by Don Dewey
Max had planned a “skip” that would bring them out after all this was long gone, and which would amass still more wealth and power, even as they slept.
“But Max,” Robert whined, “you can’t know this will work. I could die doing this!”
“You won’t die Robert, and you’ll have to trust me because I’ve done this before. You’ve lived several full lifetimes already, so why would you think you can’t do the rest that comes with our abilities? It’s a gift you have, and one you need to use now. It isn’t like suicide; you just will yourself to be still and stop breathing. As I understand it, the body of a Normal wouldn’t let you do that, so don’t worry about it. If you can’t skip, it won’t hurt you to try. There are just too many forces against us. These are forces we can’t possibly defeat. We were too impatient, too greedy, and too power hungry. I allowed the exuberance of your youth to cloud my usual caution. One reason these schemes of ours work so well is because we have the time to make small changes over long periods of time. This time we got greedy.” Silently Maximus thought, My old teacher, Mudar; he would be disappointed with me during these last years. He always said I could do much good if I chose to do so. “Truth be told, Robert, I see too much wrong in what we do. I’m tired of seeing people hurt, and always thinking only about us.”
“You no longer sound like my Uncle Max,” pouted Robert.
“Perhaps not, but even in my marching days in the legions of Rome, I learned that sometimes you have to wait a long time for the balance to tip in your favor. We have the ability to wait this out. I, for one, don’t want to live through it and fight to keep every nickel we’ve managed to accumulate.”
“Tell me again exactly what we have to do.”
“All right. I know you don’t want to hear it, but this is it. We know some about the future, because we’ve seen so much of the past. History is nothing if not repetitive. We know that some things come and go and come again, like styles, and political views. Some are in favor, and then not until they are again. We need to use our money to purchase land: vast tracts of land. We need to buy land because it’s always good to own land, and land can give us a home, a base, when we come back. Who knows, maybe the timber will eventually be worth a lot, and eventually minerals could be too. Land is cheap, and they aren’t making any more of it. We can buy it from governments, from individuals and from land banks. I’ve figured out that if we …”
Robert lost his temper and started yelling. “You figured it out? We haven’t figured anything out yet. That’s why we’re discussing it now! You can’t tell me what to do!” His red-faced snarl clearly showed his anger.
“All right, Rob, let me tell you what I’ll do. I’ll buy the lands I’ve researched, and I’ll skip till the trouble we’re in is old history, until we should be dead, and then re-enter as a different person. I’ve done that before, and in the same way I’ll reclaim my power and wealth. You can do whatever you want. Half of our money is mine.”
“Hmmm, that is so. I care for you, Max, and I really do understand that you have a plan, and as far as we go, you’re the planner, and I tend to be the doer.” He smiled a narcissistic smile and continued. “You haven’t convinced me. I just don’t see it, and half our money, as you just pointed out, is mine. See you around!” He pivoted on his heel and headed out the door.
Maximus could easily have stopped him, but he let him go. I could force him to stay, but I couldn’t ever force his agreement. Ah Rob, I hope you’ll be back. He’d give him a reasonable length of time to consider things, and if he didn’t come back, Max would take his own steps. This time I’ll be tough, but not heartless. I’ll be successful, but not use people up. Robert might not be able to take the new and improved version of Maximus Palamos, but then, it is what it is.
***
Robert did, however, return in four days. He looked resigned to something, and Max was very curious about what. “So, what do you think now, Rob?” he asked easily, with warm camaraderie in his voice.
“Okay Uncle Max.” Max couldn’t help but notice Robert dropped back into the family mode of address he seldom used anymore. “I’m not really convinced, but I want to talk about it some more. These are plans you shouldn’t be making for us alone.”
“Fair enough. Tell me something: just how will we get out of this mess if we stay here? What plan do you have?”
Robert just stared at him. As arrogant as Pures tended to get, Robert knew Max had him. He didn’t have a clue how they would survive this mess. Neither of them expected the law and the crooks to partner up against them. “All right Max, I will go with you. Explain in more detail, one more time, how this will work.”
“We need to plan for our next advent into life, so we need to invest in things that take a long time to pay off. We won’t be around watching the clock, so how long it takes doesn’t matter. We can buy thousands of acres of land that’ll grow great forests if handled right. And we can set up trusts that will pay people to plant and tend the ‘crop.’
“We can afford great stretches of land that very probably hold copper, coal and oil. Eventually they’ll be even more valuable commodities than they are already. We can afford to place some bets on companies that will most likely take a long time to grow, but when they do, the profit will be great. And we can afford to take a nap for 60 or 70 years and let this all happen for us.”
“I like it, Max. But where shall we take this ‘nap’ you’re talking about? I’ve never skipped, and I have to admit, I’m a bit worried about it. Let me ask you something you’ve never mentioned before: how long is the limit of a skip, or do you even know?”
Max decided to lay it all out. “I don’t know for sure of course, but I expect that much more than the time I have planned could be fatal. It has to use some small amount of energy, and it’s possible we could use it all up and simply not be able to revive. We’d be dead. We don’t dare wake up trapped where we can’t get out or we’d die from starvation. Once revived we still need food, water, and a way to communicate. We’ll need everything any other person needs to stay alive.
“Also, let me suggest that we keep some personal boundaries for this skip. It’s not that we shouldn’t really trust each other with the future. We could revive at different times, and the temptation could be to go it alone, and that could be bad for the other one. So I propose that we each find our place to skip separately, agree on a rough time frame, and whoever wakes first will get to business and take over the running of the things we set in motion. Let’s put some things in your name and some in mine, so either one of us can get started when we revive. Honestly, I was alone too long. I enjoy being a team, and I’ll wait for you and make sure you’re part of it, and I hope you’ll do the same. But that will be up to you. I didn’t track you to Normandy and work with you all these decades just to dump you now.
“I also want to assure you that, as I’ve experienced skips before, when you revive you have the energy and vigor of youth again. I want to know if there are more Pures around somewhere, too.”
“Why? The only other one I knew was cruel and selfish.” Robert had a vivid flashback to his father, William, or Karl, slashing him to find out if he’d heal.
“We’ve been pretty selfish, and sometimes cruel too. Maybe others have changed, like we seem to be doing now.”
Robert looked pretty dubious. “Maybe. While my father was a good enough reason for me to not want to go looking for more Pures, you’re the reason I might want to do that someday.”
“Robert, it’s good to not be alone.” Max grinned at his adopted nephew.
Robert agreed to the plan, and they set to work putting their future bets on land, minerals, and businesses in place. They hired a good law firm and made them set up an unbendable way to determine their offspring, and to give them their respective parts of the businesses. There wouldn’t be any blood tests, fingerprints, or any newer, more scientific methods used to determine who their children were. They would show up with a certificate of ownership and
a document saying who they were. The documents would be much like “Bearer Bonds.” If you were bearing them, the property and money were yours. If someone showed up with it, that person was their progeny and would inherit. That was all there was to it.
From that point on the law firm would work for their kids, or grandkids. They made it clear this was a long term deal, perhaps 50 to 80 years. The legal firm drew up the appropriate documents and agreed to be the custodial firm, thrilled at the prospect of such future income. It gave them massive retainers, and a long term continuation of revenue from the investments they would maintain and monitor. They automatically became a very profitable company, and that would go on for their foreseeable futures. The partners of the firm were ecstatic. Maybe nobody would ever show up to take things back. Maybe they’d manage this vast wealth forever, and just get richer and richer from it.
Max and Robert took the three senior partners aside before it was all sealed, and had a chat with them. “You boys know me,” Maximus said, “and you should know that any children I have will be just like me: tough and inflexible. If they arrive and find that you, or your partners, or your children’s partners, cheated us, blood will be spilled. Our family won’t resort to anything as mundane as legal processes. We’ll butcher every last one of your employees, your families, their families, and the blood bath will be on you.”
The three men, all upper class, smooth and refined in their manners, looked terrified, and one protested. “Oh stop. We could never…”
Max had the man’s collar in a painful grip as he lifted him off the floor. “You will listen, and you will do as I say. We’ve set other firms to work for us, not just you. Those firms will be checking on things from the backside, and if things aren’t right, it will cost lives, specifically yours. Got it, Slick?” He sounded right then much as he had when he and Robert had run their crime organization in New Orleans.
The eldest partner nodded, and was released.
“We know some of your clients and their actions. Don’t play at being completely legit with us! We, on the other hand, have done nothing illegal, and everything you’re going to do is above board as well. The real key here is the length of time involved. In order for this to work for our progeny, it’ll take honesty on your firm’s part, and many years of solid investing and care.
“Call the authorities if you feel threatened, but the results will be very, very bad for you. Just do as we ask, and you’ll profit for your lifetimes, and your children’s lifetimes.” With a very scary grin he turned and walked away, Robert following.
Once outside Robert stopped, turned and faced Maximus. “Max, you threatened and cajoled those men. I thought we’d given up that life.”
“We’ll be gone a long time Rob, so I thought we should really set it in cement with them. They’ll take advantage if they can, so let’s try to head it off. My old teacher would’ve pulled me off that guy and tried to make nice with everyone. This isn’t the time for that.”
“I suppose.” Robert stopped abruptly and faced Maximus. “Was Mu’dar, your old teacher, a weak man, Max?”
Max took a moment to think about the odd, yet somewhat profound question. “No. He was a gentle spirit, and gracious in everything, but he wasn’t weak. He had great inner strength. Why?”
“It just doesn’t seem right to be doing things this way. We can be strong too without being abusive can’t we?”
“You picked a fine time to grow a conscience, Rob, but yes, we can try to be more gracious as we set the rest of this up. But it has to hold up for a lot of years. Remember that too.”
They reluctantly contracted with a long-time crime family. Both Max and Robert had reservations about it, but they were the only game in town willing to watch out for their interests while they skipped. With big retainers, huge promises, and freedom to act for them without restraint over the next few decades won them over. Their job was to check up on the other firms working for Max and Robert and see that they were honest. Anything less had to be punished; how was left up to the family.
Both men had reservations abut using criminals. After all, why wouldn’t they just rob their absent clients, just like the people might they were watching. Unfortunately there seemed to be no better choices.
Over the course of the next few decades, the companies did their jobs. The money was invested. The forests were planted. The mobsters did their job too, and checked up on the others regularly. Life went on without Robert and Uncle Max.
Chapter 25
Treachery While We Skipped
One boutique legal firm, however, after nearly 30 years, decided that the money should be forfeit, since it was obvious that nobody connected to this fortune was alive or interested in it. They quietly and illegally skimmed from some accounts, and eventually, as nothing bad happened, went whole hog and liquidated a small fortune in assets.
The law firm of Briney and Scope had nine partners and had grown fat while managing the assets of their mysterious, presumably dead clients. One morning, Norm, the Executive Partner, stepped out of his sprawling five bedroom ranch, dropped into the back seat of his Lincoln Town Car, and told the driver it was a normal day. Then he sat back to relax and read the crisp morning paper. He still liked paper. He carried several small wireless devices on his person and in his briefcase, but he still liked to shuffle the paper and skim the page. Face it, that’s pretty tough to do on a small screen. It just wasn’t the same.
His driver knew what a “normal” day’s routine was, so he drove to the Café Extravaganza, double parked near the door, and got out to hold the door for his employer. Norm levered his bulk out of the car, which was not such an easy task now that he topped 350 pounds, and headed in to get his morning java fix. He liked doing some things himself, so his driver waited by the rear door for him. He was friendly to the staff here, and they treated him very well; he was a great tipper. For his small snack that he’d take and eat in the car, and his ginormous coffee done just exactly his way, he would be charged just over nine dollars. His tip was always the rest of the $20 bill he handed them. “Thank you, Annette.” He reached for his coffee and made a show of inhaling the aroma. “Ah, it smells wonderful, as usual. Have a good day, dear.”
“Thank you, Mr. Scope, have a great day yourself!” And his day went on – a normal day.
His driver pulled up to the front door of their building and went through his routine again, holding the door again as Norm pried himself out of his car. He found himself wondering if his next car could have a power lift seat in the back, kind of like the power lift recliner at his mother’s apartment. As he walked into the office, he found everyone stricken with intense anxiety. “What’s happened here?” he asked. All he got was stares.
Finally Bradley, another partner, a short man with thinning blonde hair and no discernible chin, radiating a sense of flab, spoke up with a quivering voice. “Phil, Monica, Don and Blake are all dead.” His grim, pasty white face made this unbelievable turn of events seem pretty believable.
“What? How?” demanded Norm.
“Phil and Monica were coming in together in Phil’s car when they were apparently run off the road by a truck – no witnesses. The car fell a long way off the bluff near Dover. Blake was killed in his home last night, along with his wife and teenage son; the police are calling it a home invasion. Don was stabbed just outside his favorite coffee shop, just down the block from here. He parked, walked over for a latte.” He coughed nervously. “And now he’s…d-d-dead.”
Norm remained frozen as it sank in: four out of nine partners, and some family as well, all dead in the same twenty-four hour period. Not a coincidence. They had cheated their invisible client, and now the first shoe had fallen. As he revisited the painful memory of that nasty day, when that nasty man, Maximus, had thrown him against the wall and threatened him, he wondered when the other shoe would fall. “We’ve all been part of something that was probably not wise, and I suspect it has led to this unfortunate turn of events.”
“Unfortunate turn of events,” yelled Terry, another partner. “You insensitive ass! Six people are dead, and you call it an unfortunate turn of events! You must have skipped the line for hearts when you were put together.”
Norm stared him down as the senior partner. “Let’s not panic and cast blame. Let’s get this fixed, or we’ll be next. He didn’t get to say much more, because the building shook as an explosion rumbled below them. Their offices encompassed the entire fourth floor, and they felt the tremor escalate. “Quickly, get out,” urged Norm. Everyone rushed toward the doors when the big explosion hit. There were no survivors on the first, second, third, fourth and fifth floors. The building didn’t come down, so people on the next six floors were just traumatized, not killed.
Other firms handling the investments of Max and Robert received anonymous notes in the mail, indicating simply that Briney and Scope had also represented the estates of Dunning and Palamos, just as they did. That was all it said. There were no claims regarding the deaths, and no outright threats. It was informative only. Threats weren’t really needed; actions spoke loudly enough.
The firms they had employed were smart enough to realize, however belatedly, that they were actually being watched. Adjustments were made, money was quickly put back where it should have been, and time went on. Another twelve years passed, and then a grandchild, with his grandsire’s name of Maximus, came to collect his money.
Chapter 26