Chapter 11: Recruiting

"Savannah Ground this is Cessna one-seven-six-three-two-Whiskey. Request taxi instructions for take-off," Tony said into the headset.

"Three-two-Whiskey taxi to runway one-zero and hold, no traffic."

"Taxi to one-zero and hold," Tony replied. He then applied power to the Cessna's single engine and released his brakes. On the roll out to the runway he double-checked his preflight checklist. Eventually he was holding short of runway ten and made another call.

"Tower, three-two-whiskey holding short of one-zero."

"Three-two-whiskey cleared for immediate take off. Winds two-niner-five at six, altimeter three-zero point one -four. Contact Tower on one-one-niner point one, good day." Tony noted the slightly off-center headwind and quickly adjusted his altimeter to reflect the current barometric pressure.

He eased the throttle forward and made the right turn onto the active runway, then, with a quick scan of his instruments, pushed the throttle to its full stop and began accelerating to the east down the runway. At little more than sixty miles-an-hour he eased the yoke back and the nose wheel easily lifted off followed rapidly by the main gear.

He was airborne, solo, for the first time.

"Savannah Tower this is two-three-whiskey, request one pattern to full stop."

In less than twenty minutes it was all over and Tony had his first solo flight in his logbook. He was met by his instructor, his sisters, Rebecca, and Cheri who helped to 'clip his wings', a ceremony of vague origins that entailed cutting off the back of a newly soloed student's shirt and decorating it with markers remembering the student's prominent gaffes during training. Tony's getting lost on the ground figured prominently on his shirt.

Apparently the shirt was to hang in the FBO's lounge until Tony passed his final certification. It was, to Tony, another step in a plan he'd formulated many months before.

It was a short drive around the airport to the passenger terminal. The teens perused the overpriced merchandise in the few shops at the small airport while waiting. Finally the flight was announced and the four went to the gate where Bea's flight was arriving.

It took only minutes to greet her, and given the small size of the airport her luggage was already on the carousel when they got there. Tony loaded himself down with two suitcases and made his way to Tina's Volvo in the parking lot while the girls chatted merrily behind him. He quickly drove the sixteen miles to the River Street Hilton. They gave Bea a few minutes to freshen up. She met them in the Hotel's restaurant for lunch, where most everyone else was waiting at a large table reserved for them.

"OK," Tony started once everyone was seated and had placed their lunch orders. "I think most, but not everyone knows Bea. Let me go around the table anyway. Gwen is the current General Manager of Cobblestone Digital, Chrissie is her assistant. Rebecca is our de-facto accountant now but she's working with Cheri and Riley on an automated system. Kyle is our chief engineer, next to him is someone you haven't met, Riley Porter will be our chief of computer operations, and yes Bea, there is a reason he's sitting that close to Tina. On his other side and completely off the record today is Riley's sister Cindy Porter, a reporter for our local channel seven news. I thought you'd like to meet a confederate while you were here. Dwayne and Jerry are just kind of jacks of all trades until we find a niche for them."

"As usual Tony, absolutely no adult supervision," Bea quipped.

"Not fair! Cindy's an adult!" Tony answered.

"Cindy is the only one at the table who isn't part of your project."

"True, but we do have real live adults behind the scenes somewhere. We just don't let them know what we're really doing for the most part. Where would the fun be in that? Anyway, what you see is the core group of Cobblestone Digital Recording Inc. We are actively seeking professionals in the field, of which, you are the first."

"How far along is this? Do you actually have funding for it? A building?" Bea asked.

"We currently have 1.4 million dollars in capitalization. We have a building downtown that is currently being renovated."

"Oh hell Tony, you really are serious about this. Who did you get to invest that kind of money?"

"The studio currently has two shareholders, Tina and myself. So, yeah, we've put our money where our mouths are so to speak."

"You and Tina are going to own a recording studio?"

"Well it's a bit more complicated than that. There are stock incentives for employees; things like that that are built in. So technically we own sixty percent of it. The rest is outstanding. Anyways, that's for the bean counters. Like any other high level employee you'll have a chance to earn part of the company yourself. The sky's the limit, but so is the floor if you know what I mean."

Lunch was served and conversation broke down into individual groups. Tony himself was content to sit back and watch the group dynamics flow. Bea and Cindy's conversation seemed to gravitate towards one another. Tony figured out Bea was going to learn about Eileen O'Donnell much sooner than he wanted her to. He'd hoped to ease her into that. Kyle, Riley, and Chrissie seemed to be discussing the finer points of the recording equipment they'd yet to buy. Today's discussion seemed to involve an $80,000 mixing board. Tina and Rebecca were discussing, of all things, the interior design of the studio. The consensus between the two was that they really needed to see what a recording studio looked like in the first place. Cheri, as usual, had gravitated toward Tony and seemed to be taking it all into that amazing brain of hers. Ah, those minor details!

When they were done with lunch, Tony coordinated with everyone to take Bea to both the studio building and the charity/rehearsal building. They would meet up at the Smith home before going to their gig downtown tonight. Cindy wanted to tag along having not seen either site yet. Tony had kept Tina's Volvo; he would eventually leave it overnight in case Bea needed a car while she was in town.

It was only a three block drive to Telfair Square and all were surprised to see a crew working on Saturday. Tony parked on the square noting that the meter didn't need to be fed on the weekend, probably a nod to the growing tourism industry. They all exited the car and admired the three story building with its granite façade. They had, Tony noted, removed the old United States Post Office sign.

"Well," he said. "There it is. It used to be a post office, though why a post office would have three stories I'll never know. We have it under lease from the government under pretty favorable terms for five years with an option for another five. It's been sitting empty for three years or so."

"Well it's certainly a stately building," Bea said. "You've leased the whole thing?"

"Yes, we'll put the business offices on the third floor, recording studios on the second, and mixing, hospitality, and things like that on the first. There is no doubt at this point it's a bit large for us, but the location and the price were right."

"I'll say," Bea replied. She was looking behind her at the ancient live oaks draped with Spanish moss that dominated the small park with its carefully tended gardens in the center of the square. "Is all of Savannah like this?"

"This section is. There are thirteen squares in all like this. As they go this one, while quite charming, is fairly small. You owe it to yourself to at least take a walking tour of the historic district while you're here."

"Wow, to think you could actually go to work every day downtown with all this, nothing like this in Jersey that's for sure." Bea said.

Tony smiled. "Welcome to our fair city. It is a pretty little place down in this area. We'd probably just be in the way if we tried to go inside now. Why don't we go over to the other building?"

Tony took the scenic route cutting across the historic district while heading east towards the islands. In less than half an hour he pulled into the newly paved parking lot in front of the new pre-fab building. The brick façade seemed completed, so from the front you couldn't easily tell that it was a pre-fab building at all.

Tony took his key and let Bea and Cindy in the front door. The first thing that was obvious was that the painters had been in. Each solid wall was painted a different, bright color. The wood flooring they'd chosen, and they pretty much meant Rebecca and Tina, was not yet installed.

"OK, this is not quite the location of the studio building. We had to get something zoned commercial and well away from any residential areas."

"So this is all for Tammy's Wheels?" Cindy asked.

"No, this building has two purposes. I built this one. I'm leasing the land from my folks." Tony led them though a door to a huge area that, so far, was nothing more than the structure itself and concrete floor.

"Back here we're going to set up a practice stage with everything we need. We'll store all our gear here and get it out of the house. I'm sure Mom and Dad will appreciate having their basement back. The far end is going to be the workspace for Tammy's Wheels."

"You guys weren't kidding were you?" Cindy asked. "You really got all this done that quickly? It's been what, six or seven weeks?"

"We actually broke ground in about ten days. All the architectural stuff is already pre-approved on these pre-fabs," Tony replied.

"Wait, wait. I only know a little about this wheelchair thing. It's called Tammy's Wheels?" Bea asked.

"Oooh, yeah," said Tony. "I guess you don't know very much about that at all. It's not something we talked much about in Cape May was it?"

"Not really," Bea replied. "I heard it mentioned in passing a few times."

"Well, we make wheelchairs for kids. OK that's not exactly right, we don't make wheelchairs; we fix them up, paint them, and decorate them into something a kid would like, then we give them away to children's hospitals."

"Now that is cool! You're going to do all of that here?"