Chapter 9

John looked over at Petra with a serious look, “Isn’t Global Wind one of your major competitors?”

She replied “Yes, but he worked for Texas Green in between.”

John then said “Did he make you aware of the fact, that Texas Wind was a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Wind?”

She shook her head “No he certainly did not.”

John looked at her and said, “I bet the second runner up on the bid was them. If that’s the case, you need to do a deep dive into anyone he’s hired since coming here. This is the kind of shit they would happily do, and have been seriously fined for in the past by the SEC among others.”

Petra got her phone out and called her dad filling him in on the new to her information. John could hear Raul cursing the guy. As it turned out, the entire NDE team was hired by him, along with the procurement manager.

When John heard this, his only reply was “Shit.”

He turned to Mary and asked “You know how to run a #PMI gun right?”

She nodded and ask, “Want me to get it and calibrate it up?”

“Yes, we need an answer to that tonight, work with Tess on it. Be sure to check the rings and all completed sections that are not coated.”

John turned to Petra, “We need to get busy. Can you open up the NDE lab for me while I gather a few things.”

John went back to the trailer and retrieved the hard case, with his UT scope and AWS calibration blocks in it.

Walking into the building with it, Petra flagged him down from a second-floor room. After climbing the stairs, he walked into a room that set him on edge. There were calibration blocks, UT scopes, and other NDE equipment laying haphazardly around on tables. The thought “clusterfuck” flashed into his mind.

He looked at Petra and asked, “This room was locked down before?”

She nodded assent.

He then said “I can tell you right away, this whole room is a problem. If Henrik had seen this first, the contract would be gone. There is no control of what should be ##M&TE here.” He picked up a copy of a procedure and flipped through it, noting that the header hadn’t been changed but the rest was obviously piecemealed. It was missing a document number, and several other required elements, such as details on frequency to be used, equipment calibration, and most importantly, specifics of acceptance criteria. He pointed all this out to her.

She then made a call. “Roy, are you in your office?”

After getting an answer, she said “I’ll be there in a few minutes, don’t run off.”

She turned to John and said “He’s the Level III we hired based on that piece of shit’s recommendation.”

John looked at her and said “I strongly suggest one of the security guards accompany us if we are to visit him.”

She nodded as they left the room. Before walking off, she reapplied a padlock to the door.

They walked outside to find two sheriffs cars parked in front of the office. DW was in the back of one of them.

As they got to the door, she gave the guard a questioning look.

He replied “He pulled a gun after I escorted him to his car.”

After seeing John, he started thrashing around and screaming “I’m going to kill you!” from the back of the cop car.

The guard said “We’ll add that charge to the list if you wish.”

John looked at him and said “Do the paper up and I’ll sign it.”

After the dog and pony show was over Petra and John finally walked into the front office.

John was led to an office toward the back. The door was closed, but Petra just opened it and walked in. The name on the door was Roy Childress. The last name rang some bells, and they were not good ones either.

Looking around the office, John saw what looked like an ASN LIII certificate hanging from the wall. He pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of it, then called up the ###ASNT site on his phone’s browser.

Petra started the conversation with “What was your relation to Bobby before coming here?”

John now had a name other than ‘Dickless Wonder’ to use.

Roy apparently didn’t like that as instead of answering Petra he looked at John and said “What the hell do you think you’re doing, and who the fuck are you?”

By this time, John had discovered the certification number was invalid, and after punching in the name on the door, confirmed was no one on their site by the name either.

Petra answered for John “This is John Ravenclaw a consultant I brought in.”

She turned to John and asked “What were you doing?”

He replied “Checking the validity of that certificate. Funny thing is, ASNT has no record of the number or the person.” He then showed her what he had done.

She looked at Roy and asked “Do you have an explanation for this?”

Roy looked at Petra and said “Fuck you cunt! I don’t answer to you or this prick” while pointing at John. She stepped to the door and waved over security.

She said “Take his keys, badge, and company phone, then escort him out of the building. He is no longer employed here.”

John could have predicted his next action when the idiot took a swing at Petra. What he couldn’t have predicted was when Petra put him down hard in two moves.

After the guard took the idiot away, John looked at Petra and said “That looked suspiciously like Capoeira.”

She replied “Papa had me training since I was a child, when he left Petrobras to start Rodriguez Energy. He hired a trainer that came to the States with us.”

“Smart man” John replied.

She nodded then said “Now what? I have no plant manager, nor LIII.”

John got out his phone and called Jose on speaker. “Hola Jefe” Jose answered.

John asked “When are you planning to wrap things up down there, mi amigo?”

Jose answered, “We are on a plane in two hours. I was about to call you and ask if you could pick us up in Houston at 1100.”