Balance of Power Shifted (27 page)

The nice thing about
the middle of September here at LBI is that the kids are all back in school so you don’t get the crowds.  It is like a turn of a switch the way lifeguards return to college and families go back home to focus on the first week or so of school.  A respectable amount of weekenders still come down but the traffic is much lighter. 

Taylor was
Presbyterian and Kristen was Catholic, so guess who won out.  Saint Francis Catholic Church on the island was the perfect setting for their wedding.  The wedding was to be co-celebrated by Taylor’s pastor from his childhood.  The reception was a few minutes away back over the Causeway on the mainland at a place I used to rent boats from to crab in Barnegat Bay.  The old marina gave way to a beautiful wedding hall built on the water overlooking the bay.  I can only image how good the pictures will look, especially since Fiona and I will be in them as a groom and bridesmaid, and the bay backdrop would be spectacular.  Taylor’s older brother was the best man and Kristen’s infamous younger sister Brianna was her maid of honor. 

We were laying out our clothes and I started snickering about the mint green dress with all the little f
rilly things on it that Fiona was going to wear.  You always hear bridesmaids talking about how hideous the bridesmaid gowns were.  Some believed it was due to the bride not wanting any of her bridesmaids to outshine her on her special day, and I think the gown in front of me would support that hypothesis.  Fiona heard me snickering and said, “What are you laughing about pal”, and then pushed me so I fell onto the bed with her on top of me.  “Ummm” she said, “we do have a little time to kill” and with that, we got busy with one rule, I could not mess up her hair.  That by the way ended up being much harder than I thought.

The mass was very emotional and I caught Fiona watching and taking mental notes.  Both had written very heartfelt statements to each other about love, fidelity and
friendship, which did not leave too many, dries eyes in the place.  I looked across the way at Fiona who stood out of the crowd of four other bridesmaids.  She was openly crying and dabbing her nose with a tissue, but it could not hide the fact that she actually made that monstrosity of a dress look great.  There it went, damn, she actually made me get weak in the knees again.  We formed a procession line out of the church and went back inside afterwards for the photographer to do his job.  We only posed for a couple photos here with the bulk to be taken at the reception hall.  Taylor was able to rent a white stretched Hummer limousine, which held the entire wedding party and amply stocked with champagne.  The chilled bottles made their way around and glasses were optional.  In 10-minutes, we were exiting the limo and directed to a scenic dock area next to the water.  They made us put down the Champagne bottles to take pictures and 20 minutes later we were entering the hall.

Jeremy and Ty were invited guests to the reception and Jeremy had his wife
Mary there.  Ty actually came with our newest accounting clerk Cristina who Kristen had hired a month ago.  There were two other Clavis security people there, masquerading as help.  I saw a group of people gathered around a table on the other side of the dance floor, saw Iris sitting there, and next to her was Julius.  Tapping Fiona, I whispered in her ear that Julius had made it to the reception.  Steve was also in the wedding party and when he walked in with us, he headed straight over to a beautiful and tall dark skinned woman.  She had a bit of an Asian look to her and Steve with his dark Jamaican skin standing next to her looked like a couple right off of a Hollywood red carpet.  Apparently, they were an item from his last job, but she ended up going overseas for an assignment for a large chemical manufacturer and was back for a visit.  I learned later from Fiona that her name was Karina and that she joked that she was above Steve’s pay grade.

Sean was also a groom, but decided to come by himself and take a chance on hitting it off with one of the eligible females Kristen had invited.  The
packed hall looked great with the flowers and decorations. I recognized a few people from my old hometown, but there were mostly strangers from Kristen’s side of the family.  I am not sure who picked out the band, but they were older than I expected.  I guess you have to consider the tastes of all the guests including parents and grandparents.  When the lead singer and master of ceremonies introduced himself as Gerry, I had a good laugh, because I automatically dubbed the band in my mind as ‘Gerry and the Atrics.’  Gerry then had the wedding party come out on the floor and we formed a path for the newly married couple to pass through during the introduction as man and wife.  With a “now for the first time in public please welcome Kristen and Taylor Bonhampton” from Gerry, a new chapter for those two began. 

The rest of the reception was a whirlwind of drinking and dancing and just a generally great time.  I did however have to shoo Sean and a few
others away from Fiona so I could dance with her.  I did get Fiona’s attention a little bit when I danced with Jeremy’s wife Mary.  Apparently, Jeremy cannot dance at all so he pressured me to dance with his wife, which was great because she ended up being a great dancer and soon a few male admirers were cutting in on me including Sean to her delight.

The next morning we decided to hang out on the beach awhile before heading home.  As the early sun burned away the morning
haze, we just sat in sand chairs that we carved out of the sand wall left by the tide.  The tide was on the way out and the waves just barely lapped at our toes as we sat and gazed at the expanse of ocean.  I pointed out three dolphins chasing some Snapper Blues in the breakers about a hundred yards out and followed them as they headed south along the beach.  Somehow, I knew this was coming, but actually looked forward to talking about it.  Fiona while grabbing my hand started to ask questions about a wedding date, location and many others.  I just looked into her eyes and said, “Honey, I only have you.  I would marry you tomorrow if you wanted but I know you want a traditional wedding like Taylor and Kristen so feel free to plan it out and invite whomever you want.  Just let me know what time to show up.”  “Are you sure” she asked?  “Very sure” I answered.  Then she asked a question I wasn’t expecting.  “Do you want me to sign a prenuptial agreement?” I just cocked my head sideways at her and responded with carefully chosen words.  “No prenuptial.  I have more money than I ever will need in life and our company will increase that tremendously.  I want you to be my partner at home and in business and if I can’t make you happy enough to want to be with me then money would be the last thing on my mind.”  “If you change your mind Rico I will sign one,” she softly said.   “What and leave the mother of our five children destitute” I said with a straight face.  “Five kids” she said, “I was thinking more like four.”  As nice as it was hanging on the beach we got up, dusted the sand off each other, and headed off.  I have to say the view from the rear was as good as the view from the front.

Bill and I were sitting in his office Monday morning trying to put together a strategy on how to get the automobile industry
engaged with Electricus.  We did not have an understanding of how to approach a car company to build a special unit to our specifications.  While we were discussing options, our receptionist buzzed in on the intercom and said there were two men from Washington D.C. who wished to talk to Bill or me.  I looked at Bill as if to say what do we do and he shrugged his shoulders.  So I told the receptionist to have one of the Clavis people verify who they were and if they are legitimate escort them to the smaller first floor conference room.  This was the room next to Bill’s office, so we headed over there speculating between ourselves who these people were and what they wanted.  After waiting five minutes, Ty escorted two dark suited men into the conference room.

The first one to introduce himself was Juan Ramirez the head of the
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy a sub division under the US Department of Energy and a subdivision of the Under Secretary of Energy for Energy and Environment.  The second man was from the White House Public Relations team and he introduced himself as Thomas Vinmore.  Bill and I said welcome, and proceeded to introduce ourselves.  Cutting to the chase Bill said, “What can we do for you gentlemen?”  An hour later Bill and I sat there somewhat taken aback by what we heard.  First, they were already equipped with a wealth of information and were aware of Electricus and its capabilities as well as our project at the low-income housing development and our discussions with the Army and Air Force. 

The next big shocker was an offer to loan Efficio close to 1 billion dollars with very attractive repayment terms.  What I
did not like, and I am sure Bill did not like, was the strong-arm tactics they were using to try to get us to the table to sign agreements.  At that point, I had coffee brought in and asked our two visitors if they minded if we stepped out for a few minutes to discuss the information they had presented.  They shook their heads ‘yes’ in unison to our request.  Another thing I did not like was their cocky assuredness that we would be jumping all over their offer.

As soon as we walked back into Bill’s office he starts with “can you believe the crap they’re selling?  They want us on board as the poster child for the president so that he could get credit for supporting our new energy platform.  I didn’t even vote for him.”  “I agree
Bill,” I said.  “This is bullshit.  We’ll just have to go back in there and tell them the truth that we have no shortage of investors and will continue down that path.”  “Do you want me to give them the bad news or you?” I asked Bill.  “If you don’t mind I’ll take this one,” Bill said with an evil grin.

We walked back in and took our seats.  Gentlemen, Bill
started calmly, we cannot accept you generous offer since we are already committed to a group of investors and do not appear to be currently lacking financially.  We appreciate your coming out here and wish you a good trip back.  At first, there was shock in their faces and then Mr. Energy got an angry look and started to try to insist that we take their offer.  Bill and I continued to refuse it, which only irritated this person further.  The next comments out of his mouth got my anger up when he overtly threatened us that they could put numerous roadblocks in front of us, maybe even leading to a loss of investors.  I just looked Mr. Energy in the eyes and said, “The current administration and your boss are looking like buffoons in the press and public opinion with the skyrocketing energy costs and your lack of a credible long-term energy plan.  Our energy platform will bail you out and you know it so I would be careful how I threaten people.  Thank you for your time.”  Bill volunteered to show them the door and the two were now showing concern on their faces as they faced the task of informing their bosses on their failure.

A day later the President of the United States mentioned Efficio and Electricus as a
“stunning technological development that could provide the renewable power that humanity has been looking for” at the tail end of his press conference.  Well I thought, not much we can do about people hooking up their wagon to our wagon train.

We had two breakthroughs late Monday regarding the California assault and the thwarted attempt on Fiona and me.  It appears that the big
dude, who most likely suffered a broken nose and knee damage, had a name.  Jason Moorehouse, late of the Army Rangers was now working for a security protection company called Pinnacle Professionals that did jobs all over the world.  Jeremy knew all about their CEO Colonel Maurice Armstrong.  Armstrong had a reputation for taking on some of the dirtiest assignments in the industry without being too particular on how he got the job done.  According to Jeremy, this was just a front and their main revenue producing service was supplying mercenaries and people to do corporate dirty work so that corporate employees did not have to.  Clavis was still working on trying to figure out who the clients were, but were not optimistic.  The Middle Eastern person picked up the other night was a Saudi national in the country legally.  He did not give up much information but had slipped a bit and named another individual associated with the Saudi Arabian ministry responsible for their oil production.  He swore that they just wanted to ask questions, which may have been true except there may have been some pain associated with getting the questions answered.  We did not think the Saudi was part of the original crew that viciously attacked Julius. 

Later in the
week, I joined a meeting on the third floor in the R&D lab.  It was a crowded meeting as there were five Air Force technicians in the room reviewing design specs with Bill and Sean.  Once the Air Force had determined what electric motors to use and total wattage of all the electronics on board, it was simple math to determine the Power Pad configuration.  The design issues they were working through now were how to build the Power Pads to handle the rigors of high altitude flight and frigid temperatures.  They seemed to have an answer for each question and it was just a matter of working out the details.

The Air Force was
trying to work through our current manufacturing vendors and in parallel, getting them certified with top-secret clearance.   It was likely that additional technological requirements for the Air Force’s needs would be over the heads of the current manufacturing companies involved.  While I was there, I signed a secrecy agreement Iris pushed my way.  Steve was on loan to the Army for 2-weeks and was currently staying at a nearby Army base.  We supplied the Army with two 50-gallon drums of Electricus and the specs we followed for the Hummer conversion.

Sean saw me and said “Mike, do you have a few
minutes for me to show you a new prototype?”  “Sure,” I said, seeing new concepts has become one of my favorite activities.  I walked with Sean to his office where he had large schematics taped to his white board.  “Look at these,” he said pointing to the schematics.  For the next 10 minutes, I reviewed each drawing in detail.  “They look good Sean, the specs look very workable in fact the one design you have with the center console and a rigid clear floor over the Power Pad is genius.  You know that as soon as you get one of those 24 foot cuddy cabin boats built, I’m going to want to be the test pilot for it.”  “I want to build them over at the show room building,” Sean said. “The boat inboard motor model will need significant modification since we will be replacing the V8 single propeller with dual electric motors and dual propellers.  We still haven’t worked out all the details on replacing the outboard on the center console model yet” Sean added.  “Now that the bulk of the cars are gone, the space is all yours” I agreed.  “Fantastic,” Sean energetically responded.  It was clear to all that Sean has been a huge asset to Efficio since coming on board with his enthusiasm and innovation.