Summary: While visiting a Tracy Corporation facility in India, John's excited as he looks forward to reuniting with his best friend. But what should be fun times for the two of them turns into a harrowing nightmare.
Warning: Harsh language.
Story Note: The five major chapters of this story are named for the five basic phases of business project management. The sub-chapters within Chapter Four are the components of that particular project management principle.
Author's Note: Devrat Verma is my own original character. He first appeared in my story "Ascent," which is referenced in this story. However, you do not need to read that one in order to understand this one.
Acknowledgment: Thank you to Samantha Winchester for the multiple edits it took to whip this story into shape. Thank you also to A & B for your generous assistance.
~For J
BUSINESS AS USUAL
Chapter One: Initiation
John Tracy stretched his six-foot-two frame like a waking leopard. A piece of cartilage in his shoulder popped and he felt something shift in his spine as he leaned forward and grasped the round metal railing that topped the low wall of his private twenty square-foot concrete balcony. Breathing in deeply as the first rays of the rising sun warmed the top of his head, he held the breath for a few beats and then exhaled slowly, feeling the last remnants of sleepiness drift away.
It was good to be able to just stand there for a moment and appreciate the dawn in peace, knowing that the most dangerous item on his agenda today was negotiating the traffic on the way to the offices of Tracy Nanotechnology. Unlike his last visit to India, which had had nothing to do with business, and everything to do with saving lives.
Just under three months earlier, he and his brothers had been fighting the aftermath of both an 8.6 earthquake and the flood it'd prompted in the city of New Delhi. In their capacity as International Rescue, they had saved nearly one thousand lives, mostly thanks to Thunderbird Two's passenger capacity. They'd stayed there, sleeping and working in shifts, for eight entire days.
John remembered very clearly having seen the Tracy Nanotechnology towers in Gurgaon as Two had flown in a wide southeasterly arc to approach from the south side of New Delhi. He'd known at the time, of course, that this division of Tracy Engineering fell under his purview.
Smiling to himself as he reentered the family's lavish suite at the Leela Ambience Hotel, John moved past the furniture and decorations done all in dark wood and browns and beiges and headed for the pot of fresh coffee that was just gurgling to a finish in the sleek black-and-silver-toned kitchen. He couldn't recall having ever felt happier or more fulfilled in his life than he had for the past six months. Since his college years he'd accomplished a lot wearing his astrophysics, astronomy and, later on, astronaut hats. He'd published books. He'd given lectures. He'd discovered new galaxies, new quasars, new black holes. Spending roughly half of every calendar year on Thunderbird Five for the past eleven years had allowed John the luxury of indulging in his love of space and the universe at large in a way none of his peers could hope to match.
But there'd always been another side of John which, rather than gazing starry-eyed at the vastness of the cosmos, had both feet firmly planted on the ground and liked nothing more than the very thing his eldest brother Scott wanted nothing to do with: the business end of Tracy Corporation.
Around ten years ago, now, Jeff Tracy had begun incorporating John into the running of various divisions. And while the past several years had seen John actually handling more and more of the work himself as Jeff quietly and slowly began to retreat, it wasn't until six months ago that the man who'd built a monumentally successful multi-billion-dollar corporate entity had approached his middle son one morning and said, "It's time."
Grinning like the cat who'd eaten the canary as the moment played out for him in vivid Technicolor, John stopped his introspection long enough to pour himself a nice, big mug of steaming coffee, and dump a generous amount of half-and-half into it for good measure. His first sip, as always, made his senses come alive, even as his mind wandered to the reason he was here in Gurgaon now.
As soon as Jeff had made the decision to formally hand six of Tracy Corporation's eleven divisions over to John, plans for doing just that had rapidly taken shape. John was now the Chief Executive Officer of Tracy Aerospace, Tracy Engineering, Tracy Robotics, Tracy Tectonics, Tracy Magnetics and Tracy Nanotechnology. And while at times the sheer weight of these new responsibilities threatened to overwhelm him, the basic truth of the matter was that he was in his element. One by one, he and his father had been visiting all the locations around the globe that fell under these six divisions. And in front of all their employees, plus the ever-present press, Jeff had made the announcement that he was now taking on the role of Chairman, leaving John officially the CEO.
By and large, all had gone well. The first two weeks had been spent in Manhattan. Then two weeks back on Tracy Island. The next two found them in both Manhattan and New Jersey. Then back to the island. The next week they'd traveled to Tokyo, followed by Hong Kong. Then back home. Last week he'd visited the relatively new Tectonics research facility in Palana, Kamchatka Krai, Russia. He had to admit that he much preferred the roughly seventy-degree weather in Gurgaon to the forties he'd experienced in Palana. Note to self, he'd thought last week when his hands had nearly frozen on his way into his hotel, don't come to Palana in any month other than July and August.
It was a beautiful October Sunday morning in Gurgaon, and now that he'd had his standard cup of coffee, it was time to hit the Leela's massive gym for a good workout. Then it would be on to reviewing the documentation that Dr. Achal Manda, President of Tracy Nanotechnology, had been sending him for the past few weeks. There was so much to learn that, even after all these years being involved in the business, he simply didn't know. Yet with each word he read, each chart he devoured, each graph he memorized, John's satisfaction with life grew exponentially.
He knew, as everyone did, that eventually he would become the next Jeff Tracy: in control of the entirety of their family's privately-held corporation. Scott had even joked a few months back that their parents must have had an attack of prescience when John was born, because they'd given him the same initials as Jeff. For the time being, John was spending a lot of time with his dad going from place to place, always learning and becoming used to really being in charge, while at the same time remaining a full-fledged member of the family's much more secret life. When John was on the island, his time was fair game. If a rescue call came in he went out with his brothers like always.
But niggling at the back of his mind, as he exited the suite and jabbed the elevator button in the hall on his way to the gym, was the thought that at some point there might come a time when he wouldn't be able to keep up both jobs. At thirty-six years of age, he was nowhere near ready to stop saving lives…and hoped like hell that he wouldn't have to stop any time soon.