A smile came over her face.
He looked down at the cable in her hand.
MAZEL TOV! HOPE IT WILL BE TWINS!
This one was signed JONAS.
JONAS – 1940.
Book Seven.
1.
"This is damn stupid!" Forrester muttered as he lifted the CAB-200 into the air behind the formation of Spitfires.
"What's stupid?" I asked, looking down behind me from the copilot's seat, to see London dropping back into the early-morning haze.
There were several fires still burning from last night's raid. "They didn't buy our plane but they'll buy all the B-17’s we can turn out. What the hell, we both know they have to standardize."
"I’m not talking about that," Roger grumbled.
"Engines one and two, check," Morrissey called from behind us. "Engines three and four, check.
You can cut the fuel now." "Check."
Roger turned down the mixture.
"That's what I’m talking about," he said, motioning toward Morrissey, who was acting as flight engineer. "It's stupid – all of us on the same plane.
What if it went down?
Who'd be left to run the company?"
I grinned at him.
"You worry too much."
He returned my smile without humor. "That's what you pay me for.
The president of the company has to worry. Especially the way we're growing.
We grossed over thirty-five million last year; this year we'll go over a hundred million with war orders.
We'll have to start bringing up personnel who can take over in case something happens to us."
I reached for a cigarette.
"What's going to happen to us?" I asked, lighting it. I looked at him through the cloud of smoke. "Unless you got a little jealous of the R.A.F. back there and are thinking about going back into the service."
He reached out and took the cigarette from my mouth and put it between his lips.
"You know better than that, Jonas. I couldn't keep up with those kids.
They'd fly rings around me. If I have to be an armchair pilot, I’d rather do it here, where at least I’m on your general staff."
There was something in what he said.
The war was pushing us into an expansion that neither of us had ever dreamed of.
And we weren't even in it yet.
"We'll have to get someone to run the Canadian plant."
I nodded silently.
He'd been right – it was a hell of a wise move.
We'd fabricate the parts in our plants in the States and ship them to Canada, where they'd go on the production line.
As they rolled off, the R.C.A.F. would fly them to England.
If it worked, we could knock about three weeks off the production time for each plane.
The idea also had some fiscal advantages.
The British and Canadian governments were willing to finance the building of the plant and we'd save two ways.
The factory would cost less because we would have no interest charges and the tax on net income could be taken in Canada, where the depreciation allowance was four times that allowed by Uncle Sam.
And His Majesty's boys were happy, too, because living in the sterling bloc, they'd have fewer American dollars to pay out.
"O.K., I agree.
But none of the boys working for us has the experience to take on a big job like that except Morrissey. And we can't spare him.
You got anybody in mind?"
"Sure," he said, shooting a curious look at me. "But you aren't going to like it."
I stared at him.
"Try me and see."
"Amos Winthrop."
"No!"
"He's the only man around who can handle it," he said.