Chapter 24

Pixy looked at Marty “I know he’s not afraid, and that worries me. There are times when someone should listen to their fear. It will keep them alive. You watched him jump in without a thought to get those pilots out. He could have died if he’d jumped a second too late. If it came down to his life or theirs, I’m sorry to say their life would be forfeited if it was my choice to make. There are people that mouth off ‘Death before Dishonor’. John lives it every fucking day.”

Marty nodded at that. “I finally found a man worth giving myself to, I don’t want to lose him anytime soon either.”

Pixy hugged Marty at that, she knew Marty understood her fear.

Johns phone on the table rang. Picking it up, she saw it was an overseas number but she didn’t know where from. She answered “John’s phone, who is calling please.”

Henrik’s voice came “Alex, it’s Henrik. I was trying to reach John.”

Mindful of the earlier conversation she replied “He’s out like a light, he had a hard day today. Should I wake him?”

“No, no don’t wake him, but can you tell him to call me tomorrow anytime?”

“Will do” she replied.

“Maybe you can answer a question for me “I heard there was a change in management for Rodriguez Wind. Is that true?”

“To the best of my knowledge, it is” she answered.

“Do you have any details you can share?”

“Not that I can share, no.”

“Ahh so it’s true, say no more, I already know why you can’t share.”

Pixy said nothing in return creating an awkward silence.

Henrik filled it with “Have him call me please, I’ll let you go for now.” With that, they said their goodbyes.

Marty commented “You handled that well.”

Pixy smiled then said “Let’s get him to bed.”

Between them, they managed to get him up and off to bed on the newly changed sheets. Mary was sitting off to the side watching as they got him into bed. Everyone piled in for the night.

At 0530 Johns internal alarm woke him. He found he had one hand on a massive ebony tit, and the other on a massive ivory tit crowned with a nipple ring. When he tried to move, the pair rolled slightly letting him up. After he stood by the bed, he saw the five women move subconsciously into a pile of naked flesh. He looked for his phone to take a picture. After taking the picture, he saw his call log with a number from Denmark. He didn’t have to guess who it was as Pixy had left him a note to call Henrik.

After making some coffee, he went downstairs with his phone. He didn’t want to wake anyone with his conversation. Sitting on a bench next to the lake, he took a moment to enjoy the solitude. Taking a sip of coffee, he pulled up his video conference app and dialed Henrik. There was no answer on the first go, so he sat back and waited, before dialing the direct voice line.

Henrik answered “John good to hear from you. Let me call back on video chat.”

Pixy walked up behind him and began rubbing his shoulders.

“I heard” she said as he patted her hand.

Soon his phone dinged with an incoming conference request. When he it answered, he saw Henrik’s face with a background of a shipyard. Pixy moved out of picture. Henrik caught this and said “Alex can join in if she wishes.” She came around and sat next to John.

“If my information is correct, you and PWI cannot share the details of how you came to part ways with Rodriguez Corp, but you should be able to confirm at least that much” Henrik commented.

Both John and Pixy nodded at that.

Henrik went on to say, “Petra has been blasting your name every chance she gets. I’ll send you some links to that effect when we are done. I hope you have provisions to counter that.”

John’s face darkened and he said “An NDA doesn’t cover slander, but proving slander requires evidence.”

Henrik replied “I don’t think she was thinking when she sent out an email condemning you to all of Rodriguez Energy contacts. You will have a copy in your email soon” and John’s phone pinged the arrival of an incoming email.

“The interesting part was she called me directly with vague threats of lawsuits if I passed that email to you. Obviously, I don’t think much of those threats as you’ve just gotten it.”

John raised an eyebrow at that and said “It was my understanding that the Rodriguez shareholders threw out both Petra and Raul. If that is the case, her threats are empty regardless.”

Henrik replied, “That’s our information as well, I think it was a parting shot against you.”

He continued “That aside, as we discussed in Houston, we’d like to contract you here. However, the politics and laws have changed since you were last here. **EFNDT has been pushing for an EU only certification scheme.

As you recall, prior to the Brexit kerfuffle, all certifications were through BINDT PCN program. Which leads me to a key question. Have you maintained your PCN certificates?”

John answered “I have, but they are due for renewal in a few months. We also have two, possibly three others qualified to sit for those exams. It was my intent to make one trip to Surry to get them all done.”

Henrik said “You need a sponsor for that, we’d be glad to do so if you’re contracted to us.”

Thinking for a moment, John replied “What exactly do you want us for and when?”

“We’ve had issues with American based tower manufacturers as you know. We need someone on that side of the pond to oversight for us. They would also need ***NRCan NDTCB as we have some Canadian builders as well. All of that with a welding background. Your group covers all the above.”

John looked over at Pixy who nodded but said “What about Mei.”

Henrik hearing the comment asked “Is there a problem?”

John replied “One of our personnel has been prescribed some nuclear medicine. After she takes it, she will be setting off airport alarms for several weeks. That presents some problems for us depending on your time frame.”

Henrik paused in thought then said “How about we get you settled first, then bring the rest when she is cleared.

John replied “How about checking in with *BINDT and finding out how if it’s possible to hire them to come here? I’m sure they could find someone that would be agreeable to a paid holiday in the colonies.”