Read Online Business Doctors - Management Consulting Gone Wild by Sameer Kamat - Free Book Online Page B

at WFB. According to their pilot’s briefing, they would be in Las Vegas – their destination, in under an hour. WFB did seem to provide perks, at least for a select few people. Not many companies could boast private airborne transport. The consultants were suitably impressed but were professional enough not to show it. Pretending to take all these fancy peripherals in their stride, both men stayed silent for most of the ride. Martin, more so, because he was seriously scared of heights. That left Schneider, who was fascinated with the chopper and was secretly thrilled to be riding one, wishing he owned one of these dragonflies. As the wind settled in, Martin too became more comfortable and he felt as if they were hanging in mid-air without moving forward to backwards. Then a sudden gust shook the cabin-in-the-air and Martin closed his eyes again.
    Schneider looked below as the city flew past under them. The view was fantastic. The city twinkled and glowed with myriad lights. The highways and bridges looked model perfect. Over the horizon, he could almost make out the chimera in the desert, the strip. The night was chilly and the wind gushed into the machine, invigorating Michael.  He grinned to himself. He had to get himself one of these babies, he promised himself. Not now, when the going was tough. But surely in the future. He mentally made a note of a series of questions he would put to Reiner once they were on the ground - in terms of overhead and peripheral costs for maintaining, licensing and flying these things.
    If things worked out with ‘Mr. Moneybags’, they should be comfortable for the next year at least and maybe, just maybe he would sign up for flying lessons. 
    He smiled and listened to what Joe was saying.  They had to shout to speak to each other over the roar of the chopper but Joe’s own roar of a voice carried over to the men at the back.
     
    “See that stream of light down there?” Joe pointed down from the chopper. “It’s the main street in Las Vegas. Oh yeah, that’s The Strip. That’s where all the action is. Though I’ve never been able to figure out why it seems unusually bright on weekends.”
    Reiner gestured to Joe and he turned round to tell the boys that they would be landing in Vegas in five minutes.
    Martin had been fiddling around in his pockets trying to find something. After a while, Joe looked up at him and was taken aback.
    “What the hell are you doing, dude?” said Joe shocked to see a moustache suddenly appearing on Martin’s face and sunglasses.
    “Just want to ensure my reputation stays intact. I’ve never been here, but all the stories I’ve heard about the place aren’t what fairy tales are made of. I’m just trying to be safe.”
    “In Las Vegas, if safety is your main concern, you should be wearing a condom, not a moustache, ya know what I mean,” quipped Joe. He glanced at Martin leering, “You’re guessing the moustache lures the ladies, eh?”
    “No. Just don’t want to be recognised. Those blasted TV channels always have some cameramen and reporters floating around here.”
    Joe could see through the lame excuse. “It’s night buddy. And you aren’t a celebrity to be wearing shades in the night. Haven’t you heard? What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”
    But Martin wasn’t going to change his mind. He had worked out a plan to keep himself under the radar, and no goon was going to convince him to stray away from it.
    The chopper veered off The Strip and swept to the right.  Martin clutched at his middle again. Schneider gazed out fascinated by how smoothly Reiner made the chopper descend rapidly into the seeming blackness of the desert, just the way he had done countless times in the desert, piloting the behemoth Chinooks, in the two hellholes he had served in – this was a cakewalk. He could make out faint guide lights that Reiner was making his way towards.
    As they quickly lost altitude, Schneider could just barely see a clearing and