CHAPTER 25

Like most major corporations, OK maintained offices in Washington DC. They had many such offices and not all of them could be easily connected with the Tucson based firm. One such office appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary law practice in a town that had no shortage of them. While it was no great secret, particularly among Washington insiders, that this law firm was really the congressional lobby for the OK corporation, low key was preferred.

Jess Greenway maintained an office at this particular firm. He seldom used it but, he was officially a junior partner here, so they gave him a desk. Normally Jess worked out of his companies more official, and visible, offices which were all the way on the other side of town. He found this office occasionally advantageous and liked the area a lot better than the industrial park where his main office was. Today it was custom made for what Isaac wanted.

This meeting was to be private. Not only did Isaac Greenway want to keep the world from butting into his business here but, even his partners, namely the federal government. This was company and, by extension, family business. As far as Isaac was concerned it was going to stay that way. He even had Dee flown out from California on a company jet an entire day early. No one but a few trusted associates knew she was even in Washington right now.

Dee was a bit confused, and agitated, by the way she had been yanked away from her work. She had laid out her trip in detail and arranged her schedule in advance. For once they had actually given her enough advance notice until Jess told her to hop the earlier flight. Dee had been very vocal, with Jess, about having to abandon her carefully laid plans. It was only when she walked into the small law office that she understood the sudden change. Her Uncle was standing by the window.

The sound of the door closing behind Jess made Dee flinch. Her anger drained and was quickly being replaced by that intimidation that she always felt around Isaac. As Dee noticed her surroundings she was even starting to feel outright fear. Where were the security guards? Where were the hordes of advisors? The only lawyer in the room was Jess! When was the last time that Isaac Greenway had talked to anyone with less than a half dozen lawyers at his side?

Dee licked her lips as she felt her mouth go dry. She tensed up for a moment and then asked, “I take it this isn’t the brief?”

Isaac looked away from the window for a moment. He had a wry grin on his face, “Jess here is going to fill you in on all that.”

Jess was chipper, “I’m optimistic about how we’ll do on the hill today.”

That drew a look from Isaac that displayed how the old man was less than impressed. He walked over to Dee and put his arm on her shoulder. Like always, she had to control herself when he did it. Then the old man warmly smiled, “I’m damn proud of you child. You’ve exceeded my wildest dreams.”

Dee squirmed, “we’re not done yet Uncle.”

It looked as if Isaac was going to laugh, “sure we are. If you mean that nonsense up in congress, you let us worry about that. You just get up there and look good when you testify.”

Jess raised a finger and in a diplomatic way tried to say, “Uncle Isaac. As I explained earlier, we may not have the leverage you think we…”

“Shut up Jess,” Isaac said. His tone and body language spelled out all to clearly that he wanted to hear nothing else from the lawyer. He went back to smiling when he looked at Dee, “and after this we have a special place for you young lady.”

Dee almost stepped back, “um, uh, a… what?”

Isaac walked back to the window. He was obviously happy, and explained as he went, “I’m not going to live forever Dee. Hell, you got folks out there hoping that anyway. Course, half my problem was kind of what Alexander had.”

Despite his good ole boy persona, Isaac was well educated, and anyone who took him for a stupid hick was quite often left in the gutter. Dee had seen that happen many times in the past. She had to be careful that this is not what she did. No matter how crazy her uncle acted, at times, the truth was that he was anything but. His entire repertoire was nothing more than a well crafted act that gave him the advantage in dealing with others. He used it on his family as easily as he did his competitors.

The old man looked out the window as if he were surveying his domain. He laughed, “and Alexander wept when there were no more worlds left to conquer. I did him one better.” Isaac looked to Dee and winked, “I just went and found me another one.”

Dee was confused and apparently not alone. She looked to Jess and he only shrugged. She cautiously stepped forward, “Uncle Isaac?”

“The board is meeting next month again,” Isaac went on as he still looked out the window on the world, “they’re going to be voting on new officers. I figure the new On Shore Manager will have no problem at all being voted in as my number two.”

Dee was stunned. She looked to Jess again. He looked stunned as well. Was Isaac saying what she thought he was? Dee just asked point blank, “you want me to be the On Shore Manager?”

The position meant you were in effective control of day to day operations of every factory that OK owned within the United States. That was every factory that really counted for something. If you had that job, and a Vice Presidents seat on the board of directors, you would effectively control of the entire company. Isaac had always been careful to make sure no one ever did that. He knew every trick in the book when it came to divide and conquer and as a result no one ever got into a position that could rival his power within the corporation. Now he was offering that to Dee?

“Is that surprising Dee?” Isaac asked whimsically. “You’ve earned it. And besides that, you’re the only one who can replace me. I need you to do this.”

Dee gulped. He wasn’t offering her some figure head position. This was not a kiss on the cheek and a fancy title that meant nothing. Isaac was talking about giving her real power. The kind of power that could even usurp his. That was something that Dee had never thought he would be capable of, ever. Even if that man knew he was dying, Dee was fully convinced, he would tell no one and keep things just the way they were till his very last breath. What was going on here?

“I can’t do that,” Dee said with a slight quiver. She was actually pleading like a little girl who was just forbade from going out on the playground. “I have to go.”

Isaac’s eyes narrowed, “why? What’s so important about being stuck in a tin can, a million miles from nowhere? You did what you set out to do. Now it’s time to do the next thing you need to do and that doesn’t involve flying off to other worlds. Leave that to the astronauts. They get paid to do that because they‘re expendable. You aren‘t.”

“That’s my propulsion system,” Dee tripped over her words as she tried to get them out, “I’m the only one who can run it. Even if we’re using it, it’s still experimental. I’m the only person alive who can fix it, modify it, regulate it.”

“Vitosk can do all of that,” Isaac shot back. “I hear tell he’s pretty smart.”

“He’s not an engineer,” Dee blurted out. “I admit I couldn’t have built it without him but, that’s completely different from technical know how. Without me they don’t have a prayer.”

It was now Isaac’s turn to be agitated, “why is it so important to you? I never remember you being so hell bent on being an astronaut. Hell girl, you never even seen Star Wars.”

Dee looked to her cousin to fill in the blanks. Jess simply commented, “it’s a movie.”

Dee nodded and found it irrelevant as well. She went back on the attack and even before she realized it, “this is the trip of a life time Uncle Isaac. I made it happen. I’m not going to be left out.”

“Trip of a lifetime is right,” Isaac said. He was still flustered but under control. “Your entire life is liable to be spent out there. I know you want to go just so you can play with the latest toy I bought you but, you can do that right here. Then you can turn that into even better things. As the situation stands we’re going to need them.”

“It’s not the same thi…” Dee suddenly realized the last part of what he said, “what do you mean we’re going to need them?”

Isaac looked back to the window, “they’re going to be beaming back all the telemetry and you can get it just as quick as it comes in. You’ll have labs, resources, everything you need right here. So that’s settled. You stay.”

Dee reached down deep, “no it’s not.”

Isaac eyed her with a stern side glance, “and what’s that supposed to mean?”

Dee felt numb as she said, “I’m going Uncle Isaac.” He said nothing in return. Jess looked like he wanted to say something but then, apparently, decided otherwise.

For as long as Dee could remember, Isaac Greenway had been the primary influence in her life. He had been there for her. Isaac had been a substitute father when Dee no longer had one. She could not really say he had been a bad one either. There comes a time when every child must leave the nest though. Dee knew it was now or never.

If Isaac had the actual power to keep Dee off of the Hermes, he would have never made this trip to Washington. He would have sent her a memo and then avoided her till tempers were calm. As the situation was, he was here with his hat in hand, and Dee knew it. This project had grown way past the borders of his domain. Even more important here, Dee suddenly realized, was the fact that for the first time in her life the power really was in her hands. For some strange reason, and Dee was even embarrassed to admit it, that was more of a milestone than flying to another world.