Outland (Revised Edition)

by Dennis E. Taylor

  “Yeah? Does your brother-in-law produce millions of dollars’ worth of gold?”

  “Okay, okay, we don’t know what’s going on. I’m just saying it doesn’t necessarily take a Bond-villain-style lair under a volcano. Let’s wait until we have more info.” Carl looked down at his phone. “They didn’t provide a unit number, so we’ll have to get inventive. You ready to go?”

  Jimmy pulled out his handgun and checked it, then nodded to Carl.

  The Toyota pulled into the warehouse lot, heading for the access gate. Carl pulled in behind the small car, and Jimmy jumped out. He walked slowly in the general direction of the office, while watching through the car’s windows as the driver keyed in his code. Then he turned and gave Carl a thumbs-up before increasing his pace.

  As the Toyota pulled through the opening gate, Carl turned to park in front of the office, and shut off his engine. He idly scanned the property, sizing up the situation. The warehouse consisted of outside units with rolling doors, and inside units accessible only through the main doors and loading bay. If the group they were looking for had rented an interior space, things might be more difficult.

  Jimmy walked out the office doors and climbed into the SUV. “They’re in 1519. It’s an outside unit. Cost me a C-note, but the clerk recognized a couple names. These kids actually used their real names. Idiots.”

  “Unless they’ve used the same fake names everywhere. Or unless they’re legitimate.”

  “Not the way Lem described it. They’re hiding something.”

  “They can be hiding something without breaking the law, Jimmy. They might simply not want a bunch of copycats. Or snoopers following them around.”

  Jimmy grinned. “Not really working for them, is it?”

  Carl smirked by way of reply, and pulled out of the parking lot. “We’ll come back later and see what we can see.”

  Bill guided the small forklift with hand signals as it placed the last pallet in the indicated location. The operator handed Bill a clipboard, and he signed it with a grin and a flourish.

  A quick exchange of pleasantries, and the forklift was out the warehouse door and being reattached to the transport truck. Bill pulled down the rolling door and whooped.

  “Yeah, we’re a couple of high rollers,” Monica said to him. “You’d better hope Richard doesn’t get a look at this.”

  Bill looked around the warehouse, with pallets and boxes lying around in apparently random disorder. “Actually, it doesn’t look that bad yet. Most of the stuff we’ve ordered still hasn’t arrived. But I get your point.”

  They moved to the kitchen table and grabbed coffees. They each activated their own tablets and worked in silence for a few minutes.

  “How’s it going on weapons?” Bill said.

  “Oh, I think you’ll be pleased,” Monica replied. “Shotguns don’t cut it when you’ve got multiple adversaries to worry about. Something with a big magazine, easily convertible to automatic fire, is just the ticket.”

  “You know we’re talking about animals, right?”

  “Dire wolves are big suckers, Bill. I didn’t realize how big. I mean, I knew, because I’ve seen their skeletons, but having one right in front of you, tasting you in its mind … Well, I’m all for overkill, you know?”

  “Gotcha. And to be honest, I’d rather be able to dial it back than come up short.”

  “Great. So, we’ve got the sheds now. Construction fences are coming. Generators, supplies. We can surround the panning area with the modular fences, so we won’t be as exposed.” Monica rested her hand on his. “We’ll all have to take some real firearms training next. Now, how are we going to get all this equipment to Deadwood?”

  “Yeah, there’s that. We’ll have to rent a couple of moving vans, and one of those powered hand-lifts. Or maybe rent a forklift at the other end. Or hellwithit, just buy one. It would have been easier to do all this in Deadwood in the first place.”

  “We talked about it. No one volunteered to move there full time.”

  Silence reigned for a few seconds before Bill said, “What if one of us gets injured? How will we handle that?”

  “To be honest, Bill, we’d be no worse off than if someone got injured Earthside, out in the bush. We’re setting things up so we’ll never be far from the portals. And Erin has good first-aid skills.”

  Bill sighed and sat back. “Want to hear a confession?”

  “Always.”

  “After all those years yelling at the screen when characters did stupid things, I’m starting to feel some sympathy for them. All these things we should be thinking of, and should have thought of. Yet we seem to just blunder along, somehow staying one step ahead of trouble. Honestly, I feel like the Red Queen, running to stay in place.”

  “You aren’t having fun?”

  “I never said that. I like spending money, too.”

  There was a halloo from the warehouse door.

  Bill stood. “That’s the facilities manager. Time to spend yet more money.”

  “Where’s Monica?” Richard said as he walked into the warehouse.

  Bill looked up from his tablet. “In the other storage unit.”

  Richard stopped dead. “We have another unit now?”

  “I needed somewhere to set up a fabrication shop to put together the new gates. All that manufacturing equipment takes up room. We’ve moved all the portal equipment and weapons over there. And Monica is making room for all the new weapons she’s buying.”

  Several seconds of silence followed, before Richard spoke. “I knew it was a mistake letting you two have the purse strings.”

  Bill grinned in response. “Wait until you see what I’ve been doing.”

  “I’m not sure I want to know.” Richard opened the fridge and pulled out a Coke. He sat down across from Bill and glanced at Monica’s tablet, which was sitting on the table. “More guns. Big guns. Why am I not surprised?”

  “I was equally impressed. Seriously, though, three out of four times that we’ve opened a gate, you guys’ve met predators. And the fourth one, well, you probably frightened them off without realizing it. So Outland is looking scarier than a D&D campaign. We want to be prepared.”

  Richard shrugged without comment and watched Bill work on his tablet for a minute. “That’s got to be pretty slow, going through your cell’s hotspot.”

  “Nope. WiFi. We have our own cable and internet now. I arranged it with the facilities guy.”

  “For free?”

  Bill’s only reply was a laugh. Richard put his head in his hands and groaned.

  33. At the Gun Range

  Erin watched as Monica pushed the switch to send her target to the maximum distance. Monica adjusted her safety glasses and hearing protection, raised the Glock to ready position, aimed, and began firing.

  Richard looked over from the next lane, his eyes getting wider as Monica methodically squeezed off shots. He waited to speak until she had emptied her magazine.

  “Good God, woman. You’re enjoying this way too much.”

  Monica pressed the button to retrieve her target. Erin, who had been in the next lane, leaned around the partition. “And this seems out of character because …?”

  Richard laughed, then turned to Matt. “All right, I’m done. You can have the lane. I’ll be outside at the rifle range. We’re going to try out the new AR-15s.”

  “Ooooh!” Monica exclaimed. “Me too! Me too! I want to try out the new assault rifle!”

  Matt raised an eyebrow at Richard. “Girls and their toys …”

  Monica stuck her tongue out at him then left, dragging Richard along behind her.

  Like a squirrel towing a moose, Erin thought, watching them walk away. A very energetic squirrel …

  She paused to look at Monica’s target, which she hadn’t bothered to take down. There were two very close-spaced groupings of bullet holes: one group dead center on the chest, and the other group right in the groin.

  A possibly rabid squirrel.

&nb
sp; Matt and Erin caught up with Richard and Monica at the outdoor range. Monica had set up with the AR-15 and was methodically squeezing off shots. Richard watched the target with binoculars. He turned to them. “She scares me. I like to think I’m becoming a pretty good shot, but shit!” He inclined his head toward Monica to emphasize his point. “So where are Bill and Kevin?”

  Erin hitched her thumb in the direction of the parking lot. “Kevin did the bare minimum necessary to learn how to shoot and called it a lifetime. I don’t think he likes guns. Bill is still on the gun range. He takes a few shots, does a Dirty Harry quote, takes a few shots … The guy is seriously deranged.”

  “He just needs a girlfriend.” Monica safetied the rifle, swapped magazines, and handed it to Richard. “You’re up, sunshine. Do try to hit the target this time, hmm?”

  Richard faked exaggerated laughter and moved into position.

  “I’ll want to go over our inventory next time we’re back at the warehouse,” Monica said to Matt and Erin. “We kind of neglected the handgun factor when we did our first round of purchases. We definitely need something for short-range work.”

  “First round?” Erin exclaimed. “What are you ramping up for? A war?”

  “Well, first … Oh God, I’m starting to sound like Kevin.” They all laughed, and Monica continued, “You have to remember that my introduction to this escapade was a Smilodon trying to eat me. That set a certain tone, and subsequent events have given me no reason to rethink it. We’re going to be going, probably many times, into an environment that hasn’t been thinned out by the scourge known as humanity. There’s a full-on ecosystem on the other side, and it’s got a lot of apex predators, and a lot of prey animals that have learned how to fight back. Bill and I had a conversation about this. One thing he’s right about is that movie characters always go in underprepared and overconfident. I intend to go in overprepared, armed to the teeth, and ready to shoot anything that even looks at me funny.”

  Erin smiled. “Well, you ain’t wrong …” They laughed at Richard’s favorite line. Richard just gritted his teeth and took another shot.

  34. Casing the Joint

  July 10

  Once again, Carl and Jimmy sat in the SUV outside the warehouse complex. At some point, the staff would close up for the night.

  Soon, the lights were turned off and the neon “Open” sign went dark. Carl pulled up to the entrance, and typed in the code that Jimmy had seen the Toyota owner use. People really need to be more careful when entering PINs and such. Carl laughed to himself. Naw, not really. Their carelessness made his life a lot easier.

  Jimmy jumped out as Carl pulled up to the warehouse door. Surveillance cameras were recording this whole process, of course, but no one would review them unless something happened to attract attention.

  It took seconds for Jimmy to pick the lock. B&Es were Jimmy’s specialty, and there were very few locks that could stand up to him for long.

  He raised the rolling door and they walked in.

  Carl wasn’t sure what he had expected, but this wasn’t it. The warehouse was maybe eight hundred square feet, crammed full of a bewildering array of crates, pallets, and miscellaneous items. Water, food, camping equipment, tools, and a couple of kits for large metal storage sheds. Good quality, too—real steel, not the cheap tinny ones that would fall over if you leaned on them. In one corner was a kitchen area, with a fridge, microwave oven, kettle, toaster, big-ass coffeemaker, and some empty drink cans and pizza boxes.

  But nothing that would set it apart from a retail supply warehouse. No industrial equipment, no weird electronics, nothing that would attract attention if you just randomly walked in here. Carl felt a vague twinge of disappointment. He’d had a wacko theory …

  “I don’t see any gold,” Jimmy said.

  “Cuz they’ll just store it here in plain sight. Jeez, Jimbo. The camping equipment makes sense, though, if they’re actually panning somewhere. And look, over here.” Carl walked to the rollup door and pointed down. Tire tracks showed on the warehouse floor, the double rows indicating a heavy-duty truck of some kind.

  “Let’s go over everything in here. You start at that end.”

  The two men slowly worked their way around the warehouse, examining each item and occasionally taking pictures with their phones. Carl finished with a video sweep of the entire space.

  Their inspection done, Carl and Jimmy sat down at the kitchen table. Carl reviewed his video while Jimmy checked the fridge.

  Carl leaned back on his chair and mused out loud, “So these kids have a warehouse full of equipment. Most of it’s unopened, and even the stuff that’s being used still looks new. That means lots of money, which ties in with Lem’s story. And probably recent money, so this hasn’t been going on long.”

  Jimmy paused to pop the tab on a can of Coke. The snap and fizz echoed through the warehouse. “Zeke might rethink the idea of a single hit. If there’s enough money involved, it might be worth taking a chance on keeping this group in line.”

  “Or maybe a combination of the two. We let the group ‘buy in’ with, say, all of their next haul, and then maybe fifty percent on an ongoing basis.”

  “I could go for that.”

  “We all could, Jimmy. Easy money. But we have to find out where they’re getting it from. Otherwise, if they choose to just disappear, we’re left with nothing.”

  “We follow them?”

  Carl snorted. “Screw that. I’ve got a life. We’ll follow them until we can LoJack their vehicles.”

  35. In the News

  This is KCWY Casper News at 10.

  Satellite images show that the smoke clouds from the recent venting events at Yellowstone have reached as high as 12,000 feet. Although the reported ash content is insignificant, the FAA has issued a directive making the area within two hundred miles of Yellowstone a no-fly zone for commercial airline traffic. Airlines are scrambling to reroute their flights and are promising customers that they will refund any tickets on request.

  And in a follow-up to our earlier reports of livestock deaths, a local cattleman has reported killing one of the unusually large wolves. “I have never seen anything even close to this size,” says Richard Harrow. “You can’t tell me this is a normal wolf. I think we may have a new species of super-wolf. This has got to be because of all the nuclear testing.”

  We contacted local wildlife experts and showed them the photographs of the purported super-wolf. Our contact, who declined to be identified, stated that the photos “must have been Photoshopped to look like an extinct dire wolf. A good job, though. Accurate, based on what we know, plus a few plausible details I wouldn’t have expected. I suspect an inside job, maybe a practical joke by a local university.”

  36. Third Expedition

  July 13

  Traffic on the highway was moving at speed, and Erin sat in the passenger seat, enjoying the Zen. Richard slouched in the driver’s seat, steering with one hand, tapping his fingers in time with the song on the radio. The group had stepped up a level of quality when renting the motor homes this time around, and the new units all but drove themselves.

  Richard glanced out at the side mirror again, and Erin asked him, “Still looking for that SUV?”

  “Yeah, I feel a little embarrassed about it now. They disappeared after the Kearney stop. Looks like they were just using us as a pace car. I guess Bill’s paranoia really is contagious.”

  Erin smiled but didn’t reply. Bill was funny, and she understood why he and Matt were friends. But Bill could be a little much, sometimes. It wasn’t really a surprise that he and Monica had connected right away. They both had that same oddball sense of humor.

  “Things are going well, though,” Richard said into the air.

  “Mmm?”

  “We’ve pulled in over a megabuck so far, and we could double that this weekend, now that we have it more or less down to a science.”

  “If Bill and Monica don’t spend it all.”

  “You ain�
��t wrong. But we have all our own equipment now, and the school has all of its equipment back.”

  “And Keeting?”

  “We submitted our project results, with absolutely no surprises or anomalous results. I feel bad about that, to be honest. It’s a mortal sin in science. But Keeting signed off on it—he probably didn’t even read it, the bastard.”

  “So you’re good for next semester.”

  “Hmmm, assuming we go back in the fall. It’s a little unsettling, but right now I’m more invested in this whole Outland thing. I might even put off college for a year. No studying, no exams, no cramming. The worst thing I have to look forward to right now is some back-breaking labor and Bill’s inane jibes.”

  Erin laughed. “Could be worse.”

  “Yeah. Bill could be in here with us.”

  37. That Can’t Be Right

  July 16

  Zeke slammed a hand down on the table in frustration. “That cannot be right!”

  Carl waved his phone. “Yeah, sorry, that’s what the LoJack recorded. Three days in one spot, in a campground in Deadwood. They didn’t stop anywhere else long enough to do anything except hit the bathrooms and eat.”

  Zeke paced back and forth, grumbling half to himself. “I know Deadwood. No one’s found so much as a nugget in that creek for most of a century.” He rounded on Carl. “Could they have found a new lode and be mining it?”

  Carl shook his head. “Lem said it was gold from panning. I don’t know how he can tell the difference, but it is his job.”

  “Maybe they were doing something else entirely,” Jimmy said. “Maybe this trip had nothing to do with the gold.”

  “That’s not actually a terrible theory,” Zeke replied. “But then what are they doing?”

  “Don’t know,” Carl said. “Maybe they really were camping. Does it matter? Why don’t we just hit them when they get back to the warehouse?”