The Mountains of Montora (The Chronicles of Montora Book 1)

by Ward Wagher

  “I see what you’re saying, Sir. Better something we know about, right?”

  “You got it exactly right. We are left to pulling this place up one bootstrap at a time. While we're talking about it, please feel free to ask questions any time. It is very likely you will notice something I've missed. I've long since learned I do not have a corner on brains.”

  Frank started walking again. Nobody said anything for a while as their boots crunched in the gravel. It was a pleasant day – a little cooler in the late summer or early fall. Frank wasn’t quite sure what season they were in. The breeze whispered through the trees with a sibilance of satisfaction. In this fairy-tale world, it was tempting to think everything was right.

  “Will we be going back to the keep, Sir?” Nesmith asked.

  “To the village first, I think; a bit of business to attend to.”

  They walked along in silence for a while before Frank spoke again. “Is Smith & Jones keeping the guard force up with PT?”

  “PT, Sir?”

  “Physical Training. Running, calisthenics, you know…”

  “Oh yes, Sir,” Nesmith said fervently. “They run us into the ground every other day. They throw us on the ground on the in-between days.”

  “Good, good. Glad I’m getting my money’s worth out of our friendly local mercenaries.”

  “Mercenaries, Sir?” Corporal Fitzhugh asked.

  “Yep. They haven’t explained that to you?”

  “Oh, no, Sir. The Sergeants don’t encourage a lot of questions about them.”

  Frank glanced at Nesmith, who smiled and continued, “As one of the group which gets thrown on the ground during the odd days, Sir, the enlisted men are not apt to ask questions which may get them thrown again.”

  “I assume they are encouraged to ask the proper sort of questions, Captain.”

  “Yes, Sir. They get thrown around when they don’t ask those.”

  “Just think about how much more skilled you are now,” Frank said.

  “Yes, Margrave,” the guards chorused.

  “Your enthusiasm is a real encouragement,” he said.

  They responded with nervous laughter.

  “Smith & Jones belong to an outfit called The Baltic Regiment,” Frank explained. “It is run by an old friend of mine, Colonel Otto Putin. He kindly loaned me the two sergeants to help me get things set up here in Montora.”

  Nesmith nodded. “I think this is something we could all thank God for, all things considered.”

  “Yes… well.” Frank didn’t really want to discuss that, in particular.

  The place looks much better already, Frank thought as they walked into the village. Smith & Jones rotated pairs of guards on patrols through the village. Frank took advantage of arrests for public intoxication, fighting or general disorderly conduct to draft labor to collect trash in the village.

  One of Justin Vos’s shuttles had delivered several barrels of paint which Wendy ordered. She had carefully selected colors for the buildings along the square and main boulevard. The villagers had begun the painting and fixup once Wendy had made clear their continued residence in the village was dependent upon their good care of the property. There are some advantages to being an autocrat.

  The three men walked across the square to a small shop nestled between the general store and the village hall. Gilt letters across the shop window announced the purpose of the establishment - A. Goldsmith – Fine Jewelry. He turned to the guards, “Wait out here, please.”

  “Good afternoon, Margrave. How may I help you today?”

  Frank nodded to the jeweler. The man was small, at maybe a meter and a half tall, balding, with beady eyes peering myopically through thick spectacles. Frank wondered why the man had never had his eyes fixed. The procedure had been available for centuries. “Hello, Jeweler. Mainly some business to conduct and then a few moments of your time.”

  “Of course, Sir.”

  Frank pulled out the small leather bag, which had once contained the gold ingots. “I was finally able to get the fruits of your labors to the bank.” He tilted the bag and slipped out a sheath of cash.

  Goldsmith looked at the cash on the counter. “Thank you very much, Sir. You have no idea how much this helps.”

  “Are you not going to count it?”

  “Margrave, whatever portion you choose to give to me is fine. We are just pleased to have you in Montora.”

  “I’d count it if I were the merchant,” Frank said. “Trust is fine, but each transaction has two parts. I would appreciate your confirmation that the transaction is complete.”

  Goldsmith looked at him quizzically. “Of course, Sir.” He picked up the stack of Centaurans and quickly thumbed each off the stack onto another stack on the counter. He looked up in surprise when he completed the count. “But Sir, this amount covers the entire value of the… merchandise.” He spoke quickly, almost stumbling over the words.

  Frank nodded. “It does. Please consider it a bonus for informing me of the business arrangement between you and my brother. I appreciate your honesty. In fact, it is a great encouragement to me to find villagers who are willing to honor their agreements when they have every opportunity to take advantage of the situation.”

  “Oh, I could never do something like that, Sir.”

  “I realized that, and I thank you. May I assume that since the entire village is not down digging in the river you have said nothing about your little side business?”

  Goldsmith smiled and winked at Frank. “Oh yes, Sir. I had not said anything about it and the old margrave asked me not to.”

  “Surely some of the villagers have seen you panning the river.”

  “They have. I told them I was looking for gemstones, which I do. They ask me once in a while if I’ve found any gems, to which I reply I have not.”

  Frank tried to keep a straight face and not laugh, but it was difficult. After a few moments he nodded and spoke again. “I assume you appropriate some of the… merchandise for your jewelry operations.”

  “Yes, Sir. The old margrave told me that half the take was mine to use in my operation or sell as necessary. He asked me to maintain the accounting for him.”

  “And you do your own refining?”

  “Yes, Margrave. In the small amounts I recover, I can handle it here.”

  “A little dangerous is it not? You use mercury to separate out the gold?”

  “I am a jeweler, My Lord. I know what I am doing. Plus I am very careful. I have seen heavy metal poisoning and it is not pleasant.”

  “I will leave that to you then. Who helps you in the shop?”

  “Just the missus and the girls.”

  “Girls?”

  “I have three daughters, Margrave.”

  “Very good, Mr. Goldsmith. One more question and I will get out of your way. What can you tell me about the richness of the raw… merchandise in the river?” I wonder why we are being so elliptical in here. Of course, it is really wise to keep this on a low profile.

  “Sir, I have never heard of a panning operation paying out so consistently strong as this. I put an afternoon a week into my hobby and what you disposed of represents a month’s take. If the river sand is this rich, there must be tons of the stuff under the valley.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Goldsmith. I am giving some thought to a necklace for my wife for her birthday.”

  “When would that be, Sir?”

  “Six months or so. I will probably drop by in the next couple of weeks so we can make some drawings of what I would like to commission from you.”

  “That would be very good, Sir. I remain ready to help in any way possible.”

  “That, once again, I appreciate. Good day, Sir.”

  Frank was thoughtful for the entire walk back to the keep.

  Chapter Twenty

  Frank and Wendy looked out over the expanse of ceramacrete which formed the foundations of the newly christened Montora Shuttleport. Frank had hired Bogan Constructors out of Alsace to build th
e port. They specialized in loading a cargo starship with self flying construction equipment. The operators would fly the equipment out of the cargo hold and drop out of orbit to the work site. In a couple of days they prepared the site and then munched across the field, turning rock into permacrete. They also installed the basic infrastructure and terminal buildings to order.

  “There you have it, my dear,” Frank said. “Instant Shuttleport.”

  “Instant?”

  Frank grinned at her. “Just add money. Lots of it.”

  “I guess we could call ten million Centaurans lots of money,” Wendy said. “But we should be able to start landing customers here anytime, right?”

  “Actually, yes,” he said. “Your Christmas in Montora ads need to go out right now, if we are to get any tourists in here for the winter season.”

  “If the decorations get here in time,” she said.

  “What is our best arrival time, do you think?”

  “We are still six weeks away.”

  “The villagers think we will have our first winter snow in the next couple of weeks,” Frank said. “That will complicate things. At least Harmon Eckert is getting the prewiring in place, so we aren’t trying to trench under the snow.”

  “Is there anything that man cannot do?”

  “If there is, I have yet to discover it. I cannot believe how lucky we are to have him around. We are months, if not years, ahead of where we would be otherwise.”

  Wendy grinned at him. “Found out anything about his background?”

  “Not a thing, and you know, I’m not looking. He’s willing to work – I had to force him to accept a salary. He doesn’t even complain about the weather.”

  “It is already cold,” Wendy said.

  “I suspect we haven’t seen cold yet.”

  “Thank you so very, very much. That just warms up my whole day.”

  “Somehow I knew it would impress you,” Frank said. “Your love for cold weather is legendary.”

  “Right. Any thoughts on how to handle the rush at Christmas time?”

  Frank gave her a sly grin. “That’s the beauty of it. About every planet in the neighborhood celebrates Christmas at different times. We’ll just stage a three month Yuletide and have half a dozen Christmases.”

  “What will Father Riggs think of that?”

  “He doesn’t care. If it gets more people into his church and dropping money in the plate, it supports his work and he is happy. Besides, he told me he thinks Christmas occurred in the Spring on Earth anyway.”

  “That almost sounds sacrilegious,” she said.

  “I don’t particularly care. However, I did talk to the Father. I figured if he didn’t yell, we could probably get away with it. Mayor Gris loves it.”

  Wendy shrugged. “The income will be nice. Ten million for the field is an awfully big hit.”

  “Isn’t that the truth?”

  “I guess that means we’re committed here now.”

  Frank changed the subject. “Back to business. We need to get some people trained to cover the control tower here. Along with the expense of the field, it really needs to be manned twenty-four seven. Since Cambridge shuts down at night we can get some competitive advantage there.”

  “Won’t the duke just add people in Cambridge to stay in the game?”

  “Yes, if he can. But we did it first and I don’t plan to advertise it to him. We cannot do a lot of provisioning here yet, but we can do some. I want to attract commercial business along with the tourists.”

  “Will the duke consider that a breach of our informal truce?”

  “That, my dear, is a very good question. The peace has been nice while it has lasted, but I cannot just sit around with my thumb… well anyway, just sitting here is a good way to go broke. We must develop the business.”

  “I think you’re right, Frank. But this is liable to stir the duke up. We need to pay attention.”

  “That is why Hai has been spending so much time in Cambridge. He seems to be plugged into the duke’s security apparatus, which, as you might surmise, is very helpful to us.”

  “So walk me over to the terminal building. It seems awfully small.”

  “That, my dear, is the beauty of working with this contractor. They installed the bare minimums to support the field, but put foundations for a much larger terminal. When we get around to it, we can build on those foundations, but do a style that matches the rest of Montora Village.”

  “I like it. I guess if we are generating enough business to do that, we can also convert a floor of the castle to a hotel.”

  “I don’t want to do that until the security situation settles down.”

  Wendy stopped and faced Frank. “What are we going to do about Roma, Frank?”

  Frank grimaced and stuck his hands in his coat pocket. “I don’t know, Precious. He’s a murderer and probably a thief. Everybody knows he is guilty as sin. But Krause made it clear the Navy is backing him for the moment. Our best bet is that he will eventually do something nobody can ignore.”

  “You haven’t said much about your dinner with the admiral.”

  “I still haven’t decided whether it accomplished anything. I was ready to reach across the table and grab him by the throat, I was so mad at him. I mean, I recognize he has larger responsibilities than just looking out for the Nymans. But he is so… what’s the word, sanctimonious about it, it makes me want to vomit.”

  “So, you are saying we will get no help from the Navy.”

  “Well, he is keeping Hai here for the duration, which is immeasurable. But, no, he is not going to depose the duke, at least not unless he does something really…”

  “Egregious?”

  “More than that. Something that would be noticed elsewhere than Hepplewhite.”

  They had been walking towards the small terminal building and stopped at the entrance. The guards stayed at a distance, so the conversation was private.

  Wendy shook her head. “Considering what he has already done, I have a hard time imagining something that drastic.”

  “It will probably happen. Our main concern when it happens will be to stay out of the crossfire. This is one area where I disagree with our esteemed admiral and his theories about any government being better than no government. When the wheels finally do come off, it will be ugly; really ugly. The Navy will not be able to get here fast enough to keep the blood and body parts from clogging the gutters.”

  “Are we far enough away from Cambridge if that happens; or should I say, when it happens?”

  “I don’t know, sweetheart. I just don’t know. Smith & Jones are hitting as many of the Montoran villages as possible, recruiting for a militia. We need to try to get a security apparatus in place to forestall anything happening in Cambridge from spilling over here.”

  “I cannot imagine rioters or refugees making their way over the mountains, especially this time of the year.”

  “I think you are right. We are probably secure through the winter at least. The lowlands are a different story. There are no natural barriers and we will have to patrol it. I am surprised the villages there haven’t been raided.”

  “And if they are?”

  “Then we will be forced to protect them. That is when things will get nasty all around.”

  “I haven’t thought about that,” Wendy said. “I’ve been so focused on the village and all.”

  “Well, I haven’t thought about a lot of the things you are doing to develop the business. You have really come up with some great ideas.”

  Wendy smiled. “I really love this place. I mean, I loved working the trade routes with you, but this sort of feels like coming home.”

  “This coming from the Happy Wanderer?”

  She laughed and shoved him. “Go on!”

  “I just never thought I would hear you say something like that. Do you think you will feel that way after about five years of this?”

  “I don’t know. But I guess we will find out, won’t we?”


  “It is funny, but I feel much the same way, Precious. Let’s see how things go. If we get the urge to go into space again, maybe we can talk Franklin into taking over here.”

  “He needs to come for a visit – to see what his crazy parents have done this time.”