Waste Not, Want Not Chapter XV

The following day found Paul arriving early at Albert Hyak’s office in his very elegant building.
Albert was at the open door when Paul came down the hall.
“Good morning Paul! I hope the brisk weather is beneficial for you!”
“Good morning Albert! You look bright eyed and bushy tailed!”
Coffee was waiting on the desk with two hot cups on a silver serving tray.
The two men sipped their coffee.
“Very good,” said Paul.
“So tell me about your trip to your new property,” said Albert.
“I think it is promising. There is apparently a large, deep cavern on the place. I didn’t get a chance to look at it.”
“Yes, you told me of your ordeal there! Take your time, get healthy before you go back.”
“I am doing fine. I will make another trip soon. There are some problems with the place though. There is a group of people, squatters really, that live there and cultivate the place and run the cattle and just carry on the business of the ranch. They’ve been doing it for a number of years apparently,” said Paul.
“Why they will just have to go! Can’t have them about…”
Paul replied “It’s not that simple. They are known in the community and causing a sudden disruption of those families could draw unwanted attention. We need to think about this.”
“Hmmm,” grunted Albert. “I see what you mean. Well, what do we do?”
I am working on it,” Paul said, though he was momentarily perplexed. But he would never let that be known.
“There is no big hurry right now, things are still settling down here. The new administration hasn’t got going yet and we need to bide our time a little while anyway,” said Albert.
So for the next few weeks Paul returned to business. As he expected it looked like a good year already. He had laid a solid groundwork in his various enterprises and stocked the company leaderships with men he had known for years, and then their sons.
He had a far flung business empire with gasoline retail outlets, transport, refineries, drilling companies, exploration companies, geologist, the works, a fully integrated business model in petroleum.
He was fond of saying that his organization “ran like a well oiled machine!” He had a poor sense of humor but he found his weak pun hilarious.
His companies were autonomous. Their CEO’s and boards had full responsibility for their operations and shared handsomely in the good times and rode out leaner times, of which there had been few lately.
Paul did keep a sharp eye on things. He knew what was going on in his companies. When he found something going wrong he acted quickly. He was known to richly reward good management and accomplishments. He was also known to be ruthless and relentless when he found something he had to fix.
At the moment he was concentrating on his facilities at Oak Ridge and Yucca Flats. There was a surplus of radioactive waste building up in their lead lined under ground silos. This added extra urgency to his Waste Not, Want Not plan.
After a long day Paul decided to go home and relax for a change and maybe go to bed early. He fixed a quick dinner, poured a drink and watched the news before he went to bed.