The reality, though, was it was all a humongous load of bull.
There were plenty of laborers in the danger zone who had nowhere else to go. Illegals, mostly, and the homeless.
They were the shadow people. The people most Americans either never saw or pretended not to.
They tended to have no Uncle Freds or Cousin Friedas. Or they had them but couldn’t get to them because they had neither the funds nor the inclination to move halfway across the country to a place they never wanted to live anyway.
In the case of the homeless and destitute, many were estranged from their relatives and would rather die a miserable death than go to their doorsteps begging to be let in.
The unscrupulous moving companies sought these people out.
Not to offer them great salaries and huge bonuses.
But rather to make them an offer:
“We have this client who has a house full of stuff in Kansas City. He wants to move it to New York State.
“We’re not going to pay you any extra. But if you help our truck driver pack and load our client’s stuff, and then help him unload it and unpack it in Buffalo, we’ll give you minimum wage because that’s all we think you’re worth.
“But you can ride to Buffalo with our truck driver and make your new home in Buffalo where it’s safe. And he’ll even drop you off at a shelter there where you’ll have a warm place to stay while you’re getting settled.
“And oh, by the way, this is a sanctuary shelter. They won’t ask if you have a green card.”
There are a thousand ways to take advantage of people.
And the people with no souls were finding them all.
New insurance companies were cropping up all over the danger zones.
They were offering “Yellowstone Event Limited Insurance” policies to the gullible.
“For one hundred dollars per ten thousand dollars of your home and property’s value, we will insure your belongings and home are immediately replaced if Yellowstone destroys it in your lifetime.”
These companies challenged the scientists, claiming they didn’t know what they were talking about.
Danger zone residents who did believe the scientists saw the potential to get a new house and belongings paid for at a limited cost to themselves and jumped at the chance.
The first insurance company to offer such policies wrote over eight thousand the first week.
Other shady insurers saw the gold-mine potential and offered their own similar policies.
Every one of them subscribed to P.T. Barnum’s claim there was “a sucker born every minute.”
And they were working hard to find every one of them to milk them from their money.
These shady insurance companies fell into two groups.
Roughly half of them were headquartered in other countries. Countries which had no extradition treaties with the United States.
And of course that’s where all of their policy-holders’ money went.
They raked in money hand over fist.
But had absolutely no plans to pay off a single claim.
The other half were American companies, also raking in the dough.
Their plan, should Yellowstone really blow, was simply to declare bankruptcy.
They assumed the cases would be tied up in courts for decades in a country which was in shambles. In the meantime, their reorganization plan would provide for generous salaries and benefits for its board members. Its attorneys would file delay after delay after delay until most claimants either died or got frustrated enough to accept small settlements.
Even the biggies… those big-name insurance companies considered “legitimate” and “upstanding” all had their own escape clauses.
They would insist that people continue to pay their premiums, even after abandoning their homes in the danger zones.
“If you stop paying,” they were saying, “the policy lapses and we won’t pay on it.”
So they’d continue to collect premiums on vacant houses until Yellowstone finally blew.
Then they’d invoke the “natural disaster” or “act of God” clause and refuse to pay anyway.
Yellowstone wasn’t the only thing working very hard to destroy lives.
American businessmen were doing their part to help.
Chapter 16
The housing and banking industries were working hard to clean up as well.
As the housing market in safe states exploded, home prices doubled or tripled overnight.
At the same time, the market bottomed out in the danger zones. Houses there were now next to worthless and were being abandoned by the hundreds of thousands.
Only moneyed Americans could afford to buy in the safe areas.
Only they could afford to pay inflated prices and exorbitant loan rates.
And the banks had little sympathy for homeowners who abandoned their properties in Las Vegas or Sioux Falls and wanted to buy homes in Connecticut or the Carolinas.
“When you abandoned your old home you defaulted. You’ve got a foreclosure action pending on you. Do you really believe we’re going to give you another chance? Seriously?”
Builders in the safe states were slapping single family homes, condos and apartments together as quickly as they could. Qualified labor was in short supply, as were quality building materials.
In many cases they were using substandard materials and cutting corners at the same time.
And that was a bad combination.
They were counting on overworked code inspectors being too busy to look too closely.
Or taking bribes to look the other way.
In coming years many would pay heavy prices as apartment buildings collapsed, foundations buckled and homes burned.
People would die.
A lot of them.
But again, the unscrupulous were banking on being able to drag their feet in a collapsed legal system. Their attorneys were assuring them they could delay the cases from going to trial until many of the plaintiffs died and most of the others just gave up.
Some of the worst offenders were those tasked with saving the souls of American believers.
The leaders of the mega churches in the danger zones shuttered their doors and ran away.
They set up shop in store fronts and abandoned supermarkets in the south.
From there they continued their telecasts, with a renewed zest.
“God has the power to stop Yellowstone from erupting,” they’d pronounce over the airways from a safe distance. “But He will only do so if you continue to believe, if you continue to help us spread the word. If you continue to support this ministry. It’s even more important now than ever before.”
The implication, of course, was that God would only save the masses if the masses took what little money they had left and sent it in to the church’s coffers.
The mega church ministers had always purveyed in hope, and lucratively so.
They’d always cast aside the complaints they were making too much money from God’s faithful. That they were telling the poor they must give even more, or forfeit the chance to stand before God someday.
They’d always found a way to explain away Matthew 19:24: Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.
“The Lord didn’t mean the words literally,” the hucksters might say.
Or… “The Lord wasn’t speaking about those who spread His word.”
Or… “The Lord was referring to a gate in Jerusalem’s wall. A gate too small for a camel to fit through when heavily laden.”
In essence, they too, like every other unscrupulous con man, were looking for a loophole. An escape hatch. A reason to bilk their flocks out of even more money.
Because in their view, four mansions weren’t enough.
Seventeen luxury cars weren’t enough.
A closet full of thousand dollar Italian suits wasn’t enough.
As long as
members of their flocks had a few extra dollars in their pockets their “work” was unfinished.
Mega church ministers have always placed their own personal comforts above the needs of their parishioners.
Now they were selling false hope to enrich themselves even more.
One wondered what slick words they’d find on the judgment day to explain their behavior to God.
And whether God already had a special corner of hell reserved for their kind.
But that wasn’t the worst of it, for a new kind of huckster grew out of the Yellowstone Event.
A huckster who, like the mega church minister, sold false hope to the masses.
Only this one didn’t claim to have a partnership with God.
This one had a solution to the crisis.
“I have a plan to prevent the catastrophe,” said a man named Robert Hayes.
That got a lot of attention, and very quickly.
“It’s simple, really.
“All we have to do is to send crews of wildcatters from Texas and New Mexico and Oklahoma up to the Yellowstone Caldera.
“These are people who are already trained to drill deep into the earth in their quest for oil.
“They already know how to drill.
“And they have the equipment to vent the Caldera. They have portable drill rigs which can be set up in a matter of days.
“By sending a hundred… no, two hundred, such rigs up to Yellowstone they can drill enough holes into the hot magma to vent the pressure. The heat will escape through the drill holes and into the atmosphere. The internal pressure will drop and the chance of an eruption will subside.
“The danger will pass. You can all go home again.”
Hayes sold his spiel to the networks, charging them up to fifty thousand dollars a pop to interview the man everyone in America suddenly wanted to hear from.
The scientists discounted his claims in a variety of ways.
The most quoted was an MIT scientist saying, “Sure it’ll work. It’ll work about as well as relieving the pressure in an overfilled balloon by poking a pin into it.”
Chapter 17
Hannah and Tony Carson had little time to deal with all the foolishness.
Their home in Little Rock was 1,540 miles away from Yellowstone.
They, conceivably, were already in a safe zone.
They didn’t have to worry about their mortgage payment skyrocketing or being taken advantage of by crooked moving companies.
The worst they might have to deal with were several distant relatives asking to move in with them.
And they could deal with that. Blood was, as the saying goes, thicker than water, and they’d help out as many cousins and aunts and uncles as they could.
They’d do their part to help.
But that was in the future.
Right now they had only one thing on their minds: getting their baby back.
Tony finally talked Hannah into going back to Little Rock.
It wouldn’t do any good to stay in St. Louis any longer, he maintained. If they were going to bring Samson they already had ample opportunity to do so. She finally faced reality and let him convince her they weren’t coming.
But just in case… just to cover their bases, Hannah talked to the hotel manager.
The manager assured them that if anyone from DHS or anywhere else showed up with a baby for Hannah, or even information regarding where Samson might be, he’d contact her immediately.
They’d made a run to purchase new cell phones to replace the ones which had been taken from them.
Their numbers stayed the same, though.
And that made it easier for one of Tony’s friends to make contact with him.
Under the circumstances, one of his very best friends in the world.
“Hey Tony…”
“Bud! Holy crap! How are you?”
“Better than you, I suspect. I saw Hannah on the TV. I was hoping this nightmare was over for you, but I can see that’s not the case.
“Anything new they didn’t show on the TV?”
“No sir. I wish I had good news. I wish I could say they brought our son and all was well. But I’d have to lie to you.”
“Are y’all still in St. Louis?”
“No sir. We’re on our way back to Little Rock.”
“Did you buy new wheels?”
“No. My friend Jeff has been chauffeuring us around.”
“Well, I wanted to let you know, in case you forgot, that your car is still parked in front of my office in Norwood. I went out and started it this morning. It runs like a tank.
“I don’t know if it’ll make the trip back to God-forsaken Arkansas.”
“Can I leave it there a little bit longer, Bud? I mean, this isn’t a good time for us right now, what with trying to find Samson and all…”
“Who said I wanted you to come and get it?”
“But you said…”
“I only said it runs like a tank. I never said I wanted you to come and get it.”
“Then what…”
“I had what I thought was a good idea. I figured I’d tie up some loose ends and get one of my friends to mind my office for a bit and I’d drive it down to Little Rock myself.”
“Gee thanks, Bud. But you don’t have to do that.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I changed my mind after I started it up. I’m still coming to see you, but I’m driving my own car. It’s like me. It’s old but it’s still very reliable. Anyway, I’m coming so I can get all the particulars on Samson and Hannah’s experience with the DHS. How else am I gonna get the information I need to get back on the case?”
“Seriously? Like I don’t owe you enough money already?”
“We’ll talk about that later on. Right now we have more important things to worry about. But don’t worry, I’m keeping track of it all.
“More or less.”
“Do you know where to find us in Little Rock?”
“I do, unless you lied on your bail bond application and put the wrong address on it. And if that’s the case I’ll beat your ass.”
“Oh, please don’t,” Hannah said. “He’s been beaten up enough already.”
Bud was surprised to find Hannah suddenly on the phone.
“Well hello, there. Mrs. Carson, I presume…”
“Yes. I took the phone away from Tony so I could say thank you. He told me everything you two went through. Including the fact that you saved his life.”
“I’d prefer to think we saved each other. But you’re welcome, young lady.”
“Did I understand correctly from hearing Tony’s half of the conversation? You’re coming to Little Rock to help find Samson?”
“Nope. I’m coming to Little Rock to steal you away from your husband. I fell in love with you as soon as I saw you on television. I said to myself, ‘Self, she’s quite a looker. She deserves way better than a sorry guy with two black eyes like Tony. She deserves me instead.’”
“But I love Tony, Bud. He’s my one and only, and I swore to keep him forever, like shoes.”
“Darn it. You haven’t heard the old saying, the older the violin the sweeter the music?”
“I’m sure your music is plenty sweet, Bud. But Tony owns my heart, sorry.”
“Gosh darn it. Well, I’m already committed to coming to Little Rock now. If you won’t let me steal you from Tony I might as well help you get your son back instead.”
“Thank you, Bud.”
“For what?”
“For all kinds of things.
“For saving Tony’s life.
“For agreeing to help us find Samson.
“And for this phone call. You’ve made me smile for the first time in days.”
“That, young lady, was my intention. I’ll be in Little Rock the day after tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Bud. I’m looking forward to meeting you.”
“Likewise. Tell Tony I have to run, but to take good care of my girl. Just in case you change yo
ur mind.”
“I will.”
“You’ll change your mind?”
“I’ll tell him. See you in a couple of days.”
She hung up the phone, looked at Tony and smiled.
“God, I so needed that.”
Chapter 18
Tony and Bud were together again, and ready for round two against the Department of Homeland Security.
But they weren’t alone.
The day after Bud arrived in Little Rock they sat in the den developing a game plan when Hannah’s phone rang.
She went into the kitchen to answer it.
It was Gwen.
“Gwen? Oh, my God! I’m so happy to hear your voice! I’ve called your office several times and they told me you’d gone missing. I thought the worst. Then I heard your house blew up under mysterious circumstances, and I thought…
“Well, I thought I’d never hear your voice again.”
“We’ve been hiding out with a good friend in the Canadian wilderness. But we’re back now.”
“Back in Phoenix?”
“Actually, no. I called Geo-Dynametrics and told them I wouldn’t be back. Phoenix is outside the outer zone, but just barely.
“Way too close for comfort. We’re moving down to San Antonio to be close to my sister.”
“My goodness, Gwen. I heard that market is tough to buy in.”
“We’ve got connections. My sister’s a realtor and my brother-in-law’s a banker. Together they’re going to find us a new home.
“And Michael… he’s her husband, tells me our old home is marketable because it’s out of the zones. He says we’ll likely lose money in the deal because nobody’s going to want to pay full value on it. But he’ll make sure we do okay on it. Even if his bank has to buy it.
“But goodness, forget I said that part, I don’t think he wanted that part out.”
“My lips are sealed, Gwen. I promise.
“So, you’re in San Antonio now. I’m betting you’re not the only person to be moving into the Alamo City in the next few months.”
“Oh, we’re not there yet.”
The Yellowstone Event (Book 3): A Nation Gone Crazy Page 6
