NCCnovel Chapter 78 Gulfstream G4
Chapter 78 Gulfstream G4
Santa Monica Airport, California.
The Pacific breeze, carrying waves of heat, swept across the private jet tarmac. The sun shone unhindered on the concrete, distorting the distant air with its intense heat.
A black, extended Lincoln slowly drove onto the tarmac and came to a steady stop in front of a separate VIP terminal.
Smith, the flight broker who had been waiting there, immediately straightened his bright Hermès tie and put on a smile that was even brighter than the California sunshine.
He was a typical white elite salesman, with teeth whitened, hair neatly combed, and an expensive cologne scent.
The car door opened.
Fujita Tsuyoshi was the first to get out. He was wearing a well-tailored dark gray suit and white gloves. He solemnly opened the back door, one hand blocking the door frame.
Another bodyguard leaned forward slightly and opened a black umbrella in front of the car door.
Then, two Asian girls came down.
One was dressed in a beige trench coat, a wide-brimmed hat, and sunglasses, exuding an elegant air like a porcelain doll. The other wore a light blue coat but was carrying a thick English technical manual.
Smith's eyes were filled with even greater fawning, as if he were seeing not two underage girls, but two Statue of Liberty statues made of pure gold.
In the crazy year of 1988, there was only one group of people who were absolute gods in the American business world—the Japanese.
In this era, the Japanese were walking wallets, conquerors wielding checkbooks. They bought Van Gogh's sunflowers, Pebble Beach Golf Links, and even boasted that they would buy the entire Rockefeller Center.
When American brokers meet Japanese clients, even if the client is just a child who hasn't been weaned yet, their first reaction is to treat them like royalty, wishing they could tear down the Statue of Liberty and sell it to them, rather than any ridiculous racial discrimination.
Because nobody would turn down money.
"Oh! Miss Saionji!"
Smith spread his arms wide exaggeratedly and shouted in broken Japanese, "Konnichiwa! Welcome to America!"
He didn't show any disrespect because of Satsuki's age; on the contrary, he was even more attentive. In his view, these rich heiresses were the easiest to fool. As long as he praised her beauty and showed her some sparkly things, he could pocket millions of dollars in commission.
Satsuki took off her sunglasses, revealing an extremely sweet smile.
"Hello, Mr. Smith. The sunshine here is lovely."
"Of course! The California sunshine is for you!" Smith turned to the side and made an extremely gentlemanly "please" gesture. "I heard you wanted to buy a 'big toy'? I've already prepared the best for you."
……
Instead of showing them the streamlined modern jets, Smith led them straight to the center of the hangar, where a brightly painted Boeing 727 stood.
The plane's fuselage was painted with gold lines that shimmered in the sunlight, exuding a strong nouveau riche vibe.
"Look! This is a car only a rock star of Elvis's caliber deserves!"
Smith proudly introduced himself and was the first to board the gangway.
The moment they stepped into the cabin, even Amy, who was following behind, couldn't help but squint her eyes.
It's too flashy.
Unlike typical airplanes, the cabin wasn't furnished with seats. Instead, it had been transformed into a vast, long lounge area. The carpet was thick, deep red Persian fleece that sank into your ankles. All the metal components—from the seatbelt buckles to the overhead reading lights—were plated in dazzling gold.
In the middle of the cabin, there was even a small bar with neon lights, next to a huge, extremely soft-looking circular waterbed covered with leopard-print sheets.
"This is the Versailles Palace in the sky!"
Smith patted the leather sofa, his tone full of seduction.
"Ms. Saionji, imagine yourself and your friends having a party here, drinking champagne, dancing at 30,000 feet in the air... That's life, that's enjoyment!"
He concluded that for teenage girls like this, "party" and "luxury" are irresistible keywords.
Satsuki did not show any aversion.
She walked up to the bar, reached out and touched the solid gold faucet, and exclaimed in amazement.
"Wow, this gold is so beautiful."
She turned her head, winked at Smith, and smiled innocently.
"Mr. Smith has such unique taste. This style reminds me of the casinos in Las Vegas. They're really lively."
"Hahaha! You have excellent taste!" Smith thought it was a compliment, and his face crinkled into a wide grin. "This is the work of a top Hollywood designer! These gold ornaments alone used twenty kilograms!"
Satsuki was still smiling, but her gaze didn't linger on the gold for long. She gently stroked the heavy-looking marble countertop of the bar, and asked casually:
"But Mr. Smith, with so much marble and gold, won't the engines 'run out of steam' when this plane takes off?"
"Uh..." Smith's smile froze for a moment. "You don't need to worry about the power at all! This is a Boeing 727. It's a little heavier, but that's for comfort! For prestige!"
"Yeah?"
Satsuki turned her head and looked at Amy, who was flipping through the aircraft's airworthiness certificate and maintenance log in the corner.
"Amy, what do you think?"
Amy pushed up her glasses on the bridge of her nose.
In the cabin filled with the scents of perfume and money, she seemed somewhat out of place. Holding a thick notebook, her face showed no sign of being impressed by the luxury; instead, she frowned as if looking at a math problem she had solved incorrectly.
"Saionji-kun..."
Amy glanced at Smith hesitantly, seemingly embarrassed to expose him directly.
"It's alright, go ahead and tell me," Satsuki encouraged. "Mr. Smith is a professional, and he certainly wants us to know the 'true situation' of this aircraft, right?"
Smith's heart skipped a beat, but he forced a smile and said, "Of course."
Amy nodded and opened her notebook.
"The aircraft's airframe is over 25 years old. Although the interior is new, the avionics system is still the previous generation's analog signal."
She pointed towards the cockpit, her voice not loud, but very clear and articulate.
"Furthermore, due to the addition of excessive decorative materials, the aircraft's empty weight increased by 15%. This resulted in a significant decrease in its thrust-to-weight ratio. I checked the maintenance records, and in order to maintain lift, this aircraft must operate under high thrust, so..."
Amy looked up, her eyes serious.
"Its fuel consumption is 1.5 times that of a normal aircraft. Moreover, due to the aging of the pressurization system, its cruising altitude can only be maintained at around 30,000 feet. At this altitude, the probability of encountering tropospheric turbulence is 45%."
After hearing this, Satsuki let out a soft "Ah," and a worried look appeared on her face.
"So... if I sleep on that pretty round waterbed, I'm very likely to get thrown off, right?"
She looked at Smith, her tone still gentle, but with a hint of sharpness.
"And because it's so heavy, if I want to fly from Los Angeles back to Tokyo, I'll need to refuel twice, in Hawaii and Guam?"
Cold sweat broke out on Smith's forehead.
He hadn't expected that this bespectacled girl, who looked like a follower, would actually know these obscure aviation parameters.
"Well... Miss Saionji, although the flight is a bit short, you can go shopping after you disembark! The duty-free shops in Hawaii are quite nice..."
"Mr. Smith."
Satsuki interrupted him with a smile.
"Interrupted sleep is a major enemy of beauty."
She looked around the magnificent, golden cabin.
"Besides, while I enjoy having fun, I don't want to ride a roller coaster in the sky. Let's leave this 'sky palace' to those who are physically strong."
After saying that, she turned and walked towards the cabin door, her off-white trench coat drawing an elegant arc in the air.
"Let's go, Amy. The air here isn't very good; it smells too much like gold dust."
……
The group returned to the tarmac.
Smith was starting to panic. He had thought the deal was a sure thing, but he hadn't expected these two little girls to be so difficult, managing to find a whole host of faults in that gilded "sky palace."
"Miss Saionji! Please wait a moment! If you don't like the retro style, we have other options! There's a Challenger 600 over there, and a Falcon..."
Satsuki ignored his sales pitch.
She stood at the edge of the tarmac, took off her sunglasses, and looked through the rows of flashy private jets, finally fixing her gaze on a corner.
There was a silver-gray plane parked there.
It is devoid of any fancy designs, featuring a long and streamlined fuselage, wings that sweep back at a steep angle, and elegant winglets at the tips. Two massive Rolls-Royce engines are mounted on either side of the tail, exuding a cool and austere aesthetic of industrial design.
That was the Gulfstream G4, which had just been launched on the market at the time.
Compared to it, the bulky Boeing 727 looked like a fat goose covered in makeup.
"I want that one."
Satsuki raised her hand, her gloved fingers pointing directly at the silver falcon.
Smith followed her finger and his face instantly turned pale, his heart skipping a beat.
Oh no, why did she have to choose this one?
Smith was quickly calculating in his mind:
That Boeing 727 was a "slow-moving commodity" in his hands. Because of its high fuel consumption, excessive noise, and staggering maintenance costs, no one in the United States was willing to take it over; the daily parking and maintenance fees were burning through his pockets. He needed to find an inexperienced "easy target" to sell this pile of gilded scrap metal at a high price. The profit margin was enormous because the modification costs were opaque; he could quote whatever he wanted, earning millions of dollars in profit per deal.
But that Gulfstream G4 was different.
That's the current "hard currency," with wealthy people all over the world lining up to buy it; there's no worry about selling it. And because it's practically brand new, the market price is transparent, so the commission he gets is only a fixed few percentage points—just a small fee for his hard work.
What's more troublesome is that the plane is already nominally owned. Although the Middle Eastern client has been dragging his feet on payments, the contract still stands. If he were to resell it to Satsuki, he would not only earn less, but he would also have to deal with the mess caused by the breach of contract and offend the original client.
His business strategy was to sell the "high-profit, hard-to-sell junk" to the Japanese, while keeping the "low-profit, sought-after" good products to sell slowly.
"Oh... Ms. Saionji, you have excellent taste."
Smith quickly stepped in front of Satsuki, a troubled look on his face, trying to dissuade her from the idea.
"That's a Gulfstream G4 that was just delivered; it's indeed the fastest and highest-flying business jet in the world right now. But..."
He rubbed his hands together, his tone full of regret.
"I'm very sorry, but that plane already has an owner. It was ordered by a prince from the Middle East, and the interior is top-of-the-line custom-made. It's scheduled for delivery next week. The contract is already signed, and there's nothing I can do about it."
He told a half-truth, half-lie. The contract did exist, but because the other party was delaying payment, they were practically in breach of contract. However, he didn't want trouble; he just wanted to get Satsuki back onto the Boeing 727 as quickly as possible.
"Moreover... it's extremely expensive, twice as expensive as that Boeing we just saw. It's really not good value for money."
He tried to scare the two little girls away with the double reason that the price was too high and that the item was "sold out".
Satsuki, however, seemed not to hear his refusal.
She walked past Smith and went straight over.
Standing beneath the G4's massive wings, she reached out and touched the cold metal skin, feeling the completely different texture of its craftsmanship.
"Amy."
"exist."
Tell me its parameters.
Amy flipped through the manual for a while, her eyes sparkling with excitement, as if she had met her dream lover.
"The service ceiling is 45000 feet, at which altitude you can avoid most weather activity, resulting in extremely smooth flight. The cruising speed is Mach 0.85. The range is 7800 kilometers… Although a stopover might be necessary to reach Tokyo, with a tailwind, it could even be a direct flight!"
"Most importantly..." Amy pointed to the huge oval porthole, "its pressurization system is world-class, and the cabin pressure can be maintained at a low altitude level, so you won't feel tired."
Satsuki nodded in satisfaction.
"Flying the highest, it is the most stable; flying the fastest, it saves the most time."
She turned around and looked at Smith, who was sweating profusely as he chased after her, still racking his brains for an excuse.
"Mr. Smith, you've made a mistake."
Satsuki wore a perfect social smile, but the arrogance that emanated from her very being made Smith instinctively straighten his back.
True luxury is not a toilet made of gold, nor leopard-print bed sheets.
"It is about absolute control over one's own time, the peace and stability of walking on flat ground in the clouds."
"This plane is more in line with my aesthetic."
"But..." Smith continued to struggle, "that prince..."
"Mr. Smith."
Satsuki interrupted him, her voice soft.
"If I remember correctly, oil prices have recently fallen, so that Middle Eastern prince's payment... probably wasn't very prompt, was it?"
Smith's waving hand froze in mid-air.
You were right.
With the recent plunge in crude oil futures, cash flow in the Middle East is generally tight. Although the prince paid a deposit, the final payment has already been delayed twice. Every day this plane sits in the hangar, it incurs expensive maintenance and insurance costs.
Satsuki looked at Smith's face, which had instantly stiffened, and slightly turned her head to signal to Fujita behind her.
"Instead of holding onto a contract that could be breached at any time, and living in constant fear while watching that plane, why not..."
Fujita stepped forward cooperatively, but instead of taking out a check, he gently patted the side of his briefcase with his white-gloved hand.
It emits a dull, reassuring sound.
"Why don't we take the full cash check now and celebrate being this year's top salesperson?"
Satsuki took off her sunglasses, revealing a hint of a smile in her clear, black-and-white eyes.
"As long as the price is high enough, the term 'sold out' is just a negotiable descriptive term. Don't you agree?"
Smith looked at the little girl who wasn't even as tall as his shoulder, and his Adam's apple bobbed violently.
"cough……"
He took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead. His exaggerated salesman smile faded, replaced by a more cautious expression.
He then turned to the side, made a gesture of invitation, and pointed not at the Boeing 727, but at the VIP building not far away.
"Ms. Saionji, the engine noise here is too loud. Regarding the contract details... I think we need a quieter place, to have a cup of tea, and discuss it slowly."
……
A few minutes later, in the VIP lounge of the VIP building.
Thick, soundproof glass completely shut out the heat and noise from the tarmac. The air conditioning was running at full blast, and the air was filled with the aroma of expensive Darjeeling tea.
Smith sat opposite him on the leather sofa.
Having left the Boeing 727 that had embarrassed him, he quickly regained his composure in his home turf. But he was no longer overly enthusiastic; instead, he adopted the demeanor of a shrewd businessman.
He crossed his legs, tapped his knees lightly with his fingers, and showed just the right amount of embarrassment on his face.
"Ms. Saionji, your offer is indeed very sincere."
Smith spoke slowly and deliberately, with a professional regret in his tone, as if he were talking about something that pained him deeply.
"However, business is not just a game of money, but also a game of contracts. Although the Middle Eastern prince was a bit slow in paying, the contract is still in black and white. If I unilaterally break the contract and sell the plane to you now, not only will my company face huge penalties for breach of contract, but my reputation in the industry will also be damaged."
He paused, gave Satsuki a meaningful look, and leaned forward slightly.
"This kind of intangible loss... is difficult to measure in monetary terms."
This is a classic example of "retreating to advance".
He was telling Satsuki: Want to cut in line? Sure. But it'll cost extra, and it has to be enough to cover my "risks" and "reputational damage."
Satsuki put down her teacup, and the porcelain saucer made a crisp "ding" sound.
She looked at Smith, a smile of appreciation playing on her lips.
She liked this blatant greed. Dealing with these clever people, who would do anything for a good price, was much easier than dealing with hypocrites who spouted platitudes about morality.
"Mr. Smith, everyone is quite busy, so let's not beat around the bush."
Satsuki tilted her head slightly, gesturing to Fujita behind her.
Fujita stepped forward, took out a checkbook from his pocket, and handed it to Satsuki with both hands. At the same time, he uncapped a fountain pen and respectfully handed it to her.
"The prince's breach of contract penalty, plus what you call 'reputational damages,' and the connections needed to be cultivated to allow us to cut in line..."
As she spoke, Satsuki wrote down a string of numbers on the check.
The pen tip scratched across the paper, making a soft, rustling sound.
"A 20% premium will be added to the original price."
She tore off the check, held it between two fingers, and gently pushed it onto the marble coffee table in front of Smith.
"Furthermore, I don't need a loan or installments. This is a Citibank draft, which you can verify by phone right now. Once the transaction is completed, the full amount will be credited to your account immediately."
Smith glanced at the number on the check.
$21.6 million.
His pupils contracted slightly, and his brain raced.
Although the prince signed the contract, he failed to pay the final payment, which, according to the terms, constituted a substantial breach of contract. With proper handling, he could legally terminate the contract, avoiding compensation and even forfeiting the deposit.
On the other hand, it's cash with a 20% premium.
The price difference is enough for him to buy a mansion in Malibu Beach. As for reputation? What does reputation matter when faced with twenty million dollars in cash?
"make a deal."
Smith didn't hesitate at all, and didn't even utter another word of nonsense.
He quickly reached out and pressed down on the check, as if afraid it would fly away. The "embarrassment" on his face vanished instantly, replaced by the most professional, radiant, and genuine smile.
"Ms. Saionji, you are right. That prince has indeed overdue his contract, and according to the contract terms, we have the right to dispose of the aircraft. Since you have shown such sincerity, this G4 should rightfully belong to someone who truly appreciates it."
He stood up, extended his hand, and did so decisively.
"I will handle all the termination procedures and legal issues. You just need to send someone to pick up the plane in three days."
Satsuki did not stand up.
She simply smiled, reached out, and gently grasped his fingertips.
"Then I'll have to trouble you, Mr. Smith."
"Also, regarding the aircraft's paint scheme and paperwork..."
"Three days."
Smith made a confident promise, his eyes gleaming with the prospect of money.
"Three days from now, it will be parked on the runway, ready to take off at any time. I will make it not only legal, but also compliant, just like Air Force One, the President of the United States."