4
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Scott had got to the offices without incident thankfully it was so hot he could do away with his jacket, so he was now sat in his dad's office in his dress shirt and trousers. Sally (Jeff's PA) was surprised at Scott's unannounced arrival but with the bereavement in the family at the moment she guessed it was not unexpected that Scott may turn up, he was after all second point of call after Mr. Tracy himself. Despite Scott currently being in USAF there were strict contingency plans in place that Scott would step up as acting CEO should Mr. Tracy become indisposed. He was the one with the strongest business acumen out of all the brothers. Sally hoped Mr. Tracy (Senior) was coping, she couldn't imagine the pain he must be going through. What they were all having to live through.
"Can I be of any more assistance Mr. Tracy?" Sally pushed her chic glasses further back up her nose and swept a flyaway blonde hair out of her face.
"Call me Scott - please. No, I'm ok Sally thank you, there was just an urgent project pending approval so dad asked if I could authorise it in his absence as he's going to be taking a longer period of leave." Scott smiled warmly but it was strained. His eyes didn't leave the screen.
"Ok well I'll leave you to it but if you need me, you know where I am."
"Thank you." She shut the door quietly.
Scott had now accessed the software he needed after dutifully typing in all the correct security detail. His eyes scanned across the data efficiently, pulling up what he wanted. Today's route tracker for Tracy one.
That was odd. He checked it again. Dad had set off in a south westerly direction (-120 degrees) towards the pacific? Before the signal died over the mid central Pacific Ocean. Scott ran a hand across his mouth, leaning back in his dad's leather chair as he did so. What was dad thinking? Scott knew that no signal from that point was not good. Hopefully it could just be inference, it wasn't uncommon in that area or it could mean his dad had got into some difficulty. Scott was grim, it also suggested dad had crashed. From his training he knew that a missing flight over the ocean rarely resulted in a happy ending. God! What was he going to tell his brothers – Grandma? He just wanted all of this to go away! He missed his mother's reassurance and his father's steady counsel. He missed the camaraderie of his unit. He held his forehead in his hands, elbows resting on the desk. Still that wasn't going to do him any good so he sat up straighter and picked up the phone. He had an idea.
"Captain Lee? Its Scott Tracy." Scott tapped his fingers on the desk in agitation.
"Scott! I didn't expect to hear from you so soon. I'm so sorry for your loss son, I really am. I'm sorry I couldn't make the funerals either. How's your dad holding up? i tried to call last night but got no response."
"That's kind of why I'm phoning. Dad hasn't coped well at all. We were worried; he didn't want to seek help, didn't want people interfering and now he's taken off in Tracy one and disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean." There was silence as Jeff's friend digested the news. Jeff was missing? Oh, Jeff you silly fool what have you done?
"Lee, I don't want this news hitting the media and I need to find dad, I know your posted at the moment but is there anyone you can reach out to that could scramble a search team of that area? I'm at Tracy industries at the moment as it was the only place, I could get a trace on dad's plane but I need to get back to my brothers and my grandmother…He's only been missing for five hours now but that was all the plane had enough fuel for."
"Son, don't you worry! leave it with me. I am sure I can rustle up a training exercise up or some excuse to scramble some of us out there. There are a lot of people here still loyal to Jeff, they'd want to help. You concentrate on looking after your family, I know you'll have a lot on your plate with the business too. You posted at the moment?"
"No thankfully my leave has been extended."
"Good! well that's one blessing. Don't worry kid I'll do my dammed best to find him, send over the last known coordinates and a description of the plane. I'll update you when I can. Oh, and son one more thing."
"Yeah?"
"You look after yourself, if you start to feel the strain you let me know. Don't feel like you can't reach out if you need." Scott picked up on the undertone of the advice, don't solider on alone like your father.
"Thanks Lee you've already helped more than you know." Scott felt at some of the burden lift off his shoulders. At least they were being proactive now.
"Alright catch up soon Kiddo."
"Yes sir; bye."
Scott dropped the phone back on the receiver in relief, he knew the search was in safe hands with Lee. Him and his father were ex-forces buddies, Lee was actually Scott's godfather too.
Just then there was a knock on the door, Scott could see through the glass it was dad's Chief Operations Manager. Damn! He didn't want to be caught up in business right now. He needed to get home and find a way to break the news to his family. Scott didn't want to do it over a video call. News of this kind needed to be delivered in person and he was aware he said he'd call to check in. He sighed and composed himself the best he could under the circumstances. "Come in Mike."
A tall guy in his early forties strode through the door. Slick suit and dark short hair. He was also ex-forces - as part of Dad's new venture he had tried to hire veterans and ex-forces where he could as he knew a lot of them struggled to find jobs that suited them as civilians and often fell on hard times. Mike was an excellent operations manager and well regarded by Jeff.
Scott stood up to shake his hand. "Hi Mike, good to see you, take a seat." He gestured open palmed to the one nearest the desk. They had only met once before but Scott liked Mike, he was a warm and likable guy which you didn't always find in business circles high up.
"I'm sorry to disturb you Scott, I realise you are probably only here to sort things out briefly but I just wanted to check in with you, I know it must be a really awful time. I'm glad your Father has finally taken some compassionate leave."
"As am I. He has taken it hard Mike but I know he feels the company is in the best hands."
"Thank you. Well I just wanted to grab you before you went as there is one urgent project that is mid production but has hit a serious snag. It's not something I can sign off on, the budget needs increasing by half a million dollars."
Scott whistled. "What's the projects name?" He sat poised to draw up the file on the computer, unfortunately this one couldn't wait.
"It's called Velocity One, it's the prototype jet your father was developing."
Scott knew all about that project, prior to the accident his father had been more than animated about how it would revolutionise the air industry within military circles, an air craft capable of travelling at 15,000 miles per hour with the purpose of reconnaissance and survey missions in mind. It was very hush, hush only the top execs knew about its existence. Knowing it was something that would interest his eldest son, Scott had already seen the schematics and early production plans so he was very familiar with the project and just as excited as his father had been. He dreamed of flying something capable of that speed and agility. Imagine being able to fly anywhere in the world within an hour! He pulled up the file and skimmed through the latest updates.
"So, why's it suddenly become a money pit?" He knew his father wouldn't have missed such an oversight.
"Well, your father is set on having it powered by a small version of an atomic fusion reactor. So that it relies on a sustainable energy source. Now the company producing this assured us it could be done within the costing parameters your father set but they had never actually built one to this scale before, historically they have been much larger. Anyway, they have tried and failed with several prototypes and have been exhausting the money, so I asked them to tell me how much we are likely to overspend and this was the result."
Scott looked at the plans wistfully, his dad had his heart set on this to succeed as did Scott. "Hmmm can they guarantee success?"
"They want to but no they have no conclusive evidence to back this up."
Scott debated. It has so much potential, maybe it was just ahead of its time? Looking at the latest costings, they had not yet sunk their whole investment into this project it was still in the early stages. Still time to pull the plug.
"The rights of the project and the atomic fusion reactor design remain with us, right? Regardless of the decision." Scott questioned across the desk.
"Yes" mike shifted his position to cross his legs.
"The contract here clearly states we can terminate if the designs don't meet our expectations and they will reimburse costs up to a sum of £350,000 should they not be able to fulfil the designs to the required specs." Mike supplemented.
"Ok, well as much as dad and myself would like to see this one come into fruition, I think it needs to be terminated for now. It can be shelved for the time being and reviewed at a later date if he wants to pick it up again."
Mike instantly looked relieved. "Thanks Scott. I think it's the logical decision."
"We will hold on to the asset in its current state along with the designs until my father decides what he wants to do with them, maybe we can find an alternative power source but retain the design of the craft. Or we can look to send the atomic fusion design out to tender again in the near future." Scott finished writing the report and added his signature. "There we go I have sent across to you now, file is updated and project terminated."
"Thank you, Scott, right I'll leave you in peace you must have a multitude of things to sort right now."
Scott sighed, looking much older than his 28 years. "That I do. Mike are you able to advise the board that Father will most likely be off for a month, it's what his doctor has advised, he'll be sending a report shortly (This was true, their family doctor had been the one to forcibly sign Jeff off work when he had tried to return days after his wife and father's deaths after his sons raised their concerns).
"Certainly Scott. I am sorry to hear that, please pass on our condolences and if there is anything, we can do for you, your brothers or your father just let us know."
"Thanks Mike, I really appreciate it"
"Scott, I know this is a hard thing to decide but do you know who will be covering the business in the interim? There's no rush but over a month is a long time to manage without the CEO at the helm." Mike was still a relatively new hire; it was a big burden for him to take on the full proceedings of this juggernaut of a company. He could manage a couple of weeks sure but a month more? Scott hadn't thought this far ahead, who the hell was going to manage it? He was pretty sure he wasn't going to be granted a month's leave to shore up his father's company when he was still conscripted. He didn't want to leave the forces yet either. Virgil had started very recently to get to grips with the company maybe they could share the duties somehow that still allowed Scott to remain as he was. What if dad didn't come back? Scott wasn't sure he could cope with losing his dream career on top of everything else. It panicked him just thinking about it but if it safeguarded his family's future he would do it in a heartbeat even if he would be miserable. "It's something I need to discuss with Virgil, give me a couple of days and we will work something out between us in line with the contingency plans." Scott understood business but he certainly didn't have his father's passion for it.
"No worries, thanks Scott, we will keep you posted if there is anything else that is considered of the upmost urgency." Scott nodded.
Mike took that as his dismissal and left, Scott had already shut down the computer before they had finished talking, it was nearly six PM and he'd rather get home than have to stay a night here in the city. He flipped up his phone to see he had five missed calls from Virgil and one from Alan. Frowning he hit the speed dial for home.
"Virgil, everything ok. Any contact from dad?"
"Well as ok as things can be around here, you were meant to check in. I was ringing to see if you were ok? …. and no there's been no contact or news." Scott knew it was a long shot but Virgil's words still disappointed him all the same. He was really hoping Dad had just needed to clear his head and would come home when he was ready.
"Yeah, sorry Virg I got bogged down in the office with a few things that needed immediate attention, look I got a lead on the tracker but I still don't have a definite location, I'll explain more when I get home ok?"
"Your coming home tonight, is that wise?" Virgil knew Scott had been struggling to rest like the rest of them.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. I'd rather be home with you all."
"Ok see you later."
Scott pocketed his phone and walked out of the office, not even noticing Sally as she said goodbye from her desk. His mind was running through a checklist of priorities as well as how to break the news that their father was still very much missing.