by Tom Norton
“Oh shit, what’s this all about?”
A few kilometers further down the highway the truck pulled off on to a dirt road that headed for what appeared to be a house and a large barn hundreds of meters off the highway. The diver unlocked a gate and continued on. It was all open ground and Rick’s car could be seen by the truck so Rick proceeded on into a small wide ravine and stopped. With the video camera, he ran back to where he could see the house and barn, but he saw no truck. With the video camera on maximum zoom he kept recording until the truck could be seen exiting the barn and the driver closing the barn door.
Rick thought, “They are storing the gold in the barn.” Then he thought, “They wouldn’t dump a shit pot full of gold in a barn and there isn’t another vehicle down there and no one walking around.”
The truck made its way back to the highway and turned back towards site 23. “Maybe someone is going to pick it up, I’ll just have to wait and see. I can’t get caught walking around out there.”
Rick stayed there for the rest of the day and into the night and no one showed. At midnight he drove back to Reykjavik to try to make some sense of all this and watch the video. Eating a cold fish sandwich and viewing the video, he was certain that there was no one at the house or the barn. He spent the night thinking that he had better call John and Hendrick about this new development.
At nine a.m. he visited a department store that carried cell phones, purchased one under his fake name and enrolled in the telephone cell service. In the truck he immediately called another fake cell phone that John carried for this purpose.
“Hello John, your partner here.”
“Go ahead. Trouble?”
“I don’t know,” and Rick explained the situation.
John said, “Just watch the truck for a few days and get a lock on that guys schedule. He’s obviously taking that rock to the farm instead of dumping it in the ocean. That’s called no honor among thieves. My guess is that there is some gold in that rock, but not enough for Masters and Miller to mess with and this guy is stealing it from them. Call me back in three or four days and we’ll come up with a plan and we need some of that rock with gold in it that matches our gold disk.”
“Ok, you have my number, right?”
“I’ve got it.”
The next three days Rick was parked around the bend on the highway at daylight and stayed until well after dark. Every day the truck made one trip to what Rick was now sure was a deserted farm. Due to the shorter daylight hours now, it was almost dark when the truck took its load into the barn. It was always the same time of day, only varying an hour one way or the other and with this information Rick again called John from the motel.
“What now John?”
“We need a big piece of that rock with the drill curve on it and some gold in it. Big enough we can take a picture to use when dealing with Masters and Miller.
Rick said, “He locks the gate.”
“Cut the chain, who is he going to tell?”
“It’ll be dark; I hope no one sees my truck lights.”
“Try not to use then if you don’t have to.”
Rick said, “What in the hell am I going to do with a big chunk of rock, I sure as hell can’t take it on the airplane?”
John replied, “Just take it to the church and ask the priest if you can store it in the garage. He doesn’t even have to know what it is. Just cover it with a canvas.”
“I can ask.”
“Tell him you don’t have anywhere else to store it and you are leaving Iceland.”
“Ok. I’ll get a chain cutter in the morning. I’ll call you after I leave the church.”
Rick left the hardware store with a chain cutter and a new tarp and headed towards site 23. Passing it, the truck was nowhere in sight and he drove to his normal parking place just off the highway. Six or seven hours passed before the truck showed up at the farm road and after the gate was opened, the truck headed for the barn in the distance. It was dark when the truck got back to the gate, locked it and then headed back towards site 23.
At the gate, Rick cut the chain the lock was on and put the severed link in his pocket. He drove through, closed the gate and drove to the barn as it was spitting the first snow of the year that wouldn’t melt off. Rick thought to himself, “I’d better hurry; I don’t want to leave tracks in the snow. With lights on when necessary, he made it to the barn, got out and opened the door. There were huge mounds of rock, most of it black and some a lighter color. All he dared use was his pen light as he looked at the rock. “Shit, there are two different kinds,” and he backed the pickup into the barn.
“Bullshit! These pieces are huge. John said big pieces with curves. They all seem to have a curve on them somewhere. Well I’m not going to get my ass chewed out for getting the wrong stuff and I’m never getting back in here again.”
With the small penlight’s weak beam, he loaded a few pieces of the darker rock that must have weighed fifty kilograms each and two of the lighter colored pieces. “Oh shit, there’s a pile that has pieces with both colors in it. He thought, “This is bullshit,” as he loaded two more large pieces onto the pickup.”
An exhausted Rick drove the truck on what was a faint dusting of snow on the road to the gate, opened it, drove through, closed it and headed for Reykjavik.
It was near midnight when he arrived at the church and thinking that he had better be on the next flight out of there in the morning.
He knocked on the darkened home of the priest who eventually answered the door.
“Father, can I store something in your garage, I have to leave first thing in the morning for London.”
“What is it?”
“Oh, just personal stuff.”
“Why certainly, I’ll get the key, just put it in the mailbox when you leave.”
“Thank you sir, I will.”
A backbreaking hour later with only streetlights to help, Rick had three hundred kilos of rocks in a pile at the back of the priest’s garage and covered with a tarp.
His flight would be leaving at seven a.m. in the morning so he had to get packed and take a nap.
John said, “Welcome back, going to thaw out, huh?”
“Hell, its colder here today than it was there.”
“The rocks are at the priests?”
Rick replied, “Yep, I told him it was some of my personal stuff.”
John replied, “I bet we’ll hear about that. What did you think of the rocks, see any gold?”
“I was too busy worrying about getting shot to worry about gold.”
“I can imagine. The next suicide mission is mine. You think you were worried about getting shot, how about that poor dude you stole the rocks from. He probably thinks Masters and Miller is on to him. He might have been on the same plane as you getting the hell out of Iceland.”
“What now?”
John replied, “Let’s just cool it for a while, they aren’t mining yet if they all have curves on them?”
“Yeah, they all had curves.”
“Two different colors you say?”
“Yep.”
“Well it’s all lava and lava does come in different colors. If we don’t get a letter from the priest raising hell, maybe I can get him to send us a picture. If there’s gold in it, at least we can prove gold was taken off the site. I wouldn’t be surprised the rock in that barn is now going in the ocean with all of the other. That guy has to be spooked.”
“Well he’ll work his butt off, I’ll tell you that.”
A week later, John got a call on his cell phone from the priest.
“John I looked at those rocks real close and you know what’s in them?”
“I sure do Father and no one knows you have the rocks. We’ll be over there in a couple weeks, I’m working on the letter to that company and you know who I’m talking about.”
“Yes I know. I am just going to hang low over here. It is exciting though, I miss the excitement.”
John replied, “I
t could get real nasty Father and we don’t want you tangled up in it.”
“I understand, I’ll see you in a couple weeks, bring your parkas.”
“I bet, goodbye Father.”
Hendrick asked, “Did you get any video in the barn?”
Rick replied, “It was dark and I sure as hell wasn’t going to turn on the lights.”
“Nothing but rock huh?”
“Nope, it looked like that place has been vacant for years.”
John walked into Hendrick’s place and said, “I’ve got the letter finished, subject to changes of course. We need an assay on the gold if we can get it out of the rock, but we don’t have to have an assay, we can just say we have an assay report.”
Rick said, “We’ll have to tell them about the barn where we got the rock, that poor guy will be toast.”
“He will have already flown the coup or he’ll have one of those rocks tied to him and in the ocean.”
Hendrick said, “You know that guy works for that politician over there. I wonder if he was in on it.”
“If he was, he won’t be saying anything; he’ll probably help tie the rock on that truck driver.”
Rick replied, “Which brings up an interesting question. If Masters and Miller didn’t cut the chain to the barn, who did?”
John said, “I would suspect they will think someone that works on site 23 first.”
“And who is second?”
“Us.”
Rick said, “Oh swell.”
“We’ll just use it as a teaser, to make them nervous.”
“Well what about me, I’m more nervous than they are.”
“Just be real careful I guess.”
Hendrick said, “Ok, the letter. When are you going to send it?”
“Don’t know yet, I’ll read it and tell me what you think.”
Masters and Miller
I have in my possession the following;
Indisputable proof, documented with audio and video recordings as well as our communications in the past that your company is guilty of breaking and entering, theft, core drilling from site 22 to site 23, sharing site 22 steam with site 23, core drilling with a minimum one meter core drill to a gold deposit under site 23, hauling gold bearing rock off the site 23 premises.
The audio recordings were taken at both sites 22 and 23 as well as video at sites 22 and 23. Video recording of mine tailings dumped into the sea as well as gold bearing rock stored in a barn off site. Not to mention incriminating audio and video of two individuals employed by the University of Iceland and the knowledge that the owner of the truck hauling gold bearing rock off of site 23 is a prominent Iceland politician holding office.
There is more evidence being accumulated at this time.
After you compose yourself, you can consider my terms. Please bear in mind that I have but one interest and care little about your project as to whether it is a resounding success or not. I have but one interest and that is my own in the amount of two million pounds and one small gold disc you stole from me. The disc is a matter of principal.
All of the aforementioned evidence has been copied and is stored in various locations in a manner that you will not be able to locate it. In fact I can’t locate it. But there is a release mechanism for the evidence if things don’t work out like I plan.”
Understanding that two million pounds up front could sour the deal, I am prepared to take installment payments. It is not reasonable to ask for my fee until you are in full production and are selling your product. After all this is a business matter. Of course, you could just shut down right now and accept your investment losses and any legal ramifications and I would receive nothing, but I have that covered as well.
A reply in the London Times personals is good with me.
“Well, what do you think gentlemen?”
Rick replied, “You weren’t always a professor.”
Hendrick said, “I didn’t realize how screwed they are. They are going to be pissed.”
“In the short term yes, but it cost them more than that to drill that hole.”
Rick asked, “When do we go for the rock with the gold in it? We need it stored somewhere safe and some video of it for the documentary that may never be seen. That documentary will put us in jail.”
“Not if you keep it hidden.”
“Now you tell me, it’s on my dresser at Mom’s.”
A week passed and Rick received a call from Reykjavik on the cell phone he had under his fake name and he assumed it would be the priest.
“Hello, Robert?”
“Who is this?”
“Nieda; you know at the Steam Café.”
Frowning, Rick said, “Yes, how are you?”
“I’m fine, but I’m a little concerned.”
“Why is that?”
“Two men were in the café asking about strangers who ate breakfast here or took lunches to go. I didn’t talk to them, but one of the waiters did and I heard him mention you.”
“Why did he do that?”
“I suppose because you are a stranger that eats breakfast here and takes a sack lunch. You always have Robert on your sack lunches and he told them that. Driving a pickup, too.”
“Did they say what they wanted?”
“I think they said something about a job. I didn’t get all of it; they were English though so it must be a job in England or somewhere. They left a big tip and then left the cafe.”
“Rick froze in place, stammered, “Oh yeah, it’s nothing, I’m in Norway working right now.”
“I’m talking to Norway?”
“Yes, Oslo.”
“My word. Are you coming back to Iceland?”
“Maybe next year.”
“Well, maybe I will see you then.”
Rick replied, “Oh I’m sure and thank you for the call.”
He stood silent for a moment and thought, “A rented truck to Robert, then my cell phone number,” and he took the battery out of his cell phone. “Holy shit, I had better get ahold of John because I called his number a couple times.”
At John’s place, John said, “Ok my phones dead, what’s the deal?”
Rick explained the situation and John said, “We’re screwed, they will keep digging until they are sure it’s us and they already know where we are.”
“What are we going to do?”
“We don’t have any choice; we go underground and rethink this thing. Call Hendrick and tell him we will be at Lin Lou’s in half an hour.”
Half an hour later with a pot of tea between them, Hendrick said, “I think we had better take this seriously. All those people know is that we have had our nose in their business in Iceland and we have blackmailed them in the past. Apparently something happened about the rock in the barn or they wouldn’t have been looking for Rick in the first place.
Rick replied, “My guess is that someone passing on the highway saw my truck too many times and said something. Probably someone that works at site 23.”
John said, “Could be, but it makes no difference now, they are onto us and I don’t see anything good coming from that. We are going to have to go ahead with sending the blackmail letter before we have all our ducks in order, we don’t have any choice. We have to get on the offensive side of this thing. They have to know about all the evidence we have against them so we have something to bargain with and that they had better not do anything rash.”
Hendrick replied, “You’re right and the sooner the better. Meanwhile we had better find a secure location to hide out. I’m sending Lin Lou out of town so she won’t be involved if they connect me to her.”
“Ok, Hendrick, find us a place and Rick and I will round up everything we have at my place and his mom’s and bring it over here until you find a place. I’ll have the blackmail letter sent special delivery in case they have people already in Germany. We may be a day ahead of them right now, but we had better leave Lin Lou’s in the morning. Ok, let’s get busy.”
The next night wit
h all of their trackable cell phones left behind, the three stayed in a cheap motel and the next day in a basement apartment on the far side off Berlin. They had rented an older Volkswagen van off of an auto lot and they tried to disappear with no contacts that would lead anyone to them.
Now it was just a matter of staying out of site and monitoring the personal column in the London Times. John asked Rick to find out everything he could on the Masters and Miller outfit. Rick got the WI-FI password from the renter above so he could get on the internet and immediately started looking into Masters and Miller.
While Rick was on the computer, John asked, “What do you have on that outfit Rick?”
“One helluva big outfit. They are into every kind of exploration. Geothermal, oil, gas, and into energy production from solar and wind turbines. They are even involved in mining in Australia. Along with that, they are heavy into political donations.”
“Let me guess, they see who is going to win and they back him.”
“Looks like it. On their international website they have pictures of some of their people with the leaders of every country in Europe and a lot overseas too. Of interest to us, here is a picture of them in Iceland shaking hands with members of the government, and here in Poland, here in Germany, and here in London.”
Hendrick said, “It looks like they have all the bases covered.”
John replied, “Yeah and if all of this all comes out, there are going to be a lot of embarrassed people in these governments. No telling what kind of concessions they have given Masters and Miller for those political contributions.”
Hendrick replied, “And one of those concessions might be hunting us down.”
John said, “Rick, put on your Groucho Marx disguise and go get us something to eat and the London Times. And try something good to eat this time. A couple movies too.”
John said, “Here it is. “Considering your offer. Not viable without us having an absolute assurance that all of your material is in our possession, which seems an impossibility considering your ethics. The two pound fee is not a problem; you three are.
