by Gene Skellig
When the tally came, Tanya had a go at the dealers and ground him down on the price of the vehicles first, then got into the details of the spares list. When the dealer caved, the deal was done.
With the fleet of new vehicles nicely parked in the paved area on the high side of the HOTH, Casey did the entire thing again at another dealership, this time buying four small electrical vehicles. He wanted some electric cars which were easy to maintain, and ran on an infinitely renewable power source.
With the helical wind power as a backup at the HOTH, electricity would be a reliable energy source even if things went very badly with the world. ZENN “Runabouts” were very handy for short trips, with a 200km range between charges and speeds up to 100 km/h. They were also extremely easy to maintain. The spares package for the ZENNs amounted to a few replacement brushes, some accelerator-generator assemblies, and some odd little electrical components
The nine new vehicles had not made all that much of a dent in the family finances. The Callaghan's were flush, because Canada had joined with the US in their second attempt to restore their currency, this time going all the way to the Gold Standard. The US and Canada pegged their currencies to gold, at $G 10,000 per ounce. So the world’s producing gold mines were literally pulling real money out of the ground.
Casey’s gold mine, TFG, had ramped up annual production to 220,000 ounces. This made TFG a great investment, particularly when considering the wave of state seizures of gold mines and other strategic assets in many of the more volatile regions of the world. Even with the new Gold Tax in Canada and increased costs for fuel, the stock was now $G 65 a share. Even after Casey’s profligate spending to build and equip the HOTH, the Callaghan’s 140,000 remaining shares were now valued at $G 9,625,000.
As Casey tried to explain it to Tanya during their morning coffee that day, the reasons for their gold investment having gone ballistic should not be a source of comfort.
“I don’t understand. We’re rich now, so why not relax and enjoy it a bit? Why don’t we take a trip when the kids get out of school in June?” Tanya asked, as she added an extra spoon of sugar to the latte she was preparing for Casey on her newest kitchen appliance.
“Because even if the gold standard works fine for us, and appears to be restoring confidence in international markets, the vast majority of people in the States are going to have problems with it. Most of them were dependent on an income stream that has now suddenly been cut off. Their pensions are gone. It will take months for the government to re-calibrate all those benefit programs. They might cut off all those entitlements altogether.”
“Why?”
“Because the US can’t just print money any more.”
“What do you mean? They are issuing those pretty new Treasury Gold Dollars and gold coins now, aren’t they?”
“Yes, but every dollar they print now has to be backed up by physical gold. They can’t spend more than they have. If they do, their currency will become a fiat currency again and not a gold standard, so the entire system would collapse again.”
“I understand a lot of people will lose their government benefits, and will really suffer. But how does that affect us up here in Canada?”
“It’s not just the unfortunate people who will be hurt by these changes, it’s the instability that all of this is creating. The Chinese, Russians, Japanese and other creditor nations are angry at the Americans for defaulting on their debt. A large proportion of American citizens are not happy about the revolutionary changes taking place in their country, and a lot of powerful people in the States have just lost control of the system that they had bought and paid for, through lobbying and influence peddling,” Casey explained, getting a bit worked up.
“So?”
“So, it’s like a room full of kerosene right now, all it would take is one match, and KABOOM!” Casey said.
“Come on, it’s not that bad, is it?”
“President Parker has done a remarkable thing in attempting to restore the US Gold Standard. It could work, and put the US back on top. The rest of the world seems to have recognized pure gold itself as the world’s reserve currency. But by killing the spending power offered by a fiat currency system, and all the political influence that the spending power offered, she has made a great many enemies. And with so many enemies, and with such chaos in the world after those two nuclear wars, anything can happen.” Casey slowed down as he recognized the look on his wife’s face. She wasn’t big on economics and geopolitics, but she knew what it meant when powerful people were threatened. That theme had played out enough times in Russian history.
“OK. I understand now. You’re saying that she did the right thing, and it could work, but it’s made things more dangerous for everybody in the meantime, right?”
“Right. And we won’t know how it worked out for a year or two, if we have that long.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, it could all come apart in an instant. Do you remember when Benazir Bhutto flew back to Pakistan?”
“You mean that brave woman who knew she would be assassinated?” Tanya replied, starting to get the point.
“Yeah. Remember watching on TV, when she got off that plane? We talked about how brave she was, and that she might not make it through the week. Well, now we are watching another brave woman, President Parker, taking an equally brave step.”
“You think they will kill her?”
“That’s one of the possibilities. Or a civil war in the US. Or a World War. Or the annexation of Canada by the United States. Or peace and love breaks out all over the world, and nature somehow cleans up the mess we’re making of her planet.”
“What if things don’t work out well? What if President Parker is assassinated, or there really is a war?”
“I want to sell most of our shares in TFG, and convert the proceeds to gold and silver coins. We can hang on to about 40,000 shares, but I want to liquidate the rest, and complete outfitting the HOTH to be ready for what I think’s coming.”
“Why the big rush? Won’t we have time to assess how things are going in the world? Do you really think it’s not going to work itself out?”
“I just can’t stop thinking about how many people President Parker has pissed off. The political and social elite will hijack her agenda, or kill it altogether. Once that happens, this moment of sunshine that her gold standard has ushered in will be snuffed out,” Casey said, somberly. “And then all bets are off. I don’t think the system can take a third currency collapse in as many years. I don’t know how this will play out, but the economic system will fail in a matter of months unless the Parker Administration can hold it all together. This is the moment of truth. If the globalized system truly fails, we’ll be turning the clock back by a hundred years or more. We’ll have to learn to live with what we can grow, make, or recycle. There won’t be any more trucks coming,” Casey concluded.
“OK. Until things get better, we’ll assume the worst. We’ll stock up and stay close to home.” Tanya sounded unconvinced.
“You’ve seen it already, Tanya, when you came back from the fabric store with nothing to show for it,” Casey reminded her.
“Yeah, but that’s just because it’s getting dangerous to shop in town, you can still buy stuff. It’s just not worth taking the risk of being mugged or carjacked when we already have everything we need here,” Tanya countered.
“But if things are about to get really bad, then it’s time we make a big push and stock up HARD, to be ready to lock down.”
“OK, OK. We’ll get started on it. What can I do?”
They got into the major stocking up over the next two weeks. For Tanya, it was exciting to see how fast things moved when they had money to absolutely burn. Casey was like a general in a war, taking decisive action.
The level of activity at the HOTH was significant. There was a constant parade of “truck-and-pups” delivering as much as possible in the shortest time, ranging from soil and split firewood to deliveries
of bulk food. Casey and Yuri assembled rugged shelving racks to store the chain saws, generators, pumps and other small machines that made the workshop side of the garage look more like a tool rental business. With so much firewood and equipment being packed into the massive garage there was no room for the many new vehicles. Two sea-containers were delivered to the HOTH, and Marc prepared a flat area behind the woodshed for them with his big ‘450. He left an eight foot gap between them, which Yuri and Danny covered with wooden beams, plywood, and a thin layer of earth. This made enough space to provide secure long-term covered parking for all nine vehicles. It also meant that most of the vehicles would be protected from an EMP burst by virtue of being in their own Faraday cages.
They lined the perimeter of the barn with three solid rows of densely packed hay bales, and then assembled a scaffold onto which they stacked two layers of the heavy round bales, making the inside of the barn something of a tomb. They also squirreled away specialized feed supplies and a variety of food additives. They had already stored the tools, rigging, harnesses, tack and other items they would need.
Casey and Tanya gave the task of arranging the initial stock of farm animals to their children. The girls took the lead, but gave Liam and Justin important tasks. In total, they chose two pregnant Canadian mares, a pregnant sow, a dairy cow, a rooster and a dozen laying hens. Little Donnie got a black lab puppy, Abbey. After that, the HOTH was also a farm.
Casey wanted lots of fuel. He stockpiled 3,300 gallons of fuel: two thirds diesel, one third regular unleaded gasoline. The fuel was pre-mixed with antioxidants and other treatments to extend the life of the fuel for as much as ten to fifteen years, only requiring simple annual additives. He had the equipment to fabricate diesel if push came to shove.
When they took stock of all the food stored in the many caches and bunkers in and around the HOTH, Tanya and Casey figured there was enough food to feed a group of fifty people for ten years. But would that be enough for what was coming?
19
KUGLUKTUK
20 May: Day of NEW
It was not until the early morning of 20 May that the weather finally broke. Ken had expected to see an improving trend in the 1800Z forecast, based on the outlook that he had read before going to bed the night before. By the time Ken’s copilot showed up in the small restaurant in the ramshackle hotel they had been confined to for nearly a week, Captain Ken Thompson had already filed the flight plan and printed off the weather for their flight to Resolute Bay.
“How’s it look, Skipper?” Kevin asked the pilot in command of “Vampire Five”, a small Canadian military transport aircraft, a military variant of the ubiquitous DHC-6 Twin Otter.
“Weather looks good. Strong southwesterly winds. We should be able to make it to Resolute tonight.”
“Too bad your computer’s fried, so Combat Quest is not an option. What are we going to do there tonight? The place sucks!”
“Maybe Ozzie will lend us one of his laptops. I've still got the disk. If worse comes to worst, I’ll have to work on your Performance Evaluation.”
“Very funny, Boss. Hey, did you hear about what happened in Russia two weeks ago?” Ken simply shook his head. “Those stupid Russians, they can’t organize a piss-up in a whorehouse! They put their strategic nuclear forces on high alert, as part of some cluster-fuck of an exercise.”
“What was screwed up about it?” Ken asked.
“Turns out there wasn't supposed to be an exercise, but some computer error ordered 57 batteries of Topol-M’s onto high alert status. Those are those new SS27 ‘Sicle-B’s’ with 550 Kiloton warheads, with up to 6 MIRVs and 2 or 3 dummies apiece,” Kevin explained, demonstrating that he had completed another block of the Air Force Officer Development Program.
“Anyhow, there was some confusion as you would expect with the Russians. The BBC reported that there was no order from Moscow. Apparently there’s some problem with command and control in the Russian Federation. They’re not supposed to increase their readiness postures without a confirmed order from Moscow. So then the Russians went through a series of computer exercises last week. They rotated each mobile battery, all the ground-based silos, and all 14 of the at-sea SSBNs through launch preparation drills. NATO sent some observers because of concerns about the readiness of perhaps 6,000 warheads being exercised in such a compressed timeframe without the normal degree of bilateral coordination. Both Russia and the US are saying that there is no increase in tension, but the BBC is reporting that the Europeans are concerned. Everybody's getting nervous because of what happened in Pakistan and Israel.” Kevin explained this, as though Ken had not been following the ongoing crises closely himself.
“Yeah, that sounds about right. It’s about what Casey Callaghan has been saying,” started Ken.
“That freak?” Kevin jumped in. “I’ve heard about that guy. I heard he went crazy, saying there’s going to be a war!” Kevin laughed. “I heard from some guys in Winnipeg that he quit the military and moved his family to BC, just two years away from a full pension! What a fool. They say he wanted to get as far as he could from Ground Zero at CANR HQ!”
“Yeah, Kevin, that’s about right. And Casey is a friend of mine, so watch what you say about him.”
“Hey, wait a minute, isn’t he the guy who talked you and other guys into buying shares in that gold mine?” Kevin went on, only to stop himself when he realized where that was going.
“That’s right, Kevin, he did. And I did very well on that investment, thank you very much.” Ken smiled, enjoying a rare moment of silence from Kevin.
“OK, so he’s not stupid, but he is nuts! There isn’t going to be a war. The real threat is climate change. Have you seen how much snow they’ve been getting in Washington DC and other places in the States? The world’s climate is fucked up, and getting more out of control all the time.” Kevin finally stopped talking, and fixed himself a coffee at the grimy little coffee set-up in the hotel dining room.
“Yeah, Kevin, that’s what I think too. But you know what? Casey’s built a house designed to stand up to climactic extremes. He told me all about it. It’s built of concrete, so it can stand up to drought and forest fire. And it’s also well insulated for extremely cold conditions. It even has its own drilled well so he’ll have clean water no matter what.”
“Where is it?”
“Qualicum Beach.”
“It’d be great to check it out if we get another Comox mission. I’d love to have a house completely off-the-grid like that,” Kevin concluded, having inverted his opinion about Casey.
Three hours later, Ken pushed the two power levers suspended from the ceiling of the Twin Otter to full-forward, accelerating the aircraft smoothly down the runway for a nicely executed cross-wind take-off five minutes before their 1700Z flight planned departure time.
20
AMY
20 May: Day of NEW – Vancouver B.C.
Amy didn’t mind standing, even if a real gentleman would give up his seat on the Skytrain for a woman with her child. She enjoyed traveling on the Skytrain, especially the “Canada Line” built for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Amy always took the front car so she could watch the serpentine path the tunnel followed under the downtown core.
This tunnel would have been impossible fifty years ago. The tunnel was built in two different ways. Under the downtown core, a tunnel-boring machine resulted in a circular cross-section. But for the stretch from Olympic Village to Marine Drive, a simple “Cut and Cover” excavation was used. By simply tearing up Cambie Street to install the line and then repaving the road, the city saved a great deal of money. The rectangular cross-section of the Cambie Street portion was just 20 meters underground, obediently following the surface street’s path. While less sophisticated than the bored section downtown, it was an effective engineering solution.
Entertained by yet another journey on her favorite Skytrain line, Amy pushed the stroller carrying her fifteen month old daughter, Janie-Lee, off the Skytrain and headed for
the elevator to the surface above.
Ten minutes later Amy arrived at the reception desk at MacQuarrie - Hobkirk Engineering, at 777 Hornby Street. There, greeted with a smile from the lady seated at reception, Amy took an application form and filled it out in her precise engineer’s lettering. After attaching her résumé, she handed the clip-board back to the lady.
“So how are things going here?” Amy asked.
“Not too bad. We may be hiring soon, if we get stimulus funding for the Spanish Banks Wind Project,” Triona Hobkirk answered as she smiled at Janie-Lee. “Why don’t you and your little sweetie come back to the lunch room? Have a cup of tea. We’ve got some crayons and paper. I’ll try to get one of the boys to meet you while you’re here. They’re in a meeting now but should be done in a few minutes,” Triona said encouragingly.
“Sure, thanks! A cup of tea and some crayons would be great,” Amy agreed, gratefully embracing the offer. She wheeled Janie-Lee to the staffroom, following Mrs. Hobkirk. After setting Janie-Lee up with crayons and paper, Mrs. Hobkirk turned on the news channel and showed Amy where the kettle and teabags were. After that, she returned to her desk, started reading the resume, and watched for her husband to come out of the meeting.
Mrs. Hobkirk liked the young engineer immediately. Amy had a solid, self-confident nature that Triona respected. The young engineer clearly had a good balance of Computer-Aided Design skills to accompany her solid background in large-scale wind energy projects. If the firm got the contract to build the controversial Spanish Banks project they would need a dozen engineers like Amy, but a personal introduction would also help.