The Twins Paradox by Alan Gasparutti (best contemporary novels txt) 📖

/> “That was mainly for any future purchases of Major Motor vehicles, from California,” said Henry. “The yard wasn’t too far from Heathrow, so we wouldn’t have far to transport any future orders.”
“Don’t you think we could make better use of the contract?” Lucas asked. “Otherwise we’d be paying for something we never used.”
“We’re not really in a good position to exploit the contract at the moment, though,” said Henry. “After all, four of my men are in Tenerife on a separate job.”
“Madaly and I could go there one day,” suggested Lucas.
“What? To pick up scrap cars and take them back up to Skipton?” Henry queried. “It hardly seems worth it, particularly if we ever needed to take the new vehicles back to Heathrow sometime later.”
“Don’t you think we could exploit the situation down there though?” asked Lucas.
“Come again?” Henry said at first, before thinking about what Lucas had said.
“We aren’t selling that many vehicles here any longer,” said Lucas. “Don’t you think there may be more potential developing a similar showroom down south?”
“Hhmmm, I’m beginning to see where you’re coming from,” Henry said to him.
“Even if the south east has been hit harder by the recession than up here, because it’s such a built-up area, there are millions of people who may want to buy a car like ours’,” Lucas told him.
“True,” admitted Henry. “Where would we replicate the vehicles, though? There can’t be anywhere east of Reading where such an activity wouldn’t be noticed. It’s so congested down there.”
“Why don’t you let me and Ramondo go there and find out?” said Lucas. “There must be some nook or cranny totally out of people’s view.”
“I’ll need one of you here, at least,” Henry told him.
“Well, perhaps I could go there with Madaly?” suggested Lucas. “She knows how to use the replicator.”
“I’ll think about it,” said Henry. “I’ll have a word with the others, and we can then discuss it together.”

Henry considered Lucas’ suggestion, and sought advice from Ramondo, Arthur, Rico and Gaspar, each of whom favoured the idea. Henry began to see the light in the idea, but lost some of the enthusiasm when Gaspar said he wasn’t too sure whether this was the right time to expand. Henry thought about the idea again, and decided to ask Professor Frank Marshall for his views.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Frank told him. “I’m not really akin to the UK, particularly at a time of recession, but I do know that the south east is the most heavily-populated part of the country. There should be good potential to sell something as environmentally-friendly as your motors.”
“I know, I know, but I’m not too sure how viable this is in the current financial climate,” said Henry.
“I thought the south east was the wealthiest part of the UK,” said Frank. “Even in a recession, there must be plenty of potential out there.”
“True, true,” muttered Henry. “I would have been keen on the idea normally, but I’ve just expanded the resources for my team on Tenerife.”
“I see why you may be a little apprehensive about this idea,” Frank acknowledged. “Did that set you back a great deal?”
“No, not too much, I suppose,” replied Henry, remembering that everything on Tenerife had been created using the replicators, and didn’t cost a penny.
“Well, perhaps this may be the best time to develop your business in the south east,” Frank suggested. “People may be more keen on a less-expensive-to-run vehicle at a time of recession.”
“I take your point,” said Henry, who was becoming more enthusiastic about the idea again.
“Actually, I wanted to ring you anyway,” Frank then told him.
“Oh, have the cars I took last month already been sold?” queried Henry.
“Not as such,” said Frank. “However, I would like to request a few more vehicles, with some slight moderations.”
“Is there a problem with the current crop’?” Henry asked.
“No, not at all,” replied Frank. “I was wondering whether you could produce CAC vehicles?”
“CAC vehicles?” asked Henry. “What type of vehicles are they?”
“Oh, I should have explained,” Frank apologised. “CAC is the new name for our company, Californian Automobile Company. We hope to open the plant in late May, but the state Governor has already completed a set of adverts for our company.”
“So you want me to produce new vehicles with the CAC design and logo?” Henry queried.
“That’s it,” said Frank. “Do you think you could do that? I’ll make it worth your while.”
“If you can send the design and logo to my email site, I don’t think it would be too much of a problem,” replied Henry.
“Good, good,” said Frank. “Would it be possible to send us about 50 by next month?”
“I think so, but I won’t confirm it just yet,” said Henry. “I’ll speak to my Engineers, and in the meantime, if you can send me the necessary data, I’ll come back to you as soon as I can.”
Henry recognised that the contract with the scrap yard near Heathrow would come in very handy, so after speaking to Frank, he discussed the matter with Lucas and Ramondo.
“Do you think we could produce 50 cars over the next few weeks?” he asked them.
“Probably,” Ramondo replied before Henry turned to Lucas.
“It should be possible, though it may depend on how many scrap vehicles we can get from the yard at Slough,” said Lucas.
“If there is any delay at the scrap yard in question, we can arrange to produce some vehicles from here in Skipton,” said Henry. “I’ve hired a warehouse, also near Heathrow, in which we can store the vehicles.”
“Which vehicles are you referring to - the new vehicles or the scrap ones?” queried Ramondo.
“Both, effectively,” said Henry. “I doubt there’s anywhere in that part of the country where we can replicate scrap cars into new ones, so we’ll have to carry out the work in the warehouse itself.”
“That may be okay for a while, but if people eventually gather that scrap vehicles are going into the warehouse, and new ones are coming out, don’t you think it may draw suspicion?” Ramondo queried.
“Not if we’re discreet about it,” Henry told him. “Besides, the cars which will be produced there are destined for California, so I doubt anyone will be able to trace the new vehicles.”
“Did you say these vehicles will be of a different design?” asked Lucas.
“Yes,” replied Henry. “These will be slightly verified, with the CAC logo on them. Frank will send me the design, which we can load onto the replicators in order to produce the CAC vehicles. I have a feeling he may request more at a later date.”
“I’m still not too sure about the security of producing these vehicles,” commented Ramondo. “Couldn’t we set up a warehouse of our own, like the one you did in Tenerife?”
“The environment isn’t ideal for this,” explained Henry. “It isn’t like the wilds of Yorkshire down south. There are no out-of-the-way side valleys or abandoned quarries, in which to carry out the work.”
“Henry’s right,” said Lucas. “There are few dead-ends, and those that there may be, are attached to tiny country roads which we couldn’t get a vehicle transporter along.”
“I guess you’re right,” Ramondo sighed.
“Now, Lucas, I’m offering you first option to go down there, as you suggested to develop our business in the south east,“ said Henry.
“But that was more to produce and sell our own Major Motors vehicles,” Lucas replied.
“We can do that later,” Henry instructed. “First of all, we need to produce these vehicles for California. When these are complete, we can then think about developing our business in south east England.”
“That’s if we don’t receive any more requests from Frank,” said Ramondo.
“To be honest, at this moment in time, if we can get work to bring in the revenue, I don’t really care what we’re producing,” commented Henry. “If it brings in more money by producing vehicles for Frank, then so be it.”
“I still say that if we do too much replicating, someone may see us and get suspicious,” said Ramondo.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” insisted Henry. “Who knows, we may be able to build a factory in the vicinity, one day.”
“A proper factory, or one like this place in Skipton?” asked Lucas.
“A big, manufacturing plant, like the one in California,” said Henry. “One day we’re going to have to construct things without replicators. There will come a point when we will have to utilise local people. From what Rico’s been telling me, they may soon have to take on new staff on Tenerife.”
Henry looked for Frank’s message on his messages, but it still hadn’t arrived by the time he and Ramondo left. Instead, he found the message, and it’s contents, on his home site, and after checking it over, asked Ramondo to download the data into two replicators, one of which would be kept at Skipton.

The following day, Henry went to the Heathrow warehouse, which was located in an industrial park, just off the M25. Lucas, who drove the vehicle transporter, and Madaly, went along too. They also took Henry’s Green Machine, which was carried on the back of the transporter
When they arrived at the warehouse, Henry rang the scrap yard, which was located not far away, on the outskirts of Slough. After lunch, Henry unloaded the Green Machine, before sending Lucas to the scrap yard to collect six cars. In the meantime, he and Madaly closed the warehouse, and inside, replicated an upper leisure room and a bedroom beside it, similar to the ones set up on Tenerife. There was already a kitchen downstairs next to reception, plus a toilet nearby.
Lucas didn’t bring the scrapped cars back to the warehouse until most of the units on the industrial park had closed. Some were still open, though no-one saw him drive the transporter and it’s scrapped cars into the warehouse.
The next day, Madaly stayed in the reception room manning the phone, while Henry and Lucas replicated four of the scrapped cars into new CAC, solar powered vehicles. In the afternoon, Henry replicated the other two cars, while Lucas went to collect another six vehicles. Again, he didn’t bring them to the warehouse until 6 pm.
The next day, Henry helped Madaly to replicate more CAC vehicles, as there hadn’t been many phone calls. Lucas picked up the scrapped cars again. By this time, however, there weren’t many old motors left at the Slough scrap yard.
“Did you ask if there were many other scrap yards in the area?” Henry asked Lucas.
“I was told that there’s one near Staines, and one near Wraysbury,” said Lucas.
“Was that all?” Henry asked with surprise. “Surely, there must be a few other scrap yards around here.”
“There were others a bit further away, apparently,” Lucas informed him. “I know there was one near High Wycombe and another at Camberley. I think the bloke said there were several on the outskirts of London, too.”
“Good, good, I’ll make some inquiries tomorrow morning,” said Henry.

The next day, he visited some of the sites Lucas had mentioned, and made arrangements for old scrap motors to be collected. By Friday, they had got into a regular pattern of replicating, so Henry could go back to Ribblehead Cottage at the weekend. He wasn’t sure whether they could get all 50 vehicles into the warehouse, so asked Lucas to keep him informed of the situation. If necessary, they would have to park some of the new CAC solar motors at Heathrow, in readiness of distribution to California.
Henry then made inquiries as to whether any cargo operators would carry 50 cars in one journey.