Eagles Fly by Sean Flannery

Author:Sean Flannery
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group
Published: 2012-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

18

The home office of Kelsey Electronics, Ltd., was housed in a twenty-seven-story building a couple of blocks from the Sears Tower in Chicago’s financial district. It had been built a few years ago at a cost of $80 million. All but the bottom four floors, which housed shops, a bookstore, a cocktail lounge, and some rental offices, were used by the company.

The top floor held the executive suite and August Kelsey’s private dining room, used only by him, the board of directors, and the comptroller of the gigantic corporation.

Dr. Kelsey sat across the highly polished mahogany table from his father, the two of them the only ones in the room. The old man had seemed in a particularly ebullient mood, and Kelsey had wanted to wait until they were finished with their lunch to bring up the real reason for his visit.

Although the research institute was located only a few miles away from here, Kelsey and his father had both been extraordinarily busy over the past year and rarely managed to spend much time with each other. Kelsey had made the luncheon appointment with his father on the pretext that he merely wanted to see the old man, but his father saw through that.

“The chitchat is fine, and I’m glad that you managed to break free for lunch, Richard, but what’s on your mind? More money for the Institute?”

Kelsey laughed and sat back in his chair, a wave of love for his father washing over him. “I never could keep anything a secret from you. Ever since I was a little boy and tried to hide the BB gun I swiped.”

His father chuckled. “What’s on your mind, Richard?”

Kelsey suddenly felt foolish being here. “Look, Father,” he started, “if you’re jammed up, I can come back another time. It’s not all that important.”

The old man tensed for a moment, almost as if he were a platoon sergeant making ready to bark an order at a subordinate, but then he relaxed, took a sip of cognac from the elegantly etched snifter, and smiled, the action deepening the lines around his eyes.

One part of Kelsey’s mind was looking professionally at his father’s face, which, with some minor surgery, could be fixed to make him look twenty years younger, and another part of his mind was seeing the man he loved and respected. A man who always had a smile for his son.

“I suppose I was being a little brusque,” he said gently, and he took out his pocket watch and looked at it. “Are you going to be tied up at the Institute this afternoon?”

“Almost literally if Marion has her way. I have to be back by one-thirty. Carlson and some others from the AMA are coming to take a look at the setup. I’m supposed to be on my best behavior.”

“How is Marion?”

“Just fine except for the fact she complains almost daily that you haven’t been over to our apartment yet for dinner. She’s a good cook.”

“I thought perhaps that the three of us might sneak this afternoon off.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.