Chapter 29: Giving the Game Away

“It doesn’t make any sense,” I said as Alison sat down next to my bed.

I had been admitted to the hospital after the labs came back. The doctor insisted it was only precautionary, but Alison seemed relieved once the decision was made.

“Someone wanted you out of the picture or distracted,” she insisted.

“But why? It’s not like I man a security post at any of our plants.”

“All I can say is that you did not accidentally contract a flu. The labs I asked the doctor to perform were very broad spectrum. We’ll know when they finish getting full cultures grown, but they found something more than a flu, or you would not be in here.”

My headache was returning. I forced myself to sip some water.

“Okay, what if they are tying you down by targeting me?”

Alison’s eyes went wide. She looked at me for a minute and nodded.

“If you weren’t so sick, I’d be with Matthew in Austin,” she admitted.

“Call down there. Make sure he is protected,” I said.

Alison reached for the phone in the room and I closed my eyes to go to sleep.

A nurse woke me briefly, some time later. I sipped more water and then fell back asleep after seeing Sanford watching me from the room’s chair.

Tiffany was my watcher when I awoke in the morning. I was feeling noticeably better. A nurse was checking my vitals and then ordered me to drink more water after noting my consumption on my chart. I promised to and made my way to the bathroom.

I came out with a fresh-washed face and smiled as Alison walked in and traded whispered words with Tiffany before moving to stand by my bed.

“I think you were right,” she said as I climbed back under my covers.

“How so?”

“I think giving you whatever it is you got was an attempt to tie my hands and distract the security team. There was a second, subtler break-in attempt last night in Austin. They tried to penetrate the secure area of the building that was set afire the night before.”

“Was it successful?”

She scoffed and shook her head. “No, but if we had not added people, it might have been. The physical damage took out some of our monitoring in the building. After our talk, I called in some additional people to help spell our local team. If the regular team had been all there was, they might have been too tired to respond quickly to prevent a break-in.”

“Tell me more.” I was still just foggy enough that it wasn’t all making sense.

“We normally have three person teams onsite: one in the control room, one on roving patrol, and one on a break or doing random in-building checks. If something is picked up on the monitoring systems, they alert the onsite team members and local law enforcement.”

I nodded.

“After the fire, monitoring in that building was compromised, so we shifted the third team member to patrol that building more heavily. That created just enough of a gap that someone felt confident enough to try the first break-in at a second building. When that happened, we adjusted the roving patrol again. We also had a higher operating tempo as they dealt with emergency crews, law enforcement, and then our own workers and researchers.”

“After we talked yesterday morning, I called down and had schedules adjusted and some outside consultants brought on to augment our staffing. If I hadn’t, there is a good chance last nights’ attempt would have happened during peak fatigue by the team onsite at the time. With the damage to our monitoring, they probably could have had a ten to fifteen-minute window to penetrate the secure area before we would have been aware of them.”

“Did we catch them?” I asked.

“Not yet. One of the consultants I brought on, I set up on a blind monitoring mission. He’s tailing the team, trying to get a solid ID.”

“Good. Now, when can I get out of here?”

Alison smiled and said, “The doctor should do his rounds about nine this morning. When I spoke to him last night, he thought you would go home today, as long as the antibiotics were working.”

“What was it?”

“A strange mix of things, salmonella and botulism. They would not be naturally occurring, and they would not be deadly if you had competent medical treatment. They would make you sick and take you out of the picture for a few days. I’m still trying to sort out how they got them into you.”

“Well, I am feeling better, so that’s a good thing, I guess. How are Jeryl and the baby?”

“Everyone else is fine, and send their love and wishes for a speedy recovery.”

“Eat your yogurt,” Jeryl admonished as she sat down at the large trestle table in the kitchen of the Austin house.

I scowled.

“I did listen to the doctor, you know?”

She smiled.

“Good.” Her look softened and she leaned over to give a quick kiss. “I want you healthy again, you know? I was worried.”

“I know. Thanks for taking such good care of me Friday night.”

I had spent Saturday in the hospital and then two more days being babied at the house in Utah before Jeryl and Alison agreed to let me come down to Austin, but not alone. I liked having them and the baby around and we had not spent much time in the Hacienda, as Jeryl called the house, since buying it.

Alison came into the kitchen carrying Ali with Anna trailing behind them. “Good morning,” she said. “How are you feeling?” she asked as she waited for Anna to get a bottle ready.

“Good,” I replied. “You?”

Alison gave Jeryl a quick grin and then arched her eyebrow at me. “Monosyllabic, I see. Eat your yogurt.”

Jeryl burst out laughing. I just shook my head and smiled before dramatically lifting the spoon in the yogurt to my mouth and eating slowly while looking at them.

“Are you both happy now?” I asked when my bowl was empty.

Both ladies nodded and smiled. Alison started to speak, but then thought better of it. Jeryl tried not to laugh at me.

“Thank you both for caring so deeply about my dietary tract. Is there anything else I can do to show you I’m mended?”

Alison actually smiled and handed the baby to Anna, before kissing me on the cheek. “Just keep getting back to your old self,” she said.

“Are you ready to go?” I asked as I stood and took my dishes to the sink to rinse before going into the dishwasher.

“I am. Are you?”

We headed out to the plant for my first look at the damage. Matthew and Dr. Wilkerson met us at the gate. We all were in sturdy boots, khaki pants and shirts. Alison handed out white hard-hats. Matthew had a clipboard with notes.

“The initial fire appears to have been set with a small incendiary device,” Alison began as we walked up to the affected building. “Whoever planted it, most likely did it well before ignition. We found parts of a simple timing fuse.”

I looked at the char marks running up the side of the building and the hole melted at the base of the wall.

“Do we know what the agent was?”

“Most likely thermite. Based on placement, my expert thinks they hoped it might open enough of a gap in the wall for future entry. Since you had treated the insides of the metal sheeting with one of your coatings, it did not do as much direct damage as they probably hoped.”

“Direct damage?”

“It was still hot enough to cause an internal fire on the other side of the wall. If the wall had been un-treated, there probably would have been an opening about the size of a garage door.”

Matthew led us inside and down one of the hallways around the perimeter of the building.

“Our air-gap between the low security and high security areas paid off,” he said as we reached the interior site of the fire. “We did not have any significant transfer of heat to the secure side,” he said as he pointed to the far side of the then foot hallway.

There was a soggy mess of materials along the exterior wall. “What was that?” I asked.

“Mostly shipping materials,” Dr. Wilkerson said. “When we realized this hallway was virtually wasted space, since we didn’t need a ten-foot-wide hallway, we lined the exterior wall with shelves for storage.”

I nodded.

“As you can see,” Matthew continued, “the sprinkler system for this section activated and mostly controlled the fire.”

“Mostly?”

He nodded. “It stopped the secondary spread among the supplies, and cooled the area enough to prevent spreading, but could not extinguish the thermite that penetrated at the base of the wall.”

I looked down and saw what he meant. Of course, water would not stop a thermite reaction.

I stood up and we continued reviewing the damage done. Matthew told me what changes we were making to minimize future damage in case of fire. Alison pointed out where the break-ins had been attempted and what additional changes she was proposing for the compound, buildings, and secure areas. Dr. Wilkerson and I mostly looked and listened.

We finished up heading to another building and taking over the conference room in the gallery above the production floor. This building did not have a secure area.

“Matthew and Alison, this has been a good review and I think your planned changes are spot-on, but I think we need a more proactive approach to make theft, and any collateral damage, less likely.”

“What do you mean?” Alison asked.

“I’ve been thinking about our processes for the past couple of days, since I wasn’t being allowed to do anything else. Dr. Wilkerson, how long are you able to make nano-tubes now?”

He chuckled. “What length do you want?”

Our processes had changed significantly over the past three years as he and his team tried new things.

“Ten to twenty nanometers would be good,” I said with my own grin.

He frowned. “We’d have to use the old process for that, the shortest we’ve done with the new one is around five hundred nanometers. Ah...” he understood my idea.

Alison and Matthew looked confused.

“Our old process,” I explained, “was very inefficient, and gave us very small nanotubes. Those are perfect for a stealth coating, if you can align them perpendicular to the surface. The new process could not be used to make such short lengths.”

Alison nodded. “So you want to arrange a leak of the new process?”

“Exactly. If people know the process, they can waste their time trying to produce short enough lengths to give them something similar to our coating.”

“But you can’t just publish a paper on it,” Matthew said.

“No, that’s why we’re going to need to be very clever, and very secretive. No one but the four of us can know what we’re doing. Is that clear?”

Three heads nodded, and I began to lay out my plan for them to poke holes at.

“The French? Not French mercs working for the KGB, but the actual fucking French this time?”

Alison nodded and motioned to the dirty-blonde haired man with her. “This is Mike Keller. He’s the man I brought in to do the over watch mission at the plant.”

Keller was easy to dismiss, with slim frame and wearing baggy clothes, but Alison had briefed me on his background. He was ex-SAS and had spent plenty of time alone in the often-hostile urban environment of Northern Ireland. He was an expert at blending in.

Keller nodded. “Aerospatiale, at least that’s the building they eventually returned to and where their money came from,” he said.

“Interesting,” I said as I thought through the implications.

“We’ve got photos and the money trail, Paul. How would you like to proceed?” Alison asked.

“Could we take it to court?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. How we got some of it would not be admissible.”

“What about the FBI? Doesn’t espionage of all flavors fall under their purview?”

“We could. I don’t think they would do much with it other than open a file,” she said.

“I’m open to suggestions, then.”

“MI-6 might be persuaded to take a more active interest in them, since they were probably behind the break-in at Rolls-Royce as well.”

I nodded. “I guess that’s a start. We should notify the FBI as well, even if they won’t do anything. What about a direct approach?”

Alison arched her eyebrow. Even after many years, that expression still unnerved me.

“What did you have in mind?”

“You said it wasn’t all admissible, but I bet we could lay out our proof and maybe make them more circumspect, if not scare them off.”

“Won’t work, mate,” Keller said bluntly. “They’ll just be more careful. It will also put us back to square one in identifying who to watch.”

Alison was nodded in agreement.

“Okay, but how about a subtle signal? We’re using some avionics from them in the GX-3. Can I at least work with Gulfstream to stop using them as a supplier?”

It was Alison’s turn to think. She looked at Keller. He shrugged.

“That could escalate things, if they feel they don’t have anything to lose. However, I doubt the people selling the avionics to you are involved or aware of these operations.”

“Damn! How do we get them to stop?”

“Let us do our jobs, Paul. Once I talk to MI-6, we might have more to go on. Perhaps you should talk to your favorite general. He might be able to get more out of the FBI if it is a threat to national security.”

“Of course! I should have thought of that first. I’ll get Sheryl to arrange a meeting ASAP,” I said.

It took two days, and a flight to Washington, but that actually felt pretty fast for the Pentagon to move. I was surprised to find the general joined by six other men in a secure conference room. Fortunately, they were all briefed on the fire at our plant and attempted break-ins.

“So, Paul, what does it mean for production?” General Baker asked after quick introductions.

“This month’s auction will be about seventy percent of last months’ volume.” The general frowned. “And it will most likely stay at that level for the next two months.”

“We’ve got projects that are dependent on having sufficient volume to complete on time,” Captain Womack, the only Navy man in the meeting said.

“Unfortunately, there is not much I can do about that. We had significant damage to the building and security systems that need to be repaired. Moving production would cause at least a six-month delay in production.”

“What about your new plants in Atlanta?” Colonel Hiller from procurement asked.

I shook my head. “Those are configured for a different process and produce different materials. I can’t reconfigure them. They also are not set up to be secure facilities like the Austin plant.”

General Baker sighed. “Okay, we need to adjust our plans based on revised production figures. I guess we’ll see who really needs the material when the auction occurs. Now, Sheryl indicated you needed to share some other information regarding the fire.”

I nodded. “I do, but I’m not sure we should share it quite this broadly,” I said.

The General frowned.

“Everyone here is cleared regarding your material,” he said.

“Sir, my security people have traced where the attack originated from. It has diplomatic and military implications. I would prefer not to share it broadly until you agree it needs to be disseminated.”

The General looked at me and then around the table. Finally, he nodded.

“Colonel Conright, if you would stay? We can brief others once we assess the need to know.”

Several officers frowned, but stood and headed for the door after their dismissal. Colonel Conright moved to the end of the table with the General and myself.

Once we were alone, the General began, “Colonel Conright is with the Office of Special Security. They act as a special liaison between the civilian agencies and multiple DOD groups. He is cleared for anything relating to the security of your facilities.”

I nodded, and pulled out the photos and evidence we had on Aerospatiale. It did not take long to cover.

“So what do you want us to do with this?” The Colonel asked.

“I have no idea. What do you think you should do when a supposedly allied country is trying to steal military secrets? Aerospatiale is still partially owned and controlled by the French government.”

Both men frowned.

“My people feel tipping our hand by talking to anyone over there will just make them go deeper underground and potentially lose the leads we already have.”

“I agree,” Conright said. “Let’s keep things low key for a while. I’ll get some other agencies involved and see if we can gather anything else. How is security at your facilities?”

“Good, and getting better. Alison Wilson is my head of security. She is adding staff and implementing changes to all our plants to make it harder for them to get in if they try again.”

“What about your new place in Nevada?” The General asked.

I was surprised he knew the location of my new lab. We hadn’t broken ground on it yet.

“There’s nothing there, yet, so I’d say it is very secure.”

He nodded. “Lot’s of empty space in Nevada to hide things,” he said.

It was my turn to smile. “I know. You were kind enough to send me to one of those places for a couple of weeks last spring. It helped plant some ideas for me.”

“We will have to cut the range,” Harry finally said.

We had been going over testing results for the GX-3. Our fuel consumption numbers looked good, but the increasing concerns over sonic booms, as well as the need to add different auxiliary power units for use on the ground and during startup was cutting into our usage profile.

“So if we limit supersonic flight to the twelve-mile limit off-shore...” I said.

“We cut the usable range, below our six thousand nautical mile target,” Stan, the Gulfstream engineer, said.

“By how much?”

“Five thousand, maybe forty-eight hundred depending on reserve requirements.”

“Shit, that’s no better than the G-400,” I said.

“But at twice the speed of sound,” Harry replied.

“For part of the flight, anyway,” I countered. “What if we increase the service ceiling? That should decrease the intensity of the booms.”

Stan nodded. “It will, but cruising above fifty thousand is going to cause some flight control problems.”

“Why? The Concorde has a sixty-thousand-foot ceiling,” Harry said.

Stan shrugged and punches some numbers in his calculator. “How high can your engines go?” He finally asked.

Harry grabbed a sheet of paper. “We’ve tested the design to seventy-five. Beyond that and we’d need to augment the oxidizer or re-design the inlets.”

“Well, we should be able to operate safely at sixty to seventy thousand feet, but will need to test in that regimen.”

“Okay, so let’s test it,” I said. “What will it do for the booms?”

“We should see a six decibel reduction at sea level.”

Decreasing the sound by six decibels would drop it to a quarter of the previous volume.

“Is that enough?” I asked.

“It’s as good as we can do without re-designing the wings and fuselage,” Stan said.

“Do we need to call the Air Force again? I don’t think they will make scheduling us a priority,” I cautioned.

Stan shook his head. “We should be able to do it off the coast. We’ve got the limited certificate to allow us to continue test flights. We’re just not cleared for passengers yet.”

“How soon to get things going?”

“Give me a week to set it all up. I want some of my team to double-check my numbers. We’ll also need to arrange for surface monitoring if we want to measure the boom intensity.”

“Okay, let me know if I can help,” I said.

Our meeting broke up and I grabbed Harry on the way out. He accepted my offer of coffee and I brought him up to speed on the break-ins in Austin and the possible tie to the break-in at Rolls-Royce.

“Well, that’s bollocks,” he said after listening. “They could have gotten most of the info just by asking. We’re using our work with you and Gulfstream to make recommendations on an engine replacement or upgrade for the Concorde. They’re involved with that.”

“Really? Then why risk getting caught trying to steal information?” I wondered aloud.

“Until you can answer that question,” Harry said, “you don’t have all the answers you need.”

“Are you settling back into the grind, sweetie?” I asked as I gave Jeryl a kiss on the top of her head as she sat at her desk.

She smiled up at me and glanced over at the empty crib taking up a corner of her office.

“Yes, but I miss Ali when Anna picks her up. On the other hand, it’s nice to think about things besides feeding and diaper changing and entertaining our little munchkin.”

“I know that I’m happy to have you both around more. I like being able to take a break and see my favorite girls for a few minutes during the day.”

“I like seeing you more as well. What are you working on today?” she asked.

“Reviewing research updates this morning and then taking a look at the network proposal Sheryl and Donna have been working on.”

Jeryl nodded. She had reviewed their work yesterday.

“I think they have a pretty sound plan. It won’t be cheap, but I think it will be a good use of capital and has a promising five year return.”

“I’ll be happy if it can break-even and get me high-speed links from here to Utah and a few other places. We should be able to tie into the University of Utah ARPANET node and that will open up a broader network.”

“Is that one of the reasons you are interested in Sun and Cisco deals?”

I nodded. “Sheryl and Donna did a good job on that analysis, don’t you think?”

“They did. I’ve been talking to Kelly and we’ve started buying Sun on the open market. I’d like to get at least a five percent stake before you go talk to them.”

“Why?”

She pulled out a file of clippings. “Every publicly traded company you’ve announced a deal with has seen a five to fifteen percent stock price jump in the weeks after the announcement.”

“Aren’t there rules about insider trading we need to beware of?”

“If we were publicly traded, yes. Since we’re not, we are investing in a promising firm and if we do a deal and reap a benefit, it just makes us excellent business minds.”

I shook my head. “Any other ‘excellent’ business maneuvers I should be aware of?”

“Nike.”

“Nike?”

“They are willing to sweeten the contract terms considerably if you’ll let them exploit some of your other materials for the sportswear market.”

“Really? Like what?”

“They are interested in some of your other coating products for protective gear. They’re talking to CRP about using CRP-2068 as well.”

“I’d think that would be too heavy. They’d be better with some of the other aerogels we’ve been playing with in Austin.”

Jeryl smiled. “Perfect. Can I tell them that? Do you have any spec sheets yet?”

“Hey, wait a minute,” I said with my hands held up. “We don’t have production processes defined for those yet. We need to talk to Dr. Wilkerson and evaluate production capability and potential demand. Right now, all the materials are being made in a lab for testing.”

“Okay. How soon can we get our hands around that? This could be a big windfall for us, if we can get Nike to re-sign with more favorable terms.”

“How big?”

“A hundred million a year.”

“Wow.”

“I know you’re not chasing dollars, Paul, but with that sort of increase in our cash flow, you could really expand your R&D efforts.”

“We could. Based on my reading this morning, there are a few other projects that could have a similar level of return. Next year could be huge for us if the CRP IPO goes well.”

“It will. Kelly told me it was going to be heavily oversubscribed. The list price is going to be twenty-five dollars a share, and she thinks they’ll close over a hundred given the increasing revenues they’re already seeing.”

“Then, I guess we had both start getting busy figuring out how to use this money,” I said.

“I think we should expand our scholarship funds.”

“I agree, and we can’t limit it to our hometown anymore, but I think we should target it on science, technology, engineering, and math.”

“And education, for our mothers.”

“Of course,” I said with a smile.

“I’ll talk to Candace and Kelly, but I think we should create a separate corporate entity to manage that. How big do we make it?”

“I have no idea. You ladies can figure that out, I’m sure. In the meantime, I guess I had better go have a call with Dr. Wilkerson and see what he thinks about expanding aerogel production.”

I gave her another quick kiss and then headed back to my own office with a bounce in my step. I was happier when Jeryl was working with me that was certain.

“What’s up, Matthew?” I asked as he walked into my office in California.

“Just a quick question,” he said as he took a seat. “What would you think about Kelly and I using the Maine house for our wedding?”

I grinned. “I think it’s a great idea. When?”

“We were talking last night and thought the autumn colors would make for some spectacular pictures.”

I whistled softly. “You’re not giving yourselves much time to set things up. It’s September already.”

“I know. We don’t want a big affair. Just family and a few friends. I’d like to ask you to be the best man.”

“I’d be honored to. What else can I help with?” I asked.

“Can you let us use the G-400 for a week or so starting next week? We need to fly up and make arrangements. We’d like to hold the wedding in five weeks,” he said with a grin.

“Any reason to rush it after such a long engagement?” I asked with what I hoped was a look of brotherly concern.

“No,” he said quickly. “But that is when the peak colors should be out.”

“Well, in that case, take the plane and get things arranged. Let me know the specific date, so we can plan an appropriate bachelor party, too.”

Matthew nodded. “October 15th. It’s the third Saturday of the month. We can do the bachelor party on the weekend before, but nothing too wild, please.”

I tried to feign innocence. “I’m an old married family man. I wouldn’t plan anything too wild.”

Matthew laughed, shook his head, and headed back out of my office.

I watched him go for and then thought for a few minutes before reaching for the phone to call Alison. This might be a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

“But what about production?” Bill Bummanger, a program director at General Electric asked. “Our tests tell us this is a good material, but we need to ensure sufficient production capacity before we move forward with this program.”

“CRP will scale up production to meet your needs once we have a firm order,” Rebecca Knowles said over the phone.

“We’re turning out blading and turbine assemblies for Rolls-Royce already. We can put a parallel production line in our existing facilities and be running three shifts as soon as your order is placed and you sign off on the specs.”

“How long is your lead-time?”

“Three months,” Rebecca said. I was beginning to wonder why I was even on the call.

“That should meet our needs. If I put that into our plan, I think we can get the Air Force to sign the LOI and purchase orders. They want four hundred replacement engine assemblies almost immediately and then a ten-year replacement parts and supplies order. If they like the results, there should be follow-on orders.”

“Bill,” I said to interrupt the back and forth they were having, “This is Paul Taylor. It seems like Rebecca has all the answers you need. Is there anything else you need from me?”

“No, I think this has been a great call. I’ll get numbers sent over for Rebecca to validate and then get the proposal over to the general.”

I thanked them for their time, while feeling they had wasted mine, and ended the call. Sheryl came in as I stood up from my desk.

“Don’t put me in the middle of those routine discussions again,” I snapped.

She paled. “Sorry, Paul. GE was insistent that we include you. I tried to put them in direct contact with Rebecca.”

“Sorry, I’ve just got too much to do to waste my time on their egos.”

She nodded. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

I paced around my desk once and then returned to my chair. “What’s up next?”

Sheryl settled into the chair across from me. “Your schedule.”

“My schedule?”

She nodded. “Donna and I have been talking about ways to get you more uninterrupted time in your day. You are getting too many requests for your time. We could easily triple-book you all day long. She thought maybe we needed to take a page out of the military.”

“How so?”

“Morning briefings.”

I waved my fingers at her in a ‘give me’ fashion.

“One of us would brief you each morning, say at nine. We would hit status updates on any big projects you were tracking, get any decisions or direction we need from you, and then let you pick where you wanted to focus for the day. Anything outside the area you want to focus on, we would handle or delay.”

I looked at the mess my calendar was with every hour split into fifteen-minute calls or meetings, and sighed.

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