Ethan read it at 6: 15 the next morning and drove 3 hours. At 10: 40, he stood in a plant manager's office with a printout in his hand. "How long have the extractors been down? " "They're not down. They're derated. " "Mr. Kessler, I'm going to ask you again, and I want you to hear that I'm asking you kindly.
How long have two of the six been offline? " The plant manager, whose name was Bill Kessler, and who had run that plant for 16 years, sat back in his chair. "You want to know what I think? " "Sure. " "I think a guy got his picture in the paper, and now he's driving around Ohio with a clipboard. That's fair, " Ethan said. "Now answer the question. " "Since June. " "Thank you. " Ethan wrote it down. "Air sampling? " "We do quarterly. " "When was the last one? " Kessler didn't say anything.
"Mr. Kessler? " "March. " Ethan put his pen down. "You're going to stop the line, " he said. Kessler stood up. "The hell I am. " "Not you.
Me. I'm stopping it as of right now in writing, and it stays stopped until an independent industrial hygienist tells me what those men have been breathing since June. Do you have any idea what that line does in a day? No. 2.
1 million dollars. Okay. Okay. Kessler came around the desk. Carter, you can't just Page four of the charter, Ethan said.
You want to read it? I've got a copy in my truck. I've got about 40 copies in my truck, honestly, because I keep giving them away. At 11: 15, the Ashtabula line stopped. At 11: 40, Ethan Carter's phone rang, and the screen said a Charleston area code.
This is Carter. Mr. Carter, this is Charles Boyd. Ethan sat down on the tailgate of his truck. Admiral?
I understand you've stopped a coating line. I have. Do you know that division is under an earn-out agreement that expires on the 30th? I I don't know what that means. It means if that line doesn't run at capacity through the end of the month, this company forfeits a hundred and ninety million dollars.
Boyd's voice was perfectly level. Not delayed. Forfeits. Ethan looked out at a parking lot in Ashtabula. Admiral, I appreciate you calling me directly instead of going around me.
I don't go around people. I know it. That's why I'm going to be straight with you. Ethan took a breath. Sir, I've been in this job for eight weeks, and this is the phone call.
This is it. This is the one where I find out whether that charter is a document or a decoration. Boyd was quiet. Are those men in danger? I don't know yet.
That's the point. Nobody's measured the air in that building since March, and two of six extractors have been offline since June. And I've got 51 hourly employees who've been in there eight hours a day the whole time. Ethan's voice didn't rise. So, I don't know if they're in danger, and I'm not willing to be a man who finds out in October.
There was a long silence on the line. "How long for a hygienist? " Boyd asked. "4 days if I can get Cleveland, 9 if I can't. " "Get Cleveland. I'll pay the rush. " Ethan blinked. "Admiral, Mr.
Carter, I sat in a room in June and voted to fire a woman I hired over 11 inches of decking in an empty building. " Boyd's voice for 1 second was not level at all. "You think I'm going to call you about $190 million? I called to find out if you'd fold. Good day. " The line went dead. The earnout was forfeited on the 30th.
The air sampling came back on the 4th of October and showed isocyanate concentrations at four times the permissible exposure limit in the south end of the building, and 31 of the 51 men in that plant were sent for pulmonary function testing, and eight of them had numbers that a doctor in Cleveland described in writing as consistent with occupational exposure, and every one of those eight got treatment paid in full, and none of them lost a shift of pay for it. Terrance Wills, the operator who sent the two-paragraph email at 11: 00 at night, was promoted to lead in November. Bill Kessler forfeited his incentive compensation for the year under page 11, which came to $84, 000, and he called Ethan Carter in December and said the single most surprising sentence Ethan heard the entire year. "Carter, I want to say two things, and then I'm hanging up. " "All right. " "One, I still think you're a pain in my ass. " "Noted. " "Two, a long pause. My brother did coatings for 26 years in Lorain, and he's on oxygen at night now, and he's 61 years old, and I've been telling myself for 16 years that it was different back then.
Kessler's voice went rough. It wasn't different, was it? No, sir. Yeah. Another pause.
Send me 40 of those charters. I want one on every board in this plant. At 9: 00 in the morning on the 11th of February in a federal courtroom in Columbus, Victoria, Sterling pled guilty to one count of making a false statement to a federal agency and one count of conspiracy. She did not go to trial. Her attorneys had a real defense and told her so.
She took the plea over their written objection and the objection is in the file because they made her sign it at the sentencing hearing. On the 3rd of April, the government called two witnesses and the defense called none and then the judge asked whether the defendant wished to be heard. Victoria Sterling stood up. She had prepared a statement. Her attorneys had written it.
She left it on the table. Your honor, I'm not going to read what's in front of me. The judge, whose name was Patricia Yumo and who had been on the bench for 19 years, said, "Then say what you'd like to say. I'm going to say four names if that's all right. " Go ahead. Daniel Whitcomb.