Chapter 24

"Then it's settled. After a vote, the name Talent Inc. is what we will use when we refer to our group, publicly. I must caution you all to remain security conscious, as none of us even think the government is done with trying to gain control of us. Meeting adjourned," Courtney said, with a bang of her gavel.

We had all gathered in my place for this meeting since it was bigger than anyone else's. Now that the meeting was at an end, I could concentrate on my problems with Garner Precision.

It was getting closer to opening day, and I had hired a few more permanent people to take positions, all from locals, which pleased the mayor and the local population. There were very few stores left open in town, but with my factory getting closer to opening, and the money I had already put into the economy with my renovation project, those businesses remaining seemed to be revitalized.

I kept a nice positive balance with the business account I had set up with the small bank in town. It was an actual honest to god family run bank, and had been in the same family for over one hundred years. It was truly impressive that they had lasted so long, in this day and age. They had the loyalty of their neighbors, and the town. I had thought that these types of banks had died out twenty or thirty years ago, but here it was, still going strong.

The drug store actually had an honest to god 'soda fountain'. They mixed syrup and water together for you by hand. You could actually get more of one than the other, if you wanted. Not many places left in the country that did that. In some ways, this town had a very old fashioned flavor that I liked.

I still practiced my hand to hand with Tom, but I also practiced my other abilities, too. I could now move a hundred pounds easily, more if I concentrated, but it caused me a severe headache afterwards. My perception of people I was looking for improved to a very clear picture, and I now had sound, also. My range when I was doing this was of course worldwide.

What was interesting, was the limit on how far my 'point of view' could separate from the person, once I established contact. It had increased to hundreds of feet. In other words, I could zero in on... say, my dad. I would get the connection established, then wonder anywhere in the house where I grew up. I could wander anywhere within several hundred feet of where he happened to be, because it was now still within my radius of my contact person.

This was a great improvement in my control. My original problem had been that I had to keep my virtual perspective close to the person, once the connection was established. If I moved my 'point of view' too far from my contact, I would lose connection with the person totally. This problem was now greatly eased.

I spent a little time driving from my house to my factory almost everyday. As opening day got closer, I became more nervous. I kept rechecking my all my licenses and permits. Everything was in order, of course.

Roger had actually started to come out of his shell a bit. Putting him in charge of the factory floor had been a good idea, after all. I had given him authority to sign for shipments received, and there was a stack of receipts on my desk when I got to my office. Well, that's what I got for taking a couple days off to deal with other things.

After reading and initialing what had come in to show that I had seen these, I put them in a stack to be filed by my new secretary. Yeah, I had a secretary, of all things. She was also the main person who handled phone calls, and did whatever inputting into the company mainframe that needed to be done.

She was eighteen and trying to save money for college, or so she said. Well, I was always for someone wanting to improve their lot in life. As it stood right now, the system made sure you could not get a lot of jobs without a damned degree from a recognized college or university.

So with my janitorial staff, plus Roger, Shelia, and myself, I had an employee base of five, right now. So far, all my money was going out and nothing coming in. To make matters worse, it was raining almost everyday and the river that ran a couple miles away from the town was swollen. A flood from the rains further to the north and east was already in the forecast.

I got on my cell phone and gave Brenda a call.

"Hey, Cutie. Got a few minutes to talk, or are you busy?" I asked.

"You can have ten minutes, then I have to get to class. What's on your mind?" Brenda asked curiously.

I never called on the secure line unless it was important.

" We are having a hell of a lot of rain out here lately, and I was wondering if you could come out and do that thing you do so well with your ability? Convince the rain to move elsewhere," I said in a reasonable tone of voice.

She hesitated for a good long moment. Uh oh, now what was that about?

"I am sort of busy taking care of things on the east coast, weather wise, right now," she finally said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I have manipulated the weather down here in such a way as to turn the hurricanes coming our way and sending them north earlier and missing what would normally be hit," she said a bit excitedly.

"Wow. Great! Say, I just had a thought. Could that be why it has been raining out here so much, lately? They say all this rain is unusual and does not normally hit at this time of the year," I sort of reported as I asked.

"Hmm. An interesting question. I would have to study that for a while to find out," was her reply.

Interesting quandary. Were the actions that she was taking to save the east coast from being hit by hurricanes affecting the weather on the west coast? She had once told us she was trying to be careful to only affect local weather, but a drop or increase in the air pressure here would cause a movement in other areas. The world weather engine was a strange and convoluted beastie.

We talked until she had to get to class. Well, she was at an east coast university studying, so it behooved her to keep her area hurricane free. Just basic survival, if anything. Everyone had priorities, and living without severe storms or radical weather was a priority for most people.

Days went by with more and more rain. I was on my way to work on a dreary rainy day. I was stopped about two and a half miles short of getting to town, by the Oregon State Police.

I rolled my window down as a rain-coated trooper came up to my car.

"Sorry, Sir. The bridge ahead is closed. There has been a partial collapse, and a portion of bridge is missing. If you need to get to the town, you're going to have to take the other route in," he told me.

Damn! It was going to take me longer now to get to town. I was going to have to drive back north, then east about another twenty-five minutes to take the alternate way into my town. Altogether, it was another forty-five minutes of driving, at a minimum.

Two weeks later, the mayor stopped by my office. My secretary notified me of his arrival. I rolled my eyes. Now what did he want? I went out to meet him. We shook hands, and then I escorted him into my office.

"Coffee?" I asked, pointing at my 'Mr. Coffee' coffee maker.

"No thanks. Just wanted you to know what is going on. The state has, of course, condemned the bridge. Since it has partially collapsed, they are going to clear the rest of it away. But, they say they are not going rebuild it. It would cost too much to replace. I was wondering if you could not do something?" the mayor asked me.