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&039;Ten minutes, max," Smith said
"Oh sure," Doherty said, from inside the cockpit &039;Ten minutes max, oh sure Not that it uess I can&039;t It&039;s my kid&039;s birthday, and I won&039;t be hoive h "Can you think of anything else that s Salmonella in the cake All the kids poisoned," Doherty said
Casey looked out the door TheBurne was finishing up his inspection of the engines Trung was loading the DFDR into the van
It was tio home
As she started down the stairs, she noticed three Norton Security vans parked in a corner of the hangar There were about twenty security guards standing around the plane, and in various parts of the hangar
Rich to the guards
"We always put security on the plane, until it&039;s ferried to the plant," she said
"That&039;s a lot of security"
"Yeah, well" Casey shrugged "It&039;s an iuards all wore sidearuards before A hangar at LAX was a secure facility There wasn&039;t any need for the guards to be ar through the northeast corner of Building 64, past the huge tools on which the as built The tools were crisscrossed blue steel scaffolding, rising twenty feet above the ground Although they were the size of a sned to within a thousandth of an inch Up on the platfor around, putting the wing together
To the right, she saw groups of e wooden crates "What&039;s all that?" Richman said
"Looks like rotables," Casey said
"Rotables?"
"Spare tooling that we rotate into the line if soear up for the China sale The wing&039;s thepart to build; so the plan is to build the wings in our facility in Atlanta, and ship theure in a shirt and tie, shirtsleeves rolled up, standing a on the crates It was Don Brull, the president of the UAW local He saw Casey, called to her, and started toward her He esture with his hand; she knehat he wanted
Casey said to Richman, "Give me a minute I&039;ll see you back at the office"
"Who is that?" Richman said
"I&039;llthere, as Brull came closer "Maybe you want me to stay and - "
"Bob," she said "Get lost"
Reluctantly, Rich over his shoulder as he walked away
Brull shook her hand The UAW president was a short and solidly built man, an ex-boxer with a broken nose He spoke in a soft voice "You know, Casey, I always liked you"
"Thanks, Don," she said "Feeling&039;s mutual"
"Those years when you were on the floor, I always kept my eye on you Kept you out of trouble"
"I know that, Don" She waited Brull was notorious for long windups
"I always thought, Casey isn&039;t like the others"
"What&039;s going on, Don?" she said
"We got some problems with this China sale," Brull said
"What kind of problems?"
"Proble "You know there&039;s always offset with a big sale" In recent years, airfraed to send portions of the fabrication overseas, to the countries ordering planes A country that ordered fifty planes expected to get a piece of the action It was standard procedure
"I know," Brull said "But in the past, you guys sent part of the tail, maybe the nose, ht"
"But these tools we&039;re crating up," he said, "are for the wing And the Tea us these crates aren&039;t going to Atlanta - they&039;re going to Shanghai The co to China"
"I don&039;t know the details of the agree, Casey," he said "That&039;s core technology Nobody ever gives away the wing Not Boeing, nobody You give the Chinese the wing, you give away the store They don&039;t need us any eneration of planes on their own Ten years from now, nobody here has a job"
"Don," she said, "I&039;ll check into this, but I can&039;t believe the wing is part of the offset agree you it is"
"Don I&039;ll check for you But right now I&039;m pretty busy with this 545 incident, and - "
"You&039;re not listening, Casey The local&039;s got a proble problem" He paused, looked at her "Understand?&039;
She did The UAW workers on the floor had absolute control over production They could slon, sick out, break tooling, and create hundreds of other intractable problems "I&039;ll talk to Marder," she said "I&039;m sure he doesn&039;t want a problehed Typical union ht The China sale had beenteam Marder was just the COO He ran the plant He didn&039;t have anything to do with sales
"I&039;ll get back to you tomorrow, Don"
"That&039;s fine," Brull said "But I&039; you, Casey Personally I&039;d hate to see anything happen"
"Don," she said "Are you threatening me?"
"No, no," Brull said quickly, with a pained expression "Don&039;tisn&039;t cleared up fast, it could kill the China sale"
"That&039;s true"
"And you&039;re speaking for the IRT"
"That&039;s true, too"
Brull shrugged "So, I&039;ainst the sale Souys are pretty hot about it I was you, I&039;d take a week off"
"I can&039;t do that I&039;ation"
Brull looked at her
"Don I&039;ll talk to Marder about the wing," she said "But I have to dohis hand on her arood care, honey"
ADMINISTRATION
4:40 PM
"No, no," Marder said, pacing in his office "This is nonsense, Casey There&039;s no e&039;d send the wing to Shanghai What do they think, we&039;re crazy? That&039;d be the end of the co with the UAW, that&039;s all You kno ruh the plant Remeuys wouldn&039;t come to work for a month But it wasn&039;t true And this one&039;s not true, either Those tools are going to Atlanta," he said "And for one very good reason We&039;re fabbing the wing in Atlanta so that the senator froo to the Ex-Iraia Got it?"
"Then soet the word out," Casey said
"Christ," Marder said "They know this The union reps sit in on all the s It&039;s usually Brull hiotiations"
"I&039;ll speak to him," Marder said
Casey said, "I&039;d like to see the offset agreement"
"And you will, as soon as it&039;s final"
"What are we giving thee," Marder said 75
"Saive the else, they&039;re not co with the IRT To stop the China sale"
"Interfering how?" Marder said, frowning at her "Did he threaten you?"
Casey shrugged
"What did he say?"
"He recommended a week&039;s vacation"
"Oh, for Christ&039;s sake," Marder said, throwing up his hands "This is ridiculous I&039;ll talk to hihten him out Don&039;t worry about this Just stay focused on the job Okay?"
"Okay"
"Thanks for the heads-up I&039;ll take care of this for you"
NORTON QA
4:53 PM
Casey rode the elevator from the ninth floor down to her own offices, on the fourth floor She replayed theHis exasperation had been genuine And it was true what Marder said - ruh the plant, all the tiuys had all co solicitously, "How do you feel?&039; It was days before she learned there was a rumor she had cancer
Just a rumor Another ruraphs of famous Norton aircraft from the past, with a celebrity posed in front: Franklin Delano Roosevelt beside the B-22 that carried hiirls in the tropics, in front of an N-5; Henry Kissinger, on the N-12 that had taken hiraphs were sepia-toned, to convey a sense of age, and the stability of the colass, with raised lettering: "Quality Assurance Division" She cae open room The secretaries sat in the bullpen; executive offices lined the walls
Nore, with blue-rinse hair, and a cigarette dangling froulations to s, but Nor as anyone could reirls in the picture with Errol Flynn, and that she had had a hot affair with Charley Norton back in the fifties Whether any of that was true or not, she certainly knehere all the bodies were buried Within the co on fear Even Marder was cautious around her
Casey said, "What&039;ve we got, Nor" She handed a stack to Casey "The Fizer in Hong Kong phoned three tione hoo You can probably still get hiht Service Representatives in thein The FSRs were Norton ened to the carriers, and the carriers would be worried about the incident
"And, let&039;s see," Norton office is all atwitter, they&039;ve heard the JAA is going to exploit this on Airbus&039;s behalf What a surprise Fizer in Dusseldorf wants a confirm it was pilot error Fizer in Milan wants information Fizer in Abu Dhabi wants a week in Milan Fizer in Bohtened hihter said to tell you she did not need her sweatshirt"
"Great"
Casey took the faxes back to her office She found Rich at her desk He looked up in surprise, and rose quickly from her chair "Sorry"
Casey said, "Didn&039;t Norma find you an office?"
"Yes, I have one," Rich around the desk "I was just, ah, just wondering what you wantedwith the video camera they had found on the plane
"I&039;ll take it"
He gave it to her "So What happens now?"
She dropped the stack of telexes on her desk "I&039;d say you&039;re through for the day," she said "Be here tomorrow at seven"
He left, and she sat down in her chair Everything seemed to be as she had left it But she noticed that the second drawer on the desk was not quite closed Had Richh her desk?
Casey pulled the drawer open, revealing boxes of computer disks, stationery, a pair of scissors, some felt-tip pens in a tray It all looked undisturbed But still
She heard Richman leave, then went back down the hall to Nor behind my desk"
&039;Tell et hihten him out," Casey said "They had him a couple ofto Jean over there, and she says they hardly ever saw him He was always on the road"
"On the road? A new kid, a Norton relative? Marketing would never send hio?"
Norma shook her head "Jean didn&039;t know You want me to call Travel, and find out?"