The Ship: The New Frontiers Series, Book One

by Jack L Knapp

  Chuck nodded and left. Will remained behind, still thinking about what Frenchy had said.

  “Will, we’ve got to scale back. Morty won’t be happy, but he’ll just have to live with it. We’ve got maybe two months of operating funds, so that gives us a deadline. We’ve got to come up with more money within that time frame, a lot more, or we’re going to have to lay off some of our people. The marine option will help if it works out, but we need money now. You get with the other investors, see how much they can raise within the next two months. I was going to handle that, but you can do it just as well as I can and I’m going to be busy arranging for the new building. I’ll also start assembling a team to set up the marine demonstrator.

  “As for me, I’ve got that Gulfstream II I can do without. I doubt I’ll be doing a lot of traveling for a while and I can rent or borrow a plane if I have to. I’ll be putting my boat up for sale too, maybe the house in Florida. All in all, that should bring in at least twenty million.”

  “You’re putting up the boat? Frenchy, you love that oversized tub!”

  “I can always get another yacht. If this works the way we expect it to, I can buy the Queen Mary. Anyway, I won’t be doing any cruising for the foreseeable future. I should be able to raise at least twenty million by selling stuff, everything but the art collection. If I put that up for sale, the sharks will start circling. They’d know I’m desperate for money.”

  Will was silent for a moment. “I’ve got that Picasso. I bought it as an investment and people know I’m not fond of the thing. I can put that one up for auction and it won’t raise eyebrows.”

  “It’s a start, Will. Get with the other investors and see how much they can raise. We’re going to have to spend a lot more up-front than I intended, and we’re not going to get the money from the finance industry. Anyway, I’ll dig out that survey from when I bought the ranch and have someone look at it. I’ve got an idea where I’d like to put the new plant if the land is suitable. This time, we can design adequate security in from the beginning. There’s already a farm road going past my property, and maybe the county will improve it. We’ll also need our own railway spur eventually. Let’s keep things as quiet as possible for as long as we can, and rein in Morty and Chuck to keep expenses down.

  “I’m going to look for a contractor and show him what I’ve got in mind. I’ll probably need an architect, too. Maybe Lina can recommend someone. She’s in her final year, one more semester to get her masters degree in architecture at UNM. Anyway, I haven’t seen her for a couple of months, so I’ll take her out to dinner and pick her brain.”

  “She might be able to design the building herself, Frenchy.”

  “She’s not ready to take the professional licensing exam and I don’t think we can take a chance, even with something simple. She might know someone she’d be willing to work with, maybe someone who’s got a license, so helping with the design would be good professional experience for her.”

  “Your daughter is smart as well as good looking, Frenchy. You should be proud of her.”

  “I am, Will. She’s got good judgment too, better than I had when I was her age.”

  “Wasn’t that when you met your...” Will was cut off in mid sentence.

  “Let’s let that particular dog keep sleeping, Will,” said Frenchy.

  #

  Frenchy began his search for a contractor in an unusual place. He made an appointment with a law firm he’d used before.

  “I’m starting up a new venture in eastern New Mexico. I expect to start fairly small and grow as needed. What can you tell me?”

  “What kind of venture, Frenchy?”

  “It’s confidential, of course, but I can tell you we’ll be involved in manufacturing.”

  “That might work out. The state’s already got a mix of industries, agriculture of course but mining and petroleum too. There’s the movie industry, and then there’s Intel to provide a high-tech base. I think there was a light airplane manufacturer in Albuquerque, but the operation didn’t work. He was making business jets, didn’t have the necessary funding. Last I heard, he sold out to someone with deeper pockets. There’s also a company out east of Albuquerque that’s working on experimental aircraft, maybe drones. Got a location in mind?”

  “I’ve got several sections of land in the northeastern part of the state. They’re not profitable at the moment, barely covering expenses and taxes. I thought of building the plant there.”

  “No other industry involved on your property?”

  Frenchy shook his head. “Cattle raising. I’ve got a foreman that runs the place, he raises calves and holds them until they’re breeding age. From there they go to dairies. It’s not really profitable. At most, after expenses are taken out, there’s just enough left to pay the taxes, and meantime the freshwater table is being depleted faster than it can recharge. What with the drought, groundwater is not seeping in fast enough to replace what’s being pumped out. The cattle feeding operation will play out as soon as expenses increase. I won’t mind shutting it down, but I hope I can find jobs for the foreman and my other employees. They’ve been with me since I bought the place and I hate the idea of just laying them off.”

  “I see. You’re talking about the cheese industry, aren’t you?”

  “Right. He’s raising Holsteins, milk cows. We supply the dairy farmers, they supply milk to the cheese factory.”

  “I’ll need to research matters and find a local lawyer to work with, someone familiar with local provisions. He’ll know the people to contact. Right off hand I can think of a few issues.”

  “Go to it, then. You mentioned that someone was building airplanes?”

  “Right, it’s not a big industry, but in addition to that light plane manufacturer, there’s a large boneyard operation. A lot of Boeing’s jumbos end up in Roswell. When a plane reaches the end of its service life, it’s flown in for salvage. There’s an old Air Force base that has the necessary runway capacity, which made it cheap for the salvage companies to locate in Roswell. The airframes have too many miles on them, but engines, seats, landing gear, and things like that can still be used. Anyway, the plane flies in, parts get stripped off by certified mechanics, and the usable ones are shipped out to whoever needs them. The body is then crushed and the aluminum recycled.”

  “Interesting. Certified engineers, airframe and aviation mechanics do the disassembly, you say?”

  “Right, there’s also a university not far from Roswell that offers an aviation program. I don’t know the details. There might be other schools too, but the important thing is that there’s a ready supply of trained people available. You thinking of manufacturing airplanes, Frenchy?”

  “It’s an option, but keep it quiet for now. We’ll go public in due time.”

  “You sure you don’t want to put your assembly plant near Roswell? It might be cheaper in the long run.”

  “Maybe, but I already own the land, so that cuts down on my initial investment. It also turns something that’s not profitable into a productive asset.”

  “Even so, it won’t be cheap. I knew you had money, Frenchy, but not this much.”

  “I’ve got enough to start small and grow, Roger. I expect civil aviation is due for a major increase over the next few years.”

  “You did hear what I said about that fellow that was underfunded, didn’t you? He ended up selling out.”

  “I heard you. A lot of business is about timing. He might have misjudged his market. Maybe I can do a little better than he did.”

  “I’ll get started, then. You know this is going to take time, don’t you?”

  “How much time?”

  “That depends on how much money you’ve got and how many corners you’re willing to cut.”

  “You know this is going to boost the state economy, don’t you? Won’t people be excited about that?”

  “I expect the state government will be. No secret, the governor thinks she’d make a good vice president, maybe even pres
ident, so I doubt we’ll have problems at the state level. As for local politicians, they’re probably more interested in how many of their relatives you’re hiring. And they might want more than that.”

  “You’re talking bribes?”

  “That’s a dirty word in politics, Frenchy, but it’s not unheard of. At the least, they’ll want in on subcontracts, services, any number of things.”

  “Clean graft, in other words.”

  Roger looked at Frenchy and said nothing.

  “I don’t want this coming back to bite my ass later on, Roger.”

  “I understand, Frenchy. I’ll get started this afternoon. I know a guy in Clovis. I’ll give him a call and if he’s too busy, he’ll know someone else I can work with.”

  #

  The sun was sinking beyond the clubhouse as the two men walked away from the 18th hole.

  “Thanks for the invitation, Mister Gold. I don’t often get the chance to play this course.”

  “I wasn’t aware that you were a member, Walter.”

  “I’m not.”

  “But you’ve been here before? That means you were a guest. How often, Walter?

  “Time or two.” Walter smiled at his companion.

  “I had you checked out, Walter.”

  “I’m not surprised. My reputation is my stock in trade.”

  “It’s curious that your reputation only goes back about ten years. Before that, I couldn’t confirm anything about you.” The man known as ‘Mister Gold’ looked inquiringly at Walter, who remained silent. The slight crinkling of the skin by his eyes might have shown amusement, but if so it didn’t reach his lips. They remained as they’d been, no smile, no frown. Walter rarely showed emotion.

  “You’ll have figured out by now that I have a problem. I’m hoping you can help me with it.”

  “People don’t call me to get together for a round of golf, Mister Gold. I figured you’d get around to telling me about your problem, and if you didn’t, well, I enjoyed taking your money on the course.”

  “That you did. Anyway, there’s a man. His activities appear likely to affect my business interests. You were recommended to me as a man who could make difficult people see reason.”

  “I’ve done that, yes. You understand I’m choosy about which jobs I take, and I don’t work cheap.”

  “I didn’t expect you would. I’ve got a photo I’d like to show you. It’s in the locker room.”

  “I’ll look at it. You want me to influence that man, I’ll decide how to go about it and let you know my price. Non-negotiable, of course.”

  “Of course.”

  “You understand that I’m the one who decides what is likely to make your problem go away, don’t you?”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way, Walter. I hire experts in any number of fields and I expect them to produce results without close supervision.”

  “Good. I think we understand each other.”

  #

  Albuquerque’s weather was pleasant, warmer than usual. A week had passed since the meeting on the golf course.

  The street light changed and two young women joined a dozen people crossing Central Street. Some turned right, away from the crowd, while others joined the line of people waiting to place their orders in the Frontier Restaurant.

  The Frontier had been around for a long time. Parking was limited, but this wasn’t a problem; the lunch crowd consisted mostly of students from the University of New Mexico, and they walked to the restaurant. The sprawling campus occupied several blocks across Central from the Frontier, meaning that students often ate there.

  The women chatted while they waited in line.

  Neither paid attention to the Jeep that was parked half a block west of the Frontier on Central.

  Walter added coins to the parking meter. He expected to be here for some time, and there was no reason to risk a parking ticket.

  Chapter Nine

  Four days later, Frenchy’s lawyer faxed him a list of people. John, the general contractor, had his office in Clovis, but his activities were widespread.

  “Glad to meet you, Frenchy. What did you have in mind?”

  “I’m building a factory on my property. I expect to grow as the business develops, so I’ll want room to expand. I’ve also got some special design requirements, so keep that in mind when you come up with a proposal. I’ll tell you about that when we visit the site.”

  “What facilities do you already have? Are you repurposing a previously used location, or starting from scratch?”

  “It’s a new site. The only thing that’s there right now is a road. It was blacktopped sometime in the past, but it’s going to need repair.”

  John made a note on a pad of yellow paper. “I don’t do roads. I’ll hire a sub with a professional crew to do that. You understand, road crews use different equipment and their people have different skills? My crew will put up your building, but I’ll be hiring subs for any other jobs that are required. I’ll include their bids with mine and give you an overall price. I’ll serve as the general contractor, so you’ll deal with me and I’ll work with the subs.”

  “I expected that. My property runs alongside a state highway but I don’t want to put the plant there, so we’re talking half a mile to a mile from the highway to reach my site.”

  “Understood. What condition is the ground in? Is it level, what kind of drainage are we looking at, and have you looked into permits yet?”

  “I was hoping you could take care of the details.”

  “I can, and actually it’s better if I do. When can I get access to the site?”

  “Why don’t we schedule a time and go out together?”

  “Not today. I’ve got other meetings that I can’t skip, but how about tomorrow at 10 o’clock?”

  “Works for me. I’ll be here.”

  #

  John brought along an assistant, who brought a digital camera and surveyor’s instruments. They walked the property, John listening to Frenchy’s ideas, the assistant taking photos, measuring slope and distances, and noting down information about the soil type. Two hours later, the small party headed back to Clovis.

  “I’ll need some time to work on this. How about I keep you advised of my progress and what we’re looking at in terms of a completion date? As soon as I’ve got firm data to work with, I’ll draw up a contract and we can discuss pricing. When the contract’s signed, I’ll need an initial payment. Since you own the property, I’m willing to wait for earnest money until we settle on what work is to be done.”

  “Sounds fair. You know what I’ve got in mind. As for the septic system and wells you mentioned, my ranch foreman has someone who’ll do that. It’s a man he’s used before.”

  “That won’t work, not for the kind of commercial setup you want. A ranch, maybe, but not a factory. You’ll need a treatment plant for the well water and a sewage treatment plant for discharged water. The well water is probably good, most of the wells out this way are, but in New Mexico it pays to not take chances. Even if there’s no arsenic, radon, or sulfur, the water will almost certainly contain calcium and iron. Hard water will eventually damage your plumbing, so it’s actually more cost-effective to put in a treatment plant and get that stuff out before the water reaches the building. The facilities won’t need to be big, but they’ll have to treat all the water supplied to and discharged from your building. If you intend to landscape your factory, you can use untreated well water or treated sewage for watering plants. You mentioned expanding later on, so the system will have to be designed with that in mind. It will need to be capable of expansion, in other words.”

  “I hoped I wouldn’t have to go that far. Funds are limited right now. I expect additional financing later on, but that’s then, not now.”

  “The county people won’t approve your plans unless they meet code, and that includes electrical, water, and sewage service. I’ll put it into an appendix and you can approve that separately, but you’ll need to come up with a solut
ion before I begin construction. Depending on how many workers you intend to hire, you might get away with using portable toilets as a temporary solution. But that can get expensive in a hurry, so the sooner you get permanent systems on-line, the better.

  “I didn’t see any sign of a power line. The nearest source is probably twenty miles from your site, so we need to talk about that too. My workers will need power on site when we begin putting up the building, so if you don’t have commercial power I’ll need to rent generators.”

  “Put that on the back burner too. I hope to have my own generators available by the time you begin working. One of my associates says they’re available cheap.”

  “Cheap can be a problem. You mentioned you were short on money, so let’s clear that up right now. You can have the project done fast or you can have it cheap, but you can’t have both. Your building, probably more than one based on what you’re telling me, is not just four walls and a roof. The foundation comes first, and it has to reflect the work load you anticipate. Plumbing and electrical service have to be designed in from the beginning. Plumbing is more than toilets and drinking water, you’ve also got to have automatic fire extinguishers and fire hose outlets. There’s a lot of other stuff too, stuff professionals keep up with so customers don’t have to. I work with an architect; he has a library of standard plans that we modify, based on customer needs. It’s faster than designing everything from scratch.

  “I would normally schedule a crew, say the road crew, to work until the job is finished, then move another crew in. But if you can come up with the money, I can run multiple crews. A crew can build roads while another crew puts up the perimeter fence, and my people can be building footings while all that is going on. As soon as the footings are ready, I’ll order concrete. There are companies in Clovis and Roswell, so I’ll shop around.

  “The good news is that the land is level and firm enough to support heavy equipment, so as soon as you approve the plans I’ll get bids from the subcontractors.