Free Hypersonic Thunder: A Novel of the Jet Age by Walter J. Boyne Page A

her.”
    “Have we got the votes to make it stick? You know she has the single largest amount of stock in the company. She has spent all her income acquiring it, and she never lets me forget it.”
    “That’s what I’ve been going over. If the rest of us put our stock together, we have almost as much as she has. It’s a good thing that she insisted on separate holdings for you and for her, otherwise we’d be screwed. But the irony is that the key votes, the swing vote, in this will come from Rodriquez. That son of a bitch manages to be the worm in every rose, even when he doesn’t intend to. If we can get him to agree to vote with us, we can remove her as the chairman and CEO and get out of this godforsaken mall tragedy.”
    Harry tipped back in the chair and snorted. “And why would he do that? He’s been snapping up our customers right and left for the past year. I thought the simulator business was just a fluke, but he’s going after all our customers.”
    Tom shook his head. “I never thought I’d say this, but I can’t blame him. He sees what’s happening to us, and if he doesn’t take the contracts, somebody else will. Like they said in The Godfather , it is just business. Will you go and sound him out?”
    “Well, it’s a cinch you can’t go; you’ve hated his guts for so long that he’d have to be a saint to do you a favor. I’ve always liked Bob, and always gotten along with him. And to tell you the truth, I’ll be surprised if he refuses to help out on this. He’s not that kind of guy. And O’Malley won’t refuse. He still idolizes you, just like he did when he was a cadet at the Academy.”
    “They know they will be putting a rival back in business, for I swear to you, if—when—Nancy steps down, I’m going to make sure that you replace her. Then I’m going to make sure that Vance Shannon, Incorporated, gets back on top where Dad would want it to be.”
    Harry smiled.
    “The funny thing about that is that Dad would never have wanted his company to be this big. He’d have much preferred to have stayed small, doing the things he liked to do, testing new airplanes.”
    Tom shook his head. “He did it to himself when he took Rodriquez in to look after the electronic end. That’s what screwed things up.”
    “Naw, Tom, that’s just a parochial view. Dad had the best of his testing world when he was young, but as he got older, aviation matured. The world changed and he changed with it; the funny thing is that he changed faster than his kids. You and I haven’t caught up to his vision yet.”
    “The problem was, his vision was Rodriquez, and Rodriquez took us too far too fast. Again, it’s my fault. If I’d been home, tending to business like he wanted me to, it never would have happened.”
    “Time to stop moaning and bitching, Tom. Nancy is not going to take this lying down; we better get our ducks in a row before she suspects anything. It’s a hell of a note to tell you to keep this from your wife, but you’ll have to, or she will hit the roof.”
    “I hope you are wrong, my brother, because I’m going to tell her tonight. I think she will fold if I tell her that we are united against her.”
    “Not tonight, Tom. Don’t tell her a damn thing until I talk to Rodriquez. If you do, and she talks to him first, you and I might be out looking for a job. At our age, it won’t be fun.”
    Harry shook his head for a moment, then laughed.
    “Look at us, Tom. Nancy is about five foot four and weighs no more than 120 pounds, I guess, and we are both scared of her. We’ve both been in combat, you were a POW, and this little wisp of a woman terrifies us. What the hell is going on?”
    “The problem is they condition us to love them and then it’s all over, they win every round. They are tougher than we are. Believe me, I hope I’m right and that she wants to quit. If she doesn’t we are in for one hell of a fight.”
    “Well, let’s hope Rodriquez is willing to