They Said It Would Be Easy (April Book 7)

by Mackey Chandler

  "I'm concerned. The Obarzanek family placed an ad in What's Happening on Home and The Word in Armstrong that they intend to offer storage facilities below the two kilometer depth," Johnson said. "They've been more aggressive about tunneling than some of the other residents, going down without bothering to add any cubic along the way. They are suggesting their secure storage for corporate records, personal valuables, and even antiquities for governments and museums, far from political hazards and legal actions, or the threat of things like tornados, earthquakes or hurricanes."

  Johnson had his pad in his hand with the screen lit up. And the way he waved it implied he had the offending ad ready for her to read. Heather made no move to take it. Lidia Obarzanek had told her all that and much more weeks ago.

  "Why does that concern you?" Heather asked. "We have no zoning, we have no limits on how deep people tunnel, or how much cubic they excavate, as long as they don't bother their neighbors, what do we care? Those are the sort of restrictions that cause people to leave Earth to avoid. I know for a fact the Obarzaneks intend to put in the first really deep elevator shaft. They've started on that. Beat us to it, since we have other fish to fry right now. You might be surprised to know they intend to make a bunch of apartments and rent them out when they get down another kilometer or so. The whole family is ambitious, I'd guess all that is just a start. I wish everybody was doing as much to create work and suck in outside money."

  "That will impose a burden on our infrastructure," Johnson warned. "The surface roads can only carry so much traffic. If one ranch has hundreds of occupants what happens when they all hit the road at shift change?"

  "Well for one thing the only people coming up to the surface will be those concerned with surface operations. Such as transport to Armstrong or Camelot, and spaceport operations. Even traffic control and space com only intend to keep a very small crew on the surface and most operations will be deep. By the time we have all these thousands of people commuting to their job, it will be done horizontally instead of vertically."

  "How can they commute horizontally?" Johnson asked. The poor fellow looked confused.

  "Just as the land owners have full rights vertically, Central has rights under the surface roads. There are several reasons we have generous right of ways on both sides of the roads. One is when there is sufficient need, we will duplicate the surface streets at depth. Right now it looks like we'll cut a complete set of roads mirroring the surface at the two kilometer depth," Heather informed him.

  Johnson's mouth was hanging open. "I had no idea that was planned," he admitted.

  "I'm betting we won't need to start on it for another five years," Heather said. "We should own a couple more tunneling machines by then too. The vertical rights are a wedge pointed at the center of the moon. The sides taper in. It's like on Earth, you look at some Earth maps the roads that go north and south taper together towards the pole. Sometimes you see them take an offset or one road stops and the others on each side continue, when the distance they were trying to maintain as a grid got too far off from the meridian lines not being parallel. But we can go really deep before the right of way gets too narrow for a road. We'll worry about that in a century or two if we don't just spread out."

  Johnson sat and sipped his coffee, trying to integrate how Heather's revelation changed all his assumptions. Heather wasn't cruel enough to drink coffee in front of him and not offer him any. He was starting to see he might not have sufficient data to reach his conclusions. He was uncomfortable.

  "There's also no reason ranch holders can't agree to easements across their property if they decide to cooperate with adjacent owners," Heather continued. "I fully expect that to happen eventually. The elevator the Obarzaneks intend to put in will be freight sized. Big enough to take a rover down. So they are putting it on the corner of their property right next to the public roadway. I expect they will allow public access for a toll. I'm just as glad, because they are out at the end of the north road. I already have people asking when we will have a public elevator here at the center. When we do it's going to charge a fee to lift things too."

  "Thank you, that alleviated my concerns," Johnson said.

  "No problem. You should talk to Wyoming too. She has some numbers on how many vehicles can be on the streets at the same time under automated control. They can run fast enough, and close enough together, that I think you will be surprised how much traffic they can carry. Our systems will be much better than self driving cars on Earth. They have so many limits because of crooked old streets and legacy systems that we don't. Are you sure you won't have some oatmeal?" Heather asked.

  "No ma'am, thank you for your time," Johnson said, standing immediately. He took it for a dismissal, although Heather hadn't meant it that way. But neither did she urge him to stay. It was nice to have a few minutes in the morning without business intruding.

  * * *

  "I tend to keep the office a little cool. It helps me stay alert." Jeff said. "If it bothers you let me know. We can try to come to some accommodation. Put whatever you want in the fridge. I'll try to keep my stuff to the left and you take the right. If you leave a mess in the bathroom they will never find the body. Other than that I'm not especially fussy. Any questions?"

  "Do you want me to kick in for any shared supplies like toilet paper or cleaning stuff?" Walter twitched a bit at his remark about leaving a mess in the bathroom. That was good. He was listening.

  "No, it doesn't take much, Jeff allowed. "You might get in the habit of washing with a sani-wipe besides paper. Some of the station born have never experienced pollution or smoke and have a nose like a blood-hound. Same with showering. Most people take two showers a day. In the morning and before going out in the evening. Water isn't metered and you don't have to conserve it. You can buy you own soap and shampoo and so on. Prepare to be shocked at what they cost. I wet and then soap up my hair with liquid soap and try to use that one squirt to soap up the rest of my body if I'm not too grubby, not to save water but to conserve the soap."

  "I'm used to a wider temperature range than you, I'm Canadian. I can adjust," Walter said. "I'll put on short sleeves or long sleeves as needed, or even a sweater. If one of us stays out later or wants to go to bed early what should our custom be?"

  "I have a light in the bathroom that can be turned down quite low. That gives enough light to find your things coming in late. I keep earplugs and a sleep mask. I suggest you get some if you are a light sleeper. If one of us goes to bed while the other is out or one of us wants to sleep while the other is working we'll set the inner door on the emergency lock. That way you aren't opening the door on the bright corridor." Jeff frowned. "My earplugs are pretty good, but I didn't ask. Do you snore?"

  "I have no idea. Nobody ever told me if I snore," Walter said. That raised a lot of questions Jeff decided it was safest to keep to himself.

  "Well if you do I can always buy noise canceling plugs," Jeff decided. "That's your bed in the far corner," Jeff said, pointing to where it hung on a clip up near the overhead out of the way. "It needs to be out of the way so we can unfold chairs if we have some big action or project going on and people in here. Crap...I didn't get you a laundry bag. We have laundry service once a week. They vacuum tumble it and return it. You don't want to do leather, and it ruins wool if you don't spray it with a conditioning mist every time."

  "Where can I go get one?" Walter asked.

  "Zack's Chandlery by the cafeteria, because it will take too long to have it lifted," Jeff said.

  "I'll be going by there for breakfast. I'll get it then," Walter told him, and looked around "There isn't anywhere to cook at all is there?"

  "No. I eat in the cafeteria or get take-away. If you want a small microwave to heat sandwiches or soup we'll find someplace to put it." Jeff looked around. "Probably up on the bulkhead. We had one in here for awhile when we had a twenty four hour watch on China once. Well...twice. I don't want a plug in fry pan. The grease will come off it as an aerosol and get
on everything, documents and screens."

  "Does that happen often?" Walter asked. "A twenty four hour watch while something is going on and people in here, so neither of us could sleep?"

  "No..." Jeff looked thoughtful. "I doubt, I hope, it won't happen again."

  Walter wanted to ask more, but Jeff looked so unhappy he dropped it. They set the door to Walter's hand and voice and that was it.

  "This is new," Jeff said.

  "What?"

  "I've never had a roomie," Jeff informed him.

  * * *

  Chen wasn't expecting a call. When Irwin Hall of the Private Bank of Home appeared on the screen he still wasn't surprised. Irwin greeted him pleasantly, and asked to speak to Huian. That surprised him. He couldn't imagine the head of the bank making a special call to his wife over the relatively small amount he'd committed to her care, but he summoned her to take the call without prying.

  It was by no means a short call, and it seemed she was the one giving permissions and quite happy about the conversation. He'd have thought she was having an affair, except they were not making any effort to hide their communication. Also he kept hearing the occasional word that was definitely about banking. As he should. At the end there was a lot of yes, yes, we're in agreement, and I think this will work marvelously...What could there possibly be to discuss of this complexity? But he kept his eyes on his own pad, though he hadn't changed the page in a quarter hour.

  After Huian ended the call Chen asked very politely, and as unconcerned as he could make himself appear, if all was well, and their investment was still secure?

  "Yes, husband. I did transfer the funds to Myat. So they aren't in the Private Bank right now. When I was speaking with her I suggested we could send gold, and she was adamant that was a terrible idea as gold is not freely moving there right now. Indeed she indicated it made you a target. I got the sense from other things she said that she was more worried about her government and other bankers applying pressure to shut them down, more than simple thieves. So I offered to act as a conduit for her to send gold up here where it is safer. She sent some the other day and I took it to Irwin to hold for us," Huian revealed, with a little trepidation. Would Chen approve?

  "Ah, you did exactly right," Chen said relaxing. "Irwin will take good care of it and put it to work somewhere sensible and reliable. If she sends more you might branch out and ask Jeff Singh if the System Trade bank can manage some of it for you and Myat."

  "It already is, sort of," Huian said. "Mr. Hall was just telling me that smaller denominations of money necessary to business are becoming scarce on Home, and unreliable, because some currencies like the EuroMark have become depreciating. So he and Mr. Singh have decided to issue a business card sized certificate that represents a hundredth of a gram of gold. The merchants can redeem them when they have a hundred, and they have a tamper proof hologram which can be checked on redeeming them to prevent counterfeiting. It seemed like a rather good idea to me, so I agreed to have a portion of the gold entrusted to me by Myat committed to this scheme. I'm going to communicate that to Myat so she knows what we are doing with her gold."

  "That's sounds good to me," Chen agreed. "For such small values counterfeiting will never be a big issue, but the integrity of the process will be paramount. I have every confidence in both Irwin and Jeffery not to issue certificates they can't redeem. That's the danger with almost any monetary scheme, not the actual function, but the danger of fraud from the managers. I trust those two."

  Huian was happy to see her husband go back to his book. She wasn't stupid. She hadn't seen him advance the page all the way through her call. It probably was good he didn't ask how much gold Myat sent. Better to reveal that later after she had a record of success in administering it.

  * * *

  "This is very strange," Jeff said. Walter just lifted an eyebrow rather than speak aloud.

  "It doesn't have anything to do with our project, not directly anyway, but I have been told by Dave, who does a lot of our ship work that he's flooded with requests from Earth enterprises to undertake new ship work. Either whole vessels or subassemblies and components."

  "For what sort of vessels?" Walter asked. "I assume you wouldn't make armed vessels for their military. Orbit to orbit or shuttles? Or perhaps moon landers?"

  "I didn't think to ask," Jeff said. "But you're right. It makes a great deal of difference. I'm going to get him back, which I hate to do, he spends most of his time on the shop floor. But I'll both ask that and see what his opinion is about why. He seemed to assume I'd know."

  Jeff looked even more confused when he got off the com in a few minutes.

  "Dave says the sort of things they wanted bid were for private lifters. A few were for the small sporty sort you'd expect billionaires to own, or at least very well to do millionaires. A small four seat shuttle that can be air launched to orbit costs as much as a full size passenger jet with a custom interior. A really sweet one like an Embraer with an Advanced Composites hull even more. But a couple were for more conventional space planes. And he said on one file they sent him somebody messed up and it listed the ultimate customer as the Deutsche Bank. When he turned them down they offered to pay in Australian dollars instead of EuroMarks. It didn't matter, he's simply all booked up."

  "Things were pretty bad in North America just now, when I left. You'd think the flu would have been a boost to the economy, if you were a professional economist. That's what the news was repeating when I left. You are familiar with the Broken Window Theory of economic stimulation?"

  "That old crap?" Jeff asked. "You mean the Broken Window Fallacy. Destroying wealth in any form is never a benefit. I can't believe they keep repeating that."

  "There are bad ideas repeated that were old to the Babylonians," Walter said. "If you put a guy on the news saying it, wearing a nice suit, with a good haircut, a lot of people will believe it. My experience was things are getting worse instead of better. But you don't want to say that in public."

  "The numbers are pretty good," Jeff objected. "If the numbers are true things are recovering. But you were there. Tell me how it's bad."

  "My school was still basically closed when your man contacted me. It was very important to them to say they were still open. I was still getting paid, but that was from the state and federal government. There were classes being held, but the utilities were shut down to about half the buildings. If they don't pour antifreeze in the drains and other stuff to winterize them they'll be ruined by spring. I'm not sure anybody in charge is bright enough to do something so practical. The plumbers might do it themselves if they can find supplies. The maintenance and yard crew are living in the dorms because there's room and it's better than their homes in neighborhoods that are falling apart and dangerous. Those buildings will be fine. They'll see to it.

  "There's no fuel to waste to cut the grass, that's temporarily illegal anyway, so it's like a prairie across the central campus. Most of the professors still holding classes get direct gifts of food and cash from their students. A lot of studies are halted because the professors are dead of the flu or just gone – nobody knows where. The Music and History departments are almost totally vacant.

  "The big stores were open, but a lot of little shops were closed, and almost all the local restaurants. When I went shopping it was getting harder to get things. You could still get razors," Walter said, feeling his chin, "but not always the brand you wanted. Some brands of things just disappeared. And then the last couple months we would see days where there were no razors at all, until they got a new shipment."

  "How about prices?" Jeff asked.

  "Just my opinion, no proof, but I think the bigger companies have gotten the word from the government to restrict price increases, or they'll freeze them. There were a couple grocery stores that had sudden price increases and the next thing you know they were closed. Not for 'profiteering' but for health and safety reasons, or one of them for storm water run-off violations. Most items have limits on how m
uch you can buy. If you try to buy more they just refuse you at the checkout."

  "That doesn't sound terrible," Jeff said. "We were short of stuff here too, but it's getting better."

  Walter gave him a dour look.

  "Not minimizing what you said. I appreciate hearing it," Jeff said.

  "Don't forget. That's in a first world urban area of moderate climate, with lots of assets and infrastructure. I expect if you know what is really happening in say Egypt or Iceland things may be a lot rougher there. And harder to find out what's really happening. Even in North America I know there are people migrating because they no longer have the things they need to deal with their climate."

  "Oh really?" Jeff asked.

  "I have a friend who lived in Connecticut. He and his wife have an older home, not right in town. I guess I should say had, I doubt they'll ever go back, so it is abandoned. The house is so old it used to be heated with fuel oil. But now it has an electric heat pump. He had a back up wood stove, but even though it is the super clean sort that runs really hot, with a catalytic convertor, it is illegal now. You have to have the catalytic convertor replaced every ten years, and he can't find one. Probably couldn't afford it if he could. With all the other things not functioning they still have pay for government inspectors to enforce clean air rules. The power isn't super dependable now to run the heat pump. They've had outages in good weather. And the county announced they are only going to plow the main roads now when the accumulated snow falls reach a quarter meter.

  "So they closed the house up and moved to the panhandle of Florida. He's fortunate to have people there, and he had a business permit to buy diesel for their truck to make the move. That was last fall, he's no dummy, and could see the handwriting on the wall with the flu starting up, and moved while it was still possible. To do that today they couldn't buy the diesel. Most of the air traffic moving is for officials and soldiers only. You can't buy a rail ticket and buses aren't running regularly. Today they'd have to pack a very few valuables and head south walking or on bicycles, if they are healthy enough to do that. I expect to see a lot more of that as the weather cools and people see no recovery of supply."