April 2: Down to Earth (23 page)

"Maybe Jeff's even smarter than you think." Eddie suggested.

"You are right about one thing you are suggesting. Bob is selfish. I don't even remember when he started getting that way. He is so greedy now he'd like my folks to cut him off a private cubic, even though it would just ruin their apartment. I'd like a private place too, but I see myself buying one in a few more years, instead of mooching off my parents. I'm afraid if I do offer to buy him out, he'll name some silly big number, based on his vision for the company still keeping my licenses."

"You'll never know if you don't try. If he does just walk away and let him have the whole thing. Your licensing rights are what has real value at this point. The
Home Boy
is mine, but it too only has special value with your licensing rights. Being part of the company with contracts has little value in an underserved market, so all we are really talking about is the value in the
Easy Lewis.
It wouldn't cost me much more to build you a new ship, than to buy Bob out. If he wants to keep it and put conventional motors back in fine. I'll make the same offer to go into business with me, as buying him out. Name your own terms and I'll abide by them as long as you bring the Singh licensing rights and I'll build you a replacement ship, as well as the two under construction. We'd have a four ship shop. Past that we'd have to talk again."

"I'm going to skim through this tonight," April said. "If I agree it's as bad as you say and it's for damn sure too big, I'll give Bob a chance to do what's right. If he won't I'll offer to buy him out. I said four million. A million is no big deal to you. If he wants six million I'll buy him out. If he wants more than six I'll walk away and let him have it and bring the Singh rights to my own new company."

"I'll allow you whatever percentage it takes, to make you actually help
run
the company, not just fund it, because I don't want to do paperwork and hustle up customers. If you want to put your man in to do that OK, I know you just got into this to have a war ship and you have lots of other demands now, but you're still personally responsible. And whatever minority percentage I have after yours, is paid consideration for my Singh license for up to four vessels. That will fit on one sheet of paper, so write it up if you want tonight. We may need it tomorrow." She let out a huge sigh. Having to deal with this, on top of the stress of going down Earthside was stressful.

"Sounds good. I can do business with you like this. If I have to fully fund a new company, I want an eighty percent stake to start. If you decide if you want to grow from twenty percent into equal partners fine. If you want to own it eventually, I can live with that option too. Your right, for me it's just a way to own a war ship, but it has to pay for itself. I know I'll make good money along the way and you aren't going to try to cut me out early on the cheap."

"Here is an account number," he said getting his pad, "and a password. I'll have the equivalent of six million USNA dollars in the account in a few hours. EM are more steady right now. I suggest you leave it in EM. Take it. If he takes your offer, just beam it right to him then."

April accepted the numbers on her pad under her own password. Then they reached and touched hands briefly, fingertip to palms.

Chapter 20

April was not happy after she read several sections of the contract. Some sections she went over two or three times. Even read them aloud, which she never did. She wasn't slow. She read complicated material all the time with no problem. But even going online to some legal help sites and searching the terms, she had no idea what some of the expressions in the contract meant. The more she examined it, the more she was convinced that's the way it was meant to be. It was weasel worded and slippery, to the point one could argue later in court it meant anything. She thought Eddie was right. Bob was setting him up for a fall. If Bob only understood Eddie had relatives, who would cheerfully fit him for a set of concrete boots and take him for a night cruise, he'd rethink the wisdom of this, but she didn't feel free to explain that to him. She had looked up a little more than what Eddie had told her, about organized crime. It was chilling reading. She remembered they helped Eddie without him actually
asking
. That was scary.

April asked Bob to meet her for breakfast, because they were already so far apart on this, she didn't want to meet privately at home, where he could get angry and yell at her. It was a shame to feel that way, but she was determined to avoid a big ugly confrontation. They rarely met at home anymore anyway. He seemed to come in late now and by the time he got up in the morning she was gone. He asked for a ten o'clock meeting, which was still early for him, but late for her.

When he did come in he was dragging. She realized she didn't know what her brother did when he was out late every night. There certainly wasn't any big night life on Home to go carouse. There was usually some activity at the construction gang's cafeteria late at night. But there were no real night clubs or bars. He never seemed intoxicated or high, but whatever it was sure seemed to wear him out. If he got a late start on the day, she had to admit he worked late too and got a lot done.

She arrived before Bob. He hadn't been evident at home. His door was still shut and she didn't really even know if he was in there and it seemed intrusive to ask the house. She went ahead and got her breakfast and figured on taking her time with it. Jerry was sitting to the back, but she just waved at him and sat away. She felt funny doing that, but what she had to say to Bob wasn't to share. She ate slowly, not enjoying it as much as she should. When he came in she was mostly done, but maybe that would work out. He would be eating and would let her talk. When he did sit down opposite though, he only had a bagel and cream cheese with black coffee.

"Good morning Bob. Thanks for meeting me. I know we run on a little different clock." He still looked sleepy eyed.

"It's OK. I have a lot to do. It'll be good to get a start. What's up? You got something going on?"

"Yeah. I was talking with Eddie because I'm going to go Earthside and take a little vacation real soon. Gramps tell you about that at all?"

"No. You think you'll see Mom's folks? Going to Australia?"

"No. I'm going to North America. Political reasons really. We're trying to head off a problem with the election coming up. Everyone that might run, is against staying at peace with us to some degree."

"Boy, I wish you wouldn't go. I have my real doubts it's safe. I don't think it's safe for any of us. Walking around with a black card on, well, it might be OK on ISSII, or on New Las Vegas, but I'd sure hate to do it dirtside. The people hate us and it could get ugly."

"I'll have enough funds to be picky where I go and I'll go armed. I just really need to. But Eddie is concerned about the contract he's negotiating with you and I hoped to have that resolved before I leave, so I don't have to fret about it. He gave me a copy off his pad last night and when I looked it over, it was just way too complex to understand. Can't we do business a little simpler? I'd have a hard time signing that myself and that's a good way to look at a deal and see if it's fair. Ask if circumstances were reversed would you agree to it? I bet you wouldn't."

"I take that for a measure of how desperate he is, if he goes running to you about it," he said with a smile. "If he did that he doesn't know what else to do and he's close to signing it. Give him a few more days to sweat and he'll come around."

"I'm not sure
desperate
, is how we want our friends to feel about closing a business deal with us." She thought of Eddie's threat to scrap out the vessels. Bob didn't have it in him to believe that threat she realized. "I mean, Eddie is my comrade at arms. We fought together. I'd expect him to go out of his way to make sure I was treated well, if he were offering the deal to me. Why is a three hundred page contract I can't understand necessary?"

"When we were doing ten buck deals as kids it wasn't. But this company has the potential to grow to a huge commercial empire. I can see when people have stations on Mercury and out beyond Mars, fifty years from now, our line being the premier line for the whole system. We have to start covering ourselves, so in a few years these contracts don't come back to haunt us. That's why the lawyers write it to cover almost any imaginable contingency. We should survive changes of government, or unsettling changes of technology, like Jeff created. And no matter how attached you are to Eddie this is business. We may be on the same side politically, but from a business view but he's working for us."

April looked at him funny. "Actually, I thought we were working for him. He's building the new ships and we'll lease and operate them."

"Yes, but as long as we have the power to withhold his license to fly Singh technology, he's at our mercy to use them. If he won't come to terms, he'd have to sell the ships to whoever will work with us. That's the economic facts of life. They don't have anywhere near the value otherwise. Of course in the future, when we have better funding ourselves, we won't need Eddie. The logical thing would be to eventually own all our own vessels and terminate our relationship when we can do that. By then his vessels will be getting older and the ones we build will be newer. But he has plenty of time to make money and see the use of them before that happens. I'm sure he looks at reality and knows it's a temporary relationship, to take advantage of while he can."

"Yes, he intimated he saw it as having to end," she said factually, but seething inside. "And what would you do if he just said to hell with it,  refused to fly the ships on your terms and scrapped them out, instead of selling them to somebody who would submit to you?"

"Nobody would do that. It would be an illogical decision. You do what makes money, not what serves your ego or temper, when you get to these amounts of money. When we started you wanted me to handle the business side of it. Just continue to leave it to me. I'm sure you know you don't have a head for business. In the dog eat dog business world, they'd just eat you up. The only big long term problem we have, is we are dependent on the Singhs for our power plants. Somewhere along the line, we
have
to get control of those essential technologies for our business."

April thought Bob underestimated how much Eddie would walk away from, rather than give Bob the satisfaction of managing him, but she didn't argue it. She asked a personally closer question, "And what about me?" April asked. "Aren't I a risk and inconvenience, because the license comes through me? How and when will you get rid of me, after Eddie and Jeff are disposed of as a danger to your full control?"

For the first time she thought she saw a flicker of shame. "I thought you knew, I'll always take care of family. When have I ever not?"

"Well if memory serves correctly, you wanted to limit me to thirty percent of this company, for supplying half the money. That's the way things have been tending in your offers for several years now. And it was not attractive at all the other day, when you wanted Mom and Dad to carve their apartment up, to give you a private place, as if it were your entitlement. No, I'm sorry Bob, but I don't trust you anymore. You've gotten greedy and controlling. It hurts to say, but we're going to each have to go our own way now. The only question is if I buy you out, or the other way around."

"Don't be silly," he said, still not seeing the seriousness of it. "You're getting weird and emotional, bringing Mom and Dad into it," he said, waving it away with a hand. "They have nothing to do with our business. We both put the major part of our cash in to start this and neither one of us has the cash to buy the other out. And I wouldn't consider selling my half, for any price that didn't reflect the huge upside the company will see in the next couple years. It may not have it in assets right now, but the work I've put into positioning the company is going to see a huge payout and I deserve fair compensation for what I set in motion."

"I see. And if I asked you to buy me out. What kind of offer would you make me?"

"Well," he had to think on that briefly. "You put in your funds to start and excluded yourself from having to deal with the stress and risk of executive decisions. I'm not saying that wasn't smart. It's a rare person that knows their own limitations. But the flying and managing freight, that's all work you can hire out to employees. So the small draw you've taken was ample compensation for that. The money you put in and the portion we reinvested - I'd say about three and a half million should cover it. And if you really do want out, I'll pay you a monthly allowance, until that amount is paid back and hire somebody so you don't have to fly anymore."

He obviously had no idea how demeaning his assessment was. There was no way she could work with him and Eddie both. And the casual insults in his offer, would have ended her partnership with Bob even without Eddie in the picture.

"And the licensing? I get no separate compensation for that?"

"You must not have ever thought it was worth that much, since you never brought it up and pressed to be paid more for it."

"Silly me," April agreed, cut to the core.

"But if you want the company to be here, to generate enough income to pay you out, then you're going to have to let the licensing stand. After you're paid out, if you want to get back together and talk about a fee then, we'll do it," he promised.

"I am overwhelmed by your largesse," April said, straight faced. "So you wouldn't be interested in the opposite deal?" She checked.

"That you pay me off? No. If you run it, I don't think it will survive long enough to generate the income for my payout anyway. And I'd want more than three and a half anyway."

April decided he'd just laugh at the four million figure she'd mentioned to Eddie. She decided she'd go straight to her best offer.

"I'll give you six million cash now, to buy you out. I can beam it to your pad right now and you'll walk away with it. No payments you have to worry about me coming up with, before the company folds from my incompetence." She had never realized before how little he thought of her. Why, to think she couldn't run a business just like him! Damn him! She just didn't
want
to. It stung so bad she had a hard time keeping tears from her eyes. She was choked up and didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing it.