Chapter 44: Tidying Up

Over the next few months Kyle gets Texas State Energy back on an even keel. They even end up absorbing Texas Gulf as part of an easy agreement with Mark Kelly about the issues with Robert and Mark’s plans with him; with both sides making a fair profit on the deal. They even appoint Mark Kelly as the person to supervise the merger of their two operations to improve their productivity. Charlotte and Kyle do keep a very close eye on what he does, but he does nothing untoward.

The arrangements for people to visit Crossroads via the MoM portal are finalized and tested. Then some clients pay very well to attend the Mansion’s Chamber, as it’s now called. Very profitable for all involved. With the effective closure of Carl’s organization near Shiloh Kyle arranges for the Bennett brothers to be returned to Earth via the MoM portal and sent on their way. Neither is happy, because they know the videos of their time in the Mansion Chamber are well spread. Nor are they happy when they find out their father is dead. Malcolm Bennett decides to cash in on his MoM fame and ends up making a good living as a porn star in California while Jason goes to work with the company his other brothers are working for.

Varena’s pie business does very well and soon expands to providing pies for some of the Doña Ana restaurants as well as CyberFun and two top line restaurants in Las Cruces. She works harder than she did for the takeaway food store in Doña Ana, but she enjoys making the pies a lot more than she did the other work; part of that is because the work is at home on her timetable. Her parents are very happy with her situation, so happy they agree for her to do her college studies as a part-time student when she starts, just so she can keep her pie business in full operation. Her siblings also enjoy having the money they get paid for making the deliveries for her, and one sister asks to learn how to cook her pies so they can expand the business.

War Bonnet enjoys having his new stablemates and the others that come for special visits. He also enjoys the new paddock to run in. KK employs a few more grooms to help work in the stable, they include Hector’s son who’s Silvia’s intended - after she tells him to apply for the position, both of the positions.

Dr Narduchi has an argument with Kyle and KK about finances, but finally agrees to accept twenty million dollars from them to increase the trust to cover some of the extra expenses they’ve added with all the new staff and changes. Then it’s only because she sees it as them putting money aside for their descendants, the same way Jonas did. Dr N also has a big smile when KK informs her to give Hector a pay increase as he’s now the manager of the hacienda with increased responsibilities.

Kyle and KK continue to make their fortnightly trips to Chaos, but via Crossroads and performing normal rescues. Larry and Nadia also get training for Chaos visits from Kyle, as well as sometimes going with him as Companions while they learn more about how to survive on Chaos and the individual fighting skills they’ll need, but don’t yet have.

However, all those stories are for another time.