VELOCITY - DEE JACOB [3]
“Wow, is this guy in trouble,” Amy said under her breath. Then, to Linda: “Look, it’s probably just one of those rumors that gets started. Don’t get yourself in a tizzy.”
“But Bobby just got laid off and I’m five-and-a-half-months pregnant! What if we have to go through all that downsizing stuff again?”
“If it ever happens, it’s a long way off. All right? Anyway, Bobby is smart; he’ll find something else. You’ll both be fine – I mean, all three of you, you’ll be just fine. Now, I need you to make some travel reservations for me …”
With Linda calmed down and returning to her normal high-level competency, buzzing away at task after task and all but leaping tall buildings, even in her pregnant state, Amy whisked herself down the hall. Email printout in hand, she hurried into the corner office of Hi-T Composites Company President B. Donald Williams. She shut B. Don’s door behind her and leaned her slim frame against it, almost exactly as Linda had done.
“What’s up?” asked B. Don.
“Have you heard?”
He blinked his eyes as if feigning ignorance, then relented. “Well, yes, I have heard. I have to say, I am not shocked.”
“You’re not?”
“No, I’m not.”
Amy’s mouth dropped open.
“Anyone could have seen it coming,” he said.
“Well, I couldn’t.”
“Come on, Amy! Everyone knows Bill is a jerk – and Elaine, much as I appreciate her professionally, would just be impossible to live with.”
“No! Not them. This!”
She handed the sheet of paper across the desk to B. Don and sat down in one of his well-worn, sun-faded chairs. The business unit president put on his glasses and then scrutinized the words, his eyes widening as he read.
“Oh … ! Oh snap!” he said. “Where the snappin’ hell did this come from?”
“According to Linda – who had nothing to do with this – everyone knows. Or thinks they know. Anyway, everyone is talking about it. By the way, is it true?”
B. Don leaned back, removed his glasses, and gave them a toss, such that the glasses spun across the leather blotter on his desk. He then shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.
“Can you tell me … or not?” Amy asked.
“You,” he said with emphasis, “cannot tell anyone.”
“But everyone knows.”
“But you cannot talk about it. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“To anyone. Understood?”
“Well, sure. But according to Linda, it’s all over the place.”
“Most of what’s in this moron’s email is pure crap. However … and unfortunately … the basic story is true. We are being sold. That’s why I’ve been going to St. Louis so often the past few months. I’ve been at headquarters meeting with the board and the new buyer.”
“Who’s buying?”
B. Don leaned over his desk and whispered the name.
“Really?”
“Yes,” he said. “Now, what I’ve just told you could probably get me fired … or, these days, even get me sent to jail. So–”
“I won’t breathe a word, you know that.”
The president tipped back in his chair, shook his head, and exhaled, making a sound somewhere between a chuckle and a sigh.
“Amy, I hate to swear in front of you–”
“B. Don, it’s fine. I’m sure I know all the words.”
“But what really pisses me off is … we finally got it right. We got our production issues sorted out. And we nailed the Herbie.”
“Excuse me?”
“We nailed the Herbie.”
“The what?”
“The … the bottleneck. The system constraint. We nailed it, and it’s not movin’. And these guys are going to come in and screw it up. I just know it’s going to happen. They are going to come in high and mighty and they are going to screw it all up.”
“Don, I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Well … you’re marketing. What I’m talking about is a supply chain issue–”
“Which does affect marketing. Not to mention sales.”
“Anyway … so be it. One does what one can do,” said Don. “Now, Amy, you’re a far better wordsmith than I am. Help me write something I can send out to the general world countering the so-called rumor, especially the piece of it that’s true. In other words, help me lie through my teeth and yet not seem to be completely evil or stupid in a few days’ time.