By the look of her both she and her stock of film would be exhausted before the voyage began.

  I had a word with Pete who was coiling a rope in the bows.

  "Got a crewman?"

  "Sure."

  "How is he?"

  "He'll do," said Pete laconically. Knowing Pete that meant the young fellow was pretty good.

  "Where is he?"

  "Below greasing the shafts." Pete raised his voice.

  "All right, then; all aboard that's goin' aboard."

  Sue scampered aboard and Julie kissed me and followed more sedately.

  "Cast off the after line, Miss Mate," said Pete. He cast off the forward line and quickly went to the helm on the flying bridge. The engines growled and Lucayan Girl moved slowly away.