Inwardly, he groaned. As much as he felt good about doing them a solid, and as much as he was sure his dear wife Susan would applaud the hospital run, he was certain she would caution him against turning into a taxi service. It could jeopardize his reaching Grace out west.
“We can pay in gas when we get there,” the woman added, seeming to sense his indecision.
He glanced over to Butch, who wore a favorable look.
Ezra clenched his teeth, not sure if it was a good idea to take on passengers when there were pirates behind them. However, they did need fuel. He’d burned up a lot during the escape.
Still not replying, the woman kept talking. “My husband has a hunting rifle. He knows how to use it.”
“Sold,” Ezra replied, finally agreeing. An armed traveler would help his conscience putting the couple at risk. “But you have to hurry.”
The woman went a little way back into the woods, then shrieked as she called out her husband’s name. “Francis! We’re leaving. Get the gun and the pack!”
A much quieter voice replied, “I’ll be there in a jiff.”
He ran the pontoons on the muddy bank, so the woman was able to climb aboard. As she found her seat, on a bench near where Butch usually sat, her rosy perfume assaulted his nostrils. Ezra almost gagged at how strong it was, though he assumed she’d lathered it on as a result of all the smelly mud and water which had washed over everything.
A few moments later, her husband came out of the woods, carrying a big pink bag and an all-black hunting rifle, as promised. When everyone was safety aboard, he reversed the props and easily pulled the boat from shore. He reoriented so the bow faced upriver, where he wanted to go. It also put him in line with the man standing on shore. “I don’t want you to get in trouble with those guys. If they come over, tell them you refused to help us. They’re bad news.”
The man smiled. “The water is finally clearing off from the roads. We’re going to be moving out, soon. Probably tomorrow. We’ll hold them off just fine if they’re fixing to give us any trouble.”
He waved his thanks, then jammed the handle to get them back in the action.
It took about two minutes to maneuver the boat up the river and around the next bend in the waterway. Shortly before he went around, he looked over his shoulder one more time, intent on figuring out what the towboat was still doing next to the flipped barge. The back of the ship was barely visible; it was pushing into the narrow channel.
“Crap. He’s creating a shortcut. Those boats will be able to get out of there without going all the way around.”
Ezra already had Susan’s Grace going as fast as he was comfortable driving, but he nudged the stick forward a little more. It didn’t matter if they burned additional fuel. The time for playing it safe was long over.
Denver, CO
Petteri sent an aide running to the demolitions tent, then walked with Howard over to the arriving PWI mining crew. A line of dump trucks waited on an adjacent street while excavators mounted with jackhammers headed directly for the asteroid. He had to stop them before they got settled in.
As planned, the blast sirens went off as he approached the first vehicle in the procession. The man inside wore a teal hard hat and tried to wave him aside, but he stood his ground. Petteri waved his hands in the air. “Stop! It’s not safe!”
The tractor halted. At the same time, the two men from the survey truck ran over to him. “Hey, you can’t stop them from coming in. As I said before, no one has a sole claim on this rock.”
Petteri laughed, hiding how small he felt sandwiched between the heavy equipment and the huge rock. He couldn’t show any fear in the face of a bully, however, and he saw the PWI men as a gang of bullies for daring to hone in on his property. Instead of backing down, he continued to wave off the arriving vehicles.
The surveyors continued to move closer. Howard blocked them from getting within punching distance, which he appreciated.
“Get out of the way,” the surveyor ordered. “We’re coming to this dig site, no matter what.”
He didn’t reply to the threat. Petteri instead told them the truth about what was about to happen. “You have to clear this area, for your own safety. There won’t be any additional warnings. The sirens should be warning enough.” His point made, Petteri turned away and headed for one of his tents.
“We won’t be intimidated!” the PWI man shouted to his back. When he didn’t stop and reply, the man continued. “We’re all armed. You threaten us and we’ll shoot to defend ourselves.”
Petteri stopped, knowing where the encounter was heading. When he turned around, the survey man dangled a pistol against his left thigh.
The PWI worker had to speak over the din of the sirens. “Did you hear me? We all have guns. The bosses said we would find trouble with you TKM jerks. Lucky for you, most of us have permits for concealed carry in this state.”
“Lucky for us?” Petteri replied, not rising to the challenge with any emotion.
“An armed society is a polite one. You’ll leave us alone because you know what you’ll get in return. I say you’re quite lucky, since now you don’t have to worry about any conflict, right? It isn’t worth losing your life over a bunch of ore.”
While speaking, the PWI tractors and jackhammer equipment rolled up to the far side of the asteroid fragment. His own people had cleared out of the area, which gave the appearance of vacating the space for the intruders.
“You win,” Petteri said a few seconds later, sounding blasé and unconcerned. He and Howard continued walking toward the tents, which sat a safe distance from the fifty-foot-tall rock.
Howard whispered. “Are you sure about this, sir? Some of our men are armed too, but we don’t have as many as them.”
He laughed. “Do you hear that?” The warning Klaxon hadn’t stopped blaring since it spun to life. It echoed in the canyons of lower downtown. The civilians standing a few blocks away, at the police line, would wonder why they’d been going on for such a long time, but they knew enough to stay away.
“The sirens?” Howard answered.
“Yes. Do you think they’ve been given enough warning?” Petteri caught the eye of one of his workers standing at the edge of the demolition tent. He nodded, knowing what his boss wanted. “I think they have.”
Petteri turned around. The PWI crews had gotten into position next to the rock, mostly on the far side, reminiscent of ants arriving late to the picnic. He applauded their moxie at trying to push into his territory, but he faulted them for not doing their homework on the type of businessman he was.
“Hey, you guys are in danger over there,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. Only Howard heard him, giving Petteri an alibi should he ever be asked about it with a lie detector.
The siren finally stopped.
A few moments later, the earth shook under his feet.
CHAPTER 15
Crow Agency, MT
“Your dad said it was about ten miles to the fallen rock. I haven’t filled the tank since Yellowstone…” Grace looked at the fuel gauge. There was still a little over a quarter of a tank, but going out into the countryside without enough gas was what a rookie did. She was no longer that person.
“We can fill up right here.” Logan pointed to a small gas station two blocks down from the town hall. It was weather-beaten and sad-looking on the outside, but the interior appeared brightly lit, with men huddled around a car inside one of the repair bays. “It’s my uncle’s place.”
Asher laughed. “We’re getting the VIP treatment.”
Ten minutes later, Grace’s whole world had turned upside down. Once they parked and went into the tiny storefront, Logan’s uncle hugged the boy multiple times and heaped praise on Grace and Asher for bringing him home. Much as his father had done, the uncle went out of his way to help the kid, including loaning him a pickup truck. Grace didn’t understand why the loaner was necessary until she realized the mechanics had taken her vehicle and put it on the lift.
“What are they doing to my truck?” she asked.
“Logan will drive my old beater truck where you need to go. While you’re gone, I’ll check your drive train, do an oil change, and check fluids. I can tell it’s seen some rough miles. Plus, it’s the least I can do as thanks.”
“And it needs gas,” Asher said in an appreciative tone.
“We’ll gas it up, too,” the uncle added.
Logan beamed like he’d been given the key to the city. He jumped into his uncle’s truck and started it.
“Wait a second,” she said in a hurry. “I can drive.”
“No, my uncle gave it to me. I’ve driven lots of times. Trust me.”
“How old are you?” she asked, knowing he couldn’t be old enough to drive.
“Fourteen.”
She winced. “That’s too young. Please let me drive.”
He laughed. “I’ve been driving since I was twelve. Not on the highway, but on the backroads. I’ll get you there. Unless you want to take your truck and stop my uncle from helping you.” He smirked, knowing she wouldn’t want that.
“Fine,” she relented.
The ride wasn’t as bad as she feared. Logan was tall enough to reach the pedals and he respected the speed limit as they wandered the farmlands of the Crow reservation. She had to share a seat with Asher, which wasn’t an unpleasant way to spend thirty minutes of her afternoon.
They arrived at the asteroid fragment to find a handful of other pickup trucks already there. Most of them were civilian vehicles, though there was at least one painted white, with sirens on top.
“It looks like they’re having a party,” she commented. Many of the trucks had their cargo doors dropped with people dangling their legs off the back. It reminded her of any number of teenage drinking parties she and her friends visited in the cornfields of Kentucky.
The three of them walked into the thick of the parked vehicles. She was right about it being a party. Most of the young people were about Logan’s age. Many of them waved as he walked by with his two park ranger associates. However, none of the youngsters were drinking alcohol, as far as she could see. She figured it was thanks to the black-clad guard standing nearby.
Logan leaned over to them, gesturing toward the young man watching over the place. He had black hair cut short in a crew cut and wore black shades. “Unlike the guys back at the town hall, I don’t know this one by name. He’s one of the tribal police officers.”
“That’s fine,” she said, intending to deal with the officer herself. However, before she could make good on the thought, Logan went up to the man.
“Hiya. I’m Logan Runs Hard. My dad sent me and these two rangers out to inspect the rock.” He pointed to a black boulder hunched in the dirt of a fallow wheat field about a hundred feet away. As Shawn had suggested, it was about as large as his desk.
“Hi, Logan Runs Hard. It’s all yours.” He waved them by. On doing so, a roar of complaints rose up from the herd of teens.
The boy looked back and waved, before glancing over to her. “Eh, sometimes it pays to be my dad’s son.”
Asher crossed the last twenty yards as if he wanted to beat them there. He squatted next to the rock and picked up a few fragments lying next to the boulder. He shuffled around the perimeter of the meteorite, picking up additional stones where he found them.
“Take your time,” she said with a laugh. “We just got here.”
He huffed from moving fast. “I know, but this is incredible. I don’t even need my tools to know this is really worth something. I see platinum and gold, certainly, but there’s other stuff mixed in. It’s like they were all fused together in a powerful smelter.” All at once, he threw down the pieces and wiped his hands on his pants.
“What is it?” Logan asked, walking up to be next to the rock.
“Wait!” Asher replied. “Don’t touch it.”
Logan stopped where he was, a foot or two from the black meteorite.
Asher spoke deliberately. “It came from space, so it might be radioactive.”
“Really?” Grace replied, thinking of the man who picked up the softball-sized golden rock which fell near Yellowstone Lake. Was he in a hospital somewhere, stricken by radiation? It wasn’t an outcome she’d ever considered.
“I…I can’t say for sure,” he allowed. “My specialty is geology on Earth, not in space. I seem to recall reading somewhere how rocks like this could be radioactive, at least for a short time.”
Grace got a bit closer. “Where can we get a Geiger counter? Isn’t that what we’d need to see if this was hot?”
“That, or a dosimeter; the badge doctors wear when working around X-ray machines. It would turn black if we got a huge dose.”
They all took a step back, causing nervous laughter.
“Well, we’ve done what we came here to do,” Grace said in her ranger voice. “We got a good look at the rock, and I think we can safely assume it’s worth something, right? A lump this big of platinum and gold, plus whatever, makes this rock worth a lot of money.”
Asher tapped on his watch for half a minute before looking up. “If this rock weighs a couple of tons, which is very conservative, and if there’s a mixture of gold and platinum inside, it means it would be valued at about eighty million dollars. If it has rarer elements, which is also likely, it could be worth a lot more.”
Logan whistled quietly, thoroughly impressed. “My dad has to know. This is incredible!”
She kept an eye on the rock, wondering if the TKM negotiators knew what it was worth. It seemed logical to assume they did, or they wouldn’t waste time with it. If she’d had the internet, the first thing she would research was whether there was any law giving ownership of space rock to the person who owned the land where it landed. It could really help the Crow tribe in their dealings with the mining company. Eighty million bucks would go a long way for a town living in trailers. She could only imagine what offer Shawn Runs Hard was being given by the company at that moment.
“Let’s get back to your dad,” she advised.
As they all turned around to return to the truck, they stopped again as though they all shared the same brain. The tribal police officer had his gun out.
She imagined it was pointed right at her face.
Chester, IL
Ezra’s brain was consumed by a matrix of potential problems while piloting the boat. How many miles per gallon could his twenty-one-foot pontoon boat get while carrying four people and doing forty miles an hour? What was the top speed of the towboat behind them? Could it catch up? Would those men recover their lost speedboats and resume the chase?
He checked over his shoulder every time he rounded a bend in the river, certain he’d catch a glimpse of the pursuit. He expected to see the red speedboat before anything else.
Francis and Muriel, the elderly couple he’d picked up at Grand Tower, sat together in silence, blissfully unaware of his inner conflict. He’d told Francis to be ready with his rifle, but he hadn’t yet explained the nature of the threat, other than it would come from behind.
That led to other worries. Were there more pirates to the north? Would there be a gas station in Chester, or would it be washed away, or shut down, like at Cape? If they stopped for gas, would it give the pirates time to catch up? And did the pirates even need to see them? Muriel’s perfume probably wafted behind them, providing a scent trail for the whole river.
“There’s Chester,” Francis remarked, pointing to a highway bridge ahead. The silver bridge was built with complicated trusswork, like a thousand girders formed a long bird cage from one end to the other. It also appeared old, like bridges built a hundred years ago.
Ezra let off the gas a bit. “I’m glad you spoke up. I wouldn’t have known this was a town.” There was no stereotypical riverfront landing or floodwall to announce the presence of a town. A few broken walls and driveways illustrated where homes once stood along the forested hillside, but the floodwaters had done a good job of washing those
houses away.
“It was built on high ground, well back from the river. I’m afraid you’ll have to walk to get your gas. It’s about a mile up the hill.” Francis pointed toward a two-lane road going up into the forest.
“Dang. I was hoping the station would be closer. We’ll only be able to get five gallons at a time. It will take an hour to walk back and forth and fill our twenty-gallon tank.”
“We promised you gas. Francis can drive you to the station, once we get to our truck back at the house.”
It would be another diversion, but if they didn’t get enough gas to get to St. Louis, he didn’t think it would be safe to continue upriver. If they ran out of fuel far from civilization, they’d have to walk to safety over unfamiliar territory. He didn’t need a military degree to recognize bad strategy. Still, he looked over to Butch to get his input. “You good with that?”
“I don’t see how we have a choice. It’s like you said, it would take forever to walk multiple loads of fuel back to the boat. We’ve got to make this quick.” He checked behind them, as Ezra often did.
He had to concentrate on hiding the boat. The shoreline was scoured of trees, but he positioned Susan’s Grace into a drainage channel created by a creek. It kept it out of view for those looking up or down the river, though they would see it right away if they pulled up next to the creek.
After securing it to the shore, they all climbed off the front deck. He and Butch helped the older couple, then they led the pair onto the road into town.
Muriel spoke first. “You boys haven’t said much about what was behind us. I heard you talking about someone threatening our town when you picked us up. And you mentioned a boat, but you two have looked behind like the devil himself was chasing us. Is it safe to ask who they were?”
He smiled at the perceptive woman. She’d known enough to mention her husband had a rifle, so she wasn’t ignorant of the way things were in real life. There was no point in keeping her in the dark about the pursuit. She was safe, at least. “There are honest-to-God pirates on these waters. The ship we saw when we picked you up was towing a lot of little speedy boats. We were worried they were going to chase us all the way to Chester, but it looks like we got lucky.”
Impact (Book 3): Adrift Page 12