9.11 - 59. Chapter 59

October 10, 2001

Escorial

“You still coming with us to the meeting?” Wade asked me as we ate an early dinner.

“Absolutely. Dude, I love those meetings,” I said. “A bunch of gay college guys. Doesn’t get better than that.”

Stef smiled, while everyone else ignored me. We finished eating, and then Grand informed us that it was time to leave. He, Wade, Matt, and I piled into the limo for the brief ride to Stanford. “I suspect this will be a relatively short meeting,” Grand said.

“More time for socializing,” Matt said with a sexy leer, making us chuckle.

“Tony is supposed to go to this one,” I said.

“No shit?” Matt asked, stunned.

“I’m not sure if he’s totally ready to come out, but this may be a good first step,” I said. I was more interested in how his talk with Rick went. I’d expected him to call me, but he hadn’t.

“Dude, I get to fuck everyone who joins the club,” Matt joked. “He’s on my list.”

Only I didn’t laugh. “Nope. He’s not on your list.”

“Dude, really?” Matt asked, still joking about it, until he saw how serious I was.

“Tony’s important to me,” I said firmly. “I told Tony that if he and I were going to be friends with benefits, that my family was off limits.” I paused. “Except for Stef.” That made them all laugh.

“You’re telling me who I can and can’t fuck?” Matt demanded, all annoyed.

“I think he’s telling you that he likes Tony a lot, and he’s asking you not to mess around with a dude he has feelings for,” Wade said to him acidly, then looked at me. “You didn’t ask, but I’ll leave him alone too.”

“I knew I didn’t have to even mention it to you,” I said, and shot Matt a dirty look, at least as obnoxious as the ones he’d thrown my way.

“Whatever,” he said, blowing me off.

I zeroed in on him, making him see how serious I was. “Dude, you can fuck whoever you want, and you can even fuck Tony, but if you do, your truck will probably end up burning like a torch. Just sayin’.”

Matt scowled at me, but this wasn’t a big enough deal for him to get excited about. He finally seemed to get where I was coming from. “What’s with you and fucking up cars?”

“It’s how I get back at dudes who piss me off,” I said, like I fucked up cars all the time, and like it was OK to do that. “So fuck Tony, and the GMC is a big firework.” He rolled his eyes at me like I was joking. I wondered if I was.

We got to the meeting and I sat next to Grand, with a spare seat next to me. I’d saved it for Tony, hoping he’d show up, but the president got up to start the meeting, and he still hadn’t gotten there. I was disappointed and a little worried, since I hadn’t heard from him all day. The president of the club was a tall, skinny dude; the kind of guy who looked like he could break in half during rough sex. But he was pretty organized, and seemed to be on his game. I glanced at Wade and saw him looking as tranquil as ever, only I knew him better than that, and I could tell that he truly was calm. He must have confidence in this guy who took over as president, and that made my opinion of his successor soar.

I was just getting into his discussion on how they were going to increase AIDS awareness on campus when I felt the thump of someone sitting in the seat next to me. I turned to see Tony, pretty much freaking out. “Sorry I’m late,” he whispered.

“You didn’t call me all day,” I said, being bitchy. “I was worried about you.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, being a little bitchy himself. “We’ll talk after this is over.” And it took all of thirty minutes for the meeting to end.

“It is good to see you here, Tony,” Grand said, shaking his hand.

“Thanks,” he said nervously. “It’s good to see you too.”

“Hey big guy,” Matt said, blatantly flirting with Tony. “Want to get to know some of the members?”

“You think we can stop by a store on the way home?” I asked Wade. “I need to get a lighter, and some lighter fluid. I’m feeling like a barbecue.”

Wade tried not to laugh at Matt’s annoyed expression, while I just looked at Matt and raised an eyebrow, throwing down the gauntlet. “I’m sure we have some at home,” Wade said. He took Tony under his wing and led him around, introducing him to people. There was a guy I’d met before just hanging around by himself, like he was uncomfortable being here. He looked vaguely familiar. I walked over to him.

“Hey,” I said. “I’m Will.”

“I’m Josh,” he said, shaking my hand. “You’re friends with Wade, right?”

“Yeah, he lives with us,” I said. “You know him?”

“I took psych with him last year. I went up to your house to study with him once. Nice place.”

“You should come up some time and hang out,” I offered. “We’ve got an indoor pool and a gym.”

“I’ll think about it,” he said, kind of blowing me off.

“You do that,” I said, in the same tone, and turned to leave.

“Hey,” he said, stopping me. “If I decide to come up and see your pool, how will I call you?”

At first, I thought he was being an asshole, but now I figured him out. He was trying to flirt, but he was pretty bad at it, and it came out wrong. “Here,” I said. “Give me your number.”

He was going to argue, but he caved and gave it to me. I plugged the numbers into my phone and called him, and as soon as his phone rang, I hung up. “That was you?” he asked, smiling.

“You Stanford boys are smart,” I joked. “Take out your phone.”

“OK,” he agreed.

“Now program my name in,” I ordered.

“Fine,” he said, and did it. “Aren’t you going to program my number into your phone?”

“Why? I’m not going to call you,” I said, being cocky. He frowned then smiled, while I walked away. I took a break, went to the bathroom to pee, and while I was there, I programmed his name in. I got back to find Tony waiting for me.

“You ready to go?” he asked.

“Sure. You taking me home?” I raised my eyebrows at him suggestively, but he just frowned at me.

“Yes,” he said.

I went in and told Grand I was riding home with Tony, then followed him out of the building and across campus to his car. “You alright?”

“It didn’t go very well,” he said. We both knew he was referring to his talk with Rick.

“How did it not go well?”

“He yelled at me, he cried, called me every fucking name in the fucking book,” he spat, really pissed off. I didn’t say anything, since if I did, it would just make him angry, and he’d direct that anger at me.

“But it’s done,” I said, but it was more of a question.

“It’s done,” he said. “He told me I was the biggest asshole in the world, and that he never wanted to see me again. So I guess that means I successfully broke up with him.”

“You make it sound like you made a mistake,” I said daringly.

He stopped and glared at me, about to really lay into me, while I just looked back at him, saying nothing. His anger faded a little, and he started walking again. “No, I did the right thing. It’s just that it was really hard.”

“So you want to get some dinner?” I asked him. He nodded and got in the car, and drove us to the French restaurant I liked to go to with my father. We weren’t really dressed all that nicely, but they knew me, so it wasn’t a big deal. We sat there, not saying much, eating this amazing food, while I watched his pain slowly dissipate. We finished, I paid the bill, and he drove me back to Escorial. He pulled up and made to just drop me off. “You can come in if you want to.”

“I think I’ll just go back to the dorms and work on homework, if that’s OK with you,” he said nervously, worried that I’d be pissed at him for bailing on me.

I leaned in and kissed him, one of our really nice kisses, and knew that it wouldn’t take much to talk him into coming in to fuck me, but I decided that it was more important for him to work his way through this shit with Rick. “That’s fine. Call me if you need me.”

“I will,” he said, and kissed me again. “Thanks.” And then Tony drove back to campus, distraught over Rick, and partly out of the closet, at least at Stanford.

October 11, 2001

Connecticut

“Thanks for picking me up,” I said to Alec. I’d asked him to come get me, more to see how they treated him when he went through the security entrance than because I needed a ride. That, and because I wanted the guards to see me with him and thus know that he had my support.

“It’s really not a problem. I’m just sorry you have to ride in my crappy car,” he said. He had a 1994 Honda Accord, and while it was seven years old, it appeared to be well maintained, and was neat and tidy, just like I’d expect from Alec.

“I like it,” I told him. “Don’t we pay you enough to buy a newer one, though?” The last sentence was said more as a joke, so he chuckled. He made decent money as my assistant.

“I’m paying off my student loans, and then I’ll get a new one,” he said. “That should take me two more years.” He’d gone to Brown, so it made sense that he’d have taken some sizable loans.

“What are you going to buy then?” I asked.

“I think I’ll go for fun, and get one of those Honda 2000s. They’re roadsters. Totally impractical, totally not me, but it might be fun.” He was grinning as he talked about them, then his natural reticence around his boss returned.

“I love convertibles,” I said. “My favorite brand is Porsche. I’ve driven others, but I always go back to the 911.” I was momentarily struck by how those three numbers had such significance in my life.

“Those are nice, but I like Hondas,” he said, which was really pretty awesome. Alec was a loyal guy. He liked Hondas, they’d done well for him, and so that’s what he’d buy next time. Other cars didn’t tempt him. He’d be a good boyfriend, and he was a good employee.

We drove up to the gates and they stopped Alec’s car. I don’t know whether they noticed me in the car or not. “You pulled another random check,” the guard said to Alec with a sneer. Then he saw me, and got a pretty horrified look on his face.

“Hop in the car,” I said to him.

“Um, I’m on duty Mr. Schluter,” he said.

“They can do without you,” I said. “I’m the chairman of this corporation, and I told you to hop in the car.”

“Yes, sir,” he said, and got in the back. We didn’t say anything as Alec drove us up to the building and dropped us off. He went to park the car, while I escorted the guard up to Jordan’s office.

“Good morning,” Jordan said, and then frowned when he saw the guard.

“This man was harassing me and my assistant as we were trying to pass through the gates. Despite what happened yesterday, and despite my support of our expansion plans, and despite the fact that my family has a controlling interest in Triton, I find I am once again insulted by one of the men who work here.”

“I’m sure there’s an explanation for this,” Jordan said. He summoned his assistant over. “I’m waiting to hear it,” he said to the guard. She began taking notes without him even saying anything.

“I’m sorry Mr. Pfinster, I was just following protocol,” he said mindlessly.

“Explain your protocol,” Jordan said, while his assistant and I looked on.

“We have a list of cars and people who are higher security risks, and we are expected to stop them at random, but at least weekly, to make sure they’re not bringing anything dangerous into the plant,” he said.

“Why are these people on the list?” Jordan asked.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“Where is this list?” Amazingly enough, he had a copy with him, folded up and worn from being stuffed into his pocket. He handed it to Jordan nervously, who took it, and handed it to his assistant.

“I want copies of that for myself and Mr. Schluter, then I want a breakdown from HR on those individuals; I want to know their demographics, or what makes them unique.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, and hurried off to do that.

“I think this man was just following orders,” Jordan hypothesized to me.

“That may be, but I want to know why you took such pleasure in harassing Alec,” I demanded of the guard.

“I don’t take pleasure in harassing people,” he objected.

“No? You had a sneer on your face, a look that indicated you enjoyed inflicting inconvenience on my assistant,” I countered.

He was busted, and he knew it, but he wasn’t about to admit it. “I didn’t mean to look like that.”

“You are suspended, pending an investigation of these security measures,” Jordan said. His assistant had returned and handed us copies of the papers. “See that this man gathers his things and is escorted from the premises.”

I was expecting, almost hoping for, an emotional outburst from the guard, but he said nothing. He just nodded, and waited for a security contingent to come and escort him away. That was a bit unnerving, having this man’s own colleagues take him away, and showed how badly my confidence was eroded in the security forces at Triton.

“I am sorry that you encountered yet another problem at the gates, but this problem has now become relatively easy to solve,” Jordan said, with his bloodless voice, the one that hid how incredibly pissed off he was.

“I’m almost afraid to leave for lunch, because I don’t want to have to deal with security when I return,” I said to him in my most irritated voice, in no mood to let him off the hook yet. “I’m very disturbed that I had to come to Connecticut and discover this problem for myself. I will be candid with you. If I have problems like this again, we will have to revisit our corporate structure to evaluate how decisions are made.” I’d never gone toe-to-toe with Jordan before, but I was doing it now, basically taking my authority and throwing it in his face. I waited for a reaction, but got nothing but calm, deliberate thought.

“I think that maybe I need to reevaluate how I have deployed our resources,” he said gamely. “And I think this is a cautionary sign for all of us on how getting wrapped up in a rapid expansion can be detrimental to the operations of the company.”

“Perhaps,” I said, being philosophical and sounding like JP, “or perhaps rapid expansions stress out an organization and expose those areas where there are weaknesses. It would seem to me that as long as those weaknesses are not overwhelming, it may be a good thing to correct them, and it may strengthen us.”

“Let’s hope,” he said. “I have to fire Bock, and then find someone to take over while we find a replacement. I’ll be busy this morning.” I nodded. “What’s your schedule like?”

“I planned to be here to work on Zeta, and then fly home tomorrow morning,” I told him.

“I’m wondering if you’d be willing to make a stop on the way back,” he said. “I think that the group in Claremont would benefit from you explaining the plan, what it means to Triton, and what is expected from them.”

“I think you’re trying to get rid of me, and you figure that you’ll get back at me for upsetting your whole security detail by sending me to Ohio,” I joked. He actually chuckled.

“Actually, I like having you around, and I’m glad that you upset my security detail. What I’m really annoyed with is that you found out about it, while I had no idea these practices were even happening. It makes me feel completely disconnected from the operations of the company.”

“Then maybe this is a good thing, and it will get you in touch with our employees before we launch Zeta,” I said. “I’ll work with Alec and finish up what I can, and then I’ll fly out tonight.” We shook hands, and I went back to my office. I worked until noon, and then had lunch with Jordan. I was wondering how he’d ended up handling the issues with security.

“I think you’ll find the profiling on this list interesting,” he said, handing me the demographic breakdown of people that HR had worked up. I scanned it, admiring how effectively HR had organized it.

“So it appears that anyone with Arab connections, anyone who is gay, and anyone who is Indian are automatically suspect?” I asked, absolutely stunned.

“The Indian link confused me until I interviewed Bock. It seems that he wanted to catch anyone else who might be from the Middle East but was pretending to be from India instead,” he said.

“He had done fine before, hadn’t he?” I asked, confused as to what had possessed this man to take this action.

“He explained that everything had changed after 9-11. Now we have to be careful, to watch out for anyone who can attack us. Presumably ‘us’ refers to the United States. And if that means stepping on the toes of a few unsavory groups, then so be it,” he said. I had never seen Jordan this visibly pissed off. It was so intriguing it moderated my own outrage.

“How did he get around the fact that this memo and his instructions violated company policy?” I asked.

“I posed that exact question to him. He told me that since we are a defense contractor, national security was involved, and that trumped company policy. According to him, it was more important to make sure our facility was safe and secure than to worry about being sensitive toward potential terrorists.”

“Potential terrorists,” I said sadly as I shook my head. “They’re our employees, and all of them have passed background checks.”

“Bock was in charge of security at all of our plants,” Jordan said. “That means I have to eradicate this new culture he tried to instill from our entire company.”

“How are you planning to do that?” I asked.

“I’m going to meet with the entire department here this afternoon. I’d like you to help me put together a presentation, then I can deliver it, and you can critique and improve it. Then you can do the same thing in Claremont tomorrow.” He grinned as he dropped that last line on me.

“This is what I get for butting into the operations of the company,” I replied with a smile. “What about the other plants.”

“I’ve got them all covered except Dallas,” he said. “I’ll find time to fly out there.”

“I can do it on Monday,” I said.

“Last time you were there, someone tried to shoot you,” he noted, trying to figure out why I was willing to go back there.

“Maybe I’ll track down Gathan and take him with me,” I joked, since he’s the one who took the bullet for me.

“I think you’ll find the culture there is much different,” he said mysteriously.

“I guess we’ll see.” A knock on the door heralded the arrival of Jordan’s assistant, followed by a lady who looked to be in her early forties. We both stood up to greet the ladies, while the latter one had a handshake grip that was almost too strong. She reminded me a little bit of Hank.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Schluter,” she said. “I’m Melissa Price. I go by Lisa.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well,” I said, even though her direct manner also reminded me of Hank.

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” she said, then explained how. “Hannah O’Shea was my friend.”

“She was a remarkable woman,” I said, as we all got somber, remembering Hank and the others we’d lost on 9-11.

“We served together on the force for years,” she said. I assumed she was referring to the NYPD.

“Have a seat,” Jordan said. The two ladies sat down, while his assistant took out her pad and prepared to take notes. It was her way. “I’d like to promote you to take over as the interim head of security.”

“Thank you, Mr. Pfinster,” she said, smiling, then got serious again. “What does interim mean?”

“Our corporate policy requires that we do a comprehensive search for any upper level management position. This is an Assistant Vice President position, so it qualifies. Having said that, you’re the front runner for the job,” Jordan said.

She looked confused, and it was flattering that she glanced at me. “That means that if someone from the outside, or an internal candidate applied, they’d be compared to you and a final decision is then made between all of you as to whom to give the permanent nod to,” I told her, then modified my style to be less formal. “In reality, that rarely happens. Once you’re in the job, if you’re doing well, that’s a much better indicator than someone else’s resume. So usually interim means that you’ve got the job unless you fuck up over the next month or so while the job is posted.”

That brought her smile back, and while it wasn’t attractive, it was very warm. “Thank you. I’m up for the challenge.”

“Speaking of challenges, let’s talk about what’s been happening recently, and what we’re going to do to change things,” Jordan said. He showed her his prototype presentation to the staff, and created a few PowerPoint screens to announce her promotion and re-affirm the structure of the department. I was impressed with her input, and that she seemed to fully embrace the problems we’d experienced and the solutions to those problems.

After we were done, she walked back to my office with me, evidently wanting to speak further. Alec was waiting for me, but I made him wait while I talked to Lisa. “Hank and I dated for a while,” she blurted out. “For a long time, actually.”

“This must have been a hard time for you,” I said sympathetically.

“And for you,” she said. “We broke up because she wouldn’t come out of the closet, and I did. She ultimately made that choice, but by then, I’d found someone else.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked, in a friendly way.

“Because if you talk to Hank’s relatives about me, they may not have the nicest things to say. It’s not that our break-up was ugly or mean, it was just painful.”

“I don’t have much contact with them, but I will promise to evaluate you based on your performance here, not on your past relationships with Hank.”

“Thank you, Mr. Schluter. I’m sorry to bother you with this, but I’ve been working so hard for this job, I didn’t want anything to ruin it,” she said.

I held out my hand, and she shook it, and her grip was loose enough now that it was comfortable. “I’m glad you did. I’ll see you at the presentation.”

She left and Alec came in, looking mildly frazzled. “I’ll have a lot of stuff for you to take with you. Will you be back next week?”

“Do you need me to be?” I didn’t know what was in the stack of stuff he had in my case.

“You’re the boss, not me,” he said with his cute smile. “It’s always good when you’re here.”

“I’ll fly in on Tuesday, and fly out on Thursday morning,” I pronounced. Will was the only one who would give me shit about being gone, and he’d understand.

“Sounds great. When do you fly out tonight?”

“As soon as we’re done with our meeting,” I said, looking at my watch.

“I, uh…” he stammered nervously. I just looked at him. “Never mind.”

I hated secrets and mysteries, so he must have noted my brows narrowing in annoyance. “You had something to say, so say it. You’re more likely to piss me off by not spilling it, than by anything you’d say.”

“We’re having happy hour at a bar not too far from here. I was going to ask you to join us,” he said.

“Us?”

“Some of the employees that I hang out with,” he said shyly.

“Why does this make you so nervous?” I didn’t get his attitude.

He sighed in frustration. “Because I really want you to come along, but if you come along, it makes me look good, because you like me enough to show up, and I didn’t want you to think that was why I asked you.”

I laughed. “I’m not that much fun. We’ll go to happy hour after work, and then you can take me to the airport. How’s that?”

“Awesome,” he said, then vanished to let me work on the presentation, making modifications to Jordan’s PowerPoint memos to match my own style. I got myself organized, and went to the meeting, watching the group more than Jordan to see how people reacted to what he said, and made yet more notes for my own talk. When he was done, he was approached by some of the employees, but they backed off when I came up and let us talk alone.

“I’m frustrating your fans,” I joked, then got serious. “You did a terrific job.”

“You’ll do even better tomorrow,” he said.

“Of course I will,” I said playfully, making him actually chuckle. “Tell Marcia I said hello.”

“I hear you are coming back next week. Perhaps you can join us for dinner.”

“That would be wonderful,” I said, then shook his hand and left him to chat with the employees. It took me another hour to get my stuff together to leave, and then we walked out to Alec’s Honda for the brief drive to a local bar. It was one of those chic suburban places that specialized in different flavors of martinis.

“So who all will be here?” I asked him as we walked toward the place.

“Almost all the people who were being harassed by security,” he said. They’d reserved an area off to the side with about fifty people, about half who were obviously from the Middle East or India, leaving me to assume that the others were gay. As soon as I walked in, they all stood up and clapped loudly for me. “We wanted to say ‘thank you’.”

“You’re welcome,” I said to them loudly. I called the waiter over and gave him my American Express Platinum card to cover the bill. “I’ve got the bill covered. My way of apologizing on behalf of Triton for the way you were treated. Enjoy yourselves.” They clapped again, and the waiter handed me a Manhattan, probably the best one I’d ever had. Before I got too embroiled with things, I cornered Alec. “Can you make sure we have cars to take these people home if they’re too hammered?”

“Sure,” he said.

“And you can get me a car for the ride to the airport, so you can enjoy the whole happy hour.”

“You got it,” he said.

I had a really good time talking to these guys. I was working the crowd when I found myself in front of a stunningly handsome young guy. “Chris Mendoza,” he said, holding out his hand.

“Nice to meet you,” I responded. Like his name indicated, this guy was probably Hispanic. He had really sharp features, black hair, and brown eyes that seemed to be holding back a very active mind. “What department do you work in?”

“Finance,” he said. “My group has been working on those proposals about taking Triton public again.”

I nodded, and talked shop with this guy. “Did Graham tell you what the board decided to do?”

“Yeah,” he said. “We’re waiting at least a year.”

“You sound disappointed,” I noted with a smile.

“We were all geared up, sure that it would happen,” he said.

“All your work was useless against the power of my own greed,” I joked, getting a laugh from him. When he laughed, he went from handsome to god-status. “In a year, it will work out better for Triton, and for the shareholders. I think the markets would be skeptical about Zeta, and that would cause a lot of price fluctuation. This way, we’ll have that largely in the works, and it should take some of the guesswork out of the deal.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” he said. “Thanks for explaining it.”

“No problem,” I said.

“Next time you’re in town, you think we can grab a drink or dinner and you can explain how the underwriting process will go?” he asked earnestly, and then got really nervous, which I’d bet was rare for this guy. He was probably a wolf in a gay bar, if he was in fact gay. “That was probably inappropriate. You probably have a lot of things on your schedule already.”

I pulled out my calendar. “Does next Wednesday work for you?”

That brought the big smile back. “It works for me.”

“Come by my office at 6:00, then we’ll go,” I confirmed. I shook his hand and found Alec. I told the waiter he’d handle closing out the bill for me, and then Alec walked me down to the limo, where my bag was already transferred to the trunk.

“I set up a meeting with Chris Mendoza to educate him on going public,” I said. He pulled out his calendar and noted the time so he could put it on my schedule in Outlook. He was grinning at me. “What?”

“You know that dude named Brian on Queer as Folk? Do you watch that show?”

“Stef watches it regularly with my son, Will, but I haven’t seen it yet,” I told him.

“It’s good. You should watch it. When you do, and you see Brian, think of Chris Mendoza. He’s a player.” Like Cody, I thought with a smile.

“I wasn’t planning to sleep with him, I was planning to talk about stock offerings,” I said, slightly irritated.

“You can’t do both?” he joked, which was kind of out of character for him, so I laughed.

“I don’t want to steal him away from you,” I teased.

“He doesn’t tempt me. I’ve got a boyfriend,” he said.

“I’d like to meet him sometime,” I said. That would be interesting.

“I’ll try to work that into your schedule,” he said dubiously. He dropped me off at the airport, where I found the plane waiting to take me to Claremont. Even as I read through my notes, Chris Mendoza’s fiery eyes kept haunting me.