“You’re sure?” Monica said.
“Yes, volcanic ash has a unique composition and look. There was a volcanic eruption on that side that hasn’t happened here.”
“How recently?”
“Not very,” Erin said. “There’s a thick layer of topsoil on top of the ash. The creek has managed to wash it away, right down to the original creek bed, and that doesn’t happen fast. Not to mention that that much ash would have wiped out the ecosystem. Everything you see over there has regrown since. And there’s no visible trace of the old growth, like dead trees.”
“So …” Bill prompted, rolling his hand in a get on with it gesture.
“Not less than ten thousand years ago, and not more than a hundred thousand. My prof would kill me for making a sweeping statement like that based on a couple of feet of digging, but that’s what it looks like.”
“Is it significant?” Bill held up his hands when Erin glared at him. “Hey, I’m not being dismissive of your specialty. I mean, from a practical point of view, does it affect our plans?”
Erin glared at him for a few more seconds before relenting. “Maybe, maybe not. Look, there are two things we know are different, so far. One, there are no humans. Two, there’s been an extra volcanic eruption. Coincidence?”
“Probably not,” Bill replied. “Let me save you the trouble of using my own shtick against me. There are no coincidences. Anything we assume is a coincidence will end up biting us on the ass.”
“I’m not sure I could use that logic in a dissertation, but I’m also not sure I disagree with you.” Erin looked around the group. “I have a favor to ask. Could we swing past Yellowstone?”
“Swing past?” Richard exclaimed. “It’s in the opposite direction! There is no swing past.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. We’ve got enough vehicles so that everyone doesn’t have to go. Look, it could be relevant, and I think it’s important.”
“Hold on,” Matt said. “Do you want to go through and explore, or just look?”
“Just look.”
“I think we can manage that.” Matt turned to Richard. “How about if we put one of the portal generators and the pole-cam in the back of the pickup? It’s secure, with the tonneau cover. Erin and I will drive it to Yellowstone. Monica and Bill could take Erin’s car back home. And you and Kevin could take the van back.”
Richard’s expression cleared. “It’s a plan.”
“That’s quite the arsenal you have back there,” Bill said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder.
Monica smiled without taking her eyes off the road. “Not all mine, technically. But some of my brothers are in Italy with my parents, so they don’t need to know.”
“I, uh, Italians, guns, I feel like I’m about to put my foot in something …”
Monica smiled at him. “You wouldn’t be the first person, Bill. I’m used to it. And no, my family doesn’t have any connections to organized crime that I know of. But my father’s always been a prepper type, you know?”
“Um. Plus, six older brothers …”
“Yeah, there’s that. Made me tougher than people expect. What about you, Bill? You seem pretty self-reliant.”
“Meh, I’ve got no real story. I was an introvert growing up, so I got bullied a lot. Eventually I learned to use my mouth as a weapon. Pretty typical nerdiness, I think. Also why Richard dislikes me so much.”
“Yeah, he’s kind of, I dunno, a hardass.”
“He was a foster child, went into the system at about eight. I doubt it helped his social skills. But it’s why I try to take it easy on him, even when he’s being especially asshattish.”
“Plus the fact that he’s huge and could snap you in half.”
“I bet Matt could take him,” Bill said.
Monica’s smile disappeared and she spared him a glance. “We’re a real bunch of pieces of work, aren’t we?”
“Everyone has a story, Monica. Dig deep enough, you’ll find something. I think Kevin’s had a pretty shit life, for instance.”
“Not really a surprise. He looks like he’d have received more than his share of swirlies in high school. And Erin’s family has always been poor. She sacrificed most of her high school years juggling multiple jobs to save up for college. That’s why she’s so driven. I don’t know Matt, though.”
“Matt has money in the bank, but he’s quiet about it. He has to be. His dad did a spreadsheet when Matt was about to start college. Calculated all the expenses, allowed for necessities like a vehicle, some spending money, then handed Matt a check for that amount, and told him not to come back asking for more. Mr. Siemens is kind of an asshole.”
“Is he still on budget?”
Bill laughed. “The budget included money for an econobox, not an F-150. So, no, not by a long shot. Which is why he has a strong incentive to make this scheme work.”
There was silence for a minute or so, then Monica sighed. “I’m still getting up to speed on this whole experiment thing, but to the extent I can understand it, only Richard and Kevin have a downside. Other than getting eaten by something, I mean. For the rest of us, it’s become about the money.”
“Well, for Erin and Matt, probably yes. But you’re all excited about the Pleistocene biology, and I feel like I’m in an episode of Stargate. More or less.”
“Mm. Even so, lots of money is better than no money, all things considered. I think we’re all in, regardless.”
Bill smirked. “Welcome to the whirlwind.”
23. A Smoking Gun
The trip from the Black Hills to Yellowstone took nine hours. When they arrived at the park, Erin directed Matt to a location on the Grand Loop Road that afforded a scenic view but was isolated enough for some privacy.
Matt looked around as they got out of the truck and stretched their legs. “This seems unusually deserted. I guess all the volcanic activity is scaring away the tourists. I bet the park is having its worst year in decades.”
“You’d win that bet,” Erin said as she moved to the back of the truck.
Matt came around and pulled up the tonneau cover. They removed the equipment and set up the pole-cam. Matt plugged everything into the inverter, raised the pole, and switched on the gate.
Erin took the control tablet, poked at it a few times, then stared, her eyes getting slowly larger.
“Is this good?” Matt said. No answer. “Erin?”
“Slow pan, please.”
Happy to have gotten a response, Matt slowly rotated the pole to give Erin a 360 view of the other side. He finished one complete rotation, then stopped and waited.
Erin looked up at him with a shocked, stricken expression. “It’s gone.”
“Er, what’s gone?”
Without a word, she showed him the tablet. The video image showed a huge body of water, evidently an inland lake or sea. In the background, parts of some mountains were visible. Matt looked up from the tablet at the horizon, where he could see that the distant mountains matched up with the video. At least with the parts that were still there.
“What are we looking at?”
“It’s a caldera. Collapsed magma chamber, and it didn’t get filled in by lava flows afterward. This is what’s left of Yellowstone in Outland, after what must have been a supervolcano eruption. That lake would have taken hundreds of years to fill up. Maybe thousands.”
“So it blew up there but not here. Is this an issue?”
“Matt, we’ve been asking why Outland doesn’t have humans. I think this is our smoking gun.”
24. Cashing In
July 2
“Erin called me,” Monica said. “They’re on their way back from Yellowstone.” She grabbed a piece of pizza from the fridge. “It was very cryptic, though. Just the minimum necessary to update me, then she hung up. Something’s weird.”
“We’ll find out in a day or two anyway,” Bill said. He turned to Richard. “So, Big Daddy, what do we have?”
Richard looked at his notes. “About six pounds of
gold and accretions. After refining and commission, I figure that’ll be somewhere around eighty thou net to us. Reimbursements to members come to about twelve grand, so seventy grand when all is said and done. Ten grand and change each.”
“That’s a nice start, but we’re not going to be retiring on that,” Bill said. “We’re not done, though, right?”
“Not even close. This was a test run. We all knew that going in. Now we have enough experience to plan for the real thing. And I wanted to talk about that specifically.” Richard looked around the table. “It felt like everything about our first try went wrong. No weapons training, the whole hotel thing, having the van parked outside where it could be broken into or stolen, running the portal out in the open … Yeah, pretty much every part of that sucked. So we’re going to have to up our game.”
“Sounds like you already have something in mind,” Bill said.
“Yep.” Richard grinned. “Motor home. Big honkin’ land yacht. Or maybe a couple of them. Hookups don’t seem to be as much of a problem around there. We can park in the parking lot during the day and run the portal from inside. We’ll be closer to the creek, so we can do multiple trips if we need to.”
“Or if we get a campground nearby, we can work from there,” Monica said. “No need to move at all.”
“And we could rig up a shaker table,” Bill added. “We could process a lot more creek bed with a good mechanical setup.”
Richard nodded, plainly pleased at the response he was getting. “Regarding cashing in the gold, I was going to use a gold-buying service originally, but they offer a really terrible price per ounce. However, there are legitimate prospectors still operating, even these days. Assay service companies will buy the raw gold for a flat fee plus a small percentage.”
“Will they handle this much?”
“No, and if we walk in with too large of a deposit, it probably triggers some kind of IRS reporting requirements and all kinds of other complications. Not to mention them just getting curious. So I’ve made a list of all the companies in a couple-hundred-mile radius that offer this service. We’ll split things up and take turns with the submissions.”
“But that’s not paranoid or anything.”
Richard turned to glare at Bill. “Oh, are you an expert? Should I be asking for your advice?”
Bill laughed, unfazed by Richard’s show of anger. “Naw, fair enough. Better too much caution than not enough anyway. But we’ll also need a cover story.”
“Yeah, yeah. Something about your deceased father or uncle who’s been doing recreational panning for decades and never bothered to cash any of it in.”
Monica laughed. “Erin’s not going to be happy about lying.”
25. Suspicions Rise
July 3
Lem Carpentier watched the hot chick walk out the office door. On any other day, his mind would have been entirely on the view. But the package she had dropped off—Lem looked down at the bag of raw gold nuggets and marveled. It was all nuggets. No flakes, no grains. Someone hadn’t even bothered to collect the small stuff. Or maybe hadn’t bothered to include it in the load. Either way, someone had access to a whole lot of gold.
Placer gold, too, which meant there would be a vein somewhere upstream of wherever this had been panned. Lem looked up at the ceiling, considering. Of course the girl’s story of an eccentric uncle wasn’t totally out of the question. There were enough sites in the western and northwestern U.S. that might still have had some unclaimed gold up to fifty years ago. But the old guy would have had to be all over the place—Platte River, Sweetwater, Tin Cup, Rattlesnake Hills, the Sierra Nevada … No. It was far more likely to be total bullshit. Which meant the real source of the gold was something they didn’t want to discuss.
But what other explanation was there? That some kid had found a completely untapped strike? And a girl, at that? Especially one who looked like she’d never stepped on unpaved ground in her life? Not a chance.
Which brought him right back around to square one.
Lem picked up a handful of nuggets from the deposit and ran it slowly into the other hand. Good quality. This wasn’t second- or third-wave product. And a quick eyeball estimate told him that this would bring in a total just under the reporting and withholding requirements. That wasn’t coincidence either. Something smelled. The more he thought about it, the smellier it got.
Normally, he would skim a bit from a deposit even half this size, but maybe not this time. If this chick had something going, this wouldn’t be the only deposit. He couldn’t take a chance she’d think he ripped her off. If there was more to this, there would be more gold. And if that turned out to be the case, Lem knew some people who would be interested. Very interested.
26. Second Expedition
July 4
Bill stuck his head out of the window of the motor home. “This is perfect. Do they have it in hot pink?”
“Just ignore him,” Richard said to the rental guy. “Do you have two of these available?”
“Two?” The man’s eyebrows went up. “For how long?”
“A week.”
“No problem. We’ll need two damage deposits, of course.” The salesman smiled and motioned to the office. Paperwork was signed, money was exchanged, and soon Bill and Richard were on their way to the warehouse.
The rest of the crew was waiting at the loading bay door, equipment crated and stacked. In less than half an hour, they were ready to go.
The land yachts got terrible gas mileage, but driving them was a dream. The huge captain’s chair and large steering wheel were comfortable, and the vehicles tracked dead straight on the highway. The cruise control was accurate and didn’t need to be fussed over every time the slope changed.
Every few hours, they would pull the convoy over to a rest stop, stretch their legs, and switch around occupants and drivers. On this leg, Bill, Monica, and Richard had ended up in the same vehicle, with Bill driving.
Richard talked while poking away at his phone. “This time, we’ll be doing a couple of days of prospecting, and we’ll spend some concentrated time at it. I’m laughing at myself for saying this, but a hundred grand a day doesn’t cut it.”
“Can’t disagree,” Bill replied. “If you consider expenses, we might as well just get day jobs. This time around, I’d like to come out with at least enough to pay off next year’s tuition.” He looked at Richard. “Hey, boss-man, are we going to have someplace to stay this time? Or are we winging it again? Because that was so much fun last time.”
Richard gave Bill a look that was just short of a glare. “I phoned around before we left. I found a campground with hookups, and I was able to reserve a couple of spaces. Yes, even in high season.”
“And we have plugs for hair dryers,” Monica said.
A short drive later, Bill pointed to the right. “That’s the campground.”
Richard braked carefully and maneuvered the motor home into the parking lot. He stopped in front of the office, and Monica hopped out. She was back in seconds, with a map of the campsite.
Ten minutes later, the motor homes were parked in adjacent spots. One by one, people staggered out, stretching and groaning.
“I don’t understand how I can be more sore after traveling in something with a bed and a kitchen,” Bill complained.
“Fewer stops, longer drive,” Richard replied.
“It was a rhetorical statement.”
“Uh huh.”
Matt looked from Bill to Richard, then rolled his eyes in Erin’s direction. She answered with a small smile.
Richard continued, after an awkward silence, “Let’s set up the campfire first. The snowflake isn’t the only one who’s stiff, and we could use some relaxation.”
Bill glared but didn’t argue. He and Matt retrieved firewood while the rest pulled out camp chairs and supplies. Richard handed out telescoping roasting sticks, and Monica passed around the bag of marshmallows. The last item out was a cooler of beer.
“Sure are rough
ing it,” Monica commented, grabbing a beer.
Erin brought out a package of hot dogs. “The name-brand kind,” she said.
“Oh, yeah,” Bill said, beer in one hand, extended stick in the other. At the other end of the stick, a hot dog was being offered up to the fire god.
“Mm-hmm,” Monica answered, while giving all due attention to achieving the perfect toasted marshmallow.
The fire crackled, sending up occasional small sparks. The smell of burning pine mixed with the aroma of sizzling wieners, a scent that said “camping” in a way that could not be argued. As the sun set and the air cooled, they hitched their chairs closer to the fire. The only sounds were the rustling of the trees and the occasional pop from the burning logs.
This state lasted for about fifteen minutes, while the tension drained.
Finally, Richard lowered his phone and looked at Erin. “Okay, Erin. Time to spill. What happened with Yellowstone?”
Erin looked around the campfire at the others. All eyes were on her. She pulled out her phone and passed it around with the video queued up for replay.
“Here’s what I think. I’d love to get my prof involved, but I understand why that can’t happen. We have the following facts: One, there appear to be few or even no humans in Outland. Or at least not in North America—neither Europeans nor Native Americans. I say this because we still have Pleistocene animals there, and on our side, humans were partly or wholly responsible for the eradication of most of that wildlife. Right?” Erin glanced at Monica, who grinned and gave a thumbs-up.
“Two, around 75,000 years ago on our Earth, Toba blew its stack and almost but not quite obliterated the human race, according to archeological evidence that we’ve dug up so far.
“Three, in Outland, Yellowstone blew up sometime in the last hundred thousand years, probably in addition to Toba. I base that on the large amounts of volcanic ash layered onto the ground there. Put that all together—I think Yellowstone is the reason there are no humans there, and no humans is the reason we still see Pleistocene animals there.”
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