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Chapter 4: Thursday Morning
Montgomery
Lester sat at the head of his boardroom table. Seated around the table were the
directors of his various subsidiary businesses. He picked a banana out of the
fruit bowl on the table next to him. Unpeeling it slowly, he surveyed the faces
in the room. His meetings usually started this way. There was a lot you could
learn from faces. Some were uncomfortable with the silence in the room, others
sat serenely, still others looked nervous and stressed. He had learned to read
each man around the table; he knew what each man would say before he said it.
He took a
bite from his banana. The head of the shipping division was calm. That was good,
since shipping made up the largest percentage of his revenue. The Courier
service was next to him, and was not nearly as calm as his neighbor. Montgomery
knew there had been a drop in business in the recent months. A recent line-of-sight
visual relay upstart had disrupted Lester’s previous monopoly on long-distance
communication. He suspected the competitor would be short-lived. Montgomery
didn’t lose sleep over it, but he was pleased that his manager seemed to.
He
continued to scan the faces. Heavy Manufacturing was smiling broadly, a very
good sign indeed. “Timothy, please share the good news with the group.”
“Yes sir.
We have received orders from three major construction groups for orders of our
steamdozers and excavation machinery. It seems that hydraulic systems failed for
some of our competitors. That failure has brought people back to the tried and
tested bar and cable systems that we use.”
“Yes, as
always, a return to our legacy is the prudent choice. The world would save
itself a great deal of stress by recognizing this truth. Even in the current
regime, the harlot of technology proves too great a temptation.”
He
looked around the table as the other managers nodded their agreement to his
statement. He spotted a concerned look on the president of Materials and
Mining’s face. Strange, he wasn’t expecting that. “Adelai, is there a problem
with the M2 division?”
“Um, well,
sir…there is a concern.”
Montgomery
took a bite from his banana, waving his hand to indicate that the manager was
to continue speaking.
“There was
a collapse in Coal 27. Ten workers were killed or disabled in the incident.”
“What
status?”
“All
indentures. Technologist probationers.”
“More like
reprobates, I think.” Montgomery joked, to universal chuckles from around the
table. “It is kind of you to be concerned about these men. It is unfortunate
that they were killed.”
“Yes,
thank you, sir.” The manager continued, “However, the issue is that we no
longer have any reserve indentures to replace them. It is likely we will need
to turn to wage-earners.”
“I see.”
Montgomery nodded. “Then we must pay the wage-earners. It is the way of the
future. As we have fewer and fewer Technologists arrested, we will have fewer
indentures. We must accept that we will need to hire labor for this type of
work in the future.”
The
managers around the table all wrote that down, as if it was some new piece of
information that they had never considered previously. Lester continued to scan
the faces around the table. Agriculture was happy, which was not a surprise in
the least. There is always demand for food. His eyes stopped at the head of the
railroad division. He had always had a hard time reading his face. He showed
great promise as a manager, and had tremendous control over his emotions.
“Leffe, an
update on Railroads if you don’t mind.” It was a statement more than a
question.
“Certainly.”
The manager replied confidently. “Cargo is up. This is looking to be one of our
best years in the cargo hauling portfolio. We have expanded timetables on
several of our busiest routes. In fact, we have had to upgrade locomotives on
five different lines to handle the increased volume.”
“Very
good. And passenger service?”
“Not as
good. Long-distance runs have been strong, due to our faster speeds compared to
the airships. However, in local service, our underground lines have been losing
market share. It seems we are suffering losses to the air services within the
cities.”
“Hmm. That
is not good. Any ideas?”
“It’s
difficult. We cannot compete with them for convenience, since they are able to
drop people at rooftops. We cannot compete for speed, since their routes are
direct, while ours are limited to our tunnels. The only advantage we have is
safety, but that is slim.”
“We should
emphasize that advantage then.”
The
manager nodded. “Also of concern is that airships are getting faster. While
they cannot compete with us overland, they are improving at leaps and bounds.
They are beginning to borrow technology from airbike racing that has been
vastly improving the speed of long-distance air travel.”
“All the
more reason to get our high-speed trains in service as quickly as possible.”
Lester replied, taking a second banana from the bowl.
“Yes, sir.
We have updated the overland route into the city from the south. Our first
high-speed train will be arriving tomorrow afternoon.”
Montgomery
stopped mid-peel, “Tomorrow? Is that the train with the armored car?” He went
back to his banana.
“It is.
Which brings up a good point. The armored car service is proving very popular.
With our city’s superior banking sector, we have a rather large backlog of
people waiting for space on the armored run. They would prefer to keep their
valuables in the vaults of our banks than their homes. It has been very good
for business.”
“Yes,
indeed. Is there any concern with the armored car being pulled by the
high-speed locomotive? Does that increase risk?”
“Only
minimally. In reality, it provides peace of mind for our clients. The less time
their valuables are out of a safe or vault, the better. With the high speed
locomotive, we can travel at speeds greater than 100 miles per hour. That cuts
transit time by 40%. To celebrate the occasion, we’ve agreed to transport some
items that will be placed in the Traditionalist museum collection. I believe
they are records and documents from the early years of the revolution.”
“Very
good. Thank you, Leffe.” Motgomery popped the last bite of banana in his mouth.
“That is all for now. Thank you all for your time. Back to work.”
The others
filed out of the room and Montgomery returned to his desk. He was nervous about
the train arriving tomorrow. Despite his manager’s assurances, he felt like
there was just too much risk involved. It wasn’t how he was used to operating.
He was the most powerful man in the city, but he could do nothing to change these
risks. He knew that it was useless worry on his part, everything would be fine.
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