Family Law
Page 18
"So your pick gets the luxury ride with all the action?" Kratman asked.
"It's our game and our ball, Mr. Kratman. If you don't want to register for the drawing, you can buy a ticket when regular commercial service starts. The value of a ride on a freighter is in the neighborhood of $60K USNA, if you could buy it and one journalist would satisfy our charter requirements to make our activities public, so the two are a 'gimmie'."
"I like this guy," Gordon admitted. "Bring up a couple more channels and see what else is happening."
"House, local news feeds New York City and London, England." To her surprise it was the same news conference feed. "House, close last two, open news feeds Cape Town, South Africa and Beijing, China." Again it was the same feed with Hernandez talking and translation for locals. The extra scroll across the bottom of the South African feed said: Credit Suisse down 17% in heavy trading. Orion vector stocks give up earlier gains. Centauri tickets sell out thirty seconds from Commission announcement. Consumer stocks rebound with new world economic boost.
"Now I see why Hiroshi wanted us to watch the news," Gordon told her. "I knew it was a big deal for us, but I didn't realize it would be such a big deal everywhere in the Earth-Luna system. It's all anyone is talking about!"
"Gordon, look at the local feed." On the screen several cabs were dropping off passengers in front of their hotel. The caption box and an announcement banner, explained it was the crew of the Pilgrim's Fortune. Frantic newsies were pressing the security line shoving microphones at the exiting people. The shrugs and bewildered looks, showed most of them had been too busy with their own affairs to be watching com and had no idea what the fuss was about.
"I think we better call room service again little gal. I'm sorry, but I don't want to wade through that," he indicated with a wave at the screen, "until we hire some private security and find out how we avoid getting mobbed if we go out."
Chapter 22
The concierge came up with room service. His idea of security was too obviously suited to elderly ladies wanting to make sure they were not purse snatched, or treated rudely while shopping and playing tourist. Gordon dismissed him as politely as possible. He considered calling the local branch of The Bank of Ceres, but he didn't really know anyone there. Instead he called Adrian Bertrand at the Claims Commission to seek his advice.
"Mr. Gordon, the Commission doesn't normally entangle itself with the private affairs of patent holders. Our relationship is complicated enough, without us being responsible for advising you on personal matters. I wouldn't want the liability of advising you on matters of personal security, anymore than matters of preparing a will, or how you should invest your claim earnings. I suggest you should consult an attorney. If you don't have a general Earth attorney, beside your patent attorneys, you will certainly need one for all sorts of other personal and business matters."
"Excuse me please. I'm still awkward at times with the cultural differences. On Derfhome I'd have called my bank about this. I'm not used to having an attorney, because my partners handled our claims before. We do have another human attorney under retainer. I should have thought to call him. Thank you for pointing that out."
"Not at all and if I can help you deal with local custom and differences as a friendly acquaintance and not as a Commission official, call and I'll try to help."
"Thank you, I'll call our attorney now as you suggested." Gordon ended the call and let his ears jerk flat as soon as the camera was off and he didn't need to hide his emotions. After some thought he decided he was in the wrong. Bertrand was in a touchy position. His responsibility was to his employer first. His duties to Gordon and Lee were rather narrow, as he had intimated. The man had no reason to claim him as a personal friend, just a business acquaintance.
The more he thought about it the less slighted he felt. There was nothing obligating Bertrand to even characterize their relationship as friendly. He could find Gordon and Lee personally repugnant and still just do his job and Gordon would have no complaint. Bertrand's offer to speak on the side as it were, seemed more generous the more he considered it. If he wasn't eager to jump in and assume a false friendship, that spoke of honesty more than discourtesy. After all, a lot of people would be happy to fake a sudden camaraderie with a couple of soon-to-be billionaires.
He dug in his purse and found Stanley McPherson's card for his com code. An older lady in expensive clothing answered, reciting the name of the firm and gave him an expectant look.
"Hello, would you please direct my call to Mr. McPherson, one of your partners? I retained him on Derfhome Station during his recent trip there. He'd know me as Gordon and my daughter Lee Anderson."
"Certainly," she agreed and in a surprisingly short time the familiar voice joined him, but the new screen stayed blanked.
"Hello Gordon, can you wait five minutes, or is this a dire emergency?"
"It's nothing that urgent Stanley. Take as long as you need if I caught you at a bad time."
"Oh good, you never know, sometimes when you take a call the coppers are beating down the door, or the client's wife has just set fire to the house. Once I had a gentleman call me from an airliner auguring in, to change his will. I'll be back to you in a moment."
The clock said it was seven minutes later when Stanley returned and this time activated his camera. He was sitting at a desk in a very nice study. It was patterned after a traditional English home, with dark paneled walls and bookshelves behind him. Through open French doors, a paved veranda was surrounded with palm trees and a beach a couple hundred meters away was just visible in either dawn or dusk. Gordon suspected it was dawn because Stanly was in a robe thrown over nightclothes, he looked alert and his hair was combed, but he was sure he'd woken the man.
"I'm sorry, I didn't really know what time zone you live in and your secretary said nothing about what hour it was."
"That's an AI, quite modern so she could converse with you at length before you'd know, but I have your names on the list to reach me at all hours."
"Why, thank you Stanley. I wouldn't have thought you'd even be expecting us to contact you. We spoke so briefly and I had no specific problem for you. I feel bad to wake you early."
Stanley got the most amused look on his face. "When it was announced there would be a Claims Commission news conference soon, the firm was having our usual end of week meeting of the partners. Like everyone else in the Earth-Moon system they immediately started speculating on what sort of discovery would be announced and which ship recently arrived was responsible for it. When their most junior partner informed them that the prevalent speculation was in error and that the High Hopes was responsible for the discovery rather than the Pilgrim's Fortune, they of course demanded how I could possibly know such a thing. I took a small chance, but what are the odds they could have another discovery to eclipse a living world? So I told them I had been retained by you and knew that the High Hopes crew would announce a major discovery and I had advised you to go with Green, Bennett and Glenn to write the patent. Let me tell you, my serendipitous association with you has enhanced my reputation with my senior partners beyond measure. They not only think I walk on water now, they are sure it doesn't get my feet wet. Were you not on my quick contact list they'd have my head for it."
Gordon thought he was a fluent English speaker, but every time he spoke to McPherson he learned a new word or allusion. He noted two new ones on his com pad. He'd check them later, but he was pretty sure he had the sense of them from context.
"It appears the patent fellows are doing a super job, everyone we have spoken to agrees they are top notch, but I'm frankly over my head understanding how things work in this system."
"For starters we need personal security and the best our hotel could offer was a glorified escort service. I'm not sure what else we'll need, but since I was clueless about security I have no confidence we won't need other help. I don't want a handler, mind you, but something more than a tour guide to warn us about local realities."
"Hmm, Armstrong? He leaned forward and tapped out something on his screen. "You are in afternoon local time?" he asked.
"Just past thirteen hundred hours," Lee agreed.
"We deal in family law," Stanley reminded them. "You might think it would be a gentler practice than say criminal law, but sadly when people with wealth have estrangements and divorce, they can be uncommonly ruthless. If you remember I warned you at our breakfast that having great wealth can be a burden. I'm going to recommend an old established firm to you. They will style themselves as the executive protection side of the firm, but I'm telling you privately right now, that they are the mercenary side to the firm and internally there is no real division between personnel and assets, so they can take care of any level of problem you may encounter. May I have their Lunar rep call on you later today? If you find him satisfactory I'm sure he can have a security program up and running for you by tomorrow and you should be able to get out of the hotel."
"Have him come to dinner," Gordon asked him. "I'm more comfortable doing business over a meal as you'll remember. It seems to relax people. We'll have room service again whenever he shows."
"Good, I think you'll like him. You are probably right about needing other guidance. I have someone in mind, but I have to make a few calls to see if the person is available. I'll get back to you on that."
"You've been so helpful; I realize we only paid a token retainer when we first met. If you'd like the balance of a normal retainer, or even more, we want to treat you right."
Stanley looked shocked and then laughed freely and heartfelt. He shook his head and thought a moment, obviously composing his thoughts.
"Two points," he said, holding up a thumb and index finger in the European manner. "One, people at your level of wealth don't generally speak about money when ordering services or goods. We won't expect you to quibble over every hour we work for you unless we undertake a major legal action. Your financial manager, or household manager, or secretary when we get you one, will take care of these mundane things. If you have a good manager they will make sure they have sought the best price for those services, but it's for underlings to haggle about the price of groceries and ground cars. Gentle people might concern themselves with the price of penthouse apartments, or private aircraft, but certainly not the price of furnishing the apartment or fueling the plane. he informed them, closing a digit to mark off one topic.
"Secondly, I made so much from just knowing a big discovery was about to be announced, that I made your retainer fifty times over easily. It wasn't even necessary to know any details, because any big discovery creates similar movements in the market. It wasn't a matter of knowing what in any detail – just when was entirely sufficient. We will also earn a big enough finder's fee off your patent attorneys, to warrant an income line item in our annual report." he said, opening his hand to show he'd finished making his points.
"I'm not sure you understand yet," he gave them such a serious look, "the entire Solar economy and especially the Earth-Moon system is driven by interstellar discovery. Everything else in-system is a mature industry. Take agriculture. It is at the limits because all arable land is in use and being used very carefully to preserve it. Gains are only from indoor factory farming and major technological advances in lab raised food. Mining and oil we are using smaller and meaner deposits and won't have any advances until somebody carries nanotech to its limits and can separate trace elements efficiently and assemble them at will. Even in service industries, there are only so many people and they only have so much disposable income. If you create a fad or new service you can temporarily grab a bigger chunk of the market for a time, but that isn't really growth.
"Some things like the light power elements and base metals we have so much from the outer system we won't run short for years, but even there, eventually we'd run short, but we don't have to worry about that anymore, because we have a hundred star systems to draw on. You see? If it wasn't for the explorers and the growth from outside it would be a different psychology. Our economy is dependent on you, but at this stage of things it still has ups and downs because it is years, not months between big discoveries that stimulate it."
"I knew a discovery was important," Gordon explained, "but I have a Derf viewpoint and when a discovery is made it doesn't affect Derfhome near as much as you are explaining it does Earth. It can be years before something discovered in the beyond will be for sale on Derfhome. Even then it's likely only going to matter to the city-folk. Thanks for making things so clear."
"That's just the short and simple version of course," Stanley shrugged. "Economists spend their entire lives and careers trying to say it better and arguing the details with each other. Can I suggest something else?"
"Sure, what do you have in mind?"
"You need a secretary. Not a low level secretary, but one with experience in finance and securities and dealing with high level people. One who will know who to pass through and who not to, especially pushy people, important enough they would intimidate some underlings to pass them on to you."
"I suppose I'd be silly to ask if this is something we can afford?"
Stanley just made a horse snicker through pursed lips. "They are taking public bids on your find now. It's been a few hours. Call up and ask them what your account balance is," he challenged them with a big grin.
"I see. OK, send a couple people around. The security people will rotate I'm sure, but the others we may veto if they seem like they will be hard to be around all the time. And, Stanley?"
"Yes?"
"One of them should be good at hiring people, so we don't have to keep coming back to you."
Chapter 23
"I'm Richard Dixon," the young man said. He presented his business card two handed and waited for Gordon to look at it. After scanning both sides Gordon handed it to Lee. The fellow immediately found another and gave it to Gordon.
Quick learner, Lee thought. The card said he was an Account Administrator for Blackwater, Luna. The logo on the black card jumped out at her, because it looked exactly like Gordon's familiar footprint.
"Blackwater is the third resurrection of the name for a USNA company. It has a history of shedding the name when political pressures get too great. It was Xe for awhile then NASP and eventually got too diversified and one of the spin-offs went back to the old name. The current company is trying to avoid working for governments as they are too fickle. We do retail security and executive protection for folks like you, because they care more about results than image. We do very little agency and paramilitary work anymore."
"Come in and sit down," Gordon invited. "We're ready to order supper and we are free to talk as long as we need."
"I've seen a few dark people like you at a distance," Lee told him, interested, "but never close up. Your hair is more interesting than it looks on video. Can you take more ultraviolet light than pale people before you burn?"
Richard looked amused. "Standard English speakers usually say white or Caucasian. Pale would be confusing. And Black is the preferred usage still, although Negro is coming back, especially in England and it isn't an insult. Dark is sort of dangerous, because 'darkie' is a slur. You've really never seen a black man but from a distance?
"The first time we made a port after I was born I had to get all sorts of immunizations we didn't have on the ship. The adults all had theirs and nobody planned on me. We were going back out in space before they would be effective so they hustled me back to the ship and kept me really isolated that first time. After that I did get to stay in hotels on space stations twice I remember and we went down to the surface of Johnson's World once when I w
as about seven. I didn't like it much. I think my mom was always worried some social worker would take me."
She stopped and thought about it a minute. "I actually know more aliens as people than I do humans. I even know a Hinth," she bragged a little.
"Can anyone know a Hinth?" he asked rhetorically.
"Well, enough to trade names and sit and drink to lost shipmates."
That visibly rattled him. "A privilege I've never had extended. My apologies, I had no business dismissing your experience. I see I have to expand my expectations of you beyond what a girl of your age would know in Earth culture. Can you advise me what else I should know about you, that affects providing your security?"
Lee screwed up her nose and thought about it. "I don't always know when I'm normal and when I'm different. Most of what I know about Earth, or other young women my age I know from video. Sometimes it's hard to separate what is fact and what is entertainment. I don't know if I will act like people expect me to, because I have only been around family all my life, not strangers. Our lawyer, well one of our lawyers, the first one we retained, is going to send somebody over as secretary. I hope they will help me learn local custom and culture," she explained.
"Gordon has warned me I can't be as open with strangers as I'd like. I've never bought anything with cash, so I've never had anybody try to cheat me, or shortchange me. That was a shocking idea the first time he explained it. Gordon has me reading about confidence men and bullies, so I understand the dangers somewhat.
"But as far as what I can do right now? I know how to set up camp and be safe in alien environments. How to clear a camp to bare dirt and put a tent or moon hut up. Ship routine and depressurization drill. I can clean and change filters without damaging anything. Like when you clean a control board, I know how to make it inactive so it can be wiped down. I can patch any hole a standard kit will cover. I know how to chop wood and find metals and do decent specimen photos and preservation. I know how to take care of pigs and mice and birds.