JC: Ed Biggers
Part 4: Adjournment
Chapter 13
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2004

The bed was typical of all beds in hospitals, adjustable but only to 
uncomfortable positions. It was morning as Ed sat next to Linda 
holding her while she proceeded to throw up in a small bucket. 
Rubbing her back and massaging her neck didn't help her relax. 
Mornings were the worst for her. In addition to the pains in her 
abdomen, she suffered from morning sickness. The morning 
sickness had started the morning after she had slept with John.

Dr. Hayes came in the room about the time that Linda had finished 
throwing up. Sitting on the other side of the bed, he rested his 
hands on the head of his cane and then rested his head on his 
hands. Ed looked over at the doctor and asked, "Dr. Hayes, is this 
normal?"

The doctor shook his head and answered, "This is the roughest 
pregnancy that I've ever seen. The morning sickness is normal, but 
the muscle spasms aren't."

Linda leaned back in the bed as Ed started rubbing her swollen 
belly with the lotion. A sigh escaped her lips as the sensation of his 
touch eased the tension in her belly. They both jumped when the 
baby inside kicked. Linda said, "Quite active, isn't he?"

"Is it a he?"

"Or she?" replied Linda with a smile. The smile immediately 
disappeared as another spasm racked her abdomen.

Ed frowned since his truth sense couldn't decide which was the 
correct answer. It took him a minute to realize that she didn't know 
the gender of the child. Leaning forward, he kissed her head and 
said, "I love you."

"I love you, too," replied Linda amazed at the loving care he was 
giving her. 

Dr. Hayes said, "You had better go now if you are going to reach 
the airport in time."

Leaving Linda here was one of the hardest things that Ed had ever 
done. When he had tried to back out of going, everyone in the 
family had insisted that he go. Bending down, he kissed her 
forehead and said, "Don't go anywhere until I get back."

She forced a laugh and said, "Get out of here."

Ed left the infirmary of the Druid College and headed to the family 
suite. Ling watched him as he came closer and asked, "Why do 
you always take the roughest shift?"

"I love her."

"We all love her, but this is hurting you," replied Ling with tears in 
her eyes. To see Ed so concerned for Linda was hard to watch. It 
was even harder when he spent nearly fifteen hours a day next to 
her doing what ever he could to make her feel more comfortable.

"I should cancel my trip."

"No. You must leave. I have your stuff in the car and I'm ready to 
drive you to the airport."

Twenty-one comfortable black leather chairs surrounded the 
conference table, ten along each side and one at the head of the 
table. The wood of the table shone with an exceptional sheen that 
suggested its high cost. All of the men and women seated in the 
chairs were well-dressed and sitting in very dignified manners. The 
obvious exception was Ed, who slouched in his chair with his legs 
crossed with the ankle of his right leg resting on his knee. In front 
of each person, a leather-bound document rested on the table 
containing the agenda for the meeting and background information 
about the company. Ed had read it over very carefully. There was 
no explanation given for the record loses the company was 
reporting.

Mr. Howard Hardgrove, the CEO of the airline sat in his chair like 
a man that rules the world. Despite the fact that his airline was 
hemorrhaging money, his position was secure. He owned all of the 
board members. Every year, he received a good bonus and a 
golden parachute made if virtually impossible for them to fire him. 
The only way he would lose is if he resigned and that was never 
going to happen.

The only problem was the presence of the new board member. He 
stared at the far end of the table at the Druid that a number of 
stockholders had insisted be given a seat on the board of directors. 
They hadn't even told him which Druid to put on the board, only 
that he was to get a Druid. At least he had used the opportunity to 
get rid of the pain-in-the-ass that used to occupy that chair. 

Seated in the chair at the far end of the table, Ed listened along 
with the other members of the board as one of the executives 
discussed the airlines current financial straits. As part of his 
presentation, a vice president of the company described how he 
expected to turn a profit though an advertising campaign offering 
discount fares, painting the planes in a distinctive color, and 
increasing frequent flyer reward programs. Details as to the cost 
and return on the plan were a little sketchy.

As everyone nodded in agreement at the plan, Ed snorted in 
disgust. His reaction caught the attention of Mr. Howard 
Hardgrove. It was his desire to get them to cut a bonus check for 
taking such an aggressive action to increase revenues. There was a 
wonderful little summerhouse that he wanted to buy in Cape Cod. 
Having a member of the board scoff at the idea was going to make 
it hard to sell them on the idea. Turning to Ed, he asked, "What do 
you find so offensive, Dr. Biggers?"

Ed leaned forward and said, "Your flights are flying at an eighty-
seven percent occupancy, which happens to be near the highest in 
the industry. Already, you buy back tickets from your customers 
because of over-booking practices. Selling more tickets isn't going 
to turn this company around. You have to make money on the 
tickets you are selling."

"So what do you suggest, if you know so much?" asked the CEO 
rather irritated at the Druid's comment. This was his company until 
they voted him out or he retired. He didn't appreciate having this 
Druid shoved down his throat and it was time to put him in his 
place.

Ed had arrived that morning and been admitted to the board less 
than an hour before. He had very little insight into how the 
business was run, but the fact sheets that he had read while waiting 
for the meeting to begin bothered him tremendously. It wasn't so 
much that they were outright lies, but that they didn't reflect the 
truth. There was no way to assess the true value of the company. 
Ed said, "Give me four days of complete access within this 
company and I will tell you exactly how to turn it around."

Howard, voice dripping with sarcasm, said, "It will take you four 
days to figure out where the bathroom is."

"Then I take it your answer is no," replied Ed.

"You can present your findings at the next board meeting in three 
months," replied Howard thinking that this concession would 
prove to some of the more troublesome stockholders that he had 
tried to cooperate. By that time, he would find some other 
mechanism to get rid of this pain in his side.

Eyes flashing, Ed stared at the CEO as he said, "The next board 
meeting is the Stockholders meeting. By that time, this company 
will have lost a half a billion dollars and will not be able to 
recover. Six months from now, you'll be filing Chapter 11. Look at 
the numbers yourself and you'll see that I speak the truth."

Howard sat back and said, "My offer stands."

With an abruptness that shocked the others in the room, Ed stood 
and said, "Fine. I resign and shall inform the stockholders that 
voted me on the board the reason for my resignation."

As Ed turned to walk from the room, Howard realized that this 
man meant business and wasn't here to play games. If the 
stockholders found out that he had kept Ed from doing what he 
was brought in to accomplish, then the next stockholders meeting 
would be a disaster. Thinking hard, he shouted, "Get back here."

At the door, Ed turned and said, "Sir, do not waste my time. In less 
than a year, John Carter and myself developed a plan that brought 
down organized crime in America during a single day of raids. If 
my efforts aren't supported by you, then nothing I say or do can 
help this company."

Slumping in his seat, Howard knew that he was defeated. He 
replied, "Four days, that's all you get."

Ed smiled at what he planned for the next meeting and said, 
"Great. I'll make all of the arrangements and we'll meet in four 
days from now."

Howard frowned at the loss of control over the meeting and said, 
"We'll adjourn now and meet again in four days."

Smiling at the discomfort of the CEO, Ed said, "I expect that you'll 
introduce me to your executive staff in two hours. I suggest that 
you tell them that if any of them miss this meeting that you will 
personally fire them."

"You can't be serious!"

"Dead serious." His flat voice conveyed the seriousness of his 
stance.

For the next two days, Ed spent twenty hours a day going through 
various aspects of the business as a plan formed in his mind. 
Walking through the accounting department, he grabbed 
accountants left and right telling them to follow him to a 
conference room. Men and women broke down into tears as he 
pushed them to limits that they had never expected to encounter. 

After twelve hours, more people were called into the conference 
room. These were the individuals that adjusted fares over the 
course of booking flights. He was relentless in his questioning. 
With single-minded determination, he sought to understand how 
every aspect of how fares were computed. These individuals broke 
down under his constant grilling as he questioned every business 
practice that they employed in setting fares. Time after time, they 
had to admit that they had no real data to back up the rules that 
they followed. 

The third day was spent constructing a plan to turn the company 
around financially. Accountants struggled to make sense of the 
numbers as a clear picture emerged of how the airline would be run 
in the future. The people in charge of setting up the fare schedule 
complained that his approach would loose them passengers. He 
argued back that they could afford to loose the customers that cost 
them money. As the argument became more heated, Ed realized it 
was because they were arguing to keep their jobs. A simple 
compromise was established.

After his tenth call from Howard Hardgrove and several attempts 
to undermine his efforts, Ed used his cell phone to call for 
reinforcements. The plan that emerged was radical, but had the 
ability to immediately turn around the company without seriously 
impacting the majority of people that worked for the firm. There 
would be some that could be significantly hurt by the changes, but 
they were the ones most responsible for the problems. 

A rather tired Ed sat in the first class seat waiting for the other 
board members to arrive for the remainder of the board meeting. It 
was the only first class seat in the plane. There were exactly 
twenty-one seats in the coach area of the plane. He had worked 
most of the night getting the plane fixed up for the meeting and 
hoped that his point would be taken by the other members of the 
board.

The board members entered the plane not knowing what to expect. 
The looks on their faces as they were lead to coach seats were 
priceless. Ed was enjoying himself tremendously as they tried to fit 
in the narrow chairs with hard cushions. Once they were seated, 
the 'fasten seat belt' sign came on.

Howard complained bitterly about the seating accommodations. He 
kept elbowing the man seated next to him and his knees were 
hitting the chair in front of him. Irritated, he said, "You can't 
conduct business cooped up like this!"

A very pleased Ed took his seat on the back row as a stewardess 
lowered a screen for his presentation. While she was busy doing 
that, another stewardess came up the isle with the pushcart offering 
each person a beverage and a bag of peanuts. Several of the people 
sitting on the isle complained when the cart hit their elbows. 
Tempers were approaching the boiling point and they had only 
been in the chairs for ten minutes. The stewardess reminded each 
person that they had to fasten their seat belts. 

Once everyone had been served, Ed said, "Ladies and Gentlemen. 
Welcome to coach. I think that we would all agree that it isn't very 
pleasant. This is the service that you are selling your customers. 
Lots of comfort for the money, but I'm sure you know that. Oh, 
wait one minute, you get free first class seats when you fly."

Howard shouted, "How dare you!"

"With great ease, I assure you," replied Ed as he turned on the 
projector for the presentation. "The first slide shows the average 
cost to transport a customer from one point to another via this 
airline. Of all your costs, only one is really significant. Thirty-five 
percent of your cost goes into ticket sales and passenger 
management. That figure is the amount that it costs you to sell a 
ticket, give tickets away on overbooked flights, and handle seating 
assignments. It doesn't include advertisement."

As people examined the slide, Ed could tell that there weren't any 
surprises in the figures. In a way, that surprised him, but it didn't 
slow him down. He flipped up the next slide and said, "For each 
passenger that you carry, you are loosing an average of three 
dollars."

Howard interrupted, "So tell us something that we don't already 
know."

This was as Ed suspected all along. They knew that they were 
losing money, but didn't want to change the way they operated to 
make a profit. With a smile, he threw up another slide and said, 
"This is how the figures could break down if you go along with the 
plan that I've developed."

There was stunned silence in the plane as people looked at the slide 
that Ed had put up on the screen. He let them process it for a 
minute and then said, "Ticket sales and customer management 
have dropped to one percent of the total cost. Advertising drops to 
five percent. This is assuming an average occupancy rate of fifty 
percent for each flight."

"Fifty?"

"Yes, fifty percent occupancy rate."

Howard stuttered as he said, "I notice that the fuel and airplane 
costs have risen to forty percent."

"Yes, that's true," remarked Ed as he looked at the slide. 

"Fuel is cheap!" On an earlier occasion, he had claimed that fuel 
was expensive.

"The reason the percentage is so high is that we are assuming that 
fifty percent capacity pays for the entire cost of transportation and 
services. Ninety percent of each ticket sold above that capacity is 
pure profit," replied Ed with a smile knowing that he had hit them 
below the money belt.

"How do you expect to achieve this?" asked Howard convinced 
that this guy had played with the numbers in some funny manner.

"Do you want the truth?"

The CEO replied, "Of course I want the truth."

"The first action is to reduce the cost of ticket sales and customer 
management. We shall have to adopt a fixed rate pricing and a no 
refund policy on tickets. Once the seats on a plane are sold out, 
that's it."

"You are suggesting that we stop our current pricing policies?"

"Exactly."

"Why on earth would you do that?"

"Because we want the customers to be willing to pay twenty 
dollars more for a ticket than the typical discount ticket," replied 
Ed with a smile. He had been shocked when he looked over the 
variety of prices paid by customers and the number of people that 
were flying free. 

"You're dropping the average price?"

"Yes."

"How can you do that?"

"That is the second action that we need to take. Right now the ratio 
of salaries between the highest paid person in the company and the 
lowest paid person is two thousand. That should be lowered to five 
hundred. Morally, I would say that it should be lowered to twenty 
because of the poor performance of the company, but I recognize 
that is not going to happen," replied Ed. The lowest paid person, a 
janitor, was getting paid twenty thousand per year and the CEO 
was getting an outrageous forty million after bonuses were taken 
into account. 

Howard exploded, "That's absurd. Do you know how much 
responsibility this job carries with it?"

Very amused by the question, Ed said, "Sure, I know how much 
responsibility your job has. For the past year, this company has lost 
money and you haven't been able to correct it. I would say that you 
are failing in your responsibilities and haven't owned up to the 
failure."

One of the other members of the board, an academic from a rather 
large school of business, asked, "And what is the consequence of 
that changing that ratio?"

"It drops the total labor cost of the company by ten percent," 
replied Ed. Seeing the looks on the faces of the people around the 
room, he added, "That is after giving a five percent raise to the 
lowest paid people in the company. When you add in the overhead 
and other charges, it turns out to be a significant amount of 
money."

The woman bent down and did some calculations on the numbers. 
She looked up and asked, "How many people are affected by that?"

"One percent of the company would have their wages dropped so 
that they are under the two thousand rule."

She looked up and asked, "Do you mean to tell me that a thousand 
people in this company make over a million a year?"

"Yes," replied Ed. He wondered if the other board members would 
support him in lowering the wages of the highest paid executives 
in the company if that was the only change that he proposed. It 
would actually return the company to a profitable status, but such a 
move wouldn't last. Looking over at Howard, it was clear that the 
CEO wasn't about to go for it. 

After struggling with his seatbelt, Howard stood up in the plane 
and hit his head on the luggage compartment. They had been there 
for thirty minutes and he was tired of being shoved into a space 
that wasn't fit for a dog. Angry at the suggestion, he said, "You 
have no idea what you are talking about doing to this company! 
We will loose all of our top executives if we do that."

"The downside is?" asked Ed pleasantly.

"We can't run the airline without them, you idiot!"

"Seems to me that you can't run the airline with them," replied Ed.

The woman asked, "What is the third step?"

"We reduce the number of seats on the plane by one half. This 
requires making chairs that are halfway between the current coach 
seat and a first class seat," replied Ed.

"You are reducing the number of passengers in half?" shouted 
Howard furious at the man. He looked around the room and 
noticed the people in the chairs thinking about how much more 
space this would have given them. He could see that they were 
entertaining the idea put forth by Ed. This airline would become 
the laughing stock of the entire industry. The other airlines would 
be getting half of their customers.

"You won't have an empty seat on a single plane. Fifty percent of 
your customers will be pure profit."

A number of people started nodding their heads at the idea. Even if 
his numbers were generous, it still made sense to have a base 
number of passengers at which every passenger after that meant 
pure profit. Howard shouted, "The stockholders would never go for 
it!"

Signaling to the stewardess, he let her know that it was time for 
lunch. He announced, "I have spent twenty dollars per lunch so I 
hope that you enjoy it. I realize that for many of the people here, a 
twenty dollar lunch may be a cheap, but for a lot of the people that 
fly your airline it is an expensive lunch."

The stewardess handed out typical airline fare to each person. 
Without exception, they looked at the meal in disgust wondering 
how it could possibly cost twenty dollars to provide such low 
quality food. After eating a bite of the food, Ed remarked, 
"Perfectly horrible, just like every time that I've flown this airline. 
I'm going to suggest that we change catering companies or start our 
own."

Howard still hadn't returned to his seat. In a firm voice, the 
stewardess said, "Sir, the fasten seat belt sign is still on. I'm afraid 
that you have to return to your seat."

Angry, the CEO turned to her and said, "You're fired!"

Laughing at the empty threat, Ling answered, "Sorry, but I don't 
work for you. I'm married to Ed."

The look on his face was priceless as Ed and several of the other 
board members burst out laughing. Glaring at everyone around the 
room, Howard restated his position, "The stockholders will never 
go for it."

It was time for Ed to provide his coupe de grace. Ed touched a 
button and the next slide came up on the screen. It showed the 
projected value of the company over the next year. At the end of 
the year, they would show a three-dollar a share return on 
investment. Looking at the mess on his plate, Ed decided that the 
only thing worth eating was the wilted salad and stale bread.

He didn't make a single comment about the value of the company, 
letting the slide talk for itself. Howard stared at the slide seeing 
how the initial cost would drive the company into great debt, but 
that the curve turned upwards very quickly. With a sinking feeling 
in his stomach, he realized there was no way that he could prevent 
the changes that Ed had proposed. The question now was how 
could he get out with the most money possible. It was possible that 
he could strike a deal with Ed to fire him for his golden parachute. 

Moving very slowly, Howard sat down in his chair wondering 
what had happened. In four days this guy had totally reinvented the 
entire corporation. He looked at the food sitting on the tray in front 
of him and pushed it away. He owned shares in that company and 
if it lost the contract with the airline, those shares would be 
worthless. 

After everyone finished as much of the meal that they could 
stomach, Ed said, "Would everyone prefer to reconvene in the 
boardroom in two hours?"

The vote was unanimous. As everyone shuffled out, Howard 
waited to speak with Ed privately. Once everyone had left the 
plane, he asked, "Ed, could I speak to you for a minute privately?"

"Sure, don't mind Ling. She will never say a word," replied Ed.

Glancing over at the short oriental woman, Howard wondered why 
Ed had included her. Rather than argue, he said, "Will you be 
firing me?"

Shaking his head, Ed said, "No. You are going to have to resign if 
you want to leave the company."

"Do you know how much money that will cost me?"

"Yes, I do," replied Ed. He had checked out the contract with great 
attention to detail. He added, "We will keep you under the terms of 
the contract even if it means that your duties are reduced to that of 
being a janitor."

"You can't do that!"

"That's right. I can't, but the stockholders can." 

Howard looked over at Ed and said, "You're a criminal."

Looking down at the floor of the plane, Ed replied, "I'm a 
criminal? No, I don't think so. Even knowing that this company 
was going down the tubes, you were milking it for every dollar you 
could. I don't know if there was anything that you did that was 
illegal. I'm not going to look into that unless forced."

"I own everyone on the board. You are not going to get away with 
this," declared Howard. 

Ling smiled as she said, "Didn't you ever hear the saying, don't 
fuck with a Druid?"

Ed put his arm around Ling and walked out of the plane leaving 
the CEO behind. With a smile, Ling bumped her hip against Ed 
and said, "That made me horny."

Laughing at her obvious pleasure in confrontation, Ed asked, "And 
where do you suggest that we take care of that problem?"

"While you've been sleeping on the floor here, I actually rented a 
hotel room at the airport here."

Twenty minutes later, they were in a hotel room lying naked on the 
bed in sixty-nine. Ed was busy licking Ling with great pleasure as 
she finished sucking him to a firm erection. It only took her a 
minute to disengage and get on all fours as she said, "Fuck me 
doggy style."

Positioning himself behind her, he lined his cock up with her cunt. 
With a very slow motion, he started to enter her. She wasn't going 
to have any slow and easy action today. With a grunt, she thrust 
back taking the full length of his cock in one smooth motion. 
Getting the hint, Ed started to thrust into her. She shouted, "Harder. 
Fuck me, harder."

Ed increased the pace of his thrusts and was soon slamming into 
her with great force. She was pushing back to meet his thrusts 
announcing her excitement with her typical loud screams while his 
hands were on her hips pulling her into him. It didn't take her long 
to achieve an orgasm. The speed with which she had come 
surprised Ed, but he didn't slow his actions. The volume of her 
orgasm didn't surprise him.

Placing a pillow under her stomach, she slowly lowered herself to 
the bed with her ass raised in the air. Ed adjusted his position so 
that he could really hammer his steel hard cock into her. Grabbing 
another pillow, Ling bit into it to keep her screams from echoing 
throughout the hotel. The first orgasm was just a warm up as far as 
the volume with which she would announce her pleasure. 

Even with a corner of the pillow jammed into her mouth, her next 
orgasm was unmistakable. The muffled scream still echoed around 
the room. Ed could feel the come boiling in his balls as he 
approached an orgasm. In an attempt to prolong his performance, 
he changed his pace. That simple action triggered another orgasm 
in Ling. As her cunt fluttered around his cock, he spewed forth his 
fluids deep within her. 

Sweaty and hot, Ed gently pulled out of her and lay on the bed. It 
had been too long since he had made love to one of his wives. His 
concern for Linda had kept him by her side almost all of the time. 
Turning to face Ling, he kissed her gently and said, "I probably 
haven't said it as many times as I should, but I love you. I've 
missed you."

"I've missed you, too," answered Ling. She was concerned about 
Ed and knew that he needed to take care of himself. She knew he 
loved her, but he was so worried about Linda that everything else 
was background.

After they showered together, Ling sat on the toilet seat and 
watched as Ed shaved. She had never seen him shave before and 
commented, "I like watching you shave."

"Pardon?"

"I like watching you shave."

"Why?" asked a very puzzled Ed. 

"It just seems remarkably intimate to me," answered Ling as she 
watched him purse his lips to trim under his lips. There was 
something very intimate and masculine about a man shaving. 

Almost cutting himself, he stopped shaving to laugh. Shaking his 
head, he replied, "You can watch me shave anytime you want."

"Thanks, I think I will," replied Ling.

Ed reached the boardroom on time while Ling stayed behind in the 
hotel room. Taking the same seat at the end of the table, Ed 
examined the faces of the people gathered around the conference 
table. It was clear that the past two hours had been spent doing a 
lot of arm-twisting. It didn't matter how many arms had been 
twisted since Ed knew exactly what he was doing.

Howard Hardgrove sat at the end of the table glaring at Ed. His 
attempt to set the IRS on him had backfired when he found out that 
Ed was a major player in the organization. Inquiries at the FBI had 
resulted in old contacts hanging up on him after telling him that Ed 
was a national hero. Attempting to call in political support had 
exploded in his face when several Senators told him to drop it. It 
was time for him to try private approaches and that required him to 
delay the meeting for a little while.

Howard opened the meeting when he said, "It is normal in business 
situations such as this for background investigations to be 
performed on board members. Ed Biggers, do you have any 
identification on you?"

"Yes, I do," replied Ed with a smile. Reaching into his pocket, he 
pulled out his driver's license, his IRS ID, and his CIA ID. 
Opening them one at a time, he showed them to the people around 
the room. Several twisted-arms suddenly became untwisted as they 
realized that Ed could bury them with a simple audit. 

Howard stared at the IRS badge like it was a cobra. His last 
attempt to wrest control over Ed had failed and he knew it. He 
slumped in his chair and said, "Okay. I guess you want us to take a 
vote on the actions proposed by Dr. Biggers."

Everyone around the table nodded, although most of them did not 
look that excited. The ringing of a cell phone interrupted the 
silence in the room and brought a look of relief on Howard's face. 
Ed pulled out his phone and answered it. A smile broke across his 
face and he started laughing at the news. After a few minutes, he 
put the cell phone away. Turning to everyone in the room, he said, 
"My wife was attacked in her hotel room."

Howard started at how Ed had taken the news and looked around 
the table. Covering himself, he asked, "How is she?"

"Quite happy. She actually got to seriously hurt a couple of 
people."

The professor from the business school asked, "What happened?"

"She neutered one, broke the spine of the other, and broke about 
ten bones in the third."

"That's horrible."

Smiling around the table, Ed answered, "She could have feed them 
their own guns one bullet at a time, but she didn't. I'm rather 
pleased with the self-restraint that she showed this time."

Howard paled.