Chapter 5
Organization and hierarchy
The next day Cassie met with the attorney from Washington, Captain Gifford, O’Keefe, Smyth, and SSgt Schultz. They used the large den downstairs which had more room than her office upstairs.
“I see we are all here, June get the housekeeper in here. Have the maid bring coffee, tea, cream and sugar. Have her throw in some light pastry to nibble on.”
“Before we get into depth on what needs to be covered let me give you my sudden insight on my problem. I have thirty or more people who are contracted directly to me. That means if any of these people do anything, acting on my orders, then I can be directly liable for their action, am I right sir?”
Cassie nodded at the attorney setting at one end of a large conference table. “I believe that is correct unless the specific action is forbidden in their contracts.”
“What if their contract was through an LLC and I was also contracted through that same LLC, as their supervisor?”
“In that case all liability falls on the LLC who has hired you to act as supervisor and them to act for the LLC. There are some incidents that you would be personally liable but that is rare.”
“So then, where the majority of my personal employees carry firearms and may be in situations where they will be called on to fire them it would be much better if they were employed by a LLC instead of by me personally?”
“Without a doubt, every layer between you and them will help to reduce your own personal liability.”
“So that is your first order of business; create a Security Consulting Firm whose goals are to contract out law enforcement, investigations, security and housing. That makes a good cover for prison and jail operations, fugitive search and apprehension, criminal investigations and bodyguards. It should also do research, testing and development of equipment for those purposes.”
“Next a corporation to act as a holding company to own, invests in, and operates companies for the share holders of the said corporation. Give it the name of CHH Holdings. It will hold the main shares of CHH Security, the LLC for here.”
“The three primary share holders of CHH holding will be Cassandra Howly Howard, George Howard, and Sarah Howly Howard. The percentage of ownership will be 75%, 20% and 5%, their titles will be CEO and Chairman of the Board, CFO and Assistant Chairman and Treasurer , and Secretary of the Board. Put a survivor clause in that all shares revert back to the company on death. The company should have first right of purchase of all shares, the boards as a whole has second rights and then individual members of the board have third rights.”
“I will sell my shares in “We Find It!” to CHH Holding for $1.00 a share with payment deferred for six months. By the way, whose attorney are you, mine, my father’s, or one of his companies?”
“I am a partner in a law firm that is contracted to “We Find It!” So I know that CHH Holding will start off life as big as one of the old Forbes top 500 companies in the USA.”
“Your firm did a really good job for us! If we start getting into area’s that your firm does not specialize in or find iffy then find us a firm that is trustworthy and can do the job.”
“There is no problem. Our firm is the one that advised the Federal Judge of the Western District of Texas on how to handle your problem and got you your badge. We have kept our ear to the ground on that situation and we think we can get you something even better.”
Cassie picked up her cup of coffee and took a sip; every time she drank coffee from her Moka pot she could not help thinking it was the best coffee in the world. She watched as the Attorney picked up his cup to sip it. His eyes widened and he looked down at the cup in his hand. He took a bigger second sip.
“Ms Howard, your parents must make a purchase arrangement also or it will show up as a differential in payment for assets, and that’s something that the IRS will note really quickly and figure it’s a method of shuffling assets around without paying estate taxes later.”
“Point, one moment.” She took her blackberry out of a fanny pouch and pressed a speed dial button. Then she put it on speaker phone and laid it down on the table.
“Hello Cassie” Her father voice came out of the speaker.
“Dad, got you on speaker here at my end. I got a few people listening in. Primarily this is a business meeting. I am forming two companies. One is a CHH Security, an LLC that will be a security company and all my security personnel will be contracted through it. I also will have a contract through it. The primary share holder will be a holding company of which I will own 75% and be CEO, I want you to have 20% and be CFO and mom to hold 5% and be Secretary of the Board. As CFO you will also be Treasurer and Asst Chairman of the Board. The Operation contract a President and a staff. I am buying my 75% by selling the company my holding in “We Find It!” for the six month deferred payment of $1.00 a share. The Attorney from Washington says that you and mom have to make a similar purchase for your share or the IRS will think there’s something rotten in the state of Denmark.”
“OH MY GOD, he ha he ha he ha…..”
“Dad what wrong?”
“Oh my, yeah the IRS would be all over that. Who is the attorney there?”
“It’s me George, Oliver Green.”
“Hello Oliver! We just got an offer the other day for our share of “We Find It!” I owned 5% and Sarah owns 2.5%. That’s 7.5% of over One Hundred Million shares or 7.5 million shares. Cassie owns 35 million shares so at $1.00 a share that’s only $35 million dollars. The offer we got two days ago was $2,500 dollars per share. You see why I was laughing. The company voted to pay a dividend of $5.00 dollars a share today. I sitting here looking at a check to me of 37.5 million dollars. Cassie, your dividend check which will be directly deposited to your account was for 175 million dollars”
“Yeah Cassie, Tiny is all upset, he has no crews. They all retired, half of them bought land up there in Idaho and are building homes. The other half came back down here to Sonora and is doing the same. Tell you what we will sell you 1 million shares at $1 a share from each of us. On paper it not an insignificant amount till you knows just how much those shares are worth. You can adjust the percentage of ownership to reflect that. It should be about four percent each for your mom and me.”
“That will work George, all shares revert to the company on death. The company has first right to buy, the board second rights and individual board member third rights. Hey George was that the first year dividends?” Attorney Green asked.
“No, that was the first quarter dividend; the mine is taking out nearly 50 million dollars worth of gold a week. You know you guys have the mine claims stretching all the way to the Canadian border. That’s over 15 miles long. The other side of the border looks like a heavy equipment display yard. They are plotting on our centerline using satellites and airplanes, trying to pinpoint the vein flow.”
“Dad, you got any friends over there?” Cassie had leaned down to ask.
“Sure got a couple over there. Why?”
“You might tell one of them that the vein makes a sharp turn to the east just before it cross over the border, runs about a mile then slowly drifts back north. On the north side it parallels the border for nearly 40 miles but only about a mile north of it. I did not look further than that because it was getting thinner all the way.”
“Thanks girl! That will make some real good friends. Oliver, send me the paper work. We will need to set up an office there in Washington, so you need to find some people to man it for us. Cassie is going to be one of those absentee CEOs. I am not going to be much better. Set up corporate headquarter for the holding company here and the Security firm in Washington.”
“Okay Dad that should get us going, I’ll get back with you later. Tell Mom I love her.”
“I will, you know she loves you.”
“Click”
Cassie picked up her phone and put it away. Everybody at the table except the attorney was staring at her with mouths gaping open. Cassie moved her face from one to the other around the table. “What?”
“You are rich!” SSgt Schultz whispered.”
“Yeah, that and $2.50 gets me a cup of coffee at Starbucks.”
“Okay, now we know we can do the legal parts to get this on a professional basis. How soon can we let contracts?”
“I should have the corporate papers filed by Friday. Monday I can get your taxpayer number issued and then open banking accounts. Tuesday I will find lease space in Washington and open accounts here locally. By Wednesday I will assign you a legal officer for on site. He will execute your contracts for you. I take it you are not planning hourly wage employees?”
“No! Juanita, I want to convert all of the domestics to salaried position. Now all of your people, including you Juanita, are not my employees, so I want to contract them directly through my new company. First, benefits and wages must be negotiated. Second, our liability to their current employers must be compensated. Does our contract forbid us hiring them away from the company they now work at? There is also the question of health benefits, pension and profit sharing. We need all of these for all of our employees. Oliver?”
“On it, we have a junior partner that has worked with other clients on employees benefit packages. I will get them out here tomorrow.”
“Good, Captain Gifford, do you have something to say? How will our people feel about this?”
“I’m not sure about them but, for myself, it gives me a feeling of security. I mean you as our primary meant that if you went down we had nobody. I have been worrying since Locust Grove that we have no contact except Clint in Idaho. What if we lose contact with him and you at the same time. So yeah, I like the idea of a Corporation holding the contract. That is almost as good as working for the government.”
“Betty, what are your feelings?”
“I’m for it; it gives us a more organizational feel. Also, it gives us more stability and makes us more versatile. Right now each and every one of us has to wonder what happens if we get injured. I am paying my own health care now. I got an automatic transferred to a Roth IRA plan. But most of our personnel have not done this. I think it should be a requirement”
“No health care? You are not covered by me? Damn! See, that’s just one more thing I did not know about these contracts. Juanita, how about your people? Does the company we are using supply you with health care and pension?”
“It’s an option but most don’t take it as it costs a chunk out of their pay. I have worked for the company for more than twenty years. I am not sure what I would get if I quit them.”
“Mr. Green, can you set up something to help them to make the best decision they can?”
“The person I am sending out in the morning can. They will need to see the contracts for all your personal employees as well as the contracts the domestics have with their employer and the contract you have with the employer.”
“Anybody got any questions or something we missed that needs to be looked at?”
“Have you thought out the rank structure and pay scale yet?” SSgt Schultz asked.
“Yes, I have we will get together later and let you type it up.”
“Rank and pay scale?” Betty asked.
“Yes, I’m going to add specials ranks but not really. We need both combat and non-combat personnel. Take SSgt Schultz here. She was never deployed. The other day on campus is the first confrontation she has ever been in after 20 years of military service, so being military is not enough. We need to separate the combat vet from the non-combat.”
“Schultz is now SSgt. Schultz and will not be in charge of any detail with combat potential. She is my office security and assistant aide; she is in charge of getting my security detail assigned and ready for deployment.”
“The combat vet E-5 will be called Gunnery Sgt or GSgt, E-6 is MSSgt and MGSgt E-7 is First Sgt. and E8-9 is Sgt Major”
“Captain, Cpl. Charles Townsend is to be promoted to E-4 Sgt in charge of my school detail unless you know some reason not to promote him. With major recruitment we are going to need more senior enlisted personnel so look for those who can step up. We are going to need more combat officers so look for recommendations. At the present time, we need to concentrate on new officer who have commanded in combat.”
“If nothing else we are dismissed.”
Cassie sat there for awhile thinking. Finally she began to get up and noted that SSgt Schultz was still in the room. “SSgt Schultz?”
“Just waiting for you Ma’am”
“Did you make enough notes?”
“Yes Ma’am.”
“Take a note, check into finding us a doctor or doctors. We need general and surgical. Also we need to set up a full clinic, almost a surgical ward.”
“Yes Ma’am, I believe we have a Medical School in one of the nearby college towns. They might be able to supply us with some general practitioners.”
“Good check on it.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
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The next day’s meeting started two hours before lunch. The new attorney was named I.C. (Irmatrude Clarinda) Edwards and she was five feet four inches tall and weighed about 115 lbs. Her hair made it to her shoulders but just barely. Her figured was nice and trim. Cassie smiled when she met her and looked her in the face with her blind eyes. They were the same height but Cassie did not wear four inches of heels on her shoes.
“ICE”’s eyes took in her dress suit and her figure then quickly pulled back to Cassie’s face.
After a short discussion Cassie could scan ‘ICE’ relaxing as she began to do her job. Every domestic on the staff had been advised to bring her or his contract to the meeting. She knew what Cassie wanted: Full benefits and health care for all domestics and the same or better for her security personnel. She was also briefed on getting accreditation for a medical facility on the estate.
After a light lunch Cassie was notified by SSgt Schultz that her detail was ready for departure. “Departure? Where to?”
“You mentioned that you and the detail needed to go to the school bookstore and pick up some campus clothing plus you need to get textbooks also.”
“Okay, forgot about that. Let’s go.”
Cassie arrived at the waiting Tahoe wearing a vest over her blouse and carrying her jacket. The tail of her blouse was hanging over her hips. She only had her middle of the back holster on but was carrying a strapped purse in which her Glock 23 was inside.
She looked her security detail over. A new male corporal had been added. “Corporal Townsend, Is the new security personnel enrolled at the campus?”
“Yes Ma’am, all security assigned to the campus details are now enrolled. I have sizes for all of them.”
“That is good, it shows initiative. Each member of the detail should make their purchases themselves. That will help cut back on a uniform appearance. With each buying what they like, we will have some personality.”
“Who is driving?”
“SSgt Schultz has designated Cpl. Jerkins as driver.”
“Corporal Perkins what is your designated skill on this detail?”
“I am the personal escort for you as primary; you go nowhere that I don’t go. I am ‘Shield’; I stand between you and any incoming fire. I wear heavy armor.
“Wait a moment! Nobody steps in front of me and takes my bullet!”
“That is incorrect ma’am. I will do so. I am secret service and you are the President that is my mentality. If you go down then I am your blanket and I will be covering you!”
Cassie was stunned by what Cpl. Perkin had told her. She had always thought of her security as more firepower in case she was attack, not more bodies to put between her and her enemies!
She and Perkins had a serious talk on the way to the Campus, they did compromise. It was a real compromise, when ‘naked’ and in the open she would accept Cpl. Perkins as ‘shield’ but as soon as she was armored up fully armed she was no longer the soft target and became lead point of the assault.
“Ma’am, the only reason I will compromise is I saw your video.”
________________
The trip to the campus bookstore was mostly routine. Cassie kept a scan going and notice that she and her team were noticed. Their clothing and attitude was definitely non-student. She picked out a couple of windbreakers of different color with the help of Cpl. Perkins. Then they found some sweaters, most all the jackets and sweaters had the school logo on them. Those that did not were in the school color again Perkins help Cassie with her selection.
The textbooks that they needed had an internet address and registration number in the back of them to download an eBook of the textbooks. The team returned to her Tahoe after their purchases and Cassie switched out her Jacket for a new sweater to wear over her blouse. She had made sure that the sweaters were larger so they would help hider her gun. Then they began a familiarity recon of the campus. After a couple of hours they stopped at the student centers and order a snack.
They did not stay long, finishing off their hamburgers and drinks they exited and return to their vehicle and drove back to the estate.
Cassie, Betty, June and Terry then spent a couple of hours examining the estate layout and their estimation of the total needs for residences.
The main problem was that their staffing needs were pushing their envelope. The cost was growing with astounding quickness. As the number of people grew so did the cost of having that person.
One person increase in staff was at least three sets of clothing, exercise uniform, footgear, armor, weapons, residence, feeding, and the immaterial cost of health care, background check, and retirement. Cassie figured that she needed to add 20% of the estimated cost; just to cover those things that they had not thought of yet.
The final consensus was that the estate would have a permanent security detail of thirty. The gatehouse would have one officer and six non-officer station there. They would be rotated every two weeks. The six non-officer would be one gunny Sergeant, two Sergeant and three mixed corporals and lance corporals.
Her campus security detail had to be separate as they would be on permanent duty from the beginning of the semester until the end of that semester and on duty from before school time in the morning until after school was over in the evening.
After school let out at the end of the semester they would be R and R for a week then given other duty until school start back up. Security for Cassie at other times would be pulled from the general security personnel with at least one female in all detail.
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A month later, two week after school had actually started her father called.
“Dad, what up?”
“Cassie I and your mother are coming to Washington for a week or so, so we thought we come and visit you for a week. Will you have any problems with that?”
“No, oh god no I will love seeing both of you. When will you be here?”
“I was thinking next Friday. We’ll be arriving in the afternoon at Roanoke Regional, at the Signature Terminal. We will be flying in the company jet.”
“Company jet?”
“Yes, CHH Holding has its own plane now. So you will be able to fly without all the hassle you had when you took off with Tiny. And this is a business trip so it’s best to use our own plane.”
“Dad, give me a buzz when you get close. How much baggage and how many people.”
“Ten pieces large, and eight people. Four security, two personal aides and your mother and I.”
“Who’s supplying your security?”
“Why you are Cassie, Clint hired them for us through the CHH Security.”
“Egh, I have not talked to Clint since we reorganized.”
“Well that one of the things I am coming there to talk about. I showed him your organization table. I think that he should be appointed Operational Manager; he has already found a person to replace him in Idaho. A retired Deputy US Marshal, who can easily be made a Special Deputy US Marshal for that area. He worked out of the Idaho Judicial District before so he knows all the bodies there.”
“Well Dad, I guess we need to get Clint here also.”
“I thought that too, so he one of my security personnel.”
“Okay… I guess I will be seeing you Friday.”
Cassie looked up at SSgt Schultz at her desk across the office from her.
“Staff Sergeant, my family, Dad and my mother, and six are coming to town next Friday afternoon, Signature Terminal at Roanoke Regional. Make arrangements to pick them up and get them here.”
“Yes Ma’am will you be going to meet them?”
“What my schedule that day?”
SSgt. Schultz picked up her PDA and began to check it. “You have only the morning class that day. You had tentatively scheduled a workout with Sensei Inoue for one O’clock if you make it we could be at the terminal by three o’clock. Do you want to try that or cancel the workout?”
“No, let do the workout, I can’t afford to miss them.”
“Yes Ma’am I’ll make sure that all vehicles will be ready and manned.”
Cassie turned back to her desk and relaxed for a minute. SSgt Schultz began to type into the estate network, setting up the schedule letting security, the garage and housekeeping know of the forthcoming changes in scheduling.
“Ma’am, Juanita has set Thursday up for a complete cleanup of all the guestrooms. She request permission to bring in one additional maid to help out for a week or more.”
“Approved” Cassie said. A minute later a print out of the order was laid in front of her. She picked up a pen and positioned it and signed. Then once more she sat back and relaxed. Her scan of the area noted the chief mechanic bringing three of the new Tahoes into the garage and his mechanics swarming over them. She ‘watched’ them for a while as they made sure that those vehicles were ready for service.
As each of the Tahoe was finish it was drove to the rear of the security building where one of the lieutenants and two Sergeants checked all security item in the Tahoe. This included all the communication gear and weaponry.
When they were through the Tahoe was parked in a secured area and as the driver exited the vehicle he placed a seal on the door and signed and dated it. There would be at least three ready vehicles for Friday afternoon.
“SSgt. Schultz, check with my father if he is going to be free either Saturday or Sunday evening for dinner? Whichever if he is? Make us a reservation at Russo’s for six people. You will be joining us.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you, it’s going to be a little bit of a business meal, so you are definitely going to be there.”
“Now has Betty and Capt. Gifford turn in their evaluation for the location of the training facilities?”
“I got what they called a summary of their evaluation at this time.”
“Oh, let me in on it.”
“They think that another fence should be installed separating the back third of the estate where the main house and other building are now from the front two thirds. That all the new buildings to facilitate the development of CHH Security be placed in the front two thirds of the estate. The new residences, training, research and development, security, medical and offices be placed there. It will act as a buffer zone between entrance and the main estate buildings. One more thing, all of this is owned by you ma’am, legal needs to get a long term lease agreement from you to CHH Security”
“Good point contact our attorneys let them know also, tell them we need that legal officer on site as soon as possible. If he was here then he be the one handling that.”
“Yes, Ma’am, I will be sure to take care of that before you leave for school in the morning.”
“With that I suggest you move to your office so I can do some studying.”
Cassie turned back to her desk, where she switched from her business computer to her personal school computer. Her communication gear automatically connected and she was now in communication with her computer. She began to browse her text book on calculus.
It turned out she had an innate mathematical ability that seem to be able to understand almost any math once she read the explanation. Cassie was flying through the textbook.
Another thing she noticed recently she had gained another increase in her senses. Her normal spherical 350 meters had increased to over 400. While that was really good, the order of magnitude was amazing. An increase in a spherical volume was way more than just over 16% her scan range had gone from 3 miles to over 5 miles now. Her sensitivity had increase as well. While she still could not detect light her micro differences had gone down to below bacteria size.
Cassie reached over and picked up a nugget of gold that she had kept from Idaho. Scanning it she cold ‘feel’ the density like always that told her this was gold. But now she could narrow that sensitivity down to almost molecular. The Brownian movement was detectable. It was like a flow of water restricted between the banks, here the restriction were invisible but she could detect the molecule reaching that invisible barrier and bouncing back into the nugget.
Cassie narrowed and narrowed her senses down examining that edge between the nugget and the air. She still could not detect that barrier. Why did the molecules stop?
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My thanks to Grumpybear for his editing and proofing help. But the final results are mine and all criticism should be loaded onto my shoulders.
Into The Shadows © Virgil Lee Fuqua III and ‘vlfouquet.wordpress’, 2008-2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Vlfouquet and Virgil Lee Fuqua III with appropriate and specific direction to the original contents.
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