The next day got off to a rousing start at breakfast. Steve showed up with both of his girls, and informed us that the patents were at this time outside of the patent office, with three armed guards.
I called the ad agency and set up an appointment for that afternoon. That left enough time for an easy drive to Shreveport. Inez asked that she and her mother be allowed to go. She wanted to do some shopping in the big city. Jessica would of course go as well.
Steve still didn't like the idea of us going on our own all that way, but he told us that we would meet with the head of our security team in the garage.
Downstairs a good looking guy, dressed casually in slacks and a short sleeved shirt, was standing with Bill next to the salmon and black Dodge convertible.
"Hello, Sir, I am Dave Cress. I will be in charge of your security today. We have three teams who will shadow you all day. I will be in a black four door Dakota four-wheel-drive pickup, team two will be in a dark green Dodge Nitro, and team three will be in a tan Toyota Highlander. If you notice these three vehicles often don't worry about it. Hopefully there will be no problems, but if there are we will contact you through the in-car two-way radio, or I will call you on your cell phone. Remember the code words, if the caller does not use them in the first sentence, hang up and call me. Steve said that you wanted to take the Dodge, good choice, if a bit flashy. The address of the agency has already been programmed into the GPS. Be sure to let us know of any change of plans, otherwise, have a good time today."
Dave shook my hand as Inez helper her mother belt Jessica into the child seat in the rear. The rest of us got into the classic car, and Bill came over and handed me the keys.
"Now, there are a few tricks with this piece, Boss. That switch over the ignition key is for the suspension. It is set on cruise right now, but if you want to drive fast, put it on sport. The covered switch to the left of the wheel is for nitrous. Flip the cover and the switch to arm it, push the button underneath the switch to inject, or just punch into passing gear for a quick breath of power. The bottle is only good for 4 or 5 shots, so be sure it's needed before using it. The GPS is easy to use, but it would be best if the passenger does most of that. Have fun today, folks."
It was a beautiful Texas day and we had the top down. Inez and Norma had never been in a convertible before and were having a blast. As we were reaching the outskirts of Shreveport the music suddenly stopped and Dave's voice came out of the speakers. "Hey boss, this is Calico, and we have a problem. Three black vehicles got on two exits ago; they caught up to you, but didn't pass. I tried to check the license numbers, and they came back blank. It looks as if they are trying to pin you in behind that 18-wheeler ahead of you. Here is what I want you to do. Make sure all belts are tight, then flip the suspension to sport, and arm the nitrous. Oh damn, I just saw that sucker sink three inches and get set to fly. At my signal I want you to punch the gas and swerve around the truck. Go like a bat out of hell and take the second exit you come to. Do your best to get lost in the residential area, and we will get back to you as soon as we are sure that these guys are gone. That suburban coming up on your left is one of them and the charger behind you is another. They probably have that in case you try to run, boy are they in for a surprise. Okay, Boss, punch it and hang on."
I have always heard of cars that break rubber in all gears, but never of one that squealed the tires when the car was already doing 65. That is what the Dodge did, the engine roared through the pipes and the tires screamed. I had all I could do to keep from hitting the truck in front of us, passing within what seemed to be inches of its rear bumper. The Suburban on our left was quickly behind us, and then so was the truck. My heart was racing, and I may have peed my pants a bit. The traffic on the highway was minimal, but at 105 mph everything comes at you in a hurry. I backed off a bit as we were passing the first exit, and moved to the access lane to take second one. I had to slow a lot to make the sharp curve, which fed us onto a surface road heading into the city. The suspension was super tight and made it feel like the car was glued to the road.
Jessica was laughing like a banshee and Inez had a death grip on my arm. That was when we heard from Dave again.
"Damn boss, that babe shat and gat. The suburban was left in your dust, but the charger took off and was able to see you exit. He is about a quarter mile behind you now. Take the next right and try to lose him. If he proves to be too good, we'll join in and block him. Good luck, I'll talk to you later."
"Inez, watch the GPS and make sure I don't head into a dead end, Norma you do the same looking around. Is the charger behind us now?"
Norma looked behind us. "There is a black car just coming off the freeway, is that the one you mean?"
I glanced into the mirror just before turning, "That's it Norma. Keep an eye on him."
I took a quick left before the other car got to the road I had turned on, and then a right, forward two blocks and a left. I goosed the engine, the road was curvy and I think that we lost the charger. I passed several intersections and then took another right. Norma had not mentioned the other car again. I kept going straight to get as much distance as I could from where I was.
"Hey Dave! I think we lost him, what do we do now?"
"You may have boss, but don't get careless. At the next major intersection is an Amoco station, pull in and go around the back, try to hide that pink and black target. Put the roof up and wait. I have a guy in a dark blue Durango who is going to trade cars with you. Don't shut down the motor or get out of the car until he gives you a codeword, then trade cars and go to your meeting. The GPS in the Durango will take you right to a parking lot just down from the meeting location. I'll be there when you arrive."
It wasn't until we were parked behind the gas station with the top up that it occurred to me to wonder at how Dave had known that there was an Amoco here, and where to send the other car to meet me. There must be a tracker on the Dodge; Steve is nothing if not thorough. (I asked him about it the next day, and found out that there were trackers on all the cars, all of our cell phones, and imbedded in Jessica's clothes. Very thorough.)
No more than ten minutes later a dark blue Durango pulled up behind us and a large Hispanic man got out. He walked up to my window and said, "Quite a bossinova we have going on here, isn't it sir?"
The code word eased my tension a lot, "It sure is a hell of a dance all right. What do we do now?"
"Right now we have to get you folks out of this car and into something a little more nondescript. The Dodge is a beautiful car and fast as all get out, but it sticks out like a pig in a chicken yard. The Durango here is maneuverable and fast, and it is armored as well." I was looking a little forlorn I guess, "Don't worry sir, I'll take good care of your toy here. There is a garage a short distance away where I am going to hide it, and we'll truck it back to your house tomorrow. Let me help you with the child seat, Mrs. Blumfeld."
With that, we all got out of the Dodge, and after a few minutes of wrestling to get the child safety seat into the middle of the back, we were in the Durango.
"Go ahead and proceed to your meeting, Sir, the GPS is set to guide you, and the windows are dark enough that you should not be recognized on the way. Dave says that whoever these people are, they have troops at the office building already. He is going to meet you several blocks away and take you in himself. Good luck."
He then walked over to the Dodge and got in. He left before we did and as I drove out of the gas station the salmon and black tail of my car was disappearing back the way we had come.
The directions from the GPS were easy to follow, and we never saw that black car again. When the pleasant voice said that we had "reached our destination", Dave was standing at the curb waving at me. I stopped, and he got into the back and said to me, "Pull into the parking lot up ahead on the right, we are going to change cars again and split you up. Mrs. Blumfeld, you and Jessica are going to go shopping with a young woman who works for us. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, I'm going to take you directly to your meeting. The folks you are to meet with know about the problem we are having and are waiting for you."
I parked beside the Dakota Dave had been driving and he directed Inez and me to get into it. A lovely middle aged woman in yellow slacks and a light blue blouse got out and traded into the Durango. Inez gave Norma and Jessica a kiss and we were off.
Dave took us into an underground garage, and then we followed him through several hallways and doorways into a glass and steel structure to an elevator. We got off and went down a short hallway into a large meeting room. Don Gregory, the ad agent I had met with last year, was there with several other people.
Dave stayed by the door as we entered and Don approached me with his hand out.
"Alex, it so good to see you again; and this must be your lovely wife. I'm sorry, my dear, but he didn't tell me your name when we met last year."
"That is because she wasn't my wife then, in fact, I hadn't met her yet. This is Inez, Don. Okay, folks, we need to get started quickly. You have all been kept pretty much in the dark until now. There are good reasons for this, but they are all gone now. I need a media blitz and I need it now."
Inez handed me a stack of folders and I distributed them to the people in the room.
"Here is what all the secrecy was about. My company has developed a new method of generating electricity which is as much as five times the generating power of current technology generators. Our first product, ready for initial distribution, is a wind-powered generator capable of supplying 60% or more of the needs for a standard suburban home. The cost for the standard unit is just $3,000 and the savings on electric bills will pay for it in less than a year. The technology is adaptable to many other uses and will make the generators used in all present power plants obsolete. The savings in air quality and fossil fuels is massive. I need this promoted as green tech and I need it promoted heavily. Once the public sees it as saving the planet, the power company lobbies won't be able to kill it. This is necessary because they have already attacked me and my family."
The woman looked up from her folder at me, "what do you mean, they have already attacked you?"
"On our way here several large vehicles attempted to run us off the road. The only reason that they failed is that our protection detail was alert and spotted them, and they didn't know that my little Dodge convertible had an overpowered hemi under the hood. We were able to evade them and get to this meeting, but it was close."
"Well, I'm glad that you are safe. How do you think they found out?"
"One of our employees sold us out, we have taken steps to correct the problem, but it is only a stopgap measure. The only way to get them to pull back is to get the public behind us. Do you live in a house or an apartment, Don?"
"My wife and I have a house in Northern Shreveport, Alex."
"And what was your electric bill last month?"
"I'm not sure about last month, my wife pays the bills, but the last bill I saw was for almost $600."
"So if you bought a generator from us you would pay for it in savings in less than a year. Your electric bill would go down to less than $300 a month. Would that be a good deal to you? Remember that our generator is guaranteed to provide power to you for at least 10 years, any repairs at our cost."
"I would jump on that deal in a New York minute, most people would. What would happen if I bought two?"
"You would be selling power to the electric company most months. Don't get too enthused though, it is going to take years before we have enough units manufactured to provide more than one to a household."
One of the guys at the table spoke up, "What about small cabins or ski chalets out in the woods? Would these units work for them?"
"Yes they would. You wouldn't be able to have an all electric home or anything, but the unit can provide enough current to power lights and appliances and such. You would be able to have a getaway without having to run power lines out when you build it. It will also work for remote villages in the developing countries. Think of the African villagers who will suddenly be able to have electricity to pump clean water to drink and to irrigate the fields so they can feed themselves. The rise in living standards in these areas will go a long way toward ending starvation and to stop some of the fighting. If everyone can have the resources, why fight for them?"
An attractive brunette asked the next question. "What about the power companies? How badly will it affect them?"
"Actually, the power companies will benefit almost as much as everyone else. Right now all they can see is that they are going to lose a large part of the domestic power sales, but that is very short sighted of them. We will be licensing our designs to the folks that build their generators now. Within a few years they will be able to generate as much power as they do now with 10% of the resources they are presently using. As an example; Austin Power has 6 or 7 power plants generating for present usages. They have a variety of plants using natural gas, coal, nuclear, and even one methane-fueled plant. Using our design they will be able to close all but the nuclear and methane plants and still make as much electricity. The savings for them will be vast. Even with our units on most houses, they will still need to provide power to businesses and manufacturing facilities. They will be able to charge less, and still have more profits. This applies to all the power companies around the world. Right now the USA gets about 20% of its power from nuclear plants, with our designs we can get more than 80% from the nuclear plants that are already in use, and the rest from hydro-electric dams. They can shut down almost all of the oil and coal fired plants, the oil savings alone will be massive. The cost of making power will be reduced dramatically and usage of oil and coal for this purpose will be decreased astronomically. This fact alone should have the tree huggers on our side. I know I'm simplifying this to a great degree, but the results will be at least as dramatic as I have said.
"I was watching a Discovery channel program about big machines and it was describing a coal digging machine that was working a coal seam in the Ruhr valley of Germany. This machine dug thousands of tons of coal every day to provide fuel for three power plants in the valley. It had to dig this much every day or the plants would shut down. The coal seam is very large, but at the present rate it is expected to be gone in about twenty years. The new generating technology will make that seam last for two hundred years instead."
The short woman with the mousy brown hair spoke up then, "would you be willing to repeat that in a live interview? If people see you and connect you to the concept, it will make any further attempt at you very dangerous for the persons involved. It will be seen as big business trying to shut down the little guy, just like the 100 mile per gallon carburetor, or the water-to-fuel chemicals that people are sure have been hidden. Putting you out there in the public eye is likely the only thing that will save you and your family once this gets out. Are you willing to do that?"
Now I had to think. I had never expected to become famous, just rich. I told the folks to study the packets and see what other questions they had. I pulled Inez out to the hall and asked her opinion. "This is going to affect you a lot, Dear. What do you think I should do?"
"The first thing you should do is to call Crom, and get his opinion. It is his invention and he should be included if he wants to be. As far as I am concerned, I am extremely proud of you and proud to be your wife, it will be nice for you to get the recognition you deserve."
There wasn't much I could say to that, other than to pull her in for a big kiss. I took her advice and called Crom. He said that if I mentioned his name on national TV he would poison my dog. When I pointed out to him that I didn't have a dog, his response was, "that was metaphorical, you ass, I couldn't actually hurt a dog. Don't give out my name on TV. As far as the rest of the country is concerned, I'm just your employee."
"You can say that now, Crom, but they are going to find out at some point. You are just delaying the inevitable."
"Delay, shmellay. The longer it takes for them to find out, the better."
"As you wish."
We went back into the room and gave our agreement. I had a couple of conditions for an interview though, no technical questions which might violate the patents, and the interviewers were not to go into an investigation of my, or my wife's, past. What happened afterward was fair game, but not during the interview. After that the whirlwind got in motion and we were committed.
CNN NEWS BROADCAST
"On Anderson Cooper 360 tonight I'm going to tell you about a sensation in the business community that occurred this weekend. A&C Genitech has burst onto the scene with a wind-powered generator guaranteed to lower home energy costs by 50% or more. In an interview with our Colleen McEdwards the owner of this new company, Alex Andrews, informed her that the wind unit has a small profile, not much larger than a satellite dish, and is usable in most parts of the world. The price on this generator is supposed to be low enough to be paid for in savings in less than a year.
"The biggest impact of this device though is on the environment. This is green technology; put several thousand of these units in a city and the city power plants will burn tons of coal less every day; and no more brown outs. Mr. Andrews assured Colleen that the designs would also be usable in the generators of the power plants to make them much more efficient, causing them to use even less coal and other fuels. Trust me on this, you will be seeing windmills on houses all around you, and if you have any sense you will buy one yourself; I know I will."
"This has been Anderson Cooper reporting."
This took off like a snowball on a mountain. The interview with Colleen McEdwards had been set up the next day, under incredible security. Inez, Jessica, Norma, and I had stayed in a hotel suite maintained by the ad agency for emergencies. Colleen was very professional about the interview and neither Inez nor I were uncomfortable about any of her questions. She seemed to understand the import of the discovery and the danger represented by the power lobbies. I tried my best to emphasize the green aspects of the generators and I think I pulled it off.
After the interview the four of us were flown directly to the compound from the roof of the hotel by helicopter.
The response to the airing of the interview was immediate and severe. I had to hire a girl just to direct calls to the ad agency for interview requests and to talk to reporters and such. I hired Julie Barringer, a delightful girl just out of college and the daughter of the factory supervisor, Grier Barringer, for that job. We had to increase security at the factory and the compound to keep out reporters and photographers.
I had contracted with Home Depot to sell our home units. I had been as vague as I could before the announcement, but even with that I was able to establish a distribution agreement. They would also provide installation and financing. We started shipping while I was doing the interview and by the next week the warehouse was empty and we had more orders than we could produce in a month.
I had expected this. What we had made in Texas was never intended to be more than a sample. We could make 5,000 units a day, but we needed to make 500,000 and just did not have the capacity. I intended to expand the factory quite a bit, but right now we needed help. I had been in contact with several factories in a general way, and now I began negotiations in full. Crom had been busy as well and had some new products we could sell. Hand crank flashlights and radios had been around for a while, but his were truly useful. The old style flashlights would work for 5 minutes or so after you cranked them for 1 minute while the same effort with Crom's design charged the batteries enough to last several hours. I was determined that all of our products would be manufactured in the USA, but finding companies willing to do the work was becoming tedious. I needed more help.
I talked to Crom's uncle in New York. His suggestion was more family. His niece, Crom's cousin, was a headhunter for a large employment agency. He said that she was very disillusioned with her job, and after she had been mugged last month, with New York as well. She had been looking for a job doing something else somewhere else. He thought that she would be good for the task I needed filled and recommended her to me. I had to do something, so I agreed to give her a chance.
I told Crom what I had done the next day at breakfast. His reaction was hardly what I was expecting. At first he looked pleased, and then his face sort of crumpled and got sad.
"What's wrong Crom? Is there a problem with your cousin? Should I tell her not to come?"
"No, no, nothing is wrong. Muriel is one sharp cookie and should be able to do what we need done. When she puts her mind to it not much of anybody can stand up to her. It's just that I got used to being here and so enjoyed having all the lovely women around. I was beginning to think that I might have a chance with one of them. Now that isn't likely to happen."
Inez spoke up then, "why would that change, Crom? If your cousin is going to cause trouble, then she can stay in New York for all I care. And you have more than a chance if you want to take it, most women would be happy to be with you, you just have to ask. There aren't many free women around right now, but the ones that are thought you didn't want any of them because you didn't ask."
"Please don't stop her because of me, Inez; she is what Alex needs. The problem is that Muriel is gorgeous, and she likes the same kind of women that I do, and usually takes them before I get a chance. Cousin Muriel has scuttled every dating opportunity I ever had. In business she is focused and unstoppable; in her private life she seems to have no boundaries, except that there are no men allowed. I wish I could hate her, but I actually like her a lot, it would just be nice if she left me a little room once in a while."
"Have you ever talked to her about it?"
"No, I was always too embarrassed to say anything. I figured that she knew what she was doing."
"Well, I will talk to her about it, and if she can't keep her libido under control, she won't be living here. We'll get her a place in Shreveport or Houston." She then turned to me, "Alex, we have waited too long to get the girls here for a visit. I'm going to call them today and have them fly down. We can have them and Muriel flown here from Houston by helicopter." She turned back to Crom, "I have some friends I would really like you to meet. Don't worry about your cousin. I'll take care of her."
I spent most of the day in the plant. I was looking around trying to see some way to increase production while we were waiting for the other factories to come on line. Finally Grier Barringer took me into his office.
"Look here boss, you hired me to run this place, so I'm telling you to go home. You are making all the workers nervous and causing them to make mistakes they never make. If there were any way to make more product, I would have told you about it already. You are just going to have to wait until the expansion is done or you buy another plant. Now go home and let me do my job."
I couldn't argue with facts. I started out of the plant, and then I saw that Steve Grant was in his office. I went over and knocked on his door.
"Alex, come on in. What can I do for you?"
"I have a request for you, Steve." I sat down in the chair placed in front of his desk. "You know my history, we discussed all of it when I hired you. What I would like to do now, is to find out what happened to my mother. I don't particularly want to get together with her, I just want to know what happened. I used to say that I didn't care what became of her, but it was a lie. I need to know why she abandoned me, what could cause her to do that. The other point is that with my face on the TV so much, if she is still out there she might try to pop back up to milk the honey wagon. Do you know anyone who could do that?"
"Yeah, I think I do. The intel officer in my unit was caught in the same IED as I was. The last I heard he had become a private eye. I'll get in touch with him, and if he can't do it he should be able to suggest someone. I'll keep you informed, Alex, you just leave it to me."
"Thanks Steve, I knew I could count on you."
At the house things were gearing up already for the girls from Vegas to visit. I went to my den to try to stay out of the way as much as possible. About an hour after I got there my phone rang, the factory link.
"Hey boss, Barringer here, we have a problem. The wire suppliers have been slowing their shipping to us for a few days, now today they have stopped entirely. They say that they don't have enough copper to send to us. They may be able to send us some next month, but not now. Without copper wire we are stopped dead. This is suspicious as hell, you are going to have to figure something out or we are going to go bust."
"Okay Grier, I'll take care of it."
Now what? Grier was right to say that this was suspicious. There had been no mention in the trade papers about a copper shortage, and no mention anywhere else either. I needed to get to the bottom of this, and quick. This might just be the next effort by the power companies to shut me down.
I got on the phone immediately to all of the suppliers that would talk to me; most of the offices wouldn't even talk, they just hung up. That was the proof; if it had been a supply problem, they would have talked and made promises and tried to keep my business. They must be getting blackmailed to shut me out.
My last chance was a small plant over in Houston. The owner was one of the first I had approached to sell us copper wire and connectors. He wasn't in the office much any more, but he kept in touch with what was going on.
"Jay, this is Alex Andrews, what is going on? Your plant has stopped deliveries saying that they don't have enough. That is bullshit and you know it."
"Yeah it is Alex. My problem is that I ship you 5 or 6 tons of copper a week, but I ship 35 tons to General Electric of Dallas. They said that they would take up the slack if I stopped supplying you, but would stop buying all together if I didn't. I don't like it, but I can't afford to take that kind of hit."
"Well let me ask you a question. Can they affect your supplies; can they keep you from getting raw product?"
"No they can't. My family has our own mine in Argentina and we sell ore to a lot of people."
"Well then, how about a deal? I have been getting wire from a lot of places. When I started up no one could sell me as much as I needed, so I had to split it up. How about I buy all 40 tons a week from you? If you can do it, I could use another 20 or 30 tons as well."
"No shit? You use that much wire?"
"Yes I do, and I'm expanding and will need even more soon. How would you like to be my major supplier?"
"Hell yes, I've wanted to increase production for years. The market wasn't there for it before."
"Let me ask you something else. How are you set up for reclamation, recycling?"
"About ten percent of our copper comes from that now. What do you have in mind?"
"The way I see it, every generator in use in the world today is obsolete. As new ones are made to our design the old ones are going to be replaced. That is a lot of copper wire waiting to be reclaimed and someone is going to have to expand the efforts to be able to do that. If we give those companies a trade-in value on their old units I can steer them to whomever I want. Would you be interested in that?"
"Oh hell yes, throw me in that briar patch. If you can get me a contract you have a partner. GE can just kiss my ass."
"Glad to hear it. How soon can you send some wire my way?"
"I'll get on the horn to the plant right now; trucks should be rolling within the hour. Get me that contract as soon as you can."
"Will do Jay, it's been a pleasure doing business with you. Another thing to think about is that when I start leasing our patents, I get to choose whom I lease to, and I will be unlikely to lease to companies who have tried to sabotage me. These companies will have trouble selling old technology against me and may not be in business much longer. You might be able to pick up some of your competitors at bargain prices."
I called Grier to let him know that the supply problem had been taken care of and to watch for the trucks.
No sooner had I hung up from talking to Grier, than I got a call from the front gate of the compound saying that there was a federal agent at the gate to see me.
There was no way that I was going to allow him into the house without some kind of warrant, so I went out to the gatehouse to meet him.
There were two guys in cheap black suits waiting impatiently. The gate guard told me that he had checked their credentials and verified them with our database. They were Deputy Marshals and they served me with a subpoena to appear before Congress, the energy committee. They wouldn't tell me what it was about, and left as soon as I signed for the subpoena.