A/N: I must admit, I was extremly surprised about your guys reactions to the last chapter. These reactions led me to actually making an amendment to this next part. The first third of this long-ass chapter was actually just added sponteaniously after all you guys had all these things to say. So, if you find something in there that sounds like something you had mentioned, you were most likely the inspiration and idea behind it. I must admit, i would have sort of dropped the K9 idea until a few chapters from here where i would have mentioned it again, but that's it. You see, I'm good at coming up with interesting apsects and ideas, but not so good at continuing them... :) Much love to you all... Super extra special Brownie points for everyone of you who is able to figure out a possible location and how that might tie in with something (or someone) that happened early on in the story...
When I had come up with the K9 unit idea and the possibility of being shot down I somehow had not anticipated the problem I was facing right now.
Tank had fulfilled his promise and looked at the recruitment files on his desk and seemed more than just happy and impressed. Two days later Bones' old army buddies were at the offices for interviews and two days later they received an offer that both actually accepted. From what I understood it was a special kind of deal they'd get. They'd have to go through initial training to a certain degree to get an idea how RangeMan works and also for RangeMan itself to be able to use all its assets in regards of manpower should the need arise. They would get a shortened training on FTA's and other ventures RangeMan was active in, but not everything – for now. They'd get split up with one of them being my sidekick in a way and looking for potential dogs and the other one going through whatever they had planned as orientation. After two weeks they'd switch around with the trained guy spending a few hours on the job before joining me in moving forward with the program. It was a lot of work and neither of Bones' old buddies shied away from the almost sheer impossible task of getting a K9 unit build from scratch.
With the initial idea of simply building up such a unit a lot of MerryMan had a lot of input with a lot more ideas in regards of what could be done and soon enough the whole project was sort of having a long on its own. I found myself facing the possibility of Search and Rescue as well as requests from several guys to be considered to be included in the training or consider the idea that MerryMen could get a canine sidekick. It was an idea I hadn't actually thought about and added to my list of ever growing things. My initial idea was to get a unit started that could eventually help us as well as the TPD which would be either charged a consultation fee or maybe even nothing at all, depending on how successful all this would become.
Two weeks into my project Thompson – one of Bones' buddies – and I had managed to track down three very promising dogs – at least according to him anyway. And the TPD somehow had caught wind of our newest project. They were more than just interested and wanted already talk dates and fees. Fees and dates that I didn't even have or had spent time thinking about. And before I knew it, I was talked into a meeting that ended up suggesting a joint co-project between TPD and RangeMan in regards of the K9 unit. I promised the Chief to think about his suggestion but was fairly certain this would never work. Especially when he said he'd make Morelli a liaison between RangeMan and the TPD. Hell would freeze over before I agreed to that.
Training of the dogs as well as Batman started the week after we had recruited the last dog for now and I was anxious to see how any of this would work out in the end. I knew it wouldn't be just a matter of weeks to see results, but it was a nerve-wrecking process nevertheless.
Juan – the other friend from Bones – was going to work on the second idea of search and rescue. I had looked at the suggestion for a while and found the idea as appealing as the general K9 unit. Also, a search and rescue training apparently takes less time and we could see results a lot sooner. Something to maybe calm my nerves. In regards of search and rescue the breed itself was unimportant and could be almost any. We decided on starting with five. It would be more than the K9s but according to Juan, training was easier and quicker. So we found five dogs and training could go underway.
Juan and Thompson apparently seemed like a great fit to RangeMan and between their initial training and orientation they also worked their asses off in order to make my idea come out a success. Hopefully.
"What happens if any of the dogs can't make the training and …fail? So to speak," I asked one afternoon.
"Well, in all fairness, it is hard failing search and rescue, since that is tapping into the basic instincts of a dog. Though, in all fairness, some dogs are better at it than others. The K9 unit is a bit of a different case, since that requires a certain kind of dog. If it turns out the training isn't for them you can still keep them on as an asset in regards of guard dogs or even emotional support, either here for people to wind down after an extra tough day or even as a loaner to communities. You could go as far as start a program and lend them to Newark Airport authorities as emotional support since that could help break tension with certain travellers. You could also start a charity, get a certain amount of funding and get them to be therapy dogs or send them to schools in problem areas as emotional support. You could train them also as service dogs to a certain degree. While guide dogs are out of the question since that training is extensive and takes a long time, there are other areas of service. Some people, who are not entirely helpless and get still get stuff done by themselves but need a little help with one or two tasks throughout the day can use service dogs as well as communities and even schools. The possibilities are endless. If all fails PTSD support for veterans is also a very big and appreciate crowd," Thompson explain and I wasn't even aware how many options there were for dogs.
"Or simply as a pet," Juan joked and I needed to laugh. I was almost certain I wouldn't even need to search long for volunteers at RangeMan.
Four weeks into training I was shielding daily calls from the TPD asking about any kind of update and maybe a timeline for our K9. Despite the fact that I kept telling them the same thing all day every day, I knew I'd get another call with the exact same question the next day. Since they were only ever asking about the general K9 unit, I decided one day on dropping the fact that we were also building a Search and Rescue unit – and that turned out to be a mistake. Because from that moment on, I received two calls a day, asking about any update for both units. I'm still not sure what the TPD needed a search and rescue team for, but I was almost certain I'd find out in due time.
"How is the training coming along?" I asked one morning after I had returned from my run with Cal and was running into Juan getting coffee.
"Quite good actually. You should drop by more often and then you can see the progress," he offered and I let out a sigh.
"I wish I could, but my schedule is packed for the next few days. It seems like everyone and anyone wants to speak to me these days. And even after delegating half of my stuff onto Tank, Lester and Bobby and even Cal it still is enough to make me wonder when I'll actually have time for lunch today," I laughed and saw Juan laugh back. "Which also reminds me, how are you doing? I feel like you started on 20-hour days since you arrived, which I swear was not intended."
"Ah, it's alright," he waved off. "And it is only 16 hour days between the dogs, the initial training and my other responsibilities."
"You and Thompson hopefully know you have a right to turn down parts of the training and monitoring, right? It isn't like you have to do it all, and in just half the time."
"Strangely enough it is what we are used to," he just shrugged and I still felt bad. Like I was taking advantage of them despite the fact that I kept telling them often enough to slow down every once in a while. They had been offered to go just partially through the initiation process and only sitting in on half the required jobs and different day-to-day business, but like true soldiers they didn't do things half-assed and insisted on doing it just like every other recruit. Despite the fact that they also had the task at hand of training our dogs from scratch and building up an entire new department. Why was I not even surprised.
"Just…promise me you'll take it slow if the need ever arises or… come and see me when something bothers and troubles you?"
"If it helps you sleep at night, I'll promise," he laughed. "But please, don't expect me to show up at your office door anytime soon." And then he left, still laughing. Well, at least I tried.
As the weeks went on things became smoother with each passing day. My training started to show off in regards of my fitness levels and the fact that I finally knew how to properly carry a gun made me wonder why I hadn't tried that years ago. My business sense hadn't left me so far either and though I was still not really excited about monthly budgeting meetings I held my own in each of them. So far each one of the Core Team had managed to dodge the bullet and sit in with me on one of them, but I figured it couldn't be much longer until I would have worn one of them down. It was their company after all as well.
I didn't mind the meetings per se and usually left them with a lot of new input, ideas and suggestions and one was currently an extension or rather expansion. Turned out Ranger's finance guy was actually quite brilliant – but then again Ranger had made it sort of a habit of surrounding himself with brilliant people.
The budget and finance meeting had been one I had been worried about the most upon hearing there was such thing. Crunching numbers and looking at a lot of statistics wasn't really my idea in regards of fun, but it was essential for successful businesses and for an operation as big as RangeMan I could only imagine how had these meetings could get. Armed with as much information I could get my hands on beforehand I expected hours of boredom and maybe bad news with people that talked about things I wouldn't understand or might have problems following. Yes, I had a business degree but again, it had ben years already and I hadn't have much time really using it in that regards. Also, EE Martin was a sort of successful and okay-doing company for a short while but nothing compared to RangeMan if we was being honest. I went in with the worst expectations and a certain fear of being buried under numbers and facts I would need forever to actually check up on.
Turned out, it wasn't people I was meeting but just one person. Taylor was everything I wouldn't have expected. Instead of burying me under factsheets and number-crunching he actually answered every single question I could have had and wasn't talking to me like I had completely lost my mind. Our initial one-hour meeting took three in the end and I decided for a while at least I needed more regular meetings than once a month. Until I was at least up to speed and would have a good idea about everything. Since once a week seemed a bit too excessive to both of us, we agreed to bi-weekly meetings. Things wouldn't move around too much over two weeks and I had a fair chance of actually getting up to date ideas and impressions of everything I needed to look into.
"So… an expansion of RangeMan?" I asked bringing my mind back to the present meeting and making sure I had heard correctly the first time around. "Like adding another office location?"
Taylor just nodded at my recap, shoving several folders my direct across the table.
"It isn't something entirely new in all fairness. Ranger himself had often enough thought about maybe adding another location. Every few years a new office would generally join the franchise. A new office technically had long been overdue when you look at the timeframe of other offices having been added."
"So what stopped the expansion?" I asked, looking through the first of folders. "Money?"
"Not really," Taylor answered warily. "Though you should never disregard numbers or go overboard, money wasn't really an issue in that regards. Ranger had a solid plan and a few strategies. What actually stopped it from moving was more a question of location."
I knew the location of every single RangeMan office throughout the US and from the top of my head I could name a dozen possible places where a new office would work, but I figured it most likely wasn't that simple as just picking a city.
"I don't know the exact reasons what stopped everything or rather slowed things down, but then again, I don't have to I guess. I'm the guy that knows the numbers and can tell you how much money you need to put down or how much you can afford going forward, but the ins and outs of the business is a whole different thing. The only reason I actually mentioned it to you is because I wanted to bring it back up. I'm certain if you spoke to one of the others they can maybe enlighten you on the reasons behind the holdup. And since you mentioned interest in investment opportunities and moving the company forward, I figured this might quip your interest."
"Is there something I need to know about expansions and how they are done?" I asked curious and saw Taylor smile at me.
"I obviously am the wrong guy to talk about in finding location and pinpointing a city but financially speaking the most important thing to know is always the one that is forgotten the most. Before you see money coming in you need to be prepared to actually spend money. A lot of money. And with a company like RangeMan that has certain stables in regards of employee accommodation, gym, gun range, fleet cars and the likes, you look at a lot of money being spend before even one contract could be signed. Out of the eight RangeMan locations throughout the US only half of them actually make a profit. The other four aren't doing badly, they are just too new yet to generate more money than is being spent. The numbers improve every month quite well and I'm confident that by the end of the year one or two of them actually pass the threshold and join the other four offices."
"Did Ranger ever indicate a possible new place for another office? I'm sure you have seen some proposals."
"Not really, in all fairness. He has never mentioned anything solid to me. I've heard a few names being thrown around but nothing ever stuck. You're probably better of asking Tank, Santos or Brown in regards of that. I'm sure they were more involved to some degree. Not that they might know too much either in all fairness. Ranger liked to do these kind of things by himself, he was good with the numbers and had a fairly good sense in regards of budget and what to plan in which way."
"Alright, I'll guess I see what they can tell me and maybe soon enough we can add another location to RangeMan," I smiled and saw Taylor laughing.
"We'll see," he said a moment later, before getting up and collect the papers and folders he had spread earlier. "Call me when you are ready to talk numbers," he said and a moment later left the conference room. I followed him out the door a moment later and made my way to Tank's office. I was intrigued by the idea of an expansion, only to see what the logistics were and maybe to learn more about stuff I should be aware of anyway.
Reaching Tank's office I knocked, waiting for his reply and entered, seeing Bobby and Lester with Tank. Perfect. All three of them together might be able to answer all my questions.
"Exactly who I was looking for," I grinned, looking at all three men.
"What is it we can help you with, Beautiful?" Lester asked and I leaned against the wall, seeing there wasn't a chair left for me, which was actually good, seeing I had just spent three hours sitting down.
"What can you tell me about Ranger's idea of an expansion?"
I saw Tank leaning back in his chair, Lester sort of grinning and Bobby seemingly choking on whatever he had been drinking a moment earlier. Interesting reactions.
"It was Ranger's last project really," Tank said after a while. "Taylor I assume?"
"Yes, he brought it sort of to my attention. But he also mentioned it never really got far. What… stopped it from happening?"
"Mainly location," Lester said first. "The thing about our business is that location is crucial."
"Like pretty much any business," I offered smiling. "That is a rule that can be applied to everything. As a business you need to make sure you aren't hidden somewhere where no one ever finds you. Well, if you depend on walk-in customers."
"Well, the security business is a bit… different," Lester tried again. "Picking a location depends on a lot of things. You can't just take a map and pick a city and be done. It needs to have a certain size, because you won't find business in a small town that has the likes of 5000 people in it. Larger cities with a large offer of different security companies are out of the picture as well, cause starting off with a ton of competition in a town that isn't the size of New York or Miami is… tricky. Also value and space. Every RangeMan office has a certain size in regards of space. Employee apartments, gym, gun range, offices. Buildings with that size come with a price, in certain cities you pay fortunes for real estate and never would be able to make a profit."
"You also need a place that offers a certain variety. It is great finding a main function within the franchise, but you need to make sure that this main function of the office isn't the only function. That when things change and a certain string of revenue doesn't work anymore it can be replaced with something different. Let's take the Helena office for example. Their main income right now is a lot of business being send their way from the CSIS and being considered the Westcoast office. So everything that comes up in Seattle or the likes comes their way as well. If CSIS for whatever reason doesn't require their involvement anymore they can easily shift to the Feds as main income as well as more private security seeing that Montana is a hotspot for militia groups and there is always some sort of drama that the office could resolve. The Houston office is a hotspot for FTAs, just like Atlanta. Should however FTAs all of a sudden find a different city more appealing and that sort of business dries up for Houston, they can always switch gears. As I understand it they have an odd deal with the FBI in regards of interfering with drug trafficking or something like that."
"That sounds …ominous," I stated, at which all three men laughed.
"You have no idea," Bobby said finally. "Sometimes I wonder whether I really want to know what some of our offices are up to. They sometimes have very odd strings of revenue coming in. Nothing ever too questionable or illegal at all, but… odd. Also… another fact you learn quickly is that RangeMan can be considered sometimes the government's best friend in a way. Shouldn't come as a surprise that government agencies are ridiculously understaffed and helplessly overworked. Often enough they have contracts with us for all sort of jobs that they would like taken care of but can't because of manpower or lines they officially can't cross but that are blurred or in a greyish area for us. Also, proximity. You don't want one office taking away jobs from the other office. In regards of FTAs that isn't really a problem, because… you never really run out of them, but private security or business owners is a different thing."
"There's a whole lot of places that are far far away from everything else. North Dakota for example. Far away, close to a border and I would assume not overcrowded with other security business," I mused.
"Yes, and so far out that not even FTAs will find their way there," Tank smiled and I had to admit he sounded right about that. It was a joke anyway. I wouldn't just pinpoint a location by looking at a map. Research was the magical word. But it was fun yanking their chains from time to time.
"Alright, how about … Hawaii? Or…. ohhhhhh Alaska?" I asked with a flourish or a fun way while looking at a map of the US that Tank had up on a wall for no particular reason probably.
"Good luck finding someone who wants to go voluntarily to Alaska, Bomber," Bobby remarked.
"Why? What do you mean?"
"Well, you can't just open an office and hand it over to someone who you literally just hired ten minutes prior. Usually someone who already works for RangeMan gets sent there."
"Samson from Atlanta was in the Boston office before Ranger decided on opening a branch in Atlanta."
"Franklin from the Montana office was in Miami before he relocated back home."
"Collins from the Denver office was in Boston as well. Though, in all fairness he isn't running the Denver office, but he helped setting it up."
"Well, I could always sent Lester there if he keeps annoying me," I offered with a grin. Lester looked at me thoughtful for a second before he shrugged.
"Ranger threatened me several times to send me to Siberia. At least in Alaska they speak my language," Lester just shrugged.
"Okay, while Lester seems to mentally pack his suitcase already, what else is to be considered?"
"Not a lot more in all fairness. I know it doesn't help, but a lot has also to do with plain luck. It helps having a reputation that new clients in a new city can feed from. But… it is always a tricky line."
"Has California ever been considered?" I asked curious and with a certain seriousness that hopefully told the guys this wasn't another 'Hawaii or Alaska' suggestion.
"It actually was Ranger's main idea. But California is kind of tricky. It technically fulfils most of the requirements but it isn't a very cheap state. Real estate is expensive in a lot of possible places and certain areas are overcrowded with offers from companies doing the same thing. San Francisco due to its proximity to the Silicon Valley is tricky and a very peculiar market, so is LA with its rich and famous population. San Diego and its proximity to the Mexican border is an issue I don't think we'd need and the further away you go from the coast the smaller cities become. I don't think Ranger ever made it past several budgeting drafts that all got dismissed eventually."
"Budgeting drafts?"
"Yeah, someone has to plan and see what is technically possible and what it would cost. I assume Taylor could do it as well – to some degree. But there is a lot of knowledge and expertise required when it comes to the details. With explaining I assume Taylor would have been able to do the drafts himself, being told that fleet cars would always be rather SUVs then Pick-ups or limousines. Or that you'd need manpower X because you plan on certain business and operations that requires a certain amount of people from the start. Taylor could have done it, but Ranger doing it himself was just quicker. Looking at other drafts for the opening of other offices probably gives you a fairly good idea of what needs to be done since certain numbers hardly ever change in requirement. The amounts might change due to local pricing for real estate or contracts you could negotiate with car dealers or the likes. Furnishing office buildings might vary slightly or the amount for contractors and refurbishing fluctuates, but… the idea what needs to be done doesn't. The line item will always be the same, just the amount behind it requires shopping around and researching."
"I see," I said, sighing about the idea how much work that could entail. Not that I minded it much, especially seeing how me delegating my job to some of the Merry Men had taken enough of my plate. But this wasn't just an advanced google search. This was… a lot of research and a lot of work. "I guess I'll start looking into this and will learn eventually how to write a budget proposal or… budget draft or whatever."
"If you need help, let me know," Tank offered which I was grateful for. "Also Taylor could sent over the budget drafts that were done for the other offices. Maybe looking at them will help you along the way."
"That actually is a great idea. I'll call him and ask for that," I admitted, before my eyes fell on the clock hanging by the side wall. "And I guess we will also have a client meeting to get to," I said, pointing at Tank who nodded and a moment later we were on our way.