Chapter 9

The war council was gathered in my study. I was behind my desk, and gathered in a semicircle facing me was Steve Grant, Grier Barringer, Ingemar Cromberg, and Bill Ericson. Bill was the detective who had found my brother and he had been working closely with the police after Norma was killed. Inez was beside me on my left and Diane was at the right side of my desk. Bill was giving the rest of us an update as to his investigation.

"I've been able to keep informed when the police or FBI finds anything, Mister Andrews, but I got to tell you, they aren't really looking very hard. I have to be careful not to let them find out my information sources. I told them about one guy, and they arrested him and leaked the data. It seems as if they are trying to destroy the source instead of follow the lead. The FBI especially seems to be trying to keep anything from happening. I'm pretty sure that they are covering up for somebody."

"Do you really think that is what they are doing, Bill?" Inez asked. "Are you sure it is not just incompetence?"

"Oh, there is plenty of incompetence, for sure. But it is as if they assigned the biggest idiots to this case on purpose. When Steve found out about the Stingers and the kidnapping they had to become involved, but the local bureau chief got people from out of his district to head up the investigation. When I asked him about that he said that it was because he had too many pending cases and not enough people without deadlines to handle it. That is pure unadulterated bullshit. I know better. The State police were doing okay until the FBI turned it into a jurisdiction showdown. Since then all official leads have dried up."

"Well, you said that you had some information for us, do you?" I asked him.

"Certainly, Mister Andrews, and the intentional hindrance by the FBI is the first thing. They are obstructing the investigation because one of the people who would be found out is a senator. I'm not positive which one yet, but it has to be someone on the appropriations committee or the oversight committee for the FBI to carry water for them. That part is a little difficult to ferret out right away. I've got it narrowed down pretty good though. The corporations involved in the actual actions we have found out though. I'm still looking for the name of who called the shots, but I'll find him or her eventually. Once you begin your activities I think the roach will probably skitter out into the light. That is why I'm giving you the info now, you will help me find out the rest."

I looked down at the paper he had handed out when he arrived. Bill Ericson had been a Marine intelligence officer and been removed from service after an encounter with an IED, the same one that got Steve Grant. The mechanical hook on the end of his left arm didn't seem to slow him down any at all. The paper I was looking at detailed an interconnected series of power companies in seven states to include Texas. The headquarters was in Atlanta, and the actual threat seemed to emanate from there.

"Can you tell me what your plans are for these people Mr. Andrews? If I know what you have planned I can watch for the fleeing rats in the right place."

I looked up at him, and at the rest of the group. "As much as I would dearly love to rain shock and awe down on these fools, we don't have nearly enough power for that, and there would be too many innocents damaged. Here is what I have in mind, and suggestions are encouraged. First off, everything will need to be legal, but at the same time I want them to know that we are behind it. The easiest way I can see to do that is to use our products as weapons. I want to give discounts and subsidies to homeowners and small businesses in these areas. I want to get our small units out in much greater numbers than has occurred elsewhere. I want these companies to have to buy power from their customers. They have had to do it in the past, but it was always a rare thing and even then they bitched about it. I want to help all the other companies that are in competition with them, all the small power people on the fringes. Muriel tells me that the first commercial units should be ready in a couple of months. I want them to go to these small companies as a trial operation. This corporation will not get any of the commercial units at any price. Contracts will specify that representatives of this corporation are not allowed to have any access to our products, and impose very strict penalties for violations. When the stock prices start to drop, I'll have Crom's uncle buy most of it up. When we have control we'll bust the individual companies into regional co-ops with new management.

"This offshoot of GE that hired the spy is a different matter. When they did it we didn't have any patents, so their actions weren't strictly illegal. I want to buy this company and fire the executives for ethics violations. I know someone from GE itself gave the orders for it, but there is no way to pin it on anyone. Since we are not allowing GE to have any contracts from us, they have their own problems right now. We can use the company itself to make components. Sophia says that they have an assembly shop they work with that we can use as well. Do you think all this will flush out your vermin, Bill?"

"I once watched a mined freighter go down in the Persian Gulf, everything that could float was covered with rats, this should look pretty much the same. How soon do you intend to start?"

"First I would like to know if anyone has any objections or comments."

"What about the Senator? Is he or she going to get away scot-free?" Crom asked.

I looked to Bill, "Once the fallout starts to drop I should be able to narrow it down further and possibly identify who it is," he said.

I spoke up then, "I have tried to stay away from politics up to now, but I think we can be active for anyone who opposes any of the people Bill thinks may have done it. Whoever it was got me to be in Washington at that hearing, and they are definitely going to pay. Once they are identified, we can go about ruining them financially as well as politically. Bill, I want you to try and pinpoint the bribe they took so we can publicize it. Does anyone else have anything to add?"

When everyone shook their heads, I said, "Then we'll start right now. Grier, I want every other unit the factory completes to be set aside for this project. Diane, get with the distributors in these areas and set up the subsidies and discounts. I don't care if we make a profit in the area or not, I just want those units out there. Lease a big warehouse or two in the Atlanta area, there are empties all around the place. Then get with Sophia, I want a lot of the home units produced in other plants to go to these warehouses. We'll distribute them from there." I turned to my factory manager, "Grier, I need you and Crom to get some folks to Atlanta to do quality control before this stuff ships. I know Sophia is emphasizing it to the shops, but I want to be sure. You know, with all the techs we are going to need, maybe we should set up a school to train them for us. By this time next year we'll be getting most of the electrical engineering students from a four state area coming to work for us." I turned back to Diane, "See about having some of the technical schools providing curriculum to suit us. The kids are going to need it in the future wherever they end up working. After all, we are the future of electrical generation."

Two months later:

"Muriel. Where the hell are those commercial units? You promised me the first ones would ship last week. What happened?"

"I don't know, Alex. Every time I thought the lines were ready to run, there was another problem. Some of the machines would break, or supplies would be misplaced, things just keep going wrong."

"Why the hell didn't you tell me about this before? That sounds like sabotage. I want you to find an independent security firm and post guards at all areas in that plant. You and the techs watch and make sure that everyone who is working in there is supposed to be there. I'm going to have Steve send some people he trusts to get the security organized. I'll also have Bill's people do some background checks to see who is getting extra money from somewhere. I need those commercial units, Muriel. I've got home units going up all over the Atlanta area, and those folks are starting to get worried, but if I can't take away some of their business accounts, they won't fold. The next time you have problems, you call me before it gets this bad."

"Yes, Sir, I will. On the plus side, I have another plant that should be ready shortly after this one, and there are two places almost ready to begin manufacturing the small units. They may actually be ready before the big ones. I have a design team working on the possibilities of the small units and the ideas are pretty good. They have exchanged some emails and faxes with Ingemar as well."

"Good job on that, Muriel, but you should have seen this problem for what it was sooner. Get to work and fix the problem. I'll talk to you later."

I looked up and Diane was standing in front of my desk. "Miss Horne is probably seeing the sabotage as simply men being their normal stupid selves. Her bias drips off her like venom. I'd say pull her in, but she challenges a lot of men to do better, and some of the women to excel."

"I can understand about the men being challenged, but how do you see her improving the efforts of the women?"

"Heterosexual females try to prove that they can be just as competent as the gay women, and end up doing much better than they ever had to before. Men give them too much slack and don't expect as much. Mind you, you will need someone to go in after her and smooth the feathers a bit. Sophia was telling me about the man she has managing her office right now. She says that he is doing a great job, but is capable of a lot more. She wants to move one of the women working downstairs into his job if she can find something more for him to do. Enough about that, you need to go out to the factory this afternoon. Crom wants to talk to you and you have an appointment at two for someone from the government. This guy doesn't sound like a hit man for congress though."

"Okay, but get with Sophia about this guy she has, because you are right, once Muriel gets stuff up and running I'll need someone with a lot more finesse to oversee the operations."

"Glad to help. Shall we see what Marcella has for lunch today?"

Lunch was always fun when Inez and Camille were home. Once she had Camille working with her, Inez took off on the generators to schools idea. There were already a lot of low-income area schools in the Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas areas with generators. She had even taken the idea so far as to hire architects to design new schools with the generators in mind, to include placing them in high wind areas. I didn't like having Inez traveling around so much, she was really starting to bulge out and I knew that she was beginning to get uncomfortable. Camille did most of the travel for her, but some stuffy school boards wouldn't be satisfied talking to a subordinate, they wanted to fete the queen bee herself. Soon they wouldn't have any choice though; Doctor Calloway wasn't going to let her travel for much longer.

Today the pair was off to Dallas, and Jessica was going with them.

I had begun using my office in the factory more and more lately. I tried to use the one at home when I could just to stay near Inez and Jessica as much as possible, but for more and more things I needed technical help nearby so most afternoons I was at the factory. Today Diane led me right on down to Crom's workshop. He had what looked to be one of our generators hooked up into a testing cradle. There was an electric motor running the turbine with a belt. Crom was standing at an instrument panel with a young girl I hadn't seen before.

"Hello Crom, what are you working on and who is this?"

"Oh, hello Alex. This is Genevieve Decourly, she is a student at Texas A&M and wrote me about some improvements she might have for my designs. They weren't really much of an improvement, but she impressed me with how well she understood what I was doing. We are financing the rest of her schooling and she will be working here afterwards."

I shook the nervous girl's hand, and then turned back to the generator. Something didn't look right about it. "Is this one of her ideas, Crom?"

"What? Oh ... this. No, her designs are much better than this. This little jewel is the first of what will probably be a long line of competitors. This one steals our patent directly, but is only able to manage about half our output. That is still ten percent more than conventional designs, but we are trying to see how they made it to be so inefficient. I think they disassembled one of our units and built this without really understanding the design. It is a company out of Jakarta and they are selling these things like sausages, and for twice what we charge. Our lawyers are arguing patent infringement in the world courts, but I don't expect much to come from it. That part of the world needs this technology as much as we do and they feel that we are withholding it from them.

"Look, Alex. I know that you want to keep this "American made" to help with the trade imbalance and to provide jobs here, but it's getting too big. I think we need to license the designs out to places in Japan and Australia. They can take care of the whole Asian market and some of the profits will come back here. We just have to put in the agreements just what their markets are, and put in hefty fines for going out of bounds. We could also use someone in England to build units for the European market. These countries are our allies and they are having as much trouble with energy as we are, more in some cases. Japan never really recovered from the earthquakes and the destruction of their nuclear plants. They could use our units as much or more than anyone. It shouldn't take them long at all to be producing as much as we do. If we pick the right company the quality should not be a problem either."

I turned to my right, "Did you get all that, Diane?" She smiled and nodded, "Then alert the legal team and put out feelers for another Sophia. I don't have to have a woman for the job, but I need someone with her ability to get results."

"Actually, I already have someone in mind, Sir. He was laid off from one of the companies we are at war with and applied to us for work. The application was shunted to you because of that, so I had Bill check him out carefully and was just about to suggest that Grier take him on. He is fluent in German, French, and Italian, and able to get by in Japanese and Russian. He is a very able electrician who spent a lot of time in the Air Force. He was also in Iraq, and to add to Mister Cromberg's list, we need someone to build units for the African continent. We will also have to set up something in Russia. If we lease the rights to a company over there, they can fight the patent infringements we know are going to happen. The same goes for all the other lessees, they can fight the wolves for us."

I turned back to Crom, "Any questions?"

"Yeah, why didn't you hire her six months ago? I hope you're paying her enough."

I had to laugh, and did. Diane had eased things for me by an unimaginable amount. "How about it, Diane, do you need a raise?"