What A Waste
by
Paul Comstock
https://www.paulallancomstock.com
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PUBLISHED BY:
What A Waste
Copyright © 2007 by Paul Comstock
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What A Waste
Chase Ransom smiled as he fought for control of the gigantic garbage hauler trudging up the Edison, New Jersey landfill's only remaining pile of priceless waste. A sickening crunch, and the hauler lurched violently, slamming Chase hard into the door. The hydrogen-powered turbines screamed and whined as the hauler’s wide treads tore at the waste underneath, trying to gain traction. Eventually it found purchase, and once again continued to slowly make progress up the steep slope.
Chase turned to see Clay, the hauler’s usual driver, clutching at the dash for something to hold on to. "Sorry. I guess I’m out of practice," Chase said, while smiling. He was enjoying himself and that didn't happen often enough anymore.
"No problem, Boss," Clay responded, his voice shaky and rough.
Chase turned his attention back to the front, this time more vigilant for possible loose spots. "Clay, you know what we're on top of right now?"
"Uh, a pile of trash, Boss?"
"No, it's a pile of money. Did you ever consider what all of this junk we dig up is worth?"
"As long as you pay me, I don’t think about much of anything, Boss."
"I don’t think our parents or grandparents did, either. I mean, what were they thinking throwing away all of this scarce stuff? You name it, it’s here: plastics, paper, aluminum, iron, and even minerals."
"I guess they thought it was worthless, Boss."
"Well, it’s all the better for us."
"Sure, Boss."
The hauler crested the top, its front end angling upward momentarily before falling with a booming clang and thump to settle over the flattened peak, sending plumes of thick, brown dust swirling into the air.
"Whew!" Chase said "I love that. Never can get enough," he said, as he throttled down the turbines, and switched open the cargo doors so the scoops could extract the waste. Looking out the dusty, scratched window, he could just make out a nicely shaped woman in a stark-white business suit in the distance. It could only be Janice. No other woman he knew would be dressed like that in the middle of a dirty and smelly landfill. "As much as I hate to do it, Clay, I’ll have to turn her back over to you."
"Okay, Boss," Clay said, and nodded. Chase opened the hauler’s door, and made his way down the steep slope as best he could, falling only twice, then ran over to where Janice was waiting.
"So, playing again?" Janice asked. "And on company time, no less. Imagine that."
"Well, it is my company. Now, what’s going on? We’re almost done here. What about Newark?"
An answer was not quick in coming, and Chase frowned. Janice never hesitated, and always had answers. She was on top of everything, and Chase couldn’t remember even a single time when she wasn’t prepared, until now. She’d been the perfect assistant ever since she’d been hired, what? Going on seven years now, wasn’t it? He turned. "We do have something lined up, don’t we?"
"Well…" she said. Chase could see the look of concern on her face. A shame too, because Janice was really quite beautiful, and the sour look spoiled it. "We do, just nothing on the same scale as Edison. All we’ve got are a bunch of smaller ones. Vassily got Newark."
Chase shook his head. Vassily and Waste Recovery International were becoming a thorn in his side, and one he couldn’t just shrug off. Of all his competition, only Vassily worried him. It wasn’t like there were set lines divvying out landfills, but by God, the Northeast was his territory. Chase didn’t like having a big one pulled out from under him in his own backyard, especially by Vassily. This time he would pay.
"You sure it’s locked in?" he asked.
"Yup, otherwise I would’ve fought for it. You know that."
The situation needed to be dealt with, and quick. Billions of dollars of equipment and labor hours were tied up in the business, and the one thing that Chase couldn’t afford was downtime. It was time to do something about Vassily. "You ever been to Gary, Indiana?" he asked.
"You mean the city near Chicago? That Gary? What’s Gary got to do with Newark?" Janice asked.
He laughed. "Absolutely nothing, and at the same time, everything. Pack your bags. We’ll be leaving in an hour."
###
Janice continued to badger Chase about their trip, but he kept her guessing until they were on the plane. He enjoyed it. It wasn’t often he could fool her, and he enjoyed beating her at her own game once in a while. He considered it payback for all the other times she had kept him in the dark. After getting comfortable in the first-class seats, he let her off the hook.
"Okay, Janice ask once more nicely and I’ll answer honestly."
Janice huffed, but asked anyway. "Chase, what’s Gary, Indiana have to do with Newark?"
"It’s only the site of the biggest, untapped landfill in the world."
"What? Have you lost your mind? Chicago’s got some pretty good sites, but nothing around Gary. Besides, that’s Vassily’s territory. Are you sure you want to aggravate the situation?"
Chase laughed. "Vassily started it, now I’m going to finish it. I’ve known about Gary for a long time, and have been keeping it in reserve for just this circumstance. I’m going to teach Vassily a lesson, and then put him out of business." He paused, then changed his tone. "Did you ever hear of an entire city being built on top of a landfill?"
Janice frowned, then smiled. "You mean Gary?"
"A good part of it. It seems that sometime about thirty years ago, around 2020, somebody in Gary decided that the landfill would be a cheap place to build. I guess they got it all approved by the engineers, but who knows, maybe some bribery was involved. Regardless, they leveled the garbage out, buried it under good, solid dirt, and started building. Now it’s just waiting for someone to come along and dig it up."
"But there’s people living there. You can’t just start digging around in people’s neighborhoods like that. They won’t stand for it."
"I can if it all belongs to me, but I don’t intend to. I’m going to convince Vassily that he wants to."
"What do you mean? You want to let Vassily have the biggest landfill left in the entire world, and yet you’re steamed about Newark? I guess I just don’t get it," Janice said shrugging, lifting her hands in surrender. Chase couldn’t help but enjoy the scene.
"Janice, there’s nothing I’d like better than to dig up all that precious waste under Gary myself, but it just isn’t profitable. Not right now, anyway. I’d have to buy up everyone’s houses and land, and on top of that, get city approval. The chances of that happening are almost nonexistent, as well as the costs being more than Ransom Industries is worth. But what I can do is use it as bait to lure Vassily into doing the exact same thing."
"What kind of trap? I guess I’m just dumb, because I don’t see it," Janice said.
"Good," Chase said excitedly, and saw the anger building on Janice’s face. Best not to give her a chance to get angrier, he thought, and quickly continued. "If you can’t see what I have in mind, being as smart and quick as you are, then Vassily won’t either. At least, that’s what I’m counting on. What I have in mind is to get Vassily fighting me for all of the private property in Gary, and then the rights to recover the garbage. Before he’s done, he’ll be so broke he won’t be able to afford to do anything with Newark, and will beg me to take it off his hands."
Janice shook her head. "Yeah, but how are you going to do it?"
"Oh no, not me, my dear. It’s how you
’re going to do it. I’m going to take it easy and enjoy watching Vassily destroy himself while you do the real work."
"But…"
Chase continued, ignoring her interruption. "First of all, I want you to buy up every single piece of property that’s for sale in Gary. Don’t quibble over price, just offer them whatever they’re asking no matter how ridiculous it seems. We have to get the property quick, not cheap, for this to work. Oh, and you better make sure you also arrange to get all the properties that come up for sale after that, too. I don’t want even a tool shed on the market in Gary."
Janice raised her eyebrows. "That’s going to cost a lot, even if it’s only a few hundred properties. Are you sure Ransom can afford even the first part of this?"
Chase sighed. "Look, Janice, I know this is risky, and might ruin us, but I’ve got to take care of Vassily now, or we might as well get out of the business. He’s getting too aggressive and needs to be put in his place. Newark proves that. I may have waited too long as it is."
"Well, all right. I guess I shouldn’t have a problem getting a good job somewhere when this is over. Maybe Vassily will hire me."
Chase knew she wasn’t serious. The smile gave her away. "If this doesn’t work, then I might be looking, too, but I doubt my credentials would be as good as yours."
"So what’s next? Say I get all the property. How’s that going to interest Vassily?"
"Because you’re going to make sure he knows who’s behind it. You need to place an ad in all the local papers offering to buy up everything in Gary. Make sure the ad states it’s Ransom Industries buying it. Don’t use any aliases or subsidiaries. Vassily has to know it’s me buying up Gary. That fact alone will drive him bonkers trying to figure out what I’m up to, and I owe him an ulcer or two."
"I’ll get to it just as soon as we land," she said. Chase could almost see the wheels turning in her head.
###
Water slapped and swished up onto the banks just off the hotel’s recreation area, making a kind of rhythmic symphony. The sound left Chase happy and relaxed--more relaxed than he’d been in a long while. Ransom Industries had grown too big for his likes. Just overseeing part of the general operations had taken over his life, and that didn’t sit well with him. Being stuck to a desk was no place for a maverick. He took another sip from the tall iced tea, and promised himself that when Vassily was taken care of, he’d go on a real vacation. Maybe it’d even be the right time to ask Janice to marry him, but that was an even bigger problem than Vassily, so first things first.
Janice managed to buy up everything in Gary in just under a week’s time. In total, she’d bought up almost 400 properties. Not only that, but Janice arranged a media blitz on the whole thing, too. She placed ads in all the papers and also contacted the local Interactive Stations and had commercials posted.
Within two hours of the airing of the ads and commercials, Chase’s phone rang. The ID said it was Vassily. "You got Chase," he said, watching the virtual screen pop up and the familiar face of Vassily show itself.
"You’ve got a lot of nerve, Ransom," Vassily said, huffing and puffing. Vassily was not the sort to be calm. He operated from a position of brute force rather than brains or planning, as Chase well knew.
"Ah, Vassily. It’s been a while since we’ve talked. How’s the wife and kids?" Chase replied.
"Cut the crap. I don’t have the time to play games. What are you doing in Gary?"
"Nice to know you care. Right now I’m taking it easy sitting on the veranda overlooking Lake Michigan. Here, take a look," he said, turning the phone around so the lake would be in the display. "Very nice, don’t you think? You know, I like this area. I think I’ll be spending a lot more time around here from now on."
Vassily growled, giving a boisterous garumph before continuing. "You know what I mean, Ransom. I know you’re up to something. I don’t know what it is yet, but I’m going to find out."
"Well, since you asked nicely I guess I’ll tell you. I plan on recovering every bit of old waste underneath Gary. You did know there was a landfill there, didn’t you?"
For a moment, there was only silence. Chase could see the perplexed look on Vassily’s face, the cheeks getting redder, and the jaw becoming slack. "Listen, Ransom. Gary is mine, and you’d best stay out of here. If anybody is going to reclaim what’s under the city, it’ll be me."
"Sorry, Vassily. I was here first, just like you got Newark before I could. Everything is fair game now. You muddied my backyard, now it’s my turn."
Vassily laughed, a hoarse kind of crackly thing. "You have no idea what you’re getting into, Ransom. You think you can come in here with all your money and take whatever you want, but that ain’t the way it works here. You gotta be part a of the system around here. Part of the family, if you get me."
Chase did. Vassily came from a long line of thugs and goons, all mob connected. After years of good and fair city government, Chicago had reverted to mob rule, much like it was when Big Al Capone ran the city. You needed to be in good with the mob around here to get anything done, especially when it came to garbage--another thing Chase had counted on. What he hadn’t counted on was his own feelings where Vassily was concerned. He couldn’t help it. The guy riled him, and he had to dig in just a little deeper. "So Vassily, that’s just what I expected from you. Going to run off to the big boys and cry for help. Just like a bully."
"You’ll see, Ransom. I’m family, you’re not," Vassily replied, and then the connection broke.
Chase smiled, leaned back in his chair, and picked up his iced tea. Taking a good long gulp, he relaxed once again. The gentle roar of lapping waves off the lake helped him to calm down. He shouldn’t have been nervous, especially since everything was going exactly as he had planned. It hadn’t been hard. Vassily hated him as much as he hated Vassily, and the man didn’t need much prodding.
Vassily would do everything he could to pull the Gary project out from under him now, of that, Chase was sure. The hard part would be to stay alive until Chase could set the next logical step into motion. If there was one thing the mob was good at, it was permanently eliminating the competition.
###
"So far, so good," Janice said, smiling, as she walked across the suite’s front foyer up to Chase’s makeshift desk, sitting down on the corner of it. She was wearing a nice black business suit that accented her athletic frame, and Chase couldn’t help but be distracted by the way she filled it out. Even after seven years, she still stirred up some strong emotions.
As Chase looked at her, her smile changed to one of concern. "Chase, I’m worried about you. Vassily isn’t somebody to play around with. He can be dangerous and has dangerous friends. Manny says that he’s heard rumors of a hit."
"Hmmm…," Chase said. Manny was never wrong about such things. As Chase's security chief, Manny was as good as they came and as loyal as he could ever expect a man to be. Better yet, he was honest, and couldn’t be bought. Chase made sure of that by paying him as much as Janice. Either one of them could have retired long ago, but neither had left his side.
It was troubling that Vassily was moving so quickly. Maybe I pushed a little too hard, he thought. It wasn’t that he worried too much about the hit. Chase had the best security and body guards that money could buy, but...
"Vassily moves fast, but all it means is that I’ll have to move up the timetable," Chase said.
Janice jumped off the desk and leaned in toward him. "So you do have a plan. I was beginning to wonder."
Chase shrugged and cringed. He didn’t dare lie to her. It wouldn’t do any good anyway. She always read him like a book. "I don’t have a strict plan, but I have a good idea of what needs to be done, which has always been enough in the past. I have to go with my gut. Trust me, I’m one step ahead of Vassily no matter what he does."
Janice raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes. Chase had seen that look a thousan
d times, and each and every time he knew it meant trouble. It meant that she thought he was in over his head. The thing was, this time she might be right. It was one thing to play around with high finance and seat-of-the-pants business deals, but quite another to play with guns.
"Okay, you’ve managed to irritate Vassily to the point he wants you dead," Janice said. "Oh, and by the way, the Gary City Council is screaming their heads off. They think you want to bulldoze the whole town just to dig up the landfill. I guess they’re afraid of losing their jobs. Can’t blame them. I’d be mad, too."
"I’m not worried about the Gary City Council. I’m sure they’re agitated, but they won’t matter. Governments move too slowly, and city government is no different. By the time that they come to any kind of decision on a move that would get in my way, this will all be over. By then, it’ll be Vassily’s problem."
"If everything works out, you mean. So what’s next?"
"Now we wait. We keep buying up property while Vassily stews about it. Pretty soon, he’ll figure out he has to start buying to keep up. That’s when we get him." He stood, and walked to the window. Sunlight streamed across the lake from the setting sun in the West, painting deep, dark shadows in, and reflections off, the water. A sparkling glint and flash got his attention. Probably just a boat, but the flashing reflection seemed strange and disturbing. "You know, this is a great view. Come here and have a look."
Janice laughed. "I don’t have the time. This scam of yours…" The sound of crashing glass interrupted as the patio door next to him shattered. Instinctually, Chase ducked, but stayed in the doorway, confused, as Janice screamed behind him. He frowned when he heard a dull booming sound from out on the water.
"Get down," someone yelled. Chase started to turn, but someone grabbed and forced him to the floor before he could do much else. Hitting the floor hard, he heard more shattering glass as the mirror on the opposite side of the room exploded, followed by another dull thudding boom.
Chase turned to see who had tackled him. "Stay down," Manny said, then talked insistently into a headpiece. After a few seconds, he stood. "It’s all clear, Boss."
Chase smiled and sighed. "I don’t know where you came from Manny, but I’m sure glad to see you. I guess it wasn’t too smart to stand in the doorway like that, was it?"
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