Image by Peter Lomas from Pixabay
“Now a spade's a spade and a heart's a heart
You confuse the two, tear your world apart.”
The wisdom of Gladys Trent, recalled by her son Sgt. Vincent Trent as John Ghent and his smarmy smile came up on Zoom for his second meeting with the principals of Ludlow Bubbly Inc.
Of course, Sgt. Trent and Capt. R.E. Ludlow already knew exactly what kind of man Mr. Ghent was – both had instantly had a strong, deep dislike and distrust of him. However, he was the business partner they needed to get the Ludlow Bubbly – the captain's soda – in vending machines so he and the Trents would not have to be exposed, personally delivering to people. Mr. Ghent needed to carry a product made by veterans to even get into the Veteran's Lodge.
“It's a match made in Heaven for men,” Capt. Ludlow said to Sgt. Trent about it, “so of course we are messing it all up.”
Sgt. Trent had laughed, and had forwarded the proposed contract over to a family friend – retired Major Jean-Paul Philippe Dubois, who had put in 20 years in the Judge Advocate General service and was a brilliant investigator and lawyer.
Major Dubois had sent back a highlighted copy, and that too had been another series of revelations.
Capt. Ludlow had called retired Gen. Ira Hamilton and sent him the highlighted contract … and the Bellowing Archangel of veteran business ventures was not pleased.
“Oh, THAT'S HOW HE'S TRYING TO PLAY, HUH?”
Gen. Hamilton had hearing loss from his military service and a bass voice that was refusing to break with age, so, one may as well have angered a whole thunderstorm. Hence his nickname as the Bellowing Archangel.
“STAY ON THE LINE, LUDLOW, AND GET TRENT ON THE PHONE!”
Gen. Hamilton went on a three-way call …
“Simmons! I need you to run John Ghent's business – he does bad business and I need to know how bad! He's out here trying to run game on us veterans, so we're either going to invest in his competitor or form a competitive company them buy him out at pennies, but he's FINISHED!”
“Yes, sir, General, sir, I will get the information back to you within the hour.”
“Capt. Ludlow and Sgt. Trent, you already know what to do!”
“Yes, sir – diversionary tactics,” both men said together.
“Right! Simmons will let me know how it is going to take to take Ghent out, so you can know how long you have to hold him! I'll call you in an hour!”
“Yes, sir.”
Gen. Hamilton called back spot on the hour.
“Oh, we're going to eat Ghent in a week – just stall him a week!”
So, the other thing on Sgt. Trent's mind for his mother's old rhyme, as John Ghent and his smarmy smile came on the screen: a spade was just the right tool for a burial.
Image by walkersalmanac from Pixabay
