Chapter 172

The FSU visit had its ups and downs. The down was really disappointing. The original security office was going to take 120 days to repair. There was no conduit in the building. They had started to gut the walls only to find serious structural damage.

That meant that Courtney would still be in the temporary double office trailer well after the college year started with the full security group at work. All of the hi-tech servers and camera equipment would have to be completely installed and then moved after the renovation was done.

The up side, at least there was more than just one. FSU building services had pulled out the stops when they found out the condition of the building. They went all out to make the double wide functional. Instead of the 30 by 28 foot model they found a 75 by 45 foot.

Cubicles had been installed along with a counter. They had even framed up a private office for Courtney. I wondered if the paint was dry by the smell. The big plasma screens that had been sent up in the judge's trailer had been hung and all the desktops were in place.

The temporary equipment was installed and operating. The ten new employees we had hired were there in uniform waiting to for me. The day shift had stayed late and the third shift just happened to be in the area early. I thanked all of them for coming to work early and for how professional they made JBG Security look. I apologized to them for having to work out of a trailer for the next 120 days.

Courtney was waiting for me to issue the firearms to them as they signed the paper work. All the permits were in, even the three that were going to have to improve to my satisfaction before September.

Sly and Becky were in business suits working as office help. Cindy was on video conference with them about the problems with electronic time reporting they were trying to solve and from eavesdropping on the conversation, they were making progress.

Dean Skaggs had come in and was standing by my side as I listened in. When I turned to him he nodded his head in their direction and asked, "Where do you find them that young, qualified and willing to work as hard as they have been doing in the last week?"

"You would not believe the complete story if I told you. Just 8 months ago they were members of a violent girl's gang and I came within a hair of killing both of them," I said to a stunned Dean.

Courtney joined us and asked, "Is there any way I can keep them here another week until we get the bugs out of all the systems? They have been a life saver the last few days."

"Ask them and then we will call the parents for their permission," I replied. I pretty much knew that Sly and Becky already had been asked. It would not have surprised me if the parents already had said, "Yes."

East Coast had installed more cameras than was agreed upon but I was glad they did. For now they were going to be locked to one frequency until all of them were installed at the end of July. They had finished testing before we left.