VELOCITY - DEE JACOB [16]
But the taut physique of his youth had expanded and slackened over the decades to a stocky roundness. The handsome good looks that had drawn the attentions of the cheerleaders – one of whom he had eventually married – were now lost in a rather meaty face with the trace of a double chin. In short, his appearance these days was unremarkable. Yet, still, when Murphy entered a place, he filled it. People always knew he was in the room. When Murphy entered the Oakton plant at 7:30 on a Monday morning, a wordless buzz passed down the aisles and just about every Hi-T employee could sense he was on the floor.
His first stop was the Cooler – the gigantic freezer where they kept the resins and certain other raw materials to make the composites. These were stored at 0°F to keep them chemically stable. Indeed, once a resin came out of the deep freeze and began to warm, the clock began to run. It would begin its “out-life.” For at a normal room temperature, the chemistry within the resin would start to change, and the plant had a limited number of days to make products with it. The window of opportunity was typically about three weeks, sometimes less and sometimes more, depending on the resin. But beyond that time frame, the resin became unworkable. It was junk.
Just as Murphy approached, the access door to the Cooler opened. From a swirling cloud of vapors came Jerome Pepps, materials manager. He was dressed as if he had just visited the North Pole – in a hooded parka and wearing heavy mittens.
“Well, well, you must be a man who’s looking for trouble,” he said to Murphy.
“Having found you, Jayro, I know I’m within farting distance of it.”
“I am going to tell you ‘good morning’ right now,” said Jayro, “because that’s the last ‘good’ you’re likely to hear all day. Would you like some coffee, sir?”
“I’m trying to cut back,” said Murphy, “but somehow I think I had better.”
Jerome – Jayro, as Murph and many others called him – stripped off his mittens, unzipped his parka, and poured coffee from a fresh pot into two mugs, then handed one to his boss.
“How bad?” asked Murphy.
“Well, first of all, there’s the Navy job–”
“Don’t start with the Navy job! Haven’t even had my first sip yet!”
“All right. I’ll start with the folks in Autoclave.”
“What about ’em?”
“They’re all fussed up again. Don’t know what to do. The computer’s telling them things that don’t make sense.”
“That’s that goofball WING-ding software a-gummin’ up everthang again,” said Murphy. “You look up gridlock in the dictionary and you’ll find a picture of a WING3.2 terminal. All right, I’ll handle it.”
“Then we got four – four – runs on the schedule that require a twenty-three-hour soak. And they’re all due to ship on Friday.”
“Ah, shoot! That’s bad. That’s really bad. Jayro, we absolutely have to spread those out. What lamebrain scheduled four of those in one week?”
Jayro put on a happy face and said, “Don’t look at me, Murph! I don’t make the schedule; I just read the schedule.”
“We’ve got to get one of those shifted to a Monday ship date, and the rest moved to later in the month. Wait a minute. How big are the orders? Maybe we can get them all out on Monday – but it has to be Monday, not Friday.”
“I’ll print the specs for you,” said Jayro.
“Fine. Now, that’s it, right? Except for the Navy job? Can I sip my coffee in peace?”
“Um, I’m afraid not. We need WEX-457 big time. I just checked inside the Cooler, and we are way below minimum.”
“What happened? Didn’t you reorder when you were supposed to?”
“Yes, Murph, I did reorder when we hit the minimum, but the replenishment has not come in. Now we are down to the dregs. And I also know from phone calls last week that Mom and Dad are on vacation. They have told us to be good chill’uns and be quiet while the house is on fire.”
By “Mom and Dad,” he was referring to Hi-T’s parent, to Winner, Inc. Since the acquisition, it was the Winner