by D A Carey
“We?” Jim sneered. “What sorrows do you have?”
“Aww, Jim. You wound me,” Clyde said with an expression that was supposed to convey hurt yet conveyed more of a sneer. “We’re about as close to family as a boss and an employee can be. When someone does you wrong, then I’m hurt and want to avenge you.”
Big Jim stared at him like he was serious then burst out laughing. “Bullshit,” he said, drawing it out. “The day I quit paying you, you’re gone.”
“Well, there is that,” Clyde quipped. “They won’t ever let you go totally broke, though. Your daddy, grandpappy, and his grandpappy were all Texas cattlemen. They’ll always make sure a Tarpley ranch is working and has cattle running, even if they have to pass around a hat. So you’ve got me even if we have to sell a couple cows every once in a while in order to hit the cathouse or for a trip up to Vegas.”
“We drink too much,” Jim said morosely. “We’ll run out of cows soon enough.”
“Not to worry,” Clyde said, clinking his glass with Jim’s. “I always know where to find a few head of cows and a buyer. And you always got another scheme up your sleeve. We’re gonna be all right.”
“Maybe you’re right.” Big Jim rose to his full height of six foot five, weighing around 280, and leered. “So you said something about a cathouse?”
“Now you’re talking, boss.”
“Well I ain’t broke yet, and no one I owe money to is talking. I’m old school, and they will expect to handle this quietly and all polite like. My credit is still good most places, for now.”
* * *
“Mr. Tarpley, I need to speak to you privately,” said a tall, striking redhead.
Stella Dubois had worked her way up in this business. It hadn’t always been a high class cathouse like the one she now ran. She bore the emotional scars from her journey through life. Still, she was exceptionally attractive and could pass for as cultured as any who walked through the door, despite her background and the hidden .25 caliber in soft holster beside her garter.
“Not now, Stella. I’m drinking and ready for fun. We can talk business later,” Big Jim said over his shoulder as he headed to the stairs and one of the private parlors. The huge old Victorian-style home had been remodeled with elegant private parlors, each with two or three small bedrooms on the side. That way a gentleman and a few of his close friends could watch sports, dance, or play cards while being entertained by some of the loveliest ladies in this part of Texas. If that entertainment became more intimate, then of course the small rooms off to the side became useful.
Stella moved her small frame in front of Big Jim to block the stairs. “Mr. Tarpley, it’s important that we speak straightaway.” Stella’s voice conveyed the seriousness of her request. “Mr. Bandera is welcome to a drink in the bar while we step into my office. This should only take a moment.”
Big Jim nodded to Clyde and followed Stella into her office. Seeing her move in that form-fitting dress roused his lust. Despite the fact she was a few years past her prime, he desperately wanted her, just as many of the patrons of the establishment did. Memories of her rebuffs to prior attempts stayed his hand before he tried to grope her. It would have been easier to accept if he didn’t know that on rare occasions she did entertain a special client, just not him.
Stella closed the door and motioned to a chair. Big Jim chose to remain standing. “Mr. Tarpley, as we have discussed before, the ladies who work here are of the highest caliber. These ladies are neither servants nor employees. They are independent contractors, and as such they are free to refuse customers and work whenever they want.”
“So?” Big Jim responded belligerently.
“Mr. Tarpley, I’ll get straight to it. The girls on staff have declined to entertain your party. You’re welcome to a few drinks in the bar, on the house of course. However, there will be no party in the parlor tonight.”
“They’re only whores!” Big Jim roared. “They can’t refuse work!”
“That will be quite enough.” Stella’s voice was low and intense. Nonetheless, it quieted Big Jim for the moment. “These are ladies. You may not agree with their choice of work. Some of them come from good families, and even those who don’t comport themselves with the utmost class. You have treated them with disrespect and been both verbally and physically abusive, and they have chosen to decline your offer for their services. It’s quite simple, Mr. Tarpley.”
“I haven’t been with all of them. How can they all refuse me?” Big Jim said, his mind churning.
“The ladies talk.” Stella moved toward the door. “I’ll make your drinks myself.”
Big Jim sat in the chair Stella had previously offered. “I know some of these ladies need the money. This night is important to me.” Big Jim’s voice softened. “If you can find three ladies willing to overlook my past indiscretions, I’m willing to offer a five thousand dollar bonus to each of them.”
“Mr. Tarpley, if you give me your solemn word that you and Mr. Bandera will be on your best behavior and treat these ladies with respect, I will relay your offer. I won’t make any promises. Nevertheless, as you say, some of these ladies do need the money.”
“Thank you, Stella.” Big Jim smiled. “You know, if you’d join me alone, you could have the entire fifteen thousand.”
“No, thank you, Mr. Tarpley. I do not need the money. However, I will relay your offer and meet you in the bar later with their responses.” Stella opened the door to her office, ending the meeting.
* * *
After a long night of drinking and having their brand of fun, Big Jim and Clyde were asleep in a couple of rooms off the parlor. One of the two girls with Big Jim was trying to slip out of the room. Her eye was black, and she hurt all over. While some of the other girls had warned her, she was a single mom and her family had turned her out when she became pregnant with the child of one of the football players during her senior year in high school. Right now she was trying to think if five thousand was worth what she felt both physically and emotionally.
The other girl was addicted to drugs and about to lose her position at the cathouse. She probably never felt a thing.
Just as she reached the door, the lights came on. There stood Big Jim in his tighty whiteys and cowboy boots. She would have snickered if she wasn’t so terrified of him.
“I paid for the night. There are a couple hours left. Where do you think you’re going?”
“I thought we were done. I was going to clean up.”
“We aren’t done. Come back to bed,” Big Jim commanded.
“I can give back a thousand or two of the money. I have to leave,” she begged.
“Nope, you’re mine ‘til daylight.” Jim’s sadistic sneer promised things to come.
As he reached for her, the lights went out, and the girl scrambled for the door. Big Jim bellowed, and Clyde rushed into the room.
“Find the light switch or get a flashlight!” Big Jim yelled.
“They aren’t working. I’ll use the light on my cell phone,” Clyde responded.
“Damn!” Big Jim shouted as he barked his shin on a coffee table.
“My cell phone is dead, too. I must have forgotten to charge it,” Clyde said. “I’ll go downstairs once I get my pants on.”
“It’s dark all over the city,” Big Jim said, staring out the second-story window.
Prescience
Prescience
“To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.”
- George Washington
<< Dave >>
The gentle kiss of the Falcon 7X’s tires meeting the Leadville-Lake County airport runway roused Dave from his sleep. It had been a long, stressful trip. While the Chartertown project occupied a lot of his time, he had a great deal of other work to do. Adding to that, Levi’s last-minute request for him to do an impromptu meeting with investors in Utah had meant that he landed late here in Colorado. As a testament to Louis’s normal efficiency, the investor meeting had
gone off without a hitch. Andrew Ballard, Dave’s head of legal, elected to stay behind in Salt Lake City to get some of the contracts signed. It helped that the supply trucks arrived while Dave was in the area, and with Levi’s push, some of the bunkers and buildings were showing progress. Combined with a herd of goats and hogs, the investors saw the vision and stepped up to the plate. Much of the construction supplies and equipment were already there. Now it was just a matter of getting the work done.
It was after midnight, and Dave had already asked Louis to clear his schedule tomorrow. As the plane began braking on the runway, Dave was mentally going through the things he needed to do. Levi was across the aisle moving around. He’d fallen asleep on the short flight from Utah over the mountains, too. It would be a few minutes before they rolled up the old fashioned stairs and cracked the door open.
Dave stretched. “Levi, my friend, I’m glad to be back home.”
“Aye, sir.” Levi smiled. “I never expected this place to become my home, yet I have to admit I’ve missed it, too.” Levi reached for Dave’s carry-on bag as they made their way down the steps to the tarmac.
Spotting the black SUV waiting for them in the dark, Dave said, “Your people are as efficient as ever. Remind me to give that man a bottle of whatever he prefers for this late night trip.”
“That’s Sally McKinney. She doesn’t drink, but she does enjoy an opera when she can get away.”
“Wonderful. Then tickets to the opera it is. Perhaps a group of us can go sometime. I have box seats in Denver.”
“No thank you, sir, it’s not my kind of thing. Sally, on the other hand, is into it despite some of the stereotypes people might hold because she is from the woods in Georgia. People might not guess how educated and cultured she is. I’m from New York and I’ve travelled the world, and I am infinitely less cultured than you or her. I’m sure she’d enjoy going with someone like you who enjoys it. I’d only be bored.”
When they reached the SUV, Dave said, “Ms. McKinney, I understand you enjoy the opera.”
“Yes, sir, I do. As crazy as it sounds, my father used to play it in the barn while milking the cows back in Georgia. He said it calmed the cows and made them give more milk.”
“Does music work that way on milk cows?”
“While I don’t know any of the science behind it, a lot of dairymen play music in the milking barns. My dad’s yield was always high, so it’s hard to argue.”
“And the cows prefer opera?”
“No, I doubt they know one kind of music from another as long as it’s mellow and calming. We listened to opera on our farm. My dad secretly loved it more than he would admit. I grew up loving it too, and on top of my enjoyment of the music, it brings back memories of home. My dad and I even took a couple of trips to Atlanta to see the opera. We may not have had the right clothes or money like many there, but it was something special between him and me.”
“Is the family farm still there?”
“Not really. My father died a few years back. My mother and brother have homes on the main forty acres. The rest has been sold off and now makes up an area of small hobby farms in the northern part of Georgia.”
“So I assume you’re planning to go Georgia sometime to help out at the chartertown there?”
“Probably. I’m not in a huge hurry, though. I do like this place. It speaks to the soul.”
“That is does, young lady. I don’t think I’ve ever put it that well. On another note, I have box seats to the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver. If you wouldn’t be too embarrassed going with an old man to the opera, I’d love to have you join me, both for the company and as my way of saying thanks for picking us up here well past midnight.”
“I’d love to take you up on the offer. I can go as your bodyguard if Mr. Goldman will allow it. That would give him the night off. Don’t think you have to reward me for coming to pick you up, though. This is my job. I love it, and I’m a night owl.”
“Well then, lead on, Macduff,” Dave said with a flourish as he piled into the SUV.
Sally grinned. “You know that’s not opera, sir.”
“I know, but it’s fun, and I’m in a good mood. I enjoy finding a kindred spirit. Let’s go home.”
* * *
A few miles later, the SUV’s engine abruptly stopped, and the vehicle drifted to the side of the road.
“Sir,” Sally called from the front passenger seat. Another man whom Dave didn’t know was driving. “Something is wrong with the truck. We’ve lost all power. I’m trying to call out, but we must be in a bad cell area. My phone won’t even light up.”
Dave suspected what had happened almost immediately and checked his own cell phone. It was dead. “One moment, young lady. Will you get out and check for any other traffic? Listen for airplanes as well.” Dave opened his laptop bag. “Levi, check your phone.”
“It’s dead, sir,” Levi responded with an ominous tone in his voice, catching on to the situation.
“My laptop is dead as well. Levi, what other electronic devices do we have with us?”
“I’ve got all my hiking and camping gear in the trunk. There is a GPS device and a satellite phone in my gear, and my climbing watch has electronics.”
“Check it out,” Dave said to Levi, then to the driver Dave asked, “What’s your name, son?”
“Michael, sir.”
“It’s good to meet you, Michael,” Dave said, sticking out his hand. “I’m sorry I didn’t introduce myself at the airport. I try not to be that sort of guy.”
“That’s quite all right, sir. You have a lot going on.”
“Thank you for understanding. Do you hike?”
“Yes, sir. Almost all of us do.”
“Good. It appears as if we’re going to get to do some. By the way, can you check your cell phone and tell me if you have signal?”
“Yes, sir. I checked it when Sally looked at hers. It’s dead, too. I don’t know why. It’s possible we had a power surge in the car that shorted it. I was hooked up to the charger while we drove.”
“I suspect we had a huge power surge that well exceeded the surroundings of the car. How much it exceeded that radius is yet to be seen.”
“Beg your pardon, sir?”
Levi returned from the back of the SUV, followed by Sally, his face grim. “Mr. Cavanaugh, everything back there is fried except my climbing watch. I checked my GPS, SAT phone, and some stuff Sally had back there too. Nothing works.”
“Well, we can’t be sure, however, it sounds like an EMP to me,” Dave said.
“I was worried about that. I’m glad we’re close to home,” Levi replied. “We can settle in for a nap, and when we don’t show, they’ll send someone to get us.”
“Nonsense. We can hike over the mountain. It’s only a few hours from here.”
“Mr. Cavanaugh, it’s dark, and I’m sure they will worry if they come and we aren’t here.”
“We can either leave a note or Michael can stay with the car. Personally, I need the exercise to clear my mind. My schedule hasn’t allowed me to hike much lately, and it’s affected my mood. And now, it looks like my schedule just opened up.”
“Sir, if we are hiking, I want Michael with us. It’s my job to keep you safe, and he is on my detail,” Sally spoke up.
“Ms. McKinney, if you want him and he has proper footwear, then it’s your call. I won’t have either you or Michael traipsing around these mountains in street shoes. Levi and I hike these mountains all the time, and our gear is in the back. I’m perfectly safe here.”
“We have the proper footwear, and we will be coming with you. Although I suspect I may need a long raincheck on that opera,” she added with a smile.
“Okay, let’s get loaded up with whatever gear we might need. Anything we can’t carry that’s valuable, we need to cache.”
“Mr. Cavanaugh, we should wait a couple hours for dawn,” Levi tried one last time.
“No, it will take us a while to change and cache what we
want. After that, the first part of the hike is easy. I’m anxious to get on the trail. You know me, Levi, and that’s where I do my best thinking. If there is one thing I need right now is some quiet time while my mind is in a meditative state.”
<< Louis >>
Louis awoke to a knock at the door. He was aware Dave would be flying in late, not arriving until the wee hours of the morning. In his younger days, he would have stayed up waiting for his boss. Now he was getting more exercise and mountain air and was tired. Knowing Dave would probably want to head straight to bed when he got in, Louis had turned in early.
He struggled to rise from the deep sleep and dreams he’d been having. As he gathered his wits and his mental synapsis sped up, he recognized the urgent pounding on his door and began to worry something was wrong. “One moment!” he called, donning his robe.
He opened the door to one of the older security men who normally worked around the house and had asked for a permanent posting to SOP-town.
“Richard, is everything okay?”
“No, sir, I don’t think it is. As far as we can tell, all the electronics here at the cabin and in the town proper have been fried. We have no idea if it’s some small local phenomena or an EMP. Heck, it could even be solar flare that we are more susceptible to at this altitude. We just don’t know.”
“Okay, we’ve planned for this. What’s everyone doing?”
“We’re going door to door letting people know what we think happened and advising calm. We scheduled a community meeting tomorrow.”
“Good.”
“We’re also pulling some equipment from the Faraday cages and setting it up in the caverns below. We will be limited in what we can do because the antennas work better on the mountaintops.”
“We could move equipment up to the surface and run cable further up the mountain side,” Louis said hesitantly.