Chapter 36: Interventions & Interviews

“How’s Kelly doing?” I asked as I sat down next to Jeryl.

We had just finished filming footage for the show, nearly two months after the shooting at the autocross track. Matthew’s funeral had come and gone. The police had arrested the shooter and were holding him without bail. The DA assured us the conviction was a foregone conclusion, given the fact the incident had been caught on no less than six cameras.

“She’s the same,” Alison said from her seat at the other end of the couch. She still blamed herself.

“She needs to grieve,” Jeryl said. “She took the week of the funeral off, but has been driven by work since then. Paul, you have to make her do something else.”

I shrugged. When I talked to her, she was all business. She was as sharp as ever, but the spark of joy that made her uniquely Kelly was gone. It saddened me.

“I don’t know what to do.”

“Make her take a vacation,” Jeryl suggested.

“How? I’ve suggested and even ordered! She just looks at me, shakes her head, and goes back to whatever is most urgent for the business.”

“What about your Mom or Dad?”

“Same thing. The most I’ve gotten from her is that we need her here, and focused on the company, to get us through the transition without breaching any of our contracts.”

“That’s crap,” Jeryl said. “Sheryl has stepped into manufacturing and has everything running smoothly. She even has our new plant on track for start-up next month, and it was two weeks behind schedule at the beginning of June. Paul, we have to do something.”

“Short of a board meeting to fire her, or force her to take a leave of absence, I don’t know what we can do.”

Jeryl looked at me and nodded as she declared, “Then call a board meeting. We need to help her, even if she doesn’t see it.”

I saw Alison nod slightly.

“Okay. I’ll get ahold of Candace and Mom and Dad. Where should we meet?”

“Someplace different. Someplace Kelly never took Matthew.”

“That rules out all of our properties.”

“Except one,” Jeryl said. “Let’s go to the farm.”

I nodded. It was the one place Matthew had never visited.

“I call this meeting to order,” I said.

Kelly glared at me. She had insisted there was nothing urgent enough to force a board meeting, let alone one in Illinois. Mom and Dad had agreed that we needed to do something. Candace was on the fence, but agreed that we needed to share our concerns with Kelly.

“We will set aside reading of the minutes and other new business, until our next regularly scheduled meeting, next month.”

“So noted,” Jeryl said.

Over the years, she had taken over the board secretary role from Kelly, just as Kelly had taken over the role of General Counsel from her father.

“Our point of discussion is to intervene, and to ask our General Counsel and Managing Director, Kelly Keller to take a thirty day leave of absence.”

“You can’t do that, Paul!” Kelly said with some heat.

I looked at her.

“Kelly, you are going to work yourself to death. We are worried about you. We all want you to get help and come back to us healthy.”

“I’m fine.”

“Really? I pulled the key log from the office. You have worked eighteen and twenty hour days since the middle of June, seven days a week. That’s nearly double the office time you had prior to the shooting.”

“What else do I have to do? I need to keep my mind busy.”

“No, Kelly,” Jim said. “You need to let go, and grieve. We know you loved Matthew. We all did. Do you think he died to save you, just so you could work yourself to death?”

For the first time I noticed a crack in her facade. She had cried openly at the funeral, but these tears in her eyes were different somehow. Kelly’s lips quivered.

“Kelly,” Mom said. “I know what you are feeling. I’ve lived through that pain before. It takes years to go away, believe me. Having a focus is good, but having an obsession will just make it worse.”

Kelly looked around the kitchen table and then glanced out the window at the corn fields waving slightly in the breeze. We gave her a moment.

“I can’t just quit you all,” she finally said.

“You’re not,” Jeryl insisted. “You’re taking time to heal and recover.”

“Kelly,” Candace said before Kelly could respond. “You know it’s the right thing to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know the misses you had in that RCA addendum last week. If I hadn’t caught them, we would have had a bad deal on those new screens.”

Kelly bristled like a mother defending her child. In many ways, I suspected that is just what the company had become.

“You need to rest and recover,” Candace continued. “Before you do something harmful that one of us does not catch.”

Kelly looked at the older woman with anger and then sagged to put her face in her hands, sobbing.

“I’m sorry. I’m trying so hard to...” Her voice trailed off as Jeryl and Mom hurried around the table to comfort her. Jim looked stricken at his daughter’s pain. Candace wore a concerned frown while Alison looked on sadly.

“Meeting adjourned,” I said softly as I stood up. I headed outside to the machine shed and my old office. Alison followed me.

“Are you alright, Paul?” She asked as I stood looking at the leather furniture and drafting table.

“Yes. Just tired.”

“I know. Look,” she said. “I know this is not the best time, but I think I need to take a leave of absence as well.”

“What do you mean?”

I turned and saw her own tears on her face.

“I failed, Paul. I failed you and Jeryl and Matthew and Kelly. We should have caught that man before he even pulled out the pistol. After the scare in February, I should have had Mike penetrating the unions to hear what they were telling members. We should have screened the fans. I should have had at least two more people on the detail who could have shielded you all. Matthew should never have needed to be the living shield for his wife. I failed.”

I pulled Alison into my arms as she sobbed softly. I just held her for a few minutes as she shook. I felt her tears on my shoulder. Finally, she calmed some and I stood back.

“Alison, you did not fail. You raised concerns about the crowd and Tom and I overruled you. I’ve watched the videos a dozen times. It was less than one half second between that fan yelling ‘gun’ and the first shot. Matthew moved on instinct alone to shield Kelly. It was just bad luck that the first shot killed him. Other than your shot in the attacker’s leg, that was the only bullet that struck a person. If it had hit anywhere except Matthew’s heart, he would have lived. It was just bad luck. Understand?”

She looked me in the eye and nodded slowly.

“Besides, if you had not done your job and shot him in the leg, I would have been dead. I know that. You’re shooting saved me, and possibly several others.”

“I still feel like a failure,” she said as she hugged me.

“We all have to learn from our mistakes. It’s only a failure if we don’t do that.”

“So Paul, can you tell us more about the incident?” David Rensin asked.

How I had let Billy and Tom badger me into doing an interview with Playboy, was still a puzzle to me. The fact that I was taking time away from taping the show, or doing meaningful work, bothered me; but, everyone around me had insisted I do the interview as previously planned, while the Interns were with Hunter in Ireland setting up the training program for engineers.

“I’m sorry, but it is still technically an open investigation, so I can’t comment.”

“Fair enough. But you will finish shooting ‘The Interns’ series over the summer, right?”

“We will. The interns were upset, but none of them were direct witnesses and none of them really knew Matthew, so we decided to continue. It would hardly be fair to them to not continue given that we committed to a full internship over the summer.”

David nodded and then looked at his notes again. “Since this will go to print after the show airs, anything you’d like to add about this season?”

“I think I’ll just let the viewers enjoy,” I said with a smile.

“Okay. So what does the future hold? We’ve talked about your past and the present, but you have always looked forward. You’re delivering cheap, clean energy to increasingly large parts of Europe. Why not the same level of growth here in the US?”

“You’ll have to ask Congress, the Department of Energy, and the various Power Worker’s Unions about that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Congress is being lobbied to slow adoption of fusion by the entrenched special interests of the energy industry. The Department of Energy is dragging its feet on verifying what the Europeans have already said: that fusion generators are safe and clean. The unions are threatening to strike at any plant that installs generators and does not allow them to operate them. Unfortunately, no union operators have made it through my training.”

“Unfortunately? I’ve heard you are screening them out in the application process.”

I shook my head. “They are screening themselves out. I have a standard contract for installing and operating the generators. I also have a standard contract for the operators. It is a very generous contract, but it does have a no-union clause. As soon as an engineer makes a decision based on some group consensus rather than scientific principles, it is grounds for termination. Every union lawyer that has reviewed that agreement has said it is sound and all have cautioned union members not to sign it, or lose Union membership if they do. A few folks have rejected that advice, signed it and are happily employed overseas without being members of a union. You should talk to them to see if the deal is unfair.”

David chuckled and said, “Actually, I have, as part of the prep for this interview.”

“And what have they said?”

“They love it. They are living in nicely furnished apartments making a good wage in excellent working conditions. They also say that your benefits are top notch.”

“Good. It’s important to me that they are happy.”

“So you’re not as anti-union as some people like to say?”

I paused for a moment. The interview had been nicely conversational, but I knew a misstatement on my part would be headlines, tomorrow.

“I’m not anti-anything, except anti-ignorance. I believe that letting other people make your decisions for you is a sign of ignorance, whether that is a union rep, a clergyman, or a government official. If any union approached me with cogent arguments for why their approach is better for the long-term safety and benefit of their members and the country, I would be happy to talk to them. Instead, they all assume that I am out to steal something from them. Nothing could be further from the truth. So far, the only discussion I’ve heard is their supposed right to take ten percent of whatever I am paying an engineer as an unfunded tax that goes into the union’s pockets. Aren’t the engineers better off having that money themselves?”

“Interesting. You mentioned clergymen as well. Tell me more about that.”

I shook my head.

“I am a scientist and engineer. I deal in facts and measurable outcomes, not blind faith. I know that there is an inherent right and wrong in the world. I don’t need some writings from thousands of years ago to tell me that.”

“So you believe the bible is a factual document?”

“Don’t put words in my mouth,” I said with a smile. “I know there is a traceable history to the bible that dates back thousands of years. I also know that men picked and chose what gospels and writings to include in what we call the bible, today. Examination of the texts that were not included, show that most of the writing was not historical, but allegorical at best, and pure myth at worst. Looking at the history of the bible as a book tells us that it is of man, not God, and as such should be given no more consideration that anything else written by man.”

“So, do you not believe in God?”

“I’m scientist enough to know that there are still unexplained things in our universe. We know the Big Bang started it all. What we don’t know is what caused the Big Bang. Something or someone initiated that event. If you choose to call that something God, then I suppose I do believe in it. However, there is no evidence to suggest that some supreme being created the Universe with trillions of stars and potentially hundreds of trillions of planets, is all seeing and all knowing, and yet still gives a crap about how I live my life. I guess that makes me a Deist.”

I enjoyed the feel of Jeryl’s skin against mine as we lay in bed after making gentle love. My fingers gently teased her nipples as I breathed in the fresh scent of her hair and gave her neck an occasional kiss. She purred and slowly wiggled her bottom against my spent and softening erection.

“That was nice,” she said softly.

“It was. Thank you.”

“Oh believe me, it was my pleasure, sir,” she said with a giggle.

I kissed her neck again. “I love you.”

“I know.” I could imagine her smile without seeing her face. “I love you, too,” she added a second later.

“I’m worried about Alison,” she said a few moments later. “She is still not forgiving herself for Matthew.”

“I know. I just don’t know what to do about it. I’ve told her it was just bad luck, and that her shot saved me, but she doesn’t believe it.”

“Well, as soon as the show is finished filming, I think we both need to take her away on a little vacation and remind her how much we think of her, and how well she did her job, regardless of Matthew.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. We’re going to take her with us to look over a new property. What she doesn’t need to know is that we’re evaluating it for a week by renting it.”

“Where is it?”

“It’s on the Pacific coast of British Columbia. The property covers several thousand acres. It’s bigger than our place in Park City, and includes six on-site cabins for guests and staff.”

“Wow, who built it?”

“A Canadian mining magnate. It was supposed to be a private retreat that he could rent out if the fancy struck him. He’s selling it for funds as part of a divorce decree.”

I hugged my lovely wife a little more tightly. “It sounds like a wonderful break.”

“Paul, I need to talk to you,” Kelly said as she breezed into my office.

“Anytime. I didn’t realize you were back in town.” She had stayed in Illinois when we threatened to force her to take a leave of absence.

“Yes. My head is all shrunk and I’m ready to get back into a public life, thanks to Jeryl’s Aunt Helen. She is a wonderful lady, but that’s not what I want to talk about.”

She sat in a chair across the desk form me. She looked older and wiser; a professional thirty-something. I waited for her to speak.

“Firstly, thank you for making me take a break. I did need time away from here.”

“I know. I’ve missed you, but I knew you needed some time.”

She nodded. “I think I need some more time, too.”

“As much as you need,” I said.

“It could be years,” she said softly. “I hurts to come in here and think of Matthew. I love you guys and the company we’ve built, but I need a change to let my heart heal.”

I nodded. “I know. I knew it was a possibility when I decided to force you to take some time off. But, you are my sister and I love you. I want what’s best for you.”

I saw tears in her eyes.

“Thank you. What will you do?”

“Candace will have to step up. We’ll hire some more staff to help handle the deals. It will work out. What are you going to do?”

“That’s what I wanted to discuss. I’ve been approached by both parties to run in the special election to seat a new senator for California.”

“Interesting.” Pete Wilson, a Republican, had stepped down from the Senate after winning the Governorship of California last fall. The special election to replace his seat was set for next November.

Kelly nodded. “Both Parties have interesting constituencies and opportunities. I wanted to get your thoughts.”

“Do you really want to do this? I’ve never heard you take much of an active stand on politics.”

“I’ve thought about it quite a bit. I think I do. I’ve lived in California for the past seven years. I’m a member of the California Bar. I’m connected in the valley and Bay area, and I’ve helped build a billion-dollar company while appearing on an award nominated national television show. I also think it’s about time you had a friendly face in Congress for a change.”

I smiled. “I’d rather have you here, but I will support you in whatever you want to do.”

“I know. But what I can’t figure is which party to join. I think I can win, but am not certain where the stronger base lies.”

“You’re not affiliated with either party yet?”

She shook her head.

“Go with the Democrats then.”

She frowned. “Why? I thought you would say Republican for sure.”

“For sure?” I drew the sound out. “You’ve been in California long enough to get that phrase down.”

We both laughed.

“Seriously, why the Democrats?”

“It’s California. Besides, isn’t Seymour the shoe-in for the Republican slot?”

“That’s the funny thing. The party approached me. They must view him as vulnerable. Hell, I think he’s vulnerable. He just has never done much that is visible or meaningful to most of the state.”

“But you have?”

“Damn straight. How many jobs have I helped create through our business and partnerships? How much of the Silicon Valley boom have we helped foster?”

I raised my hands in defense.

“I’m just asking, but that’s the other reason to go with the Democrats; you’ll have an easier opponent.”

She nodded, as if her mind was made up.

“I’m glad you agree with me.”

“You had already decided?”

She smiled. “I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything in my thinking.”

“So when do you need to announce?”

“The special election is going to be set for November of next year. That gives me just over a year to prepare.”

“How are you going to approach the fund raising and glad-handing?”

“I don’t know yet, but I’ll set up offices and my initial staff out of my own pocket. That way I’ll stay clear of the campaign finance laws for a little while.”

“Well, let me know if we need to adjust any dividends to help your cash-flow. You’ll have to take an unpaid leave of absence while you’re campaigning.”

She sighed. “I know. I’ve got one favor to ask before we announce that, though.”

“Sure. What?”

“I want to be involved in the finale of the Interns this year.”

“Okay. We’re on the last week of filming already. We’re planning to wrap right before Labor Day. Are you sure you want to come back for that?”

“I am. I need to thank the Interns and the fans. Matthew would want me to.”

I nodded while a cynical thought raced through my head. The finale would be a great launching opportunity for a Senate campaign.

I smiled at the interns as they stood in their teams, looking a little bedraggled after spending three days in the wonderful wilderness of the high Sierras testing and evaluating some new Nike products. The challenge had been two-fold for this week. Firstly, in almost homage to our first challenge, they had to come up with a thirty second commercial highlighting the products and their benefits. Secondly, they had to identify three possible improvements on each of the pieces of gear we had built and equipped them with. Those recommendations would be just as important in the grading.

“Welcome back,” Jeryl said as Tom cued her. “I hope you all enjoyed your short wilderness adventure and captured lots of footage to use in your commercials.”

The interns smiled and nodded.

“Zhu, what was the highlight of your three day adventure?”

The diminutive Asian-American mechanical engineer from MIT grinned. “I think sunrise this morning is a sight I will never forget. I’ve never done much camping, but now I see why so many of my friends enjoy the break from the civilized world.”

“Tamara, what about you?” I asked one of the four female interns this year. She was an athletic volleyball player and computer science major for UCSD.

“I love camping and the outdoors, but the highlight for me was the ropes course. I’ve never really been comfortable with those kinds of heights, let alone being helpless and trusting a team to move me from tree to tree safely. I was the first team member in the stokes stretcher. I was terrified, but everyone listened to the instructors and moved me safely. Then, when it was my turn to help move Thomas, I didn’t even think about the height or the danger. I just focused on doing the right things and getting the task finished without him or us getting hurt. Afterward, I realized that maybe a little controlled danger is a great focusing agent for the mind. I wasn’t worried about the show, the competition, or anything else, just taking care of Thomas.”

I nodded.

We continued asking and recording each person’s observations. Tom would pick and choose what made it into the show, but every perspective was captured.

“Thank you all for sharing,” Kelly said as she stepped closer to them. “We know you are all tired and a little dirty, but the work is not done yet. Your four teams will now need to edit together your commercial spot for our review. Additionally, we will want to review your equipment observations and recommendations individually. You’ll have a few hours this morning before we start the individual reviews and then you’ll have until dinner tonight to get your rough-cut commercials ready to go.”

The groups groaned, but I saw a few smiles. They had all been warned that this week would be both physically and emotionally demanding with the goal of wrapping up by Friday.

“The good news,” Kelly continued, “is that we’ve got hot showers and breakfast ready for you all, inside.”

A ragged cheer was their response.

Several hours later, the interns began taking turns giving Kelly, Jeryl, and I their improvements. Fortunately, they’d all had sufficient experience over the course of the show to know that they could not just come in and list their thoughts. We carefully probed on the “why” for each recommendation, and also tabulated a list of other things they had considered. Tom was there to capture everything for editing as well. It took us nearly six hours to get through them all.

“Whew!” Jeryl said as the last intern finished. “How long until we have to critique the rough-cuts?”

“We’ll break for dinner with the crew, now. We can start filming again in forty minutes,” Tom said.

“They had some good ideas,” Kelly commented as she stood up and stretched. “If Nike listens to them, I might even be talked into taking a camping trip with some of that new gear.”

I smiled at her. The turnaround in her behavior was startling. I still saw the sadness in her eyes on occasion, but not nearly as much as before her break.

“I agree,” I said. I had enjoyed camping on my first time through. “I think Nike is going to be impressed with some of these ideas.”

Jeryl nodded.

“They will be. The Interns found opportunities for improvement in every piece of gear. Some of them will become easier to manufacture, while others will really change the utility of the gear. Think about having a single sleeping bag that can warm you in the winter and cool you in the summer. I bet the military buys a ton to evaluate that idea.”

I laughed and said, “As long as Nike handles the contracting process, they are welcome to it. Who’s idea was that, by the way?”

She flipped through her notes. “Thomas. He not only had the idea, but had sketched out the design. Then he did some rough calculations on the thermal differential, and how it could potentially be used as a micro-amp generation source to keep the bag charged.”

I nodded. His idea would use some unique electrical properties of the aerogel insulator to help heat flow.

“He is a very smart man.”

Jeryl gave me a look. Thomas had done well all season long, and we were sure he would be a fan favorite, with his rugged good looks and easy smile. He was a double-major engineering student from Michigan. He was also in a three-way near tie for the winning slot of the show.

“What are you thinking, Paul?”

“I’m thinking that Thomas should do some post-grad work with Ian, down in Austin.”

“Really? I thought you might want him on some of your special projects,” she said with a smile.

I shrugged and said, “Maybe both. We’ll see how his team does on the commercial, I guess.”

It turned into a late night session, by the time we finished giving the teams feedback on their commercials. We called a wrap on the day, and then Kelly asked for a chance to speak to the Interns privately, without any cameras in the room, or any of the other crew present. Jeryl and I hung around in case she needed our support, but she told us to go to bed. The next morning, she was back in full business mode.

I was glad my concerns were unfounded. In this case, I was very happy to have been wrong.

The sounds of the helicopter were fading in the distance as we walked along the well marked trail from the helipad to the main house just visible through the towering trees. The air was cool despite the sunshine lighting the clear sky. A hint of salt water mingled with the piney smell of the forest.

“Wow,” Jeryl said as the path opened onto the lot the actual lodge sat on.

The place was spectacular. It was a large log cabin, with a central house that was easily four thousand square feet on at least two floors. Two wings about half as large as the central portion extended from each side. Six separate chimneys were spread along the forest green roof. The wide stone steps invited us up to the front porch.

“I hope you have some keys,” I said dryly as we approached the front door.

“Of course I do, silly.”

She grabbed my and Alison’s hands and pulled us into the spacious home.

“Look at those views,” she said as we looked out the huge windows. The cabin was situated on a bluff several hundred feet above a craggy inlet from the Pacific Ocean. The steely granite, deep forest greens, and crystal blue of the sky were all reflected in the gently moving ocean waters below us. It was a wonderful view.

“I can just feel the cares of the day washing away,” Jeryl said as she hugged me.

“I have a feeling that means we will be buying it,” I joked.

Jeryl gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and said, “Well, let’s not get too hasty. We need to see what else the place has to offer, before it gets dark.”

“That should give us plenty of time. Sunset won’t be until almost seven thirty tonight.”

“Then let’s explore.”

Jeryl dropped my arm and grabbed Alison’s as we headed out of the main room and into one of the wings. We found two large bedrooms with their own baths and then past a set of stairs going up and a large storage locker at the end of the hallway near and exterior door. The door let out onto a large porch. The views were spectacular here as well and the covered porch featured a small outdoor fire pit and several year-round couches.

“I could see snuggling up here during a first snowfall,” Jeryl said as she examined the sheltered nook the couch sat in.

The upstairs of the wing had two more bedrooms. There was a heavy door separating the wing from the main part of the house, and going through it took us to the door for the master suite, above the main room on the floor below. I stuck my head in the bathroom as the ladies examined the large stone fireplace, complete with a bearskin rug in front of it.

The master suite had a second living room occupying the remainder of the second floor with several comfortable leather couches and chairs and large windows looking out over the inlet below.

The second wing had two more bedrooms upstairs; but the storage, laundry and gourmet kitchen were on the main floor. The dining room was situated below the second living room of the master, with a huge wooden trestle table that appeared suitable for twenty people.

Alison and Jeryl settled into the living room as I headed out to check out the other parts of the property. Prior to the trip, Jeryl had asked me to slip away so she could have some time to talk to Alison.

There was a path along the bluff, with four additional cabins. Each cabin appeared to be fully furnished and self contained with a small kitchen. Each also had a good supply of wood chopped and ready to use under a small eave along the side. Whoever had designed the place had spent a lot of time on the details. I approved.

There was also a garage not far from the main house, with four snowmobiles and four small four wheel ATVs, parked neatly inside. The last buildings I found were a well used smokehouse, and an outdoor summer kitchen area. All in all, it was a wonderful property.

I headed back inside, and found myself a glass of water. Still curious, I looked around some more and found the stairs going down from the kitchen. Below that wing, there was a well stocked pantry and wine cellar. I also found an opened and empty gun safe. I headed back upstairs, and ended up on the porch outside the living room, taking in the view.

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