Matt and Erin slowly backed toward Richard and Monica, who were covering the other directions.
“Remember, guys, you have seven loads. Make them count,” Matt said.
And just to add to the fun, four more wolves inched out of the brush.
“I don’t think this is going to end well, one way or the other,” Erin said. “Monica?”
“Dire wolves are apex predators. They hunt when they’re hungry. They don’t fear much. They’ll overcome their caution in a few more seconds and start circling, looking for an opening. At that point, it’s us or them.”
“Right,” said Matt. “Pick a target that’s closest to in front of you. When I say go, we—Aw, hell.” The wolves picked that moment to begin circling, as Monica had predicted. “Go.”
Four pump-action shotguns cut loose. One wolf all but disintegrated, the apparent victim of a double shooting. The three remaining wolves froze, then turned and bolted.
“Yeah, there’s a new apex predator in town, motherfuckers!” Monica yelled, waving her shotgun over her head.
“Holy shit, Monica, down, girl!” Erin said, leaning back.
“Sorry.” She grinned at Erin, then looked at the others. “In retrospect, without another practice session this morning, I guess we didn’t scare off the local wildlife.”
Matt scanned the trees as he replied, “We’ve probably taken care of that now, but eventually that’ll stop working. Let’s call it for the day. We’ll talk about this when we’re safe on Earthside.”
Erin reached down for one of the canvas bags containing their haul for the day. “Oof. How are we going to lug this loot and the table?”
“We won’t,” Richard replied. “We shouldn’t even try. I don’t feel comfortable right now with the idea of having everyone burdened. Two of us should be weapons-ready. Do you feel comfortable being on guard detail with Monica?”
Erin shook her head. “No, I think Matt and Monica should do the guarding. I’ll carry what I can, but I guess you’re going to be pack mule for the day.”
“I can do that.” Richard picked up the canvas bags. “In fact, three guarding is even better. I’ll be okay. Let’s go home.”
The hike back to the gate was significantly slower than the trip out, because of the group’s heightened alert level and Richard’s need for occasional rest breaks. This only increased the tension. Eventually, though, they reached the pickup point. The gate opened and the group piled through.
Bill looked at them as they settled into seats. “I’m sensing a certain deer-in-the-headlights vibe. Something happen over there?”
Erin replied, with a sickly grin, “Yeah, we met some more of Monica’s pets. Dire wolves. Nasty.”
“I’ve met them, remember? Not great as neighbors.”
Monica laughed once, a short, sharp bark. “Next time we might not come out on top. That was a small family group. If they show up again, they might bring the whole pack. Shotguns or not, you can only shoot so fast. And reloading is not an option.”
“We may have to up our game, weapons-wise,” Matt said, settling more comfortably into his chair.
Richard nodded in agreement. “I’m really becoming convinced we still haven’t been taking this seriously enough. This isn’t like walking into the back hills for a little hunting.”
“I used to wonder about movie characters acting too stupid to live,” Bill added. “I’m starting to realize that it’s easy to yell advice at the TV. But we’ve got no experience with this. We’re just not prepared.”
“Jeez, Bill, coming from you, that’s scary,” Matt replied. “You’re the king of paranoia.”
“Turns out the answer to the question ‘Am I paranoid enough?’ is no. C’mon, Kevin, let’s pack up the equipment. Guys, we’re going to have to come up with some better strategies. We can mull it over on the ride home tomorrow, and have a bull session once we’re back. Sound good?”
No one replied, and one by one they headed off to begin preparations for the return to Lincoln.
29. Back Home
July 7
“Well, son of a bitch,” Richard said, with awe in his voice.
The haul from the second expedition was laid out on the table. Erin sat in front of the scale, scribbling on a pad. The odor of coffee filled the warehouse as Bill’s monster machine burbled loudly. Kevin sat, working on his tablet, apparently oblivious to the activity.
Matt and Monica looked over Erin’s shoulder, reading her notes. Matt’s eyes were getting wider and wider. “That’s …”
Erin underlined the final note with a flourish and turned with a grin. “Just under a million bucks, with the usual assumptions.”
“Have we exhausted the strike?” Kevin said.
“Not even close,” Erin replied. “There’s a lot of uncertainty about how much was extracted from Deadwood, of course. But within an order of magnitude, we could probably get fifty million out before we had to start using serious extraction methods. Then we could always go to the Homestake lode and start digging.”
Matt added, “And if we ever came close to exhausting that, Pike’s Peak is about the same drive from home.”
“So you’re saying money is no longer an issue,” Kevin said, his voice shaking a little.
“Well, we’re not there yet, Kevin,” Richard said. “But it’s a damned good start. And the only thing standing in our way is logistics.”
“Speaking of which …” Matt said.
“Yeah, we need to make some decisions.” Monica looked around the table. “We’re all in agreement that we won’t add to the group?” Nods all around greeted her question. “So that rules out larger expeditions. Guard dogs?”
“Too much upkeep,” Bill said. “You can’t rent guard dogs like you can a motor home. At least not without handlers.”
“And there’s no way to do that without bringing more people in on the secret,” Erin said. “Bill was pretty clear on how that always works out.”
Bill grinned. “King of paranoia. Just doing my job.”
“The problem,” Monica said, “is balancing safety and efficiency. The more people guarding, the fewer people digging. If we can’t bring in more members, then we have to go with hardware. I like the idea of construction fences. Maybe even electrical fences.”
“Then we’ll need a generator,” Richard said.
“And a fuel tank,” Matt added. “Which we’ll have to service.”
“We’ll need to cut an access road to the creek,” Erin added. “Which means heavy equipment.” She shook her head. “This is escalating quickly. It’s beginning to sound like a logging camp.”
“Supplied, maintained, and staffed by six people,” Richard replied. “All while continuing to maintain our daily lives and go on gold-panning expeditions.”
“And we’re doing this because real jobs would be too much work.” Bill grinned at his friends. “I don’t think we’re doing it right.”
The others chuckled. Several seconds of silence followed as each person dealt with their own thoughts.
“We need to cut loose from the university,” Richard finally said.
“Oh, hell no,” Monica jumped in. “Even if I’m going to end up a rich bitch from this, I’m getting my degree. My parents—”
“I don’t mean you guys,” Richard interrupted. “I mean Kevin and me. We need to submit our project, return the equipment, do everything we can to divorce the university from what we’re doing.”
Bill sat back and looked up at the warehouse ceiling. “The custom equipment I did for you, not a problem. The PC components and tablets are off-the-shelf. We can replace that on Amazon. What about the physics-lab-specific items?”
“As I’ve mentioned before, the university orders its scientific equipment from a distributor in Omaha,” Richard said. “They’re just a middleman, so they have to order in anything we ask for. That slows things down.”
“We can wave a wad of cash under their noses and see if it speeds things up,” Bill said. “And
speaking of money …”
Richard sighed. “Yeah, about that. We have to unload almost a million bucks worth of gold in small batches. We’re going to have to go further afield. And rotate our visits so the assay services don’t see the same person twice.”
“That’s going to be a headache,” Erin said. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but is there any way to do this under the table?”
Monica laughed. “You are the last person I expected to hear that from. Let me write this down in my diary.”
“Yeah, funny. Maybe we can talk to your family.”
Monica lost her smile. “You may think you’re joking, Erin, but Gino seems to have a lot of money all the time and doesn’t talk about his job. Dad’s been worried about it.”
“Sorry, Monica.” Erin’s face fell. “I didn’t mean to step on a sore spot.”
“Can we get back on track, please?” Richard looked around the group. “We have to stick with assay services, especially the ones that will refine what we bring in and pay us based on the actual gold content. The other places will make an offer based on some assumed percentage, and you can bet their estimates won’t be generous. But we’re not going to get spot price in any case, so we’re going to take a hit on the payout.”
“Eighty percent of free money is still pretty good,” Bill interjected.
“Slows us down, though,” Matt said.
“Still waiting for everyone to focus,” Richard said, gritting his teeth. He waited for silence, then continued, “Erin, I wouldn’t even know where to start if I wanted to go the under-the-table route. Even doing things more or less legally, I’m learning as I go. This really isn’t covered in my physics courses.”
Erin laughed, and waved her hand for Richard to continue.
“So we have two priorities, once we’ve got the money—first, to get the university out of the equation as quickly as possible. That means ordering equipment from that distributor in Omaha and buying PC equipment for the stock components. We’ve already got the custom items.”
“Ummm …” said Bill.
Richard sighed. “What is it now, Bill?”
“We talked about construction fences and generators and so forth. That’s our other priority, right? Security for when we’re in Outland?” At Richard’s nod, Bill continued, “They won’t fit through the six-foot gates. Actually, a lot of things won’t. I need to build a bigger gate. We were talking before about something that we could fit a truck through. I think I should go for that. But I’m going to need a bigger work area to do that.”
Richard put his head in his hand. “It never ends.”
“Okay, look. You and Kevin need to get your project finished and handed in. I’m pretty much done for the year, so I can take on the purchasing duties—”
“I can help with that,” Monica added. “I’m an expert at spending money, especially other people’s money. My dad says so all the time.” She paused for the chuckles. “And anyway, this sounds like fun. Sort of prepper-like, not that I am one, you understand.”
“Erin and I will work on cashing in the gold,” Matt added. “We’ll need some of everyone else’s time just so we have enough faces doing this, but we’ll take care of organizing it. We’ll put up a schedule.”
“Good,” Richard said. “We may actually be making progress.”
30. In the News
CNN News headlines on the hour:
More volcanic activity is being reported in Yellowstone, but the USGS is downplaying the significance of these events, saying that the chemical changes that have been detected in local rivers are minor and temporary. When asked about the significance of the thermal imaging anomalies reported last week, the USGS stressed that even if the events are related, they do not provide any indication of future activity. Nevertheless, in consideration of public safety, the National Park Service has closed Yellowstone until earthquake activity drops back to background levels.
The Montana governor’s office has announced plans for voluntary evacuations of the area near the park, and we have reports of a steady exodus of residents from the nearby towns of West Yellowstone, Gardiner, and Cooke City.
Meanwhile, government agencies have reported a dramatic increase in chatter on known terrorist channels, and are issuing warnings about possible attacks in undisclosed locations. One unnamed government source said extremist groups see the Yellowstone activity as a direct message from God, and are using it as a rallying call.
In other news, there have been reports in the area around Deadwood, South Dakota, of a significant increase in livestock deaths. Sightings by local residents described several impossibly large wolves. Local law enforcement has dismissed the descriptions as exaggeration. “It’s like that fish you caught,” says Deadwood’s sheriff. “It just keeps getting bigger.”
31. A Business Opportunity
July 8
Lem Carpentier considered his options. That was two ridiculously large assay submissions within a week, both by kids who had no business being in the business. Both cases were just under the reporting cutoffs, and both were obviously from the same source. Or someplace very similar. The size distribution, quality of the nuggets, and type of accretions were dead giveaways for someone who knew what they were looking at.
So, some kids had discovered a gold mine? No, this was placer. Gold panning. River nuggets tended to have far fewer accretions than the mined variety. Still, same problem, or maybe even a bigger problem. What rivers in the U.S. hadn’t already been prospected to death? Or maybe this was an old cache of gold that they’d discovered and were trying to cash in. Which might not have originally belonged to them.
For whatever reason, they were trying to do it quietly. Whether they were trying to dodge the IRS, the Feds, or trying not to attract someone else’s attention didn’t matter. However you looked at it, that was leverage. They would be willing to give something up to keep it quiet.
Lem existed on the outskirts of the criminal underworld—someone with a legitimate job, but one that allowed certain activities to be carried out in an expeditious manner. Lem was always well-compensated for carrying out these “favors,” but he didn’t kid himself—he was a small fish in the big picture. This situation, though, could be an opportunity, if he could figure out how to play it. Handing it over to some of the people he knew would just get him a pat on the head and a small payoff. On a score that could be worth millions, based on what he’d seen so far, especially if his employer wasn’t the only assay company these kids were using. But maybe a smaller outfit would be more willing to give him a bigger piece.
It might be time to make some phone calls, talk to a few of his fellow front-line workers. It might give him a better idea how big this was.
Zeke flicked the paper back and forth in his fingers and stared silently across the table. Lem found himself increasingly uncomfortable. This was the first time he was going to them instead of the other way around, and he didn’t care for the role reversal. And the guy across the table, a large, bald man with a prominent facial scar, would have been intimidating in any circumstances.
Things hadn’t actually gotten tense yet. He might still be able to get out in one piece. Lem leaned forward to get up. “Maybe this was a mistake.”
Zeke made a patting motion with his other hand. “Now, now, ease up, bro. I’m deliberating.” He looked to his left where two other individuals were standing, and grinned. “We’re deliberating, right?” The two, who had been introduced as Carl and Jimmy, smiled back at him.
Lem eyed them suspiciously. Jimmy wasn’t too bad—a skinny, nondescript type that you’d expect to make a living breaking into cars or something. But the other guy, Carl, looked like an enforcer—smashed nose, ragged beard, massive frame, and built like a tank. Talked educated, though, which sounded strange coming from that face.
Zeke turned back to Lem and his smile vanished. “We’re a business, Lem. Risks and returns, y’know? This thing you’ve brought to us, it looks interesting, but this isn’t
like leaning on some immigrant restaurant owner for protection money, or selling party drugs to teenagers.” Zeke was silent as he scanned the paper again. “Maybe this is an ongoing thing, or maybe they’ve already cashed in everything they had. Might be there’s nothing left to get in on. But we’ll look into it. That’s easy enough, with the information you’ve given us, and they’re local, which is even better. But if you’re right about these being college students, they might not be so easy to push around, and they might not stay pushed. Kids from rich families have a whole entitled thing that shields them from reality. And killing them to get their attention will just bring the cops down on us in force. A one-time profit might be easier than a steady income, know what I mean?”
Lem colored slightly. “Uh …”
Zeke grimaced. “I mean just hit them once and take everything. They’ll be ready for a second try, so no second try. We take what we can and walk away. Minimum risk, minimal exposure. Got it?”
Lem nodded. “And my cut?”
“We’re doing all the work and taking all the risk, so don’t expect an equal partnership. Hitting them once means finding out when is the best time to do that. Which means legwork. All that costs money and time. On the other hand, we want you to think of us in the future if you happen upon other business opportunities, so don’t worry about being ripped off. Fair?”
“Fair.”
32. Surveillance
July 9
Carl and Jimmy sat in the SUV, watching the building. The address that Lem had been given turned out to be a self-serve warehouse complex. Unless it was completely bogus, someone had some kind of operation set up here.
Jimmy had been squirming and muttering for several minutes, and Carl had finally had enough. “What? What’s the problem?”
“This doesn’t feel right.”
“Why? People use these places for all kinds of business operations. They’re cheap, and the operators don’t ask too many questions as long as you don’t burn the place down. My brother-in-law runs a health supplement mail order business out of one.”
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