from the guy behind him, but Johan continued to walk, looking at the equipment and noting everything was well maintained, parked nicely and neatly out of the way, and that safety was obviously a prime concern. He nodded approvingly.
“What?” asked the foreman.
Johan looked at him. “Don’t be so touchy,” he said. “I was just noticing how clean and well maintained everything is and how safety appears to be paramount.”
“It is,” he said proudly. “We haven’t had an accident down here in over four years.”
“And considering you’re running a lot of forklifts,” Johan said, “that’s impressive.”
“Injuries happen regardless of the forklifts,” he said. “You get guys who lift boxes improperly, guys who load up crap and don’t watch where they’re going, or don’t wear their safety gear,” he said with a shake of his head. “I got no use for that.”
Johan nodded in an understanding way.
The foreman relaxed. “It’s hard to keep track of all these guys, you know?” he said confidentially. “They come and they go, and you think you got them broken of their bad habits because you watch over them like a hawk.”
“That’s because the bosses never understand how easy it is for accidents to happen. They just look at you and say, ‘Why the hell didn’t you stop it?’ Right?”
The foreman reached up and rubbed a little bit of white fluff remaining on the top of his almost bare head. “Isn’t that the truth,” he muttered. “The last guy dropped a box on his foot and broke his toe. Somehow I was supposed to stop that. They forgot about the fact that he lifted the box properly, carried it properly, and checked his pathway carefully.”
“Right. Dropping a box is pretty darn easy,” Johan said. “Surely somebody in management gets that.”
“Whatever was inside the box caused the chaos,” he said. “I don’t even know what it was, but it was damn heavy, and everything’s supposed to be packed under fifty pounds for personal lifting,” he said. “If we’d realized it was heavier, we would have used equipment. But it’s never that simple. Part of doing our job means we have to rely on other people to do theirs.”
At that, Johan laughed. “I think that’s a complaint the whole world over.”
“It is, indeed,” he said.
With the other man obviously easing his outrage, Johan nodded. “Looks like you’ve got this well in hand.”
“Well, I do,” he said, “but I only work five days a week.”
“Right. So you’re full-time, I presume.”
The foreman nodded.
“So is this area open the other two days?”
“We don’t have any receiving coming in those two days,” he said. “But, of course, the lab guys are moving stuff up and down as needed.”
“Are the offices all closed on the weekends?”
“From what I know, yes. Not the lab,” he said. “They have to check up on stuff all the time, so that stays pretty busy on weekends.”
“Makes sense,” Johan said. “I’ll find out for sure, as I’ll be in tomorrow too.”
The other guy looked at him in surprise, then shrugged and said, “Makes sense,” he said. “At least you’ll have access to what you need then.”
“That’s the plan,” Johan said. He took a step back, smiled at the foreman, and said, “I’ll leave you to your work then.” Johan turned, catching the relief spread over the man’s face as Johan headed back out to the loading bay, where he jumped down to the concrete slab and walked out to where he could turn and look at where the bays were situated on the actual building.
The bay doors were flush with the wall, and some windows were up above, but the lights didn’t appear to be on, or the rooms weren’t occupied at present, at least from what Johan could tell. He knew the other men were standing and watching him as he headed backward, looking at the entire layout of the building and the property itself. But Johan had to check not just the microstuff but also the macro as well.
When he got to the edge of the parking lot, almost to the driveway out onto the main road, he turned to look at all the buildings around. It was a heavy commercial-industrial area here. At least on this side and heading off in one direction. Yet the backside of the museum could be seen from here, but that building fronted another road, more or less marking off the arts district of downtown Houston.
Everybody on this side, fronting the nearest road, had big trucks, huge driveways, and wire fences