Chapter 18: You Need to Know, Part I
Steph’s POV
Lester dishes the dirt
It’s Friday afternoon. The guys told me last night that they each wanted to talk to me one on one about important issues they felt needed to be discussed. So I’m not completely surprised to hear a knock at the door after lunch. Lester is first, full of energy. He has frosting in one corner of his mouth and I glare at him and point at it. He goes to the bathroom to remove it and returns with a sheepish smile.
“Sorry.” He grins. “Alright, grab a legal pad and get comfy. I’m giving you the scoop on every office and XO and anything else I can think of.”
I pull another legal pad and grab a blanket to curl up on the sofa. Finally, someone willing to dish the dirt. I should’ve assumed it would be Lester. I need all the help I can get.
“Alright, let’s start first with Trenton. I know you know the guys here, but tell me, what’s the new command structure?”
“Umm . . . Hal is XO, with Junior as his partner and backup.” Lester nods. “Manny is the head of Investigations and Bonds Enforcement and the internal strategist. Ram is the head of Client Services and external liaison.”
“Good, but you left out some people.”
I have to think about it for a minute. I’m not sure I’ve ever paid attention. Finally, I shake my head. I don’t know. I know who took BLT’s roles.
“Hector is the Head of Communications and Electronics for the Trenton branch and reports to Manny now for branch matters. He also holds that role within the company and he reports directly to you.”
I write that down. Never knew that.
“Zero is the office medic, Junior is the new head of the security installs unit, and Woody is the new head of the monitoring unit. Binkie is responsible for the gym and gun range, and Caesar is in charge of the garage. Manny hasn’t named someone for Apprehensions yet. And you, Beautiful, are the CO. You are a part of every office’s command structure. Never leave yourself out.”
I nod and draw a flow chart for the office structure.
“You already know the men here pretty well, so I won’t spend any time here really, except to warn you about one thing.”
I look up and Lester has a humongous grin on his face. “Hal is a different man from the man he was two weeks ago, Steph. Hal’s new motto in life is ‘What would Tank do?’ and you should think about that before trying to get around him. He won’t be so easily fooled. If you were to ask him for his stun gun now, he’d stun you first and worry about being yelled at later.”
We both laugh, but I get his message. I have a mini-Tank on my hands . . . or a Tank clone. Yeah, Tank clone is better; Hal’s as big as Tank himself.
“Alright, Atlanta. I want you to arrange to visit Atlanta first, and here’s why: Danny will be incredibly supportive of you.” I nod at that, remembering Danny’s advice and support all week. “Reviewing the Atlanta office will give you an opportunity to review how the other offices run and something to compare to as you move from office to office. Danny is XO, his strategist is Chase and his liaison is Adam. Let him introduce his guys when you get there, OK?”
I nod and draw another flow chart with the Atlanta structure, placing myself at the top. Lester grins and gives me the thumbs up.
“Atlanta’s territory stretches from Birmingham to Charlotte, three hours in all directions, so there are satellite offices within one hour driving time of downtown Atlanta and each other.”
“I thought the geographical distance for any RangeMan office was 1 hour?”
“It is, but Atlanta is one we bought and this was the structure they had, so we kept it. Atlanta is such a big city with such a horrible traffic grid that without the satellite offices, we could never make our response times. It’s actually a very good idea, one we are considering for each RangeMan office. Plus, three hours in each direction means we are covering three state capitals, are within one hour of two more, and are reaching at least half a dozen major cities within the three hour limit.”
It still seems like too much to me, and I tell him so. He nods.
“It is a concern that we have, so we keep a very close eye on the Atlanta office. We may have to cut back or open another office, so it’s something for you to watch. Another problem that they have is Bonds Enforcement. The territory is so large that they really depend on their searches to give them clues about where to find their FTAs. It’s why they have the lowest capture rate in the company, and it’s also the office where we have some of the biggest outstanding bonds. More than any others, we really wanted you to work with the Atlanta office to help them with their searches. They’re at 88% this month, mostly because some of those searches you ran last week were for them.”
Lester grins. “As usual, once you do a search, they had the FTAs at the cop shop within 72 hours. Two of them were long-standing federal fugitives, so your work there brought us $2.5 million.”
I look at Lester in shock. I didn’t think my work was that spectacular, but maybe it is.
“$2.5 million from just picking stuff out in searches?”
“Yeah, Beautiful, you’re that good. Danny told half his research group to get up here next week so you can walk them through it. Anyway, that office’s particular strengths are client services, i.e. armed guards for commercial clients and commercial monitoring, but I know that Danny wants to move into Hospitality.”
“Yes, he mentioned it on Monday and I have to admit, I like the idea. It gives all the guys, even the ones with records, a chance to serve in the field.”
“Good, I agree. You might want to give Atlanta’s projections a review before you decide whether or not to green-light it. I held off because for a major conference you need hundreds of guys, and I’m not sure we could absorb that many guys into the branch unless we could get a steady stream of contracts for hospitality services.”
Lester grins. He’s giddy over all this. “This is a place where you can smooth our hard edges. You might be able to help them close enough deals that it becomes feasible. Just take care that Atlanta stays well under their cost projections. All it takes is another economic downturn or large scale disaster, ala the Olympic Park bombing, for us to have to lay off staff. We’re proud of the fact that once we hire guys we don’t have to lay them off, and I’d prefer to turn down work than have to lay off staff.”
I agree with him on that point, so I make a note to make sure we have enough men, between full-time staff and contract guys, to meet the demand without having too many.
“Alright Beautiful, let’s move to Miami. You’ve met Armando; his strategist is Diego, and his liaison is Thomas. Miami should be your second trip, and the biggest issue you’ll face in that office will be the machismo factor.”
I make a face and another chart. “Want to explain that, Lester?”
Lester has stopped smiling and is completely serious. Actually, he looks somewhat troubled.
“Well, Beautiful, there are a lot of different meanings for it, but I prefer the old definition, which is the way a man carries himself with honor that was to be respected and imitated. Macho men were to have bravery, courage and strength as well as wisdom and leadership. I could go on but that’s it in a nutshell, a man of courage, strength and honor who was to be admired. That’s what we expect of every RangeMan. Unfortunately, the entire city of Miami has kinda overdosed on the idea, and it’s been perverted into the idea that men are superior to women and that a woman’s role is as a wife and mother in the home, not trying to do a man’s job.”
Lester chuckles. “Or a woman is meant to be a piece of arm candy, pretty but not all that bright. She’s supposed to let the men handle their business and concentrate on her tan, her clothes, and her shoes. When I think of every Latina woman I know, I don’t know where this idea has come from, because the women I know are more likely to kick my ass than the men.”
“That might be because you’re a manwhore, Les.”
Lester looks at me, shocked, then he laughs. No, actually, he howls with laughter, and I join him. Lester’s ‘nighttime’ activities are well known and his reputation for picking up women is legendary.
“Yeah, OK, I get around, I’ll admit it. But,” he sobers a little, “I don’t believe women are inferior to me, and I don’t treat them that way. Miami . . . well, it’s hard to explain those guys.” Lester shakes his head and frowns.
I know my face looks completely outraged now. In other words, the Miami guys don’t think I can do my job. “So you’re telling me that I’m going to have authority issues from the men in that office.”
Lester nods. “In short, yeah. They know the Bombshell stories and they know about your success rate, but I’m sure they’ve attributed it to you just being lucky, not you having any kind of skill. I’ve already given Armando a heads up to give his men a heads up that disrespect to the CO will not be permitted, but you should still expect it. Although, I don’t think you’ll really run into disrespect as much as you will condescension. Because you’re ‘Ranger’s woman,’ ” Les does the finger quotes,” I don’t think they’ll be overtly disrespectful to you, since they worship the man, but I do expect them to be very condescending. I’ve advised Hal and Manny to go with you on that trip.”
I start to make a protest, but Lester cuts me off. “No, not to fight your battles, Steph. I want them there as the face of the Trenton Office. Everyone in the company knows that the Trenton office doesn’t play when it comes to you. As XO and Strategist, Hal and Manny can log official protests to your treatment as they see fit. If you were to do it, it might be seen as you not being able to take the heat or being overly sensitive or any number of offensive put downs. Besides, we leave it up to you to determine appropriate punishment for the offenders. No one can dish out inventive retribution like you can.”
Lester is grinning again. I’m glad he finds this funny. I have condescending macho men to look forward to.
“Another factor is that Miami tends to think itself especially special because the company headquarters are there. They tend to think of themselves as first among all. That has to stop. The company is headquartered there for tax and legal reasons, but the command structure was always intended to be different.”
“What do you mean?” I can’t make heads or tails of that statement. At this, Lester is serious again and he leans back, staring at me. For a few minutes he doesn’t say anything. “Lester, I get the feeling you’re about to start easing your way into explaining something you think I won’t like.”
He gives me a small smile. “I am. I’m just trying to figure out how to say this.” I try to raise an eyebrow, which gets a grin. “Not quite, Beautiful, but you’ll get there. Alright, here’s the deal. Please don’t ever mention this again because I don’t know if this is still his intention, but Ranger planned to move back to Miami eventually.”
I’m certain I’ve just lost all color in my face. He was leaving? He was going to leave Trenton? Was he going to leave-? I can’t finish that thought.
“Steph, there were multiple factors behind our decision to stay here in Jersey longer. One was that the CO had suddenly found a compelling reason to stay here for a bit longer.”
Lester is staring at me hard, hoping I’ve caught the hint. “However, we had decided that at some point we would each take over our duties from one particular office. For example, I would move to NYC, which is close to my family in Newark, and take over oversight of the Boston, NYC, and Trenton branches. Bobby is from Atlanta, so he planned to move back there and take oversight of Atlanta, which is one reason he will definitely want to know what’s going on there from you. Tank’s from Louisiana, so he was taking San Antonio and, if we ever opened them, Memphis and Detroit.”
Lester stretches out on the couch and sips his water. I’m trying to absorb what I’ve just been told.
“Ranger was planning on moving back to Miami. This isn’t an unknown plan to those who’ve been in the company longest, so knowing that the CO would eventually return to oversee the company from there has made the Miami office a bit smug. One of the most infamous Special Ops vets and black ops operators in recent history was coming back to the home office, the office of the ‘manliest men’.”
Lester’s rolling his eyes. I get the feeling he’s not that fond of the Miami office. “I don’t know if that’s still his plan, but in any case, the plan was way off into the future. And once we moved into Trenton, the plan suddenly seemed to be on ‘indefinite hold’.”
Les smiles at me and stretches his legs. “We’re still too young to be tied to desks, so I would say that was the plan when we got closer to 40 or when we no longer met the requirements to be in the field. But it was the plan. So the Miami office really does believe that they are the best among all. So, be aware that they are the ones most likely to test you, mostly because they would prefer for you to do as they say, not the other way around.”
Great. I have an office of Neanderthals to look forward to.
“Steph, you may want to make an extended trip to Miami. First, you’ll be able to do a lot of company related things from that office but also to enjoy the culture and ambiance. You may find yourself having a compelling reason to want to move to Miami.”
Lester, I have a compelling reason to move there now. Have you looked outside? It’s cold, snowing, and the sky is soot. Not grey. Soot. Besides, Florida, the beach and the sun? No ‘Burg, no gossip everywhere I go, no Mom throwing men at me all the time? Florida sounds great.
“Second, I suspect that something’s wrong in that branch but I can’t put my finger on it. Let your spidey-senses guide you there, Beautiful. See if you get anything.”
I make another note. “My spidey-senses were tingling all during my meeting with Armando, so I agree. I got the feeling that there was something he wasn’t telling me.”
“Great. Now I know there’s something wrong. Keep digging and see if you catch anything. I’ll see what I can dig up.”
Lester is smiling and I can’t help but smile back, but I’m sad too. I never thought about Ranger and BLT not always being together. It’s like breaking up the Musketeers or the Beatles. Ranger without Tank? No Lester? No Bobby? I’m not Yoko, I know that. Wait, if the guys go to San Antonio to open this office now, does that mean Ranger will join them in Texas when this op is over? No. Not right now. I don’t want to think about that right now. These guys have become my closest friends besides Mary Lou, Connie, and Lula, and the idea that they won’t be around frightens and saddens me.
Lester grabs some more water and returns to the couch. “Alright, ready to pick up?” I nod. “OK, Boston should be next.”
I’ve had a difficult week with Mark, and I make a face. Lester grimaces. “Meeting with Mark not go well?”
“I get the feeling he’s humoring me, and I don’t like it. Plus, during the Monday meeting with the XOs, I asked each XO to introduce himself. When Mark introduced himself, it was like the entire room went cold. Even Hal didn’t seem to like him. Know anything about that?”
Lester shakes his head and sighs. He curls up on the couch and gets comfortable. “Yeah, I know a lot about that. Here’s the deal. Mark is the person that we’ve had run the company each time we’ve brought up a new office, including this one. If you’ll recall, when we asked you to take this job we said we’d never use Mark again and here’s why: Mark is too fucking nosy and he’s forgotten his place.”
Les looks supremely irritated, and I’m wondering what Mark could have done to piss him off so much.
“Mark is originally out of the Miami office. We placed him as XO in Boston and he’s a great fit there. He knows the people, the office, and he’s done a good job growing the branch. However, being in charge of the company while we brought up another office gave him access to files and paperwork we never want him to see again. He quickly understood that since this was an LLC, meaning that the partners shared the profits of the company, that each of us was a multi-millionaire. He wants to be a partner.”
Holy shit . . . nope, not going to think about that right now . . . Ranger is that rich? Multi Millionaire? Multi? I know my eyes have gone big, and I must be pale because Lester is placing my head between my legs and telling me to breathe. I finally calm down, and Lester looks amused.
“Now do you understand why Ranger shrugs it off when you blow up his cars? Beautiful, when you do that, Ranger gets a massive tax break. Hell, Ranger pays less tax than the rest of us ‘cuz he gets to write off everything that happens to you! I’ve been tempted to ask you to blow up one of my cars, but I’ll never play with your life like that. Besides, the GTO was enough.”
He’s never going to forgive the GTO. Lester is cracking up now, and I’m starting to understand everything Ranger has done for me since I met him. God, it still hurts to know I’m a tax break but . . . it really isn’t hurting him for me to blow up an expensive car. Hell, it’s helping him.
“Yeah, so he wants to be a partner, and Bobby, Tank and I have voted hell no on that plan. Ranger agrees but he doesn’t want to lose Mark from that branch, so he was straddling the fence. My objection to Mark is that Mark will eventually try to challenge one of us for our position and it will be ugly. I honestly think he would attempt to challenge Tank to be Chief XO and the beat down would be nasty.”
“Is he that stupid?” Who would willingly challenge Tank?
“It’s not stupidity as much as pride, Beautiful. He wants to stand next to Ranger in the pecking order, and he believes he’s earned it. I believe he truly does worship Ranger and wants to be his right hand in any way possible. If he had two brain cells in his head he’d realize that it will never happen, but it’s his goal in life. Unfortunately, he hasn’t accepted that RangeMan is owned four ways, not one. Worshipping Ranger while pissing off the other three partners doesn’t do him any good. His loyalty is to Ranger and whatever Ranger wants or believes, not RangeMan, not the partnership, not anything else.”
I’m beginning to wonder about Mark’s brains now. Did the high altitudes scramble his brains?
“Anyway, over the years, he’s irritated every XO by continually poking his nose into the running of their office, questioning their decisions, and occasionally trying to overrule their requests. When he did it in NYC, shortly after we installed Javier, Ranger himself took Mark to the mats for insubordination. So, after hearing all that, I’m sure you’re wondering why we left him in charge anywhere?”
I nod. “Seems like a ticking time bomb. Why not just remove him?”
“Because he grows RangeMan Boston at an annual rate of 9.5%. Because when we have left him in charge, he’s grown the company at 5%. Because his men are loyal to him. Because after that beat down he became even more loyal to Ranger, and as long as Ranger is giving him the orders, he follows like a good soldier should. And because he does have significant leadership skills. He’s a good man. He just doesn’t know his place. He’s seen the mountaintop and he wants to be there. And we haven’t found someone good enough to replace him there.”
Les leans forward and takes my hands. “Beautiful, I don’t want to scare you, but I think that naming you the CO may have been the last straw for him. I see the next year with Mark going one of two ways. Either he will spend the entire year gathering evidence to try to prove to Ranger that we should not have left you in charge or he will attempt to subvert you at every turn. I feel pretty confident that he won’t get any support from any office except maybe Miami, but only because of the machismo issues. That’s why I wanted you to go to Miami and win them over first. Try not to go to Boston before you have Miami under your thumb, OK?”
I nod. One office with Neanderthal issues, the other with an XO who hates me. Wonderful, it’s confirmed: I’ve been handed a complete snow job.
“Anyway, Mark was the person who called here the most last week, which completely irritated Hal and Ram, and Hal gave him a dressing down in Tank’s office on Monday, which is why Hal doesn’t like him.”
Wow, Hal really has become a mini-Tank, er, Tank clone.
“Other than that, I don’t have much to say about Boston,” Lester continues. “It’s the most well run, efficient office in the company. The bond capture rate there is second to Trenton, he’s doing a great job growing our monitoring services, especially for commercial clients, which means big contracts, and he’s got good ideas in his pipeline. I’m inclined to approve just about everything he wants to go after except, of course, the hospitality services. You can try to run a trial in both Atlanta and Boston to see if you feel comfortable adding that to the company roster, but the same rules apply. Patrick is the strategist and Rodney the liaison, so that’s the core team there.”
OK, good office to shadow for efficiency, but I shouldn’t expect any warmth from the men. Got it. What do I do with an XO who is determined to hate me?
Lester looks at me and takes my hand. “Steph, don’t feel that you necessarily have to do anything with Mark. It’s his job to get along with you, not your job to bend over backwards to get along with him. If you feel you want to fire or reprimand him during the year, do it.” Les sits back and grins. “Give Mark enough rope to hang himself! I have the feeling he’ll make rapid and thorough use of it!”
Les looks giddy at the thought. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with an XO who hates me. How do you even begin to work with that kind of person?
“NYC should be last. Javier is very much like Danny and he should be very supportive. The biggest issue with Javier is that he has too many things he could go after and not enough men. We have an issue with recruitment and staffing in NYC, mostly because the pay issues are a problem. RangeMan pay is some of the best in the industry, but the men we would like most can make the same amount of money as private bodyguards, which is a reason why our personal bodyguarding services aren’t big there, but Javier wants to grow them. I see this as a problem with Shane, his strategist, who is a former bodyguard.”
Les shakes his head and stands up. He paces around the room for a while. I think he just needed to move; Les can never really sit still for long.
“He really can’t see beyond that, so Shane may need to be reassigned. You need a visionary as strategist, and I don’t think Shane is it. So Javier needs more services in his pipeline and more men to staff them. If you want to give some men short-term transfers to NYC or increase the number of contract workers there, go for it. He just needs support and a plan. Better yet, take Manny with you on that trip. He would probably be the best person to help you iron out NYC. Liam is his liaison, a good guy with a hard job. Another thing I want you to be aware of in the NYC office is that Javier is a gossip.”
Really Lester? You’re calling someone else a gossip? He grins. Great, I said it aloud again!
“Yup, I’m calling him as a gossip, and he’s a bad one because when I gossip, I tell people I can trust to keep their mouth shut. Think about all the gossip I’ve given you and think about how many people in this office knew about it.”
I take a few moments and I realize that Lester is right. Tank, Bobby, Ranger and I would always know what Lester was talking about, but I’m not sure if I ever heard any of it repeated on the floor. Lester’s floor talk is on women, sports, pranks, and business matters.
“When Javier gossips, it gets back to Bobby before close of business. We know way more about the running of the NYC office than Javier believes we do, and it’s all because he and his men have loose lips. The activities of the Trenton office are a mystery to the entire company because the men here don’t tell tales.” OK so Javier talks too much and his men follow suit.
“OK Beautiful, any questions?”
I can’t think of any at the moment. I’ve gotten the scoop on each XO, their offices, and their Core Team. I have enough to think about right now. Jeez, what could Tank and Bobby have to talk about?
