Chapter 8

LUTZ and THE JUNCTION

CHUCK – Day Eight, Monday part #1

I awoke this morning with a premonition that something big was going to happen. I wonder what it could be. It probably has something to do with our visit today to Vegas and the showdown with the owner of Mojave Field, Gordon Jackson. Just then I felt Mercy in my head telling me <Good Boy.>

There was a weight on my legs, and it wasn't Tiani for once – she was on my left shoulder and Nancy was on my right. Isn't it lucky that I sleep on my back? I felt a warm, mental glow – as well as one between my legs. Ah. It's Lisa...

She told me last night that she has another charter today – Savannah, this time. She's also got a number of pilots to interview. I wish John was here to help with that.

I was soon sitting on the patio, eating my breakfast sandwich and listening to Sue getting really mad because Steve had just flatly declared that come what may, he was going to Vegas to attend the meeting – he'd said he would yesterday, but no one had told Sue.

"That man Jackson beat me up," he declared. "So in return I propose to personally beat him out of his business – which, thanks to you, I am now able to do."

Somewhat mollified after that, Sue couldn't really argue.

"Oh. Have it your own way," she replied, reluctantly conceding defeat. "But only on one condition. Both Mercy and Juanita must go along too."

Steve smiled, kissed Sue, then turned rather stiffly to the other two women.

"You'd better pack enough clothes for at least a two night stay," he told them.

I had warned Jimmy earlier that I also wanted him to come with us, so our Chief Mechanic had already left for Lutz to warm my Citation up. Ben was coming along too, and he had spent the night with Beth at Steve's, so that he would be ready for the early start.

While I was working on my last cup of coffee, Kurt approached the table and sat down after I'd nodded a welcome.

"Try as I can," he confessed, "I am still having difficulty understanding all the ramifications of the three West Coast pickup points for the Hawaiian golf tours."

"You had better phone Dewey over in Washington," I told him. "He's the man responsible for these matters - at least as regards the mainland side of it."

Kurt smiled as this was obviously what he had wanted all along, but was trying not to step on any toes.

Out at the airfield, Jimmy announced that because of a bad headwind, our newly projected arrival time at McCarran Airport in Vegas was leaving little time for us all to drive the 30 miles out to Mojave if we had to go and collect the lawyers from downtown first. Accordingly, Ben phoned Brook Mawson, the senior partner, and after explaining the problem, asked him to pick our party of six up at the airport.

Takeoff went smoothly, and after we had reached our assigned altitude and loosened our seatbelts, Ben had asked Steve what time John was meeting them – so he later told me. But he'd received the rather curt reply that John had been told to arrive at Mojave at 12:30. He said Steve looked rather uncomfortable and he'd wondered if he was regretting his decision to come. Ben then shut up and booted up his workstation.

We were met at McCarran by the largest super limo that most of us had ever seen. There was still plenty of room even when our six people were added to the four lawyers, and the single Farmer's Bank representative. As expected, the journey out to Mojave lasted over an hour and it was five before noon before we pulled up in front of the administration building out beyond the flying school.

We were greeted by a rather boyish executive who introduced himself as Justin Boakes, the Airfield Manager. I thought he winced as Steve was eased out of the car, obviously recognising him from the previous Thursday. Steve doggedly climbed the stairs, and we found Gordon Jackson, his lawyer, and two other executives waiting for us in a conference room.

The old management had been told that the bank had sold the notes on, but obviously not who the buyers were. Jackson definitely never recognized Steve, his lawyer could not be expected to, but the other two men looked quite shocked - the one on the right had shaking hands.

Gordon Jackson greeted us very curtly and didn't even bother introducing anyone. He waved us to the seats on the other side of the table, while he himself sat down abruptly even before anyone else had time to do so. We sorted ourselves out and sat down.

The Farmer's Bank representative opened the meeting by reminding Mr. Jackson that as he was in default on his loans, the bank had called them the previous Monday, and therefore the seven day notice period expired at noon today. He stated that the previous Friday, the bank had sold the notes to Mrs. Sue Sharp's agent, Mr. Ben Phillips, who was present.

"Mrs. Sharp has since transferred her interest to her husband, Mr. Stephen Sharp. He is the owner of the S&S Enterprises Group of Tampa, Florida, and is also present," Ben said and he nodded down the table at Steve.

Steve awkwardly stood up, and looked Jackson in the eye.

"Although you don't appear to recognize me, we met here last Thursday outside your office.

"I am foreclosing on your notes and will exercise my right under the Company's Special Resolution by appointing Mr. John Truant, the General Manager of CS&S Air Charter, as this company's new President."

He then filled in John's name in the relevant space in the resolution, signed and dated it, and sat down.

Mr. Mawson then introduced himself, to the evident surprise and almost awe of Jackson's lawyer. Mr. Mawson stated that as Mr. Jackson no longer had any executive position in the company, he should now leave the premises. He should be aware, however, that as he was the person who had assaulted Mr. Sharp the previous Thursday, Mr. Sharp had agreed not to press charges against him if he left immediately, did not contest any part of the day's proceedings, and never set foot on the property known as Mojave Field at any time in the future. After a whispered word from his lawyer, Jackson got up and left the room, a shocked and shattered man. His lawyer followed him.

The atmosphere in the room seemed to relax quite a bit after their departure and Steve asked the two executives to introduce themselves. The man on the left said he was Harry Bowman, the flying school Manager and Chief Instructor, and that his colleague was Hank Fisher, who was both Assistant Manager and Chief Pilot. Steve asked them to have all the staff who were on the premises in front of the flying school hangar at 1245 so he could talk to them, and they then left too.

Mr. Mawson congratulated Steve on acquiring another business. Steve said that it actually would be a subsidiary of CS&S Air Charter, of which I was the majority owner; he himself was only a junior partner.

Any embarrassment was avoided as John then arrived.

"You're now the President of the whole Mojave operation." Steve informed him. John didn't seem too enthusiastic, which amused all of us in the Tampa contingent.

The meeting with the staff went smoothly. Mr. Mawson again led off by announcing the change of ownership, and introduced Steve as the owner of S&S Industries, me as the boss of CS&S Air Charter, Jimmy as the Maintenance Manager and Chief Mechanic, and finally, John was named as the Air Charter General Manager, and their new President.

John briefly spoke.

"Thank you, Mr. Mawson.

"I ask for the cooperation of you all. The new management plans to invest in the business with the aim of extending and completely revitalising it. It is planned to sign up all of you as S&S employees, which I am sure will prove popular. because the S&S Group's 401K plan is very profitable, and the medical benefits cover not only your families, but existing medical conditions as well.

"I promise that although you will see many changes, all of you will be kept as fully informed as possible."

He stepped down amid cheers, and all of us thought this an auspicious start.

Back in the conference room, Mr. Mawson said that he and his team had better be getting back to their office.

"There are a couple of further points that I should raise, however. Firstly, I must remind you that Jackson is still a Director until he resigns or you remove him at a General Meeting of the company. I think he will probably file a wrongful dismissal claim, and I'm pretty sure that Mrs. Jackson will cause trouble because she has just lost most of her divorce settlement. My firm is getting ready to block any legal moves she may make."

Both Steve and I thanked the legal team for their trouble, and said that we looked forward to working with them in the future. They then left after shaking hands all around.

As it was lunch time, Mercy went off to try and find some sandwiches.

"I think John has just received a double promotion," Jimmy remarked. "It sounds as if I got promoted too."

I grinned.

"I think both these promotions are long overdue and well merited," I told them, causing smiles and congratulations all around. Mercy then came back to announce that the secretary, Cindy Peters, had a small, but neat, and well equipped kitchen at the back, and that food was on the way.

She drew John and I to one side and suggested that Cindy was a keeper, and well capable of handling much greater responsibility.

Cindy was soon back with the food and bottled soft drinks. She apologized for the quality, which wasn't very good, and joked that things were sparse out here in the desert.

I asked her to stay and share the food, then sit in on our discussions as I was sure she had a major contribution to make.

When we sat down, Steve said that he had something to say.

"What Cindy has just said was a joke, but it's right to the point about what I am going to announce.

"I don't like the name Mojave Field.

"What we envision creating here is not a desert, but something much more fruitful, and I want to get everyone thinking that way. While I still own the place, I want to change the name. I originally thought that 'Bird Springs' sounded right - after those hills to the southeast. I then considered the name 'Pop's Oasis', as there used to be a casino on this site with that name, but that didn't seem quite right either."

Everyone was now smiling.

"Finally, I have decided to go back to what I've discovered was the original name for this place – GOODSPRINGS JUNCTION ... I'm accordingly asking Cindy to start things moving to put this into effect."

Everyone was beaming as Steve sat back and nodded for me to takeover.

"There seems to be an awful lot of work that needs doing here at the Junction," John remarked, starting the ball rolling, amid giggles from the girls. "But I still have a lot of things going on elsewhere that I'm responsible for."

"Yes, that's true, John," I agreed, "Although you were the obvious candidate for President, I don't expect you to be taking more than an overall supervisory role.

"My first idea was to bring Star here, but she is doing an excellent job where she is at Spring Field."

John nodded in agreement.

"That's right,." he said.

"The future General Manager for Halcyon Airlines," I continued, "Whom I've just hired, will not be available for another three weeks. After a short handover, I'm going to bring DeDe here as General Manager."

Cindy looked really interested.

"This means that we need somebody to fill in until then. Although he's currently unaware of this, the new temporary General Manager is a new hire called Kurt Eccleston. I took him on last week. Kurt is a very experienced man, who's recently retired as an Air Force Lieutenant-Colonel. He has had a great deal of staff experience with the Air Mobility Command, and has commanded combat squadrons in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Kurt is destined to be the General Manager of the Hawaiian Tours operation, but he can do that job from here at the Junction, just as well as from Lutz. Anyway, this is a good place to base some of our 737s.