He laughed out loud.
Dave said, “Colt, that was one hell of a performance. If you ever get tired of treasure hunting, let me know. I think you could have a future in the legal field or Hollywood.”
“Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll leave all that legal stuff to you pros and Hollywood to the pretty guys.”
“Lawrence,” Dave said, “you up for some freelance corporate work?”
“I might be,” he said, but I’d have to check with my boss,” and laughed.
“Oh, crap, Lawrence, I forgot to tell you. You’re not going to have any free time for a while.”
“Huh?” he said.
“I bought us a winery in Ecuador that I’m pretty sure is going to keep you busy for a while.”
“What, you did what?” he stammered, looking pleasantly stunned.
“I’ll give you the details on the way back to Cocoa,” I said.
Dave shook his head as we left the courtroom and said, “Man, there’s never a dull moment around you guys.”
After an hour of hallway interviews, we were able to get out of there.
On the way back, we shared the good news with the rest of the team, and Nils insisted we celebrate at the new bar & grill in the marina.
“You mean they’ve re-opened the old Nautical Spirits?” I asked.
“Yeah, but it’s now the Hawksbill Bar & Grill; they just opened after you left for Ecuador—really nice place. The new owners, Carol and Scott, did a great job of remodeling and updating the place without losing its original vibe. I mean, it’s still the place, the beginning, where you came up with the idea for Risky Business back in the day; that’s historical. What better place to celebrate our first successful treasure venture?”
“Good point, Nils, set the time and let them know we’ll be coming and to expect a little ‘rowdiness’ from this crew.”
“Don’t think that will be a problem; they’re party people. Besides, I’ve been going in there since they opened, and they’ve heard the stories and are looking forward to meeting you.”
“Oh, great, Nils, what kind of rumors have you been spreading?”
“Only the good kind, Colt. Only the good kind,” he said with an eye roll. “I’ll be in touch.”
The celebration was great, and Nils was right; the new owners of Hawksbill Bar& Grill were super people, and… the Vibe was still there.
I decided that Risky Business had a new local hangout.
Chapter Forty
Eight months later…
After our court battle, I had expected things to slow down a bit and looked forward to a little R & R. Yeah, right. If anything, the train picked up speed and was highballing down the track.
I was sitting in my office on the third floor of our new building, looking out the panoramic glass window at a view of the Indian River in the distance. It became apparent that we needed some new digs after the court thing concluded and our discussions of expanding the business began. I was able to find this building on US 1, between Cocoa and Titusville, close to Space Coast Executive Airport and Tico airport AKA (TICO). The building had once belonged to a start-up aerospace company that went defunct—three stories, very large parking lot, surrounded by a nice, wooded area. The price was right, so the new “Risky Business Consolidated” had a home. We had discussed the integration of the tech we had gotten from Jeannie into our world and decided we needed a research facility of our own to help provide a cover and support for our activities. We were still directly affiliated with Fitz’s Acme, Inc., but now in a partnership capacity.
The building had five labs on the ground floor and our IT center. The second floor had three more labs, a conference room, and five office spaces. The top floor was the executive area that housed my office, five others, and an executive conference room. We turned one of the offices into overnight quarters to accommodate visitors like O’Reilly and Reggie with an en suite bathroom, not as cool as Jeannie’s, but still pretty classy.
A month and a half after our court battle, Lawrence was contacted by his counterpart in California, who had been working on Reggie’s legal problems for her and us. The guy who had filed the lawsuit against her because of his girlfriend’s death in Ecuador got thrown in jail for major drug trafficking and perjury and got fifteen years in prison. His suit against Reggie got revisited, and the fact that the Ecuadorian government had found her innocent of any wrongdoing was accepted by the judge in California. He threw out the charges and expunged her record. She now could come back to the States without any fear of arrest or criminal prosecution.
During this time, our deal for the Mendez property and winery went through. Lawrence has been traveling back and forth, helping Doug get things set up and the winery operating at full capacity. It turns out they were already in pretty good shape, thanks to the local people Mendez had working there. All Lawrence had to do was start making improvements, money no object. Plus, he had quickly set up a supply/distribution chain for importing the wine into the U.S., and the winery was already making money. He certainly had a legal knack for making things he was interested in happen.
As an aside to the deal, the government had even thrown in Mendez’s helicopter as part of our purchase of his assets. We kept Tex on as its crew chief, now working for the winery. O’Reilly had gone down a couple of times to check on… things and let us know everything was GREAT! I guess that meant both Tex and the winery.
Doc had headed back over to Seville, doing more research in the archives, and come up with some promising leads for Nils and Gus, who were now running the nautical side of the treasure hunting company. They had procured leases up around Amelia Island, Florida.
