Chapter 6
"And what did you say?"
"I told her you were sitting in my lobby having a cup of coffee. She asked for five minutes of your time on speakerphone the moment you signed that paper."
I looked at Clive. He nodded toward the desk phone in the center of the conference table.
I signed the bottom of the page with a clean, steady stroke.
Clive reached out, tapped the keypad on the conference phone, and dialed a ten-digit number from memory. It rang once.
"Fairbanks," a crisp, authoritative voice answered.
"Jocelyn," Clive said. "I have Emmett Vale in the room. He just signed his appointment letter."
A long pause hung over the speaker. Through the line, I could hear the faint murmur of a busy corporate office in Manhattan.
"Put him on," Jocelyn said.
"Hello, Jocelyn," I said.
The silence broke with a long, heavy exhale that sounded like pure relief.
"Emmett," she said, her voice dropping the sharp executive edge she used in boardrooms. "I have spent forty-eight hours dealing with children who don't know the difference between an FAA ground stop and a mechanical cancellation. I had sixteen senior partners stranded in Atlanta on Sunday night because your desk lead told them to wait in line at customer service behind three hundred leisure travelers."
"I heard," I said quietly.
"Damian Gable called me six times this morning," she continued, her tone turning to pure ice. "He told me you had taken an unexpected personal leave of absence. He promised me that a senior manager named Parker was taking over the account personally, and that our service levels would be restored by noon."
"Parker is energetic," I remarked dryly.
"Parker is an idiot," Jocelyn fired back without hesitation. "He called my lead logistics coordinator ten minutes ago and asked if we could 'shift our European flight volume to cheaper secondary carriers' to help offset their internal ticketing surcharges. He didn't even know that our corporate partnership agreement with Star Alliance grants us automatic upgrades on transatlantic flights."
I leaned back in my chair, looking out over the sparkling expanse of Lake Michigan. "That doesn't surprise me. Parker’s background is in regional sales, not complex enterprise logistics."
"I don't care what Parker's background is," Jocelyn stated flatly. "Our master services agreement with Landmark contains an annual performance and key-personnel covenant. Section Twelve: *'The Client reserves the right to terminate this agreement for cause with thirty days' notice if the designated Principal Account Director is removed from active oversight without prior written consent.'*"