Read Conquerors of the Sky Online
Authors: Thomas Fleming
Conquerors of the Sky (67 page)
The joke was no longer thin. “I'm sorry Babe. I really am,” Dick said.
Dick called Adrian next. When he gave him the figures there was a long silence, which Dick presumed was astonishment. “I'll call Mike Shannon in Washington and tell him to go to work on damage control,” Adrian said. “If this stuff gets out, McNamara will crucify us. He's never forgiven us for the brawl over the Warrior. Can we bury the costs in our budget for the time being?”
Adrian was asking him to cook the books. Dick reluctantly agreed to do it.
“Eventually we've got to get the money back or find someone richer than Rockefeller to finance us for the rest of the century,” he warned.
“Eventually we've got to get the money back or find someone richer than Rockefeller to finance us for the rest of the century,” he warned.
“I'm betting on Shannon to get the money. But it may take time. What's Billy got to say for himself?”
“Not a hell of a lot. He doesn't think there's anything to worry about. I suggest you give him an assistant who can get tough with the unions, the suppliers, the whole goddamn Mafioso circus that runs this state.”
There was a long pause. Then Adrian said: “I'm inclined to do something much more drastic.”
“Wait a minute, Adrian. You've got some responsibility for this mess. You sent Billy down here without an iota of advice, as far as I can see.”
“I thought he was a mature, responsible executive,” Adrian said. “Are you defending someone who's in danger of costing us two billion dollars?”
“I see no point in crucifying him. Why the hell didn't you let him go on testing planes? Flying's the only thing he likes to do.”
“Dickâmay I remind you that I make the decisions on who shouldâand should notâbe crucified? That's part of my job. Maybe the most important part.”
Dick found the choice of wordsâ
remind you
âand the metaphorâsingularly repugnant. He began to realize something was going on here more importantâto Adrian, at leastâthan the two-billion-dollar overrun.
remind you
âand the metaphorâsingularly repugnant. He began to realize something was going on here more importantâto Adrian, at leastâthan the two-billion-dollar overrun.
“I'm sending someone absolutely trustworthy down to help you straighten out this mess,” Adrian said. “Cliff Morris will be on a plane in two hours.”
Dick drove to the plant in Knowlesville, wondering if he should talk to Billy before Adrian started setting up the cross and handing out the nails. As he went past the project manager's door on the way to the accounting department, he heard Billy call: “Hey, Dick.”
Billy had the usual smile on his face. Dick felt a spear of guilt. “Dick,” Billy said, still smiling. “I thought we were friends.”
“We are.”
“Does a friend call the biggest prick in California and tell him his buddy's fucked up?” Billy said. “I just got off the phone with God, otherwise known as Daddy, and more widely as Adrian Van Ness. He dumped about a ton of shit on my head, most of which came from you.”
“BillyâI was sent down here with the responsibility for finding out where we are on this job. You're putting the whole fucking company at risk, do you realize that?”
“Oh, ain't that awful. Puttin' you and Adrian and all the other fuckin' front office paper shufflers at risk. Now they're sendin' the number one asskisser in the aircraft business, Mr. Supersalesman Cliff Morris himself down here to straighten things out. You gonna stay around to help him shove the shaft up my butt?”
“I've got work to do,” Dick said. “I hope you and Adrian discussed how to get these costs under control.”
“As a matter of fact, I told him it was impossible, if he was gonna have this
goddamn thing ready for Lyndon Johnson to inspect on October nineteenth. That's rollout day. I'll bet you a hundred dollars Big Cliff, so well-known for his courage, decides I'm rightâafter he fires me.”
goddamn thing ready for Lyndon Johnson to inspect on October nineteenth. That's rollout day. I'll bet you a hundred dollars Big Cliff, so well-known for his courage, decides I'm rightâafter he fires me.”
“He isn't going to fire you. Nobody can fire you.”
“I can quit. That's what I'll do before I take a single order from that shitheel. Jesus Christ, Dick, couldn't you have come to me first and talked this over? Don't you know Adrian and Cliff and his English bitch of a wife have been tryin' to hang my scalp out to dry since the day I married Victoria? Where've you been?”
Score another one for Amalie Bourne, Dick thought. He had lost touch with what was happening all around him in Buchanan Aircraft. “Maybe you're right, but two billion dollars is still a hell of a lot of money.”
“Shit. The missile division blew three billion on that Crusader rocket for the Navy and no one got the firing squad. That fucking thing never even flew. At least we'll have a planeâa great planeâto show for the money.”
“But we'll be in hock for a hundred years to pay it off.”
“Dickâyou should've kept flyin'. You're only two degrees away from turning into Adrian Van Ness.”
For a man who seemed indifferent to office politics, Billy had an uncanny ability to deliver a kick to the solar plexus. More kicks were coming. By the time Cliff Morris arrived in Knowlesville that night, Dick had received a call from Frank Buchanan, defending Billy and blaming most of the cost overrun on the Air Force, which kept changing its mind about the plane.
Cliff could not have looked more grim as he stalked into Dick's temporary office. But the moment he closed the door, a gloating smile appeared. “It looks like the son-in-law has finally fucked up,” he said.
Again Dick had the unpleasant sense of discovering he was not on the inside of what was happening. He was a passenger, an employee, performing a function.
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
“I don't know. Maybe get the son of a bitch indictedâif you can get us the evidence. Gross malfeasance, that sort of thing.”
“You're not getting any help from me.”
“DickâAdrian told me your cooperation was
guaranteed
,” Cliff said.
guaranteed
,” Cliff said.
Ignoring that ugly threat, Dick told Cliff why impaling Billy McCall would not work. Frank Buchanan was backing Billy 150 percent. He asked Cliff to imagine Frank testifying at a congressional hearing. Buchanan would never get another government contract.
“If you're trying to knock Billy out of the race for the top job, you've already done it. The board of directors will have to be told about this eventually and they'll blame him. Push him too far and we'll all be looking for new jobsâand maybe indicted in the bargain.”
Cliff denied trying to knock Billy out of the race for anything. He was down here to straighten out a mess, that was all he had on his mind. But there was
no more talk about indicting Billyâor firing him. After touring the plant and talking to Billy for an hour, Cliff flew black to Los Angeles. Dick spent the next ten days in Knowlesville, grappling with financial chaos. Grimly applying a cost-per-pound analysis to the plane based on the current production pace, he verified the probability of a two-billion-dollar overrun. Each night he called Cassie, who told him it was still perfectly all right. Throughout the ten days, Billy McCall never said another word to him. He stalked past Dick as if he were invisible.
no more talk about indicting Billyâor firing him. After touring the plant and talking to Billy for an hour, Cliff flew black to Los Angeles. Dick spent the next ten days in Knowlesville, grappling with financial chaos. Grimly applying a cost-per-pound analysis to the plane based on the current production pace, he verified the probability of a two-billion-dollar overrun. Each night he called Cassie, who told him it was still perfectly all right. Throughout the ten days, Billy McCall never said another word to him. He stalked past Dick as if he were invisible.
Back in California, Dick went to work on revising the budget for the current fiscal year to hide the overrun. Adrian's smile was almost beatific as he surveyed the result. “A beautiful job,” he murmured. “What would we do without you, Dick?”
He paused and shuffled papers on his desk, always a signal for an announcement. “The next thing I want is a report clearly stating in layman's languageâin fact, in language a woman can understandâBilly's gross incompetence on this job.”
“Why?”
“There's a particular woman I want to read it. Eventually, I'll want the board of directors to read it too. It's an odd combination of personal and company business. But you understand how those things happen, Dick.”
So much for Dick's noble defense of his friend Billy in Knowlesville. Adrian was applying the screws in person now, while Amalie Borne stood in the distance, smiling. The report was as impersonal as a tombstone in a veteran's cemetery. It simply stated the facts, the dates, the figures, comparing what the costs had been predicted to be in the TPP contract and what they turned out to be under Billy McCall's supervision.
“Another beautiful job,” Adrian said, the day after Dick handed in the report. He sat Dick next to him at lunch and began telling him his plans for the future. “We're going back into the commercial airliner market. Between the Thunderer and the Colossus, if we can recover those cost overruns, we can finance a new jet to fill a hole in the marketâa medium-sized wide body that will make Boeing's humpbacked Seven-forty-sevens look like aborted whales who forgot to die. I'd like you to talk it up to Frank Buchanan.”
Again, Dick sensed Adrian was reaching out to him, trying to enlist him as a loyal follower. But Dick was not ready to forgive Adrian for forcing him to betray Amalie Borne and Billy McCall. “Do we need another billion-dollar loss leader right now?” he said.
Hubris faded from Adrian's eyes. “Maybe you're right,” he said. They did not exchange another word for days.
Planning for the rollout of the Colossus soon gathered manic intensity. Rumors about the cost overrun were loose in the Pentagon. A civilian employee had turned whistle-blower and was testifying in secret to the subcommittee on government operations, run by penny-pinching Senator William Proxmire with their old senatorial enemy, the Creature, as his right-hand impaler.
Mike Shannon flew in for a conference with Adrian, Cliff Morris, and Dick. “I want Amalie Borne down there for Johnson,” Shannon said. “He's looking for consolation these days.”
In the face of massive protests against the war in Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson had abandoned another run for the presidency. Cassie, a passionate admirer of Tennessee's James K. Polk, who won the Mexican War in spite of similar criticism, called LBJ the greatest coward in American history.
“Amalie's getting harder and harder to handle,” Cliff said.
Amalie had turned into a cost overrun in her own right. She was supposed to work with Shannon in Washington or with the Prince in Europe. She frequently balked at doing either. When she showed up, she often coolly said good night to her escort at the door of her room without even making a decent excuse.
“We'll send Billy to New York to fly her down in style,” Adrian said.
His cold eyes asked Dick what he was going to say about that idea. It was a perfect way to make it clear to everyone how low Billy had fallenâfrom project manager to company pilot. Dick said nothing. It was none of his business, he told himself for the twentieth time. He was just a spectator at this crucifixion.
Knowlesville had never seen anything like the Colossus rollout. All day, Air Force jets roared in with VIP's, climaxed by Air Force One itself, with the President. The Secret Service alone filled every local motel room and most of the high and mighty were booked into New Orleans hotels, which they undoubtedly preferred.
Cassie did not make the trip. She was still nursing their nine-month-old daughter. Frank Buchanan sat next to Dick on the plane, denouncing the way Adrian was abusing Billy, hoping to recruit Dick as an ally. Cliff Morris sat across the aisle reading a magazine, avoiding all Frank's attempts to draw him into the discussion. Next to him sat Sarah of the wide smile. When she lost the smile she looked haggard.
And you, of course, are deliriously happy?
sneered a savage voice in Dick's head. It unmistakably belonged to Amalie Borne. She was among the last to arrive, sauntering from Billy's green Lustra in a green suit precisely the same color as the plane. Billy, defiantly wearing his flight jacket and fifty-missions hat, escorted her to the VIP grandstand where she was greeted by Mike Shannon and led to a seat in one of the rear rows.
sneered a savage voice in Dick's head. It unmistakably belonged to Amalie Borne. She was among the last to arrive, sauntering from Billy's green Lustra in a green suit precisely the same color as the plane. Billy, defiantly wearing his flight jacket and fifty-missions hat, escorted her to the VIP grandstand where she was greeted by Mike Shannon and led to a seat in one of the rear rows.
Dick noticed how Lyndon Johnson followed Amalie's progress. He could almost hear Shannonâor Adrianâselling her to Johnson as Jack Kennedy's favorite. That would make her irresistible to a man who had ruined his presidency by compulsively competing with the ghost of JFK.
An Air Force band struck up “Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder” and the doors of Factory One slowly opened. Out came the snout of the monster, looming over the two tractors that were towing her. A murmur ran through the crowd as the entire plane emerged. The tail was as high as an eight-story
building. The four jet engines each looked big enough to swallow a Volkswagen. The whole thing was painted a deep black, which somehow added to the awesome bulk.
building. The four jet engines each looked big enough to swallow a Volkswagen. The whole thing was painted a deep black, which somehow added to the awesome bulk.
Adrian rose to thank everyone for coming and introduced the President of the United States. Johnson stooped over the bank of microphones and recited some of the Colossus's statistics. It could carry 750,000 pounds at close to the speed of sound. The Colossus fleet, when it was finished next year, could airlift an entire armored division any place in the world. If an enemy thought they could attack American soldiers defending freedom in distant lands, they would have to deal with this “new presence” which made us able to strike back anywhere, anytime.
“Now I know how we're going to win in Vietnam,” Cliff Morris whispered in Dick's ear. “We're going to drown them in bullshit.”
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