Out of the Fire

Part 3 - The Billionaire

Preparing for the Axell Corp monthly Heads of Departments meeting, Mike Axell was sitting on the boardroom table resting his feet on one of the luxury chairs. The curtains drawn back, he was staring out through the large panoramic windows, out over the New York morning skyline. Being still early, on the street below, the morning rush hour would be at its peak but the city noise didn't penetrate up into the sound-proofed meeting room. The room was even protected from electronic eavesdropping by state of the art electronics and good old fashioned design.

It was one of his rare quiet moments and Mike was contemplating the events of the last ten years. It all seemed an age ago when, in a moment of curiosity he had hacked into Rodger Fergusson's computer just to see what a world leading astronomer does during the day. A whole lot had happened since then and Rodge Fergusson had become one of his most trusted friends, confidant and reality check.

In that decade the world had continued to lurch from one international, political or ecological crisis to another while still advancing in technology and scientific knowledge. The media kept people worrying about the climate or the violence, in total ignorance of the horrific doom about to be visited on their unsuspecting world. Also in that decade, his marriage to Elizabeth had failed. His now ex-wife had taken their twin sons Arthur and Edward, and moved in with one of her body guards, citing Mike's constant absences on business as the cause of her unhappiness.

This had hurt Mike badly at the time and he had had to be convinced, almost physically restrained from taking retribution on both his wife and her lover. It was Rodge who had shown him that acting on his desire for revenge would only remove any possibility of him having access to his sons. Rodge convinced him to find more productive ways to just deal with the pain until he could face the situation logically. Sadly it had taken the loss of Elle to show him the wisdom of that advice. Since then he had made peace with Elizabeth and Mark, now her husband. His sons were now both working for Axell CORP as junior engineers after completing an internship following their graduation from MIT. At reflective moments like this the enormity of the burden he had assumed weighed very heavily indeed.

His reverie was interrupted when Rodge Fergusson knocked and entered with a couple of cups of coffee and a piece of fruit toast.

"Cheers" Mike accepted the coffee and waved away the toast, "Are the directors here yet?"

"Yes, they are all here and just getting their coffee."

"They can wait," Mike decided out loud "I was just remembering when this all started, it seems like a million years ago, we have done well to have got this far and no-one," he waved towards the window, "no-one out there has a clue."

Rodge took a bite from the toast and responded.

"At least some of humanity has a chance of surviving this thanks to you, if the Government was involved, it would have leaked and civilisation as we know it would have collapsed years ago. Those who don't get to make it will at least have the chance to live normally until the end. So far you have performed a miracle."

"Well it is time to direct the Directors then," said Mike dryly as he dragged the heavy curtains closed blocking out the morning city.

The monthly meeting was an exact clone of the previous half dozen, the Sanctuaries are behind schedule, the colonists were fully prepared to adopt the role for real and the security forces are trained and skilled up for post industrial operations. After the Directors had departed, Mike turned to Rodge.

"I think it is time to have a holiday, officially that is, and unofficially we need to have a good look at all of our operations. Have you heard from Jean?"