Chapter 12

The next few days were as busy as any I recalled. Everyone was pulling their weight, and more. The market study and plant design projects were underway. Combinitech was promising the compound library by late December and expected to have the assay results by the end of the third week of January. No one had had much of a holiday.

We'd had our progress meeting which we'd combined with our meeting with Walt to work out the patent filings. He would be getting the patent attorneys going on the basics of the patents and work out the specifications and claims as soon as Combinitech got the data to us. We anticipated filing at least 6 patents.

I'd talked to our bankers and gotten an informal commitment to a line of credit up to twenty million at prime plus one-half of a percent. They would be sending the papers over to Walt and to our accountants to review.

It was noon Wednesday, the ambulance authority party was tomorrow evening, and I was beat.

I tossed the file I'd been studying on the desk and walked out to Marian's office. She looked a bit frazzled, too.

"Marian, I'm going to head out early. I won't be back until probably about noon Friday. The party is tomorrow night and I plan to unwind a bit. Since I'm going to be uh, consuming "adult beverages" I'll be getting a room at the Mariott for the night, so I won't be home. You can reach me by paging me on my cell, I'm going to have the ringer off and let stuff go to voicemail unless it's an emergency."

"All right John. Hey- why the Mariott? You do know that the party's at the Embassy Suites, right?"

"Yep- but I like the Mariott better. They have a great breakfast buffet and it's just a block from the Embassy Suites. Anyhow, the walk will do me good after an evening of partying."

"Ah, I see- well, have fun. I'll try to shortstop everything but emergencies."

"I shall! Hey- if you want to take off early, go ahead. Let the service take the calls. Tell the folks at the lab to leave early if they like, too. It's been a long two weeks, but I think we have everything lined out for a while."

"OK- I'll pass it along. I have a couple things to finish up, but I think I'll take you up on that! Oh, yeah- I'll tell the service not to call you except for emergencies."

"Thanks Marian- tell them in the lab that I appreciate their work! See you Friday sometime."

"Bye Boss".

"Bye!"

I left the office, jumped in the truck and headed home. I stopped along the way at the grocery store and picked up some sirloin tips, fresh mushrooms, peppers, and some spaghetti sauce in a jar (hey- I'm too lazy to make sauce from scratch- so sue me) along with a loaf of Italian bread and some chianti. A thick pastrami on rye sandwich and a couple of monster Kosher dill pickles for lunch completed the shopping raid.

I'd been eating out of a bag or a box most evenings for the last two weeks, and it was getting pretty old. Tonight was going to be kick back and relax night.

I got home and stowed the groceries away. I skimmed through that day's mail and tossed it all in the trash.

Before I did anything else, I called the Mariott and reserved a room for Thursday night. The reservation desk was quick and efficient, as always, and soon I was assured of a bed and a shower.

I then proceeded to demolish the sandwich and pickles along with a half-pitcher of iced tea.

I loaded the CD changer with some of my favorite albums and set it for random play. Feet up in the recliner, the newest John Sandford thriller in my lap, a tall Glenfiddich and water close at hand, and all was right with the world.

As I sat there sipping my drink and unwinding, it occurred to me that I had the hotel room not just for tomorrow night, but for tomorrow afternoon, as well. A plan, fueled by fine single-malt Scotch, began to form.

The Mariott shared a parking garage complex with the Capitol Center Mall. It was quite simple to park on the Jefferson Avenue side of the Mall, walk thorough the mall to the opposite side, through the Delaware Avenue side garage and cross a skyway into the mezzanine level of the hotel, where you could take the elevator to any floor.

I decided that tomorrow would be a good time to get to know Sherry a little better.