The Lifeguard

By Orrin Rush (Of Blessed Memory)

Published on Dec 5, 2000

Gay

Disclaimer: The following is a work of fiction. If you are

offended by graphic descriptions of homosexual acts, go

somewhere else.

Copyright c 2000 by Orrin C. Rush. All rights reserved.

Neither this story nor any parts of it may be distributed

electronically or in any other manner without the express,

written consent of the author.

This is a work of fiction, any resemblance of the characters

to anyone living or dead is pure coincidence and not

intended. They are all products of the author's imagination.


THE LIFEGUARD

Chapter 31

Although totally satisfied and spent, I had trouble going to

sleep. The image of the guy at the bar kept flashing through

my head. Trying to figure out what all this meant made it

even harder to sleep.

Naturally, I compared him to the sleeping beauty lying next

to me. Physically, there really wasn't any comparison. The

guy was kind of on the skinny side, not the sculpted

perfection of Eric. Their dicks were about the same, Eric's

maybe not as thick, which I preferred. Facially, they were

different, both handsome, but Eric would win there too.

There wasn't anything else to compare. Hell I hadn't even

talked to him, much less gotten to know him.

It had to be the eyes. There was something about them that

drew me like a magnet. I couldn't explain it, and that made

me uncomfortable.

Thinking more, unfortunately, I realized that in my mind, at

least, it had been the other guy's dick I was sucking at the

bar, not Erics. A wave of guilt swept over me. What the

hell was wrong? I loved Eric more than anything. How could

that guy have the effect that he did on me, and why was I

helpless to do anything about it?

I finally went to sleep...and dreamed about the guy in the

bar.


After more than two weeks of not even thinking about

business, I got a rude awakening when I got back to the

office. Everyone else seemed to be treating it as a "new

beginning", more gung-ho than ever.

First off, Bill hit me with the news that the new computers

were selling faster than we were able to produce them.

Stores had only bare-bones inventories and were screaming for

more. Since we were already running at capacity in those

plants that were producing them, and if the trend continued,

we'd be faced with the decision of whether or not to convert

more production to the new ones at the expense of the old

boxes, or, to expand. As a stopgap measure, we were running

24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but a decision would have to

be made soon.

Next came Tina with news that Invitations to Bid had been

sent out for the new Office Building. Responses on some

phases, such as grading and excavation, were expected soon.

More decisions.

Annie roared in with the announcement that appraisals had been

completed on all the major Catalina Pacific properties, and

that the Development Analyses would be ready in a day or

two. She insisted that I set aside a whole day for the

presentation that would be made by her Real Estate Guru.

My plate was full, and I had to chuckle. If Eric were in the

middle of this chaos, he'd be screaming for mercy. On the

other hand, I thrived on it.

There was more. A memo from Ron requested major

modifications of our hangar at the airport, turning it into a

"Flight Operations Center" staffed and secure. He pointed

out that with the addition of the GV to our fleet in a few

months, around a hundred million dollars worth of aircraft

would be housed there. He also requested permission to start

looking for more qualified pilots. Not only would we need at

least two more, but reserves would soon be necessary.

I responded to him by Email, approving his request, but

asking to see the plans before he started building. I gave

him the go-ahead for more pilots, and asked him and Jason to

come see me at their convenience.

I wanted to talk to them about who would be in charge of

things now and in the future. With one plane it hadn't been

necessary, but with three, we needed to have someone running

things. I hoped that one of them would accept the position.

I knew it'd be a hard sell. They liked to fly.

I hate "Meetings". They're so formal, and rarely accomplish

much except to bore the crap out of the participants.

Instead, I like informal, impromptu "bull sessions" with only

the people directly involved. I feel it's more productive

when there aren't "presentations" and we just kick ideas

around. All the upper echelon at Metalco is used to this.

Some didn't like my style, but we usually got results.

The new computers were hot, and we needed to move fast or

we'd lose control of the market. We needed to look at our

options fast, so I got on the phone. I called Eric first to

see if he could join us. He estimated that his last

interview of the day would be over by three, so that's the

time I set for the bull session.

Bill usually sat in because he was most familiar with the "Big

Picture". Mike, head of production, knew more about the

capabilities of every plant we had than the Managers of

them. The Computer Sales Manager completed the group.

After a kiss, Eric had to tease me. "Can't get along without

me, huh?"

"Sure as hell can't," Bill answered. "Where've you been?"

"I'm over at LR now so I can get something done. The chaos

around here is too much for me."

Rita, the Computer Sales Manager, had come from Milton and

hadn't met Eric before. My back was turned so I didn't see

her reaction to Eric's kiss. Usually she was very serious,

but that day, she was bubbling. "We've got us a real

winner," she said. "Volume grew every week in December, then

really took off the week before Christmas and is still

growing. Having the matching CRT Monitors did the trick."

"Can you predict a trend?" I asked.

"Not really," she said. "We haven't anything to base it on.

We can predict sales distribution throughout the year,

though, based on the old boxes, but this is new and might not

follow the same pattern.

"The best indication I can give you is that everybody wants

them. Right now, we're only letting one customer have them,

and the rest are clamoring. What worries me is that they may

go to somebody else."

"Is there anybody else who can make them, in volume?" Eric

asked.

"Not really," Rita said. "Not very fast, anyway. It takes

time to tool up for them, and then they have to be careful

about patent infringement on our designs. I'd say six months

at least before we have any serious competition."

"How are sales on the old boxes going?" I asked.

"Maintaining projected levels and even growing a little," she

answered.

"Before we go any further, there's one big question," I

said. "Are we making any money on these things?"

"They cost us about 25% more to make than the old ones, and

we're getting double the price, giving us a gross margin of

over 55%, which ain't too shabby," Bill answered.

"What can we do, Mike?" Bill asked.

"We're making them at three plants now," he said. "We've

been on two shifts, and we're bumping that up to three this

week, so that'll give us about a 45% increase there. We can

change three more plants over, but that'll mean that we'll

have to put the rest of Milton's plants on a triple shift to

take up the slack on the old stuff.

"If we start now, we can keep the old plant in New Jersey

running for a while and buy new equipment for the new one.

Being as big as it is, we could add a helluva lot of capacity

there.

"The only thing that worries me is that we'll overbuild and

end up with overcapacity."

"We haven't even touched the peripherals market, yet," Rita

said. "There'll be a huge aftermarket for printers, scanners

and a lot of other things."

"How about Metalco plants?" I asked.

"We've already slipped the Monitor parts in on them," Mike

said. "We need more capacity there, too."

"Are there any other companies that have what we need that we

could buy?" Eric asked.

"That's a possibility," Bill said. "I'll have an answer by

morning. Would you handle it for us, Eric?"

"Sure, but no fee this time," he said.

"How fast can you convert three more plants?" I asked Mike.

"Sixty days with any luck," he said. "I'll also look into

equipment for New Jersey and let you know tomorrow."

"If you can make 'em, we can sell 'em," Rita assured us.

"It's nice to have everything running at capacity," I said,

"but maybe we'd better get a few new plants on the drawing

boards. Looks like it's going to get kind of busy around

here."

"Can we shift any of this overseas?" Eric asked.

"I'll get somebody on that, too," Mike answered.

We kicked more ideas around for a while. In my mind, at

least, it was a foregone conclusion that we'd convert plants

as fast as possible and at least double the size of the New

Jersey facility. Other new plants were looking like a good

bet, too.

"How'd your interviews go?" I asked Eric on the way home.

"One's a possibility. I'm not too impressed with the other

two. One of them seems like a 'yes man' and the other

doesn't show any energy. I want somebody who's dynamic.

Like we are!" he laughed.


As hard as I tried, I couldn't get that guy from New York out

of my mind. His image would keep popping up, deepening my

feelings of guilt toward Eric.

I tried not to overcompensate, but realized that I was giving

Eric more attention unconsciously. What was I guilty of? I

had no conscious desire to actually "do" anything with the

guy, and certainly wouldn't, even if I had the opportunity.

Hell, the chances of ever even seeing him again were one in a

million.

Those fucking eyes. They had a Svengali like grip on me.

Hopefully it would all fade away before I made a fool of

myself.

The hardest time for me was when we made love. Whatever we

did, as orgasm neared, those goddam eyes were there. I have

to admit, my orgasms were far more intense than usual.

Having fantasies is commonplace, I knew. My question was:

Why was I fantasizing about somebody else when the embodiment

of all my life-long fantasies was the living breathing man

who made love to me every night?

We all have our own concept of physical perfection, a

collection of the attributes that we consider ideal. Eric

had them all. The face, the body - muscular but not overly

bulky, defined, wide shoulders tapering to a narrow waist - a

hard tight butt - long strong but slender legs - and the dick

I'd dreamed about since I was a teenager.

Less than 2% of the male population are endowed with more

than eight inches, and most of those that are that long are

proportionally thick. Eric wasn't. At nine and a quarter,

his was slender, by no means skinny, but in my mind, just

right. It got hard, too, no limp dick here, rigid enough to

poke holes in tempered steel.

That was all icing on the cake. The package, so to speak.

The contents were what really mattered. The brilliant,

funny, loving, caring man that came in that package was what

I truly loved. Those attributes far outweighed everything

else.

Why was that pair of eyes giving me so much grief? If they

didn't go away soon, I decided to discuss it with Eric.

Eric's interviewing was complete and he had selected two

candidates. Unless there was something he'd overlooked, I'd

go along with his choice. They were equally qualified, and

now it was down to personalities. Which one could we work

with best.

I went over to Eric's office at LR for the final interviews.

Both had passed Bob's "Sensitivity Test", but I didn't push

it by showing any affection.

The first guy came in and I was introduced. He showed self

assurance without being agressive, and answered the questions

Eric threw at him with ease and confidence. It was my turn.

I only had two questions.

The first was "What do you expect the Company to look like

two years from now?"

He only thought a minute. "In comparison to now, it will be

unrecognizable. Currently we're only partially exploiting

the market that's out there for Software production, and

there are so many more niche markets in the high-tech area

that are just waiting for someone to step into. Lundborg Rush

will be well on it's way to a primary position in many of

those markets."

I noticed the "we". My second was, "Where do you want to be,

personally, in the company, by then?"

"Titles don't mean anything. Responsibilities and the

authority to carry them out are important. I get my big

thrills and satisfaction from accomplishment."

All very good. He'd be a hard act to follow, but the next

guy was every bit as good.

"Well, what do you think?" Eric asked after the second one

had gone.

"I don't think you could go wrong with either one."

"I agree, but that doesn't help me. Come on, help me pick

one."

"I'm sure you're leaning toward one," I told him. "You've

talked to them a lot more than I have."

"The first one, Warren, has a slight edge in the high-tech

area, and that's what we are and where we want to go."

"Then go for him."

"It's settled, then?"

"As far as I'm concerned, it is," I told him. "I think

you've made a good choice. Now, I want the other one."

"What!"

"I want the other one to take over as Chief Operating Officer

of Milton - if he's interested."

"You asshole," he laughed. "You let me do all the work, then

help yourself!"

"Have you talked salaries with either of them yet?"

"That's the next step, I intend to call Warren and have him

come back for that right now."

I stood. "Let's see if the other guy's left yet. I'm going

to give him MY pitch."

We caught him at the elevator and asked him to come back in.

Eric left the two of us alone in his office.

I thought fast on how to approach him. I decided to be

direct, as usual.

"You didn't get it," I said straight out. "That is, you

didn't get the COO job at Lundborg Rush, but I'd like to

offer something else."

The poor guy wilted then brightened.

"As you probably know, I own Metalco. Last year we bought

Milton Manufacturing, which you also may have heard about.

During the buyout, the old owners, who ran it, left, and we

haven't filled any of the top slots yet. Would you be

interested in filling one of them?"

"You've caught me totally off guard," he answered.

"I know that, and I appreciate your position. Hell you don't

know anything about the company. Before you decide, I'd like

you to spend a little time with us and learn what we're all

about. That way you can make a good decision."

"Of course, I'm interested," he said. "I'd like to know more,

though."

"Be at my office in the morning, it's right over there, 30th

floor," I said, pointing at the building across the street.

He was a happy but confused man. Now, to break the news to

Bill.

Not surprisingly, Bill was delighted. "We've been

procrastinating long enough," he said. "There may be a couple

who're pissed about us bringing in somebody from the outside,

but if I'd felt that anybody we already have was ready, the

job would already be filled."

"That company has been running headless for too long," I

agreed. "If he takes it, I think we've got a good man. Eric

did a good job."

"As usual," Bill chuckled.


Jeff was waiting when I arrived. We still had a sales job to

do.

First, I explained that Milton was a company "on the move"

just like Lundborg Rush. Being a lot older and more

established, the moves weren't as flashy and dramatic, but,

in reality were a lot larger.

Bill joined us, fully prepared. Jeff would be reporting to

him, and I watched as rapport developed fast.

They didn't stick around my office long, Bill wanted to

introduce Jeff to more Metalco people so he could get a

"feel" for the company.

Eric joined us for lunch, and we all got to see another side

of Jeff. He was very easy-going, witty and funny. I liked

him already. He also announced that he'd accept the job.

His decision had been made overnight and the morning's

meetings had totally convinced him. He'd start in three

weeks.

Eric was jubilant. "Can I pick 'em or what!"

With that problem out of the way, he announced that he was

going to work. "Real work," he told me. "I'm starting at

the plant in the morning. Not to just stand around and

watch, but to actually get in there and do a job like

everybody else."

"You're actually going to do it?"

"Hell yes," he said. "That's the only way I'm ever going to

learn. I want to know what I'm talking about."

Long ago, I'd learned never to underestimate him, but for

some reason I was a little surprised at this move. It made

me immensely proud that he wasn't taking anything for granted.

He was up and dressed before I really got moving. He was

wearing a pair of khaki cargo pants that showed his gorgeous

ass off to perfection.

"Well, there goes the plant safety record," I commented dryly.

"Huh?" he looked at me all confused.

"Everybody'll be looking at your cute butt instead of what

they're supposed to be doing," I laughed.

"Should I change?"

"Hell no! If you've got it, flaunt it, and baby, you've GOT

it!" I chuckled.

He threw something at me. "Sometimes I don't know when you're

serious."

"We're talkin' seriously beautiful butt here. Just be sure

to bring it home to me intact."

"It'll be intact, but I'll bet it's kind of tired."

"That's OK," I told him. "That'll give me a good excuse to

play with it."

He gave me a quick kiss and ran.


The Real Estate presentation was scheduled for that day. All

day. I hoped it wouldn't last that long and not be a lot of

bullshit. Annie had assured me that it wouldn't be.

Eric hadn't felt it necessary to sit through it. All he

wanted was the summary and the numbers.

What does a "Real Estate Guru" look like? I had no idea what

to expect, conjuring up images of a little fat man with a

beard and long flowing hair sitting on a mountaintop

someplace making pompous pronouncements.

Heinrich Gibson turned out to be anything but that. Short,

yes, but otherwise just an ordinary middle-aged businessman

in appearance.

Annie had filled me in on his credentials. He was a

nationally known "Land Planner", in heavy demand by private

developers as well as government entities. She told me that

we were extremely lucky to have gotten him.

He was very businesslike, but interesting. His enthusiasm

for the subject came across strongly and sucked me right in.

The first project that he discussed was development of the

raw land in the Silicon Valley. First he described how it

COULD be done for the quick buck, then he went on to tell how

it SHOULD be done for maximum return and result in a

development that would be so desirable it would sell itself.

Saying that he hadn't had time to prepare a comprehensive

plan, he gave us several options, all estimates, but ones he

considered conservative. The options covered selling the

land as is, developing it to the lot stage, and building it

out. The numbers were staggering.

He went from project to project, all smaller than the first,

but the ideas he had displayed enormous imagination and he

never lost sight of the bottom line.

Over lunch he told us how impressed he was with our decision

to build such an architecturally different Company

Headquarters. "It's easy to build a box, but it takes real

guts to undertake such a radical departure from the norm.

Eventually, it'll be in textbooks, but you'll catch a lot of

flack in the short run."

"I wish my daughter Tina were here to hear that," I told

him. "She's behind the whole thing."

"I'd love to meet her. Working with Annie has been a real

pleasure. You are a fortunate father, Mr. Rush."

He saved his obvious favorite project for last - the San Diego

waterfront. He'd given this one the most thought, and the

concept he came up with was truly mind boggling. Apartments,

condos, offices, hotels, and commercial development made up a

virtual city within a city that became a part of and enhanced

the city itself.

Tall, slender buildings with vast open space wouldn't wall

off the bay, in fact, opening it up and providing better

access for everyone.

The day had flown by. He handed us several copies of his

report, explaining that it covered only the major projects.

He just hadn't had time to do a proper job on the hundreds of

smaller ones.

"You understand, of course, that this is purely speculative.

We have no idea, yet, if there is even a possibility of our

acquiring this property," I told him.

"Of course," he said. "I truly do hope that you're

successful and that I have an opportunity to work with you."

"If we're successful, you can plan on it."

After he left, Annie and I sat and contemplated for a moment.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"I knew it had potential, but I had no idea it could be this

big. It's going to take me a little time to digest."

"It'd take an enormous commitment if we did it right," she

said. It's so big, so much money, that it scares the hell

out of me."

"Are you ready for a twenty year project?"

"I'd have to think about that, too."


Eric came home late, his gorgeous ass dragging.

"I was afraid an honest day's work would kill me, and it

damned near did," he groaned, slumping on the couch.

I got us a drink. "Just so long as this is intact," I told

him, rubbing his butt. "How'd it go."

He brightened fast. "This is the only way I could ever

really learn how it works. It's fascinating. I had no idea

what was going on.

"I was under the impression that the copiers spit out disks,

then somebody stuffed them into a box. Boy was I surprised!

I just got an inkling today, and I can't wait to get back to

learn some more."

He told me in detail how the process worked, or at least as

much of it as he'd seen in one day. It was a learning

process for me too.

"They did exactly like I asked," he said. "I was treated

just like any other new employee. No fanfare. They started

me on one of the slower lines with a Supervisor training me

for a couple of hours. It's not hard work, but it's tedious,

fast, and requires a lot of manual dexterity. You've got to

pay attention or you can screw things up in a hurry.

"I guess I caught on pretty fast because they moved me up to

faster and faster lines. The time just disappeared.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to learn more about quality control and

tracking, whatever that is."

In the hot tub after dinner, he was still bubbling. He was

justifiably proud of the fact that he'd been able to "cut

it", and realized that he had so many questions to ask about

"why" things were done the way they were.

In bed, I got him to lie on his stomach and straddled him for

a good backrub. Not much was said other than groans and

after only a few minutes, I realized that he'd gone to sleep.

Eric was coming out of the shower when I woke. He sat down

on the bed after giving me a peck.

"I'm really sorry about last night, babe," he told me.

"Why?"

"For crapping out on you, and not having the good manners to

ask how the Catalina Pacific presentation went yesterday."

"No problem at all. You were tired and excited. My poor

baby needs his rest now that he's gone 'blue collar' on me,"

I teased.

"How did the presentation go?" He ignored me.

"Annie's 'Guru' really knows his stuff. It's Friday, so

we've got all weekend to talk about it. How long are you

planning on working out there, anyway?"

"At least another week, maybe longer. We'll see. Does the

CLP thing look pretty good?"

"Better than good," I told him. "Wait'll tomorrow, we'll go

over it in detail."

I ran into Annie in the kitchen. "Can I have a little of

your time this morning, Dad? I've got a lot more stuff to

show you that Henry didn't cover yesterday."

"Anytime, just come on in," I told her.

Bill followed me into the building. "Sorry I was tied up

yesterday, how did your meeting go?"

"I'll let you judge for yourself. I've got a 'book' for you

to read over the weekend," I told him.

"It must've been good to hold your attention all day," he

commented dryly.

"The guy is good, and what he's come up with is rather thought

provoking. I'd like your opinion on it."

"You've got me really curious now, I can't wait."

Annie never walked into a room, at least not around the

office. She roared in. This morning was no exception.

"Hot off the wire," she said. "It's just a rumor, but it's

sure worth investigating."

"What now?" I asked.

"One of my 'sources' just let me know that there's a rumor

that's been going around for years that CP's land out in the

desert has undeveloped mineral resources worth millions,

maybe even billions."

"Oh shit," I said. "After yesterday, I don't think I can

take any more."

"Dad, did you have any idea what we were getting into when you

started poking around in this thing?"

"I knew they had a lot of land, but what we're finding is

getting to be kind of scary. It's just too good to be true."

"Wait'll you see the appraisals on the property Henry didn't

cover yesterday."

"Before we do that, there are two things I'd like you to do

for me," I said. "First, I'd like to have you spend a little

time with Tina and bring her up to speed on what's happening

on this thing, then I want us all to get together Sunday for

a 'Family Meeting' on this. By then, Eric will've read

everything, and we can all take a look at what we want to do."

"I definitely want Eric in on it," she said. "I think that's

a good idea. If I can drag Tina away from her Architect

boyfriend this afternoon, I'll talk to her. If not, I'll do

it tomorrow."

Annie left me a summary of the appraisals that had been made

so far, covering about 60% of the total. I went straight to

page 14 to look at the total. Another mind-boggling figure,

and it represented only the current market value of bare land!

I knew how appraisers worked. Bare land was tricky to value

unless there had been a lot of sales activity in the area to

provide comparables, or "comps". Positive and Negative

features of the specific parcel were factored in, and a value

of the property was arrived at. That, of course, didn't

guarantee that you could actually sell the property for that

amount.

I took the appraisal and one of Henry's books into my

"working" office and built a "What if?" model. I used only

the "known" factors, playing with the numbers and tweaking

them to cover various scenarios.

My objective wasn't to find out how much money could be made

on the deal, but how much we could pay for the company using

the various criteria I had established.

Under every scenario I could come up with, the amount we could

reasonably pay turned out to be much higher than I imagined

we would have to go.

I had been so engrossed that I'd worked right through lunch,

and realized it was time to go home. I saved the enormous

files on a zip disk so I could take them home and go over

them with Eric.


He wasn't quite as exhausted as the night before, but as

enthusiastic as ever. After dinner, he wanted to dive into

the CP project, but I talked him out of it. "If we get into

it, we'll be up all night," I told him. "I have some better

ideas on how to spend it," I leered.

I was giving him another massage when he totally surprised me.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask you something," he said.

"What?"

"What was the deal with that guy and the 'eyes' thing in New

York?"

"I don't know," I hedged.

"C'mon, something must have happened."

"He was just staring at me when he got off, that's all," I

said.

"Got you off too, I think. You caught me totally off-guard."

"I guess."

"Am I making you uncomfortable, by any chance?" he asked,

chuckling.

"A little."

"Why? he was a hot guy, nothing wrong with that," he

continued. "Does it bother you that you got off on another

guy?"

"Not so much that," I told him, "It's just that I can't seem

to get him out of my mind."

He scooted me off and rolled on his back. I climbed back on

his hips, our hard dicks touching.

He was grinning widely. "Have we been fantasizing just a

little?"

"Afraid so, and I don't like it. The asshole got to me, I

guess."

"He did have hypnotic eyes. I've gotta tell ya, I've thought

of him a time or two myself."

"You're kidding! You're just saying that to make me feel

better."

"Hell no. We all fantasize about somebody else once in a

while. Don't worry about it. I do feel sorry for the guy,

though."

"Why?"

"He only got to get off on your eyes once. I get to do it

all the time - like right now. Hand me the lube."

He stroked our dicks, together, with both hands, his eyes

glued to mine. I saw love and understanding on that

beautiful grinning face. Another one of my problems defused.


Eric dug right into Henry's Book. He didn't comment, then

looked at the appraisal summary.

"I can see why you're a little overwhelmed by this," he

said. "I don't think any of us had an idea of how much is

really there."

"Frankly, it scares the hell out of me."

"I can see why. Have you decided what you're going to do?"

"Sort of, but there are still a lot of 'if's. First, I'll

only do it if it's done right. Then, Annie and Tina have to

want to get involved because this thing is going to take at

least ten, maybe 20 years.

"It'll have to be a stand-alone entity after our initial

investment, and I want our investment paid back in five

years. Any future debt taken on for development will have to

be based on it's own assets, no guarantees from Metalco or me

personally."

"That makes damn good business sense," he commented. "No way

should you jeopardize anything else."

"Over the next five years, we could sell off the marginal

pieces to recoup our investment without doing anything else.

According to my calculations, that would only amount to about

60% of the land on that appraisal, selling at half of the

appraised value."

"I'm sure you could do better than half, more like 90% if the

appraisers are any good."

"I'm being very conservative," I told him. "I just heard you

use a word I don't like. In fact, you used it twice."

"What?" he was puzzled.

"You!" I said. "Don't ever think for a minute that you're

not going to be a part of this!"

"Oh shit, here we go again!"

"No arguments, dammit. You're my partner and that's that.

The girls want you involved, too! I'll make damned sure you

earn it."

"Don't get excited. Maybe a little piece."

"We'll work it out," I assured him, laughing. "Let's get

back to the numbers."

"How high do you think WE'll have to go?"

"The market price, right now, is under a half billion for

both the Railroad and the Development Company, but we're not

going to get them for anything like that. Those guys aren't

THAT stupid. In my opinion, we could go as high as six

billion. But, I think we can do it for under three."

"Even that's a lot of money!"

"First, let's decide if we even want it and what we want to

do with it, then we can worry about buying it."

We spent several hours at the computer playing with numbers.

We tried every scenario we could think of, coming up with

favorable results with whatever we tried.

"There's something wrong here," Eric said. "It's just too

goddam good to be for real."

"I don't think so," I answered. "I think it's just a

question of time and neglect. It's just been sitting there,

nobody paying any attention to it for years, and I'll bet

that nobody has even looked at an inventory of the property

in 20 years - that's if anybody has taken the trouble to make

one up.

"People like Edgar and Burdette know about the big stuff -

like the San Diego waterfront and the tract in Silicon

Valley, but the rest has just slipped through the cracks.

Their thinking is based on those two, I'll bet. We'll find

out when we talk to Burdette."

"And we're sure not gonna clue 'em in, right?"

"Why should we? We're doing our homework. When we talk to

Burdette, I think we should emphasize that the San Diego land

is what we're interested in, and if Silicon Valley comes up,

we can treat it as 'that, too', no big deal. San Diego alone

would justify the whole deal."

"I don't consider that deceptive," he commented. "We don't

have to tell anyone everything we know."

"I agree."

"I think we can plan on Annie and Tina going along, Annie for

sure, and I know you and I want to do it, so what's next?"

"How about you getting together with Ryan and setting up an

appointment with Burdette for week after next, and we can go

from there?" I answered.

"That'll work," he said. "Another week at the plant should

about do it for me."

We spent the rest of the day kicking around ideas about what

we'd have to do if we did put the deal together. It was

exciting and gave us both an opportunity to be creative.

We met with the girls on Sunday as planned.

Annie started the conversation. "Can I start?" she asked.

When we all nodded, she continued. "Aside from the fact that

we stand to make a killing, I'm all for going ahead for other

reasons, but I have some conditions.

"Only if we do it 'right', no slash and burn."

"Your Dad and I agree with you there," Eric said.

"It's not an ego thing," she said, "no 'monuments' to any of

us, but something we can be proud of. If we use the right

people, we can accomplish that. I'm also willing to make a

long term commitment to stick with it, too."

"What do you think, Tina?" I asked.

"I'm only just now beginning to understand the size of what

you're talking about. I'm also realizing how little I know

about all this. I have a lot to learn, but I'm more than

willing to do as much as I can."

"Another thing," Annie added, "this may be a 'family'

venture, but I want Eric involved in everything - including

ownership."

"Why?" he asked.

"We need you," she said. "I've seen what you've done so far,

and we need somebody like you to help all of us with the

problems that will, no doubt, come up. You and Dad are an

unbeatable team."

I smiled at him. My sentiments exactly.

We spent several hours going over the financial aspects that

Eric and I had agreed on, with Annie insisting that Henry

look over each and every parcel before we put it up for sale.

"He's got the capability of seeing things we may miss," she

said, "hidden potential that we don't want to overlook."

Tina was looking dazed. I looked at her questioningly.

"I feel like I'm at an Air Show," she said. "Everything's

going over my head!"


Everybody went back to work on Monday.

Bill wandered in first thing. "You didn't tell me just how

interesting that reading was going to be," he said. "I had

no idea!"

"Did I give you a copy of the appraisal summary?"

"No," he said.

I found a copy and handed it to him. "Just go to the last

page," I told him.

"I've gotta sit down," he groaned. "This is unbelievable."

"That's only part of it," I told him, "there's still more to

come."

"Do you really think you can pull this off?"

"I don't know," I told him honestly. "With Eric's help I do

give us a better than 50/50 chance, though."

"Any idea what it's going to cost us?"

"It's not going to be cheap. I want you to build us a war

chest. Between the excess cash we've got, and the banks, I'd

like to have $3 billion available, and I'd like to have

another $3 billion committed if we need it."

"I don't see any problem with that," he said, "at least the

first part. How soon will you need it?"

"We're meeting with Burdette next week. That will give us an

idea of how long this is going to take. And Bill," I said,

"this is going to be a family project, at first, at least.

Everybody's involved. Don't want you to feel left out."

"Just let me know what's going on. Even if you have to pay

six billion, I think you'll be getting a bargain."

I got a wild idea and called my personal Stockbroker.

I asked him to buy me a hundred thousand shares of CLP

Railroad and a like amount of CLP Development.

"Have you lost your mind?" he asked. "Nobody in their right

mind would buy those dogs."

"Don't ask questions," I chuckled. "Just do it and keep your

mouth shut."

"OK," he said, "knowing you, you're up to something. How

high you want to go? Hold on a minute."

He was evidently pulling them up on his computer.

"The Railroad's going at eleven and a quarter, and the

Development Company is at five and a half."

"Try to hold it under 15 on the Railroad and 8 on the other

one. Let me know as soon as you've got them."

He called back in less than an hour. "Got the Railroad at

twelve and a half average, and the other one at six and an

eighth."

"Do it again," I instructed.

Before the market closed, I'd bought 600,000 shares of the

railroad and 400,000 of the Development Company. That was a

start.

Over dinner, I told the troops what I'd done.

Annie was surprised but delighted. "You don't fool around,

Dad," she said. "But won't you give yourself away when they

find out it's you buying up their stock?"

"No," I explained. "It's held by the Brokerage House in

what's called a 'Street Name'. I'm not identified."

"Why are you buying the Development Company stock?" Eric

asked. "When we get the Railroad, we'll have control anyway."

"Yes," I agreed, "we'll have control, but we'll still have to

buy up all the rest of the stock if we want to take it

Private. I'm just pulling one of your stunts, picking up a

few bargains."

He just shook his head and grinned at me. For a change, I

was ahead of him.

I started playing "What if?" with the Railroad stock. From

public records, we knew that Edgar held roughly 28%, Burdette

another 20% and a couple of other big investors an additional

11%. Only 41% was in public hands.

If we could get Burdette and the other investors on our side,

we'd still need to buy almost half of the publicly held stock

in order to obtain numerical control. We'd have to go around

Edgar. I seriously doubted that he'd even talk to us, much

less sell out to us.

All of our concentration had been on the Development Company's

assets. We'd totally forgotten the Railroad. There was

value there, too.


Eric's week at the factory was up, and he announced that he

wasn't going back. Word had leaked out that he wasn't just

another new hire but President of the Company, so he felt he

would be given preferential treatment and not be able to

learn as effectively.

"I sure as hell don't know everything," he admitted, "but, at

least now I know which questions to ask."

We spent the weekend honing our strategy. Burdette was the

key. If he went along with us, we had a chance, so our

meeting with him was crucial.

According to Ryan, he wanted out of CLP, but he was no

dummy. He wouldn't be in his preeminent position if he

were. How to convince him?

Neither Eric nor I really knew him. Our only contact had been

a social gathering and we had no idea how he approached

business. Eric called Ryan to try to get some clues, but

came back with only the information that Burdette was a

"straight shooter".

Finally, we stopped trying to second-guess the situation and

decided to go with the direct approach. If it worked, it

worked. If it didn't, it didn't.

To be continued.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I appreciate hearing your comments on the

story, my writing, and anything you would like to offer -

good or not so good. Send me a message at

orrinrush@yahoo.com and also let me know if you would like to

be included on my "alert" mailing list for new postings.

Next: Chapter 32


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