Balance of Power Shifted (35 page)

Abdul hearing the shot immediately whipped around while at the same time throwing his own blade
in the direction he had heard the shot come from.  Ty caught the knife high up on his right shoulder as he was trying to get a shot off at the second assailant.  His shot went wild and his arm began to numb quickly.  Abdul seeing his opportunity took off out the door thinking he will miss Nasir but happy he had accomplished the task since failing twice was not an option.  Security cameras later showed that he jumped into a waiting van and drove off.

Ty quickly checked to see if the assailant was dead and seeing that he was as dead as c
an be, checked to see if Bill was OK.  Even though the equipment alarms were blaring, Bill appeared to be no worse for the event.  Turning around he helped the officer get to his feet as the effects of the stun gun wore off.  As he was helping the officer get to his feet, he had an important idea.  Using his cell phone, he called Jeremy and explained what happened and offered up his idea that had come to him.  Jeremy was silent for a moment and then jumped on his suggestion wholeheartedly.  Jeremy said to Ty, “we will implement it as planned albeit a week early.  Take up position outside the door and do not let anyone in except those in the know.  Great thinking Ty and I owe you one.

Within 45
minutes, Agent Morgan arrived at the scene as well as Father Zults who both went into the room.  Soon a man came in wearing a county coroner hat and uniform and after 15 minutes walked out pushing a gurney with a sheet pulled over the body.  Father Zults escorted the body all the way to a county body transport vehicle, or meat fleet as the coroner referred to it where the body was loaded.  During the whole process, the hospital staff went about their business but were careful to stay away from the police activity.  Different variations of the attack were already circulating around the hospital with none sure of what had happened. 

Agent Morgan came out of the room and used his phone to get his team to process the crime scene.  Looking at Ty’s shoulder, he called over one of the nurses and asked if she could get someone to dress this man’s wounds.  “How is it that you were on duty tonight Ty
,” Agent Morgan asked.  Ty replied, “I switched out my guy tonight to scope things out for next week and looked up just in time to see the door open and the tail end of the attack.  That dead bastard actually tried to stab Mr. Bates, but his rib protector deflected the knife blade.  I shot him, as he was getting ready to try again.  The guy that got away threw his blade at me as I tried to line up on him and was able to get by me.”

Mike and Fiona had just laid down on their cots still dressed in their clothes and smelling like the take out Chinese food they just ate.  The best they could do
was to wash up with the hand soap in the little lavatory and brush their teeth.  Mike did not feel particularly bad about their situation, but he could see Fiona was one excuse away from blowing a gasket.  It was funny in a way that Fiona had less of an issue with facing danger and kicking ass than having access to a decent bathroom and shower.  Mike was just reaching over to drag her cot a little closer when his phone rang.  The display read ‘Jeremy’, which was alarming since we had decided not to use our phones unless there was an emergency.  Answering the phone, I said, “What’s going Jeremy?”  For the next five minutes, I listened to what Jeremy was saying and did not interject at all.  Inside of me, I went through a whole range of emotions from the shock at the attempt on Bill, the killing of an attacker, the injury to Ty and surprise and relief that operation Houdini was initiated.  When Jeremy finished, I responded by saying, “that was a great call you guys made and I appreciate it.  Will it be in tomorrow’s paper?”  Jeremy said that the FBI had already produced a statement about it and distributed it to the media.

Hanging up with Jeremy
, I turned to Fiona who was literally climbing out of her skin wondering what the discussion had been about.  Pulling her cot in closer, I leaned in to her and whispered the details of the attack, and filled her in on operation Houdini.  She rolled on her back and stared at the ceiling for a minute before saying “all this subterfuge has got to be taking a toll on you Mike.  To be honest with you, I do not know how you do it without cracking up.  You need to rely on me more and let me take some things off your back.  By the way that Houdini thing really rocks and I think Bill will be just fine.”  Fiona then got off the cot and told me to roll over on my stomach and for the next 10 minutes, I enjoyed a fantastic back massage that ended with me slipping off into a deep sleep.

Morning came way to early and with only some Krispy Kreme donuts for su
stenance we started to follow our timeline.  By the time early afternoon came around, we were able to transfer the last of the seawater into the storage tanks.  At that time, I asked Fiona and the guard to leave the building leaving me as the only occupant.  I then drew equal amounts of Electricus into five containers holding 5-gallons each.  Walking over to a utility closet containing a wash sink and cleaning supplies, I reached up to the top shelf and pulled down a round container that clearly displayed the words “Rodent Poison” and a nice graphic skull and skull and crossbones symbol.  This container contained 100% Arsenic, which I carefully measured out and added to the 5-gallon containers.  The ratio, carefully designed, allowed the reproductive reaction to complete and consume all traces of Arsenic so that others could not figure things out the way we had.  Using a stepladder, I climbed to the filler spout of each tank and poured the contents in.  I carefully washed the containers and my hands to get rid of any remaining residue.

This took about an hour
and I was glad it was nice outside and not raining.  I saw that Miguel had returned so I yelled to everyone that the coast was clear.  On the way back from dropping the tanker off Miguel had picked up a whole Boston Market buffet of which we ate every bite.  Standing up I said, “Miguel, are you ready drive us to the train station?”  “Yes sir” he replied reverting to his military background training.  An hour later, we were catching the regional back to Penn Station in New York City.  When we got there, Fiona assumed that we would catch a local up the Morris line but I had other plans.  As I started for the street exit, Fiona asked, “Where are you going?”  Just keep up with me if you can I kidded and bounded up the stairs to the street.  Walking about 10 blocks, I stopped in front of a small Hilton and walked in to the front desk.  Reservation for Carter I said to the clerk.  Five minutes later, we were 10 stories up over looking city with the sun just starting to settle over the Western side of the city, bathing the buildings with a rose colored glow.

Dropping my bag, I started to strip off my clothes as I headed to the bathroom where a nice stone tile
shower awaited.  As the water warmed up I felt Fiona’s arm snake around me causing me to turn and look at her.  I must tell you she looked fantastic wearing just a smile.  Soon we were both luxuriating under the hot jets of water feeling the tension leave our bodies.

 
Afterwards we worked off any remaining tension between the sheets before going to a nearby Irish Pub.  We both enjoyed excellent Fish-n-Chips and some Guinness Draught.  About the start of our third draft I pulled a list out of my pocket and said read this.  As she read it, I caught some news on the television and saw shots of the hospital Bill was at and a group of reporters asking Agent Morgan questions.  The banner headline on the bottom of the screen said ‘
Terrorists Behind Killing?
’  To the right side of the screen was a picture of Bill that I had never seen before.  Since I could not hear from where I was sitting, I grabbed my beer and wandered closer to the screen.

  The television shots changed to the studio where a male newscaster was speaking to a female newscaster where he prompted her with
, “Could this be an attempt to take out competition in the energy markets Riley?”  She responded “Of course Ken, just last week the headquarters of Efficio was attacked with rockets and 2 employees were killed as well as one attacker.  The FBI has confirmed that the attacker was from Yemen and was in this country illegally.”

 
With and serious look, Ken asked, “How much of a threat is Electricus to the established power brokers?”  Riley on queue continued with, “More information about Electricus is coming out every day and it appears to be a ‘Game Changer’ in the world of energy.   In fact there is a press conference in South Jersey tomorrow around Trenton where an entire 100 unit low-income housing project will be unveiled and a lottery will be drawn to see what lucky families will own a home that will have no heating, cooling or electrical costs.”  Ken looked straight back into to the camera and wrapped up saying, “now that is a lottery I would play and now for the weather.”  I walked back to our table and asked Fiona “well?”  Still looking down at my scratch sheet of the requests that have come in just a couple of days, Fiona said, “I have some ideas.”

Wrap up plans with Army

Attend opening for housing

Meet with the General on the Air Force testing

Meet with all US automobile manufactures per their request

Attend a special congressional hearing on Electricus

Detail options for US oil and gas firms

Engage Saudis per request of US administration

Visit Rome to discuss humanitarian benefits of Electricus

Start signing deals and booking revenue to pay investors and employees

“
First,” Fiona said, “You have to start delegating the work and allow our friends to do what you brought them on to do and what they are raring to do.  In other words unleash the dogs.”  I started to interject, but Fiona just pushed her right hand in my face in her best ‘talk to the hand’ imitation and said Shhhhh.  “First thing, is to let Steve become the military liaison.  Let Kristen know that he can hire whatever talent she needs to get the job squared away and build for the future.  Money should not be an issue since one large contract will pay all the investors back and the salary of employees for an extended period.  Have everyone pass all the legal mumbo jumbo back to Julius and Iris to get all the legal details in place.  Let’s have Sean be in charge of all production of Electricus and prototype developing.”

Fiona took a deep breath and continued with, “
The toughest one here requires that you figure out a way for Sean to know the formula since Bill is not going to be available or everything shuts down if you cannot get it done.  You must address it one way or another because I can tell you that the demand is going to take off just so companies can immerse themselves in their future.  We also need about 100 salespeople with different language skills due to a high volume of expected calls.  Let’s have Taylor start the process and I can help train them.”

While Fiona was catching her breath after rambling off her litany of ideas, I thought to myself that I think I must have been in some kind of funk for the last couple of days since what
she said made unequivocal sense.  Well except for the formula piece.  Grabbing Fiona’s hand, I smiled a genuine smile and said, “You are a freakin genius, I knew I kept you around for a reason!”  “Watch it Rico” she said, “you know I can take you so don’t make me embarrass you her in front of all these strangers.”  We both laughed and I said “let’s go back to our room, we have to draw up a new responsibility chart and revised business plan to ‘unleash the dogs’ as you so aptly put it.

As we walked back, I shared a production plan that Bill and I had created back in the California days.  The plan included three major production plants located on the East Coast, Texas or
Louisiana and the west coast.  The idea was to be near a supply of seawater and be able to ship to anywhere in North America.  We would then develop locations in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.  The plants are simple to construct and are basic large warehouses with a seawater intake and holding tanks and lots and lots of security.  “Oh, remind me to send an email to all employees regarding Bill’s supposed demise. Houdini is top secret and no one else can know.  It will be tough for our team thinking their friend and leader is no longer with us.”

It took almost as long to write a short email message to all employees regarding Bill Bates as it did to write a lengthy business plan.  We wanted to address some other issues in the email such as the continued commitment of the management team to deliver on our mission statement and to also encourage and calm everyone.  We gave a heads up that there
would be a dramatic uptick in activity shortly.  The message was sent to all employees at 2:05 AM and the revised business plan right after.  The last task of the night was to set up a meeting for tomorrow at noon at the showroom.  Surprisingly, I received three replies within 10 minutes of sending.  All of them exuded excitement at their roles and the fact that we were going to move forward at an accelerated pace.

My first meeting the next day was with Ty and Jeremy.  Jeremy was
on video conference for the meeting.  While Jeremy ran to get another cup of coffee, I was reading a Clavis report on our current security situation and staffing.  The compensation we were paying Clavis was very steep, but it was the cost of doing business.  In fact, Jeremy had discounted his pricing by 15% because he was taking some of the blame for attacks.  His pride had been hurt and I know it was killing him that he had not yet delivered the level of security he had hoped.

As Jeremy came back on the camera, I referred him to the two emails I had sent out last night as I handed Ty copies. 
After he read them, he thought Fiona and I hit the right tone of concern and optimism to keep the staff from running to the hills.  Jeremy grinned to himself and said, “I have to hand it to you Mike.  I have watched you for the last two years grow into yourself, but I had no idea, a young man as yourself, could be conducting yourself as good as any war scarred corporate veteran.  Instead of caving in to pressure, you grabbed the challenges and are moving your company forward and I have to tell you that I like it.”  “If it was not for Fiona, waking me up with her ideas, I am not so sure I would have come down the same path.  One additional item here is that Fiona and I will try to nail down our first large processing site somewhere along the Jersey shore.  We are going on a boat ride tomorrow out of Long Beach Island and will need your assistance for the day to make sure no one picks us off.”