Disclaimer: The following is a work of fiction. If you are
offended by graphic descriptions of homosexual acts, go
somewhere else.
Copyright c 2001 by Orrin C. Rush. All rights reserved.
Neither this story nor any parts of it may be distributed
electronically or in any other manner without the express,
written consent of the author.
This is a work of fiction, any resemblance of the characters
to anyone living or dead is pure coincidence and not
intended. They are all products of the author's imagination.
THE LIFEGUARD
Chapter 38
"And, I'm damned glad that you did," I told him. "I don't
know whether you know it or not, but you're the embodiment of
every gay man's fantasy, young or old. But, you're so much
more than that, 'Pretty Boy'."
"I'll take that as a compliment," he said, laughing. "I hope
someday I can get rid of that 'Pretty Boy' image."
"Why fight it? Relax and enjoy what you have. Oh yes, the
package is awesome, but it's the contents that I love more."
"You're embarassing me, you know."
"No, I'm just telling you how I feel."
"I think we're both getting better at that - expressing our
feelings," he said.
"Actually, I'm happy that you've had all of the experiences
that you have. It makes me feel a lot more secure knowing
that you've already checked out what's 'out there', and know
what you want, and, fortunately for me, it appears to be me.
If you hadn't, I'd always be wondering if YOU were wondering
what you might be missing out on."
"That works both ways," he said. "If you were fresh out of
the closet, I'd wonder about you too, whether I'd have to be
watching out for the competition all the time."
"As you said, there IS no competition."
In the few months that we had been in operation, Lundborg
Rush was doing amazingly well. Warren had jumped in and
taken over. Every month new production records were set, and
the sales effort he had initiated was really paying off.
He wasn't selling price but Service and Security. Orders
were delivered on time, quality control didn't let any
defects get through and our customers were signing long-term
contracts as fast as production slots could be guaranteed.
Security was tight, none of the software was "leaking" out,
largely due to Warren's policy of giving a copy to every
employee who wanted one.
According to Eric, Micron was ecstatic, telling him that
turning over production to us was one of the smartest things
they'd ever done. Seeing our Financial Statements brought a
lot of smiles too since they owned a part of it.
Jeff had arranged another get-together of Milton Plant
Managers in Scottsdale which had been as successful as the
first. Another was planned soon, then, during the summer, he
planned to pull all 39 together to let the groups "cross
pollinate", as he called it.
Annie came home all smiles and very relaxed. We tried our
damnest to find out the cause of her new mood, but she wasn't
talking. All she'd say, teasing us, was "Wait a couple of
weeks."
About all she'd say about her vacation was that she'd fallen
in love with Sarah, and that she loved the Penthouse. No
details on her activities whatever.
I was curious, of course, but it really didn't matter. The
fact that she was happy was enough. We'd just have to wait
for the unveiling, or whatever that was in a few weeks.
Although we all made frequent trips to the site to check out
progress on the new office building, Tina insisted that we
all go on a formal tour.
The steel skeleton was getting fleshed out. The exterior
looked just about complete. From a distance the coffered
windows looked like rows of dots, but as you got closer,
their size became apparent. In my opinion, it looked better
in reality than in the drawings.
The interior was a work in progress. Partitions were going
up, and Tina led us to what would be my office. It looked
larger than my office downtown and was actually a suite of
several rooms including a bathroom and private dining room.
In another section of the building was Eric's office, a
duplicate of mine, but closer to the area where Lundborg Rush
and the Development Company's offices would be located.
Plants and the Company's art collection would decorate the
wide corridors. When this was mentioned, Annie, with a
twinkle in her eye, told us that we might be receiving some
surprises from Sarah - if we invited her to the Dedication.
That's something I'd forgotten about. We had to have some
kind of Dedication ceremony so all the local politicos could
strut their stuff. God, how I hate those things. According
to Tina, we'd be ready to move in in about 60 days, so we'd
better get started on it soon.
Eric and I were on the deck, finishing breakfast and getting
started on the Sunday paper. We heard the phone ringing and
assumed that somebody would answer it.
Gabriella came out to announce that there was a "John Bussey"
calling for either one of us.
We both jumped up and ran into the den. Not having heard
anything from John in quite a while, and for him to call on a
Sunday had to mean something. We put him on speakerphone.
"Good, caught you both," He said. "Found something you might
be interested in."
"What?" Eric asked, already excited.
John started chuckling. "I'd rather show you than tell you,"
he said. "Can you get away for a day or two?"
"When?" I asked.
"How about tomorrow?" John asked. "If you can, come early,
it's really gotten hot around here."
"I'm pretty sure we can be there," I said. "Prescott?"
"Yeah," John answered. "No bumpy rides, either, Dave. We'll
meet you with the chopper."
"You know you're being a real asshole, John," Eric told him.
"We'll both be suffering for the next 24 hours."
"You'll understand when you get here," he laughed.
"Well, what do you think?" Eric asked after all the details
had been worked out with John.
"They've found something, I know that, but WHAT is the big
question."
"No point in driving ourselves crazy trying to guess," he
said, "we'll just have to wait."
"We've got a few calls to make," I said, "and we'd better get
our stuff together."
"Since they're always gonna consider us a couple of 'city
dudes', we might as well dress the part," he said. " Let's go
to Banana Republic and load up."
I called Jason to make arrangements for the plane. He
suggested that we leave at 4:30 AM so we could arrive by
six. Eric groaned when he heard this. "Might as well not
even go to bed tonight," he grumbled.
"Just think about tomorrow night," I told him. "Stars and..."
"Oh yeah!" he answered with a gleam in his eye.
Shopping was fun for a change. At Banana Republic, we got
shorts and lightweight khaki shirts. I balked at hats. I
hate 'em, particularly those pith helmet types.
Another stop at the liquor store. We figured there might be a
celebration, so we got a couple of cases of Jack Daniels.
Another stop at the sporting goods store and we were done.
Back home, we got organized and loaded all our gear in Eric's
Jeep.
I don't think either of us slept much, so when we pulled up
to the hangar, we were still bleary eyed. "Got coffee and
breakfast on board," Ron told us.
There was a good sized chopper sitting on the apron, and John
was waving his arms as we landed. We taxied over and started
unloading our stuff. John's face was just about obscured by
the huge grin he had on it.
"Welcome back!" John beamed.
"OK, give," Eric begged. "What'd you find?"
"Keep it in your pants, sonny," he laughed. "You'll see soon
enough."
Our stuff got stowed in the chopper. Seeing the booze, John
asked "What's that for?"
"Thought there might be a celebration," I told him. "If not,
just add it to your stash."
Up and away we went. This sure beat the hell out of bouncing
around in John's old Jeep. The terrain looked a lot
different from the air than it had from ground level. Really
rugged.
We passed over "camp". I recognized it as being the same
place because of the tiny bit of green, the only vegetation
in the area. What had been a few tents before now looked
like a tent city.
We kept on going for several miles, then slowed, hovered, and
settled down on a flat space near the edge of a cliff. As
the blades slowed down, diesel generators could be heard, the
sound coming from all directions.
John got out first, and I saw him motioning to the crews on
the drilling rigs. One by one, the generators were shut
down, and the guys started walking over. There were still a
couple generators running in the distance.
"Hey, it's the Lovebirds!" one of the guys hollered out. We
just smiled at him.
We all walked over to a huge tarp lying on the ground, the
crew forming a circle around it. "How many bodies you got
under there?" smartass Eric asked.
"Just a couple," John grinned. After everyone quieted down,
John started speaking.
"We found something we weren't really looking for," he
started, then motioned to a couple of the guys. They pulled
the top tarp back a little to reveal a line of plastic bags.
"This is the first core we pulled up," John said, squatting
down. "This is the top of the core, starting at 320 feet."
We leaned down for a closer look. He moved down the line of
bags. They all looked pretty much the same, brown rock
fragments swimming in drilling sludge. At the third bag, he
stopped. "This is where it starts to get interesting. See,
this is quartz," he said, holding up the bag so we could see
the whitish pink granules.
He went on down the row, holding up each of the next four,
saying "more quartz" with each one. When he got to the
eighth bag, he held it out to us. Even though the particles
were coated with sludge, they glinted and shined.
"What is it?" Eric asked.
"Gold," John said simply, and rolled the tarp back some
more. "More quartz," he said as he held up the next two
bags, then moved up to the top of the next row of bags. "This
is the next core, starting at 330 feet," he explained.
Three more bags were quartz, then he handed us the fourth.
More glints that caught the sunlight. "Gold again," he said
in a matter-of-fact tone, then stood up.
"What does all this mean?" I asked, not sure of what I was
seeing.
"It looks like we may have found not one but two of the
biggest veins ever found," he said. "One is at least four
inches thick, and our best guess is that the other one is
more than seven inches of damned near pure gold.
"Actually, they're more like 'flows' than veins because they
extend all over the place," he continued, waving his arm in a
circle. "We're still drilling and haven't found the end of
it yet."
Some of the drilling rigs were a couple of hundred feet away,
so this thing spread all over.
"That's only part of it," he said, walking toward the edge of
the cliff. In layman's terms, he explained how the edge of
the cliff was a fault line, and the part where we were
standing had been pushed up by seismic forces. When that had
occurred, the raised part had been sheared off from the
flatter area below, and the "vein" or whatever, continued
down there. How far it went was being determined by the rigs
already drilling below us.
Dumb me. I still didn't grasp the significance. "What does
all this mean?" I asked, showing my ignorance.
"Well, to give you an idea," John explained patiently, "Each
one of those three-quarter inch cores has about three hundred
dollars worth of gold in them."
I got the picture, finally. In my mind, I did some rapid
calculating. That meant that there was more than $50,000
worth of gold in every square foot, and this thing covered
acres for chrissakes!
Eric had been calculating too, and we just stood there and
stared at each other in shock. The rest of the guys standing
around were watching us. As they watched it sink in, they
started giggling, then laughing out loud.
"Jesus H. Christ," Eric murmured, shaking his head.
"Got some more good news," John announced. "From up here,
it's about 280 feet to the bottom, so if we go in from down
there, we only have to go down fifty or sixty feet to get to
it. The rest that's under the flat down there, we're going
to have to work for."
We just stood there in awe of the whole situation.
After meeting the new guys and saying hello to the ones we'd
met before, the chopper took us back to "camp". All the men
seemed more excited about the find than we were. I guess it
just hadn't sunk in yet.
A lot had changed. In addition to a lot more tents, there
was a greatly expanded cooking area manned by a cook, and the
ring of seats around the campfire was a whole lot bigger.
One tent, though, was off by itself, ours, I assumed.
"We had a little celebration the night we pulled the first
core. Tonight's the big one, though, " John said, taking the
Jack Daniels over to the cooking area.
We hauled our stuff to our tent and pulled the air mattress
out onto the "patio". No need to be shy around this bunch.
No doubt the new men had heard the whole story by now.
John was waiting for us under the awning. He'd been right, it
was HOT! It was a lot quieter since the work going on was so
far away. Only a light hum could be heard. Except for the
heat, it was almost pleasant.
In his drawl, John told us the whole story of the discovery.
Not being too optomistic about finding anything in that area,
only one rig had been taken in. The first core had only gone
down 300 feet, and had hit a lot of hard rock. The second, a
hundred feet from the first had gone down further, and that's
when they'd found the seam. Hoping that it wasn't just a
"pocket", they'd drilled another hole ten feet away, and it
too had shown similar results.
At this point, John had been eager to determine the extent of
the deposit so had moved the rest of the rigs to the area.
So far, wherever they dug, they found the seam continuing.
"It's gotta run out sometime, but we haven't found it yet,"
he said.
After studying the formation, rigs had been moved to the area
below the cliff, and the seam was continuing.
All of the first cores had been maintained intact, none sent
to the usual lab for analysis. Only two samples had been
assayed, and those at a lab in Denver by way of John's
brother who lived there. The results, as expected, were
spectacular.
"Why so secretive?" I asked him.
"As soon as this find leaks out, we'll spend more time
chasing off 'lookers' than we do working. Might as well keep
it quiet as long as we can."
"Isn't this pretty remote?" I asked.
"Noplace is remote when it comes to gold," John answered
seriously.
Eric had been real quiet, but not missing a word. Now he
jumped in.
"I still can't comprehend what's going on," he said. "Now
that we've found it, what do we do to get it out?"
"This is one you should mine yourselves," John told him.
"Until we go after the gold under the flat below the cliff,
it's going to be a piece of cake. Move a little dirt and go
straight in. Tunnel from there."
"Sounds easy enough," Eric agreed. "Who's going to run it?
Would you consider doing it?"
"I'm a prospector, not a miner," he told Eric. "I appreciate
the offer, but I'd prefer looking for more rather than
settling down and runing something. I'd like to recommend
somebody, though.
"I've got an old friend in Phoenix who retired from Asarco a
couple of years ago. For something like this, I'm pretty
sure I could talk him into going back to work. He's got a
degree from the Colorado School of Mines, and ran mining
operations for Asarco for years. He's the best man I know of
for this job."
"You think he might take it for a few years?" Eric asked.
"I'll give Loren a call," he volunteered. "If he's
interested, we can go see him tomorrow on your way home."
In the late afternoon, the chopper warmed up and took off to
ferry the men back to camp. At eight men per load, it took
three trips.
"We still start at first light," John explained. "With
longer days, we get started earlier, and I don't want to get
the reputation of a slave driver..."
The evening bathing ritual began, then the men disappeared
into their tents. An afternoon nap was a good guess.
As the sun lowered and it cooled off a little, they reemerged.
Many were wearing shorts instead of their usual Levis, their
pale legs contrasting with their deeply tanned torsos.
We weren't regarded as "outsiders" any more, getting kidded
about dressing like "tourists". The Jack Daniels was brought
out, cups were found and we sat in a big circle around the
fire pit. John had a few words to say, then Eric and I each
added a little.
"Have you decided on a name?" somebody asked.
"For what?" I asked.
"The mine. Every mine has a name."
"Didn't know that," I said.
"The boys have come up with a name," John said. "Wait a
minute."
One of the original eight got up and disappeared for a few
minutes. When he came back, he was carrying what looked like
a piece of barn siding about six feet long. When he got to
the circle, he held it horizontal and flipped it over.
Burned into the wood in big letters was "THE LOVEBIRD MINE".
"We wanted to name it for you guys," he said.
I felt my eyes getting misty and glanced over at Eric. He
was having the same reaction. It was an amazing tribute to
the two of us and the love that we had for each other. I
didn't know what to say, but, thankfully, Eric did.
"Thank you. All of you," he said, looking around at all the
smiling faces. "We'll have a little trouble explaining it,
but that's what it'll be." This got a hearty laugh.
The sign was propped up so we could all see it, and we drank
to the new name.
"That board'll hang over the entrance when we actually start
mining," the guy who brought out the sign explained.
We drank and talked for a while, then John had another
announcement. "The guys have something else for you."
This time there was no wait. Another of the original crew
pulled out what looked like a picture frame and brought it
over to us. "We waited until we actually found something to
give this to you," he said.
It was a museum-type mounting of the tiny nugget that had
been the first "color" they'd found. Below the nugget was an
engraved placque stating simply "The Beginning". Below it
was another brass placque with the names of the original
eight and John.
This time, I wasn't tongue-tied. "This will hang proudly in
the lobby of our building," I said, "but only after we let
the world know what you've found."
It was dinnertime. There were now picnic tables so no more
balancing of trays in our laps. Huge steaks were on the menu
along with ice cream for dessert.
Back sitting in a circle, Eric sitting on the ground between
my knees, the conversation turned to what would happen next,
along with speculation on how extensive the mine would turn
out to be. "Only one thing," John said. "I ain't no
tree-hugger, but I'd like to see you put it back the way it
was when it's all mined out."
"We agree with that," Eric said. "That's the way it should
be, not just walk away and leave another scar on the
landscape."
We all talked some more until it became obvious that it was
time to hit the sack. Eric got up and disappeared for a few
minutes, coming back carrying a bag. Starting with the eight
original guys, he started passing out little plastic boxes.
The guys started laughing uproariously. "Wear 'em,
goddamit," he said. "No more bitching about the noise." He
was handing out earplugs.
Side by side, we looked up at the sky. The moon was full
enough to cast shadows so our naked bodies were clearly
outlined.
"What a day," I murmured.
"It's only just the beginning."
"I know," I said grasping his hand.
He leaned up to look into my face. "We're coming up on two
years together," he said softly, "and it still feels like the
beginning," then leaned over and kissed me before I could
reply.
A tender kiss grew into a passionate embrace, love, not lust
hardened our dicks. His lips found their way to my throat,
then down my chest and stomach. He stopped long enough to
say "Just watch the stars" before taking me into his mouth.
He took me in as far as he could comfortably go. No "special
effects" just loving caresses as he moved up and down, the
warmth of him flowing into me. The stars were in my eyes but
the undescribable feelings of love were in my mind. No
teasing or repeated cliff hangers, I just melted over the
edge. A gentle liftoff, a long, joyful journey, then a
smooth splashdown.
I awoke to find him lying across my chest, holding me. I
felt loved.
When I could, I pretty much repeated the process on him, but
taking him all the way down to the base on each stroke as I
so loved to do. His moans as he climaxed were soft but
definitely loud enough to be heard. I smiled, thinking about
the twenty seven pairs of ears probably straining to listen.
Nestled together, we got the giggles every time we heard a
moan or grunt coming from the tent city.
"I guess we set an example," I whispered.
"Good one, too," he chuckled.
We got up as soon as we heard activity, joining the crew for
breakfast. There were a lot of sly grins and a few winks
that were all met with a smile from us.
At the first sign of light, the chopper started the delivery
process. After the third load, we climbed aboard and it took
us out to the site again. This time, we landed on the flat
below the cliff.
From below, one could see where the cliff had sluffed off
over time and there was a buildup of rock against the lower
face. The cliff itself ran for at least a mile in either
direction.
John led Eric and me over to the base. "If I were doing it,
I'd dig this rock away and dig a ramp down to the seam," he
said. "I'm not an Engineer, though, and Loren may have other
ideas."
"Have you talked to him yet?" Eric asked.
"We're going to meet him at his home in Phoenix this
evening," he said. "By the way, I really appreciate that
phone you sent me. Worked so well I went out and bought a
couple more."
I looked back from the base of the cliff. The drilling rigs
were at least a thousand feet away. "Are you still finding
the seam way out there?" I asked John.
"They're a couple hundred feet out from the last holes. Just
started them a day or so ago, so don't know yet."
We walked over to the rigs. One had just passed 310 feet,
and was hitting quartz, so there should be an answer in a few
hours.
The chopper flew us up to the top of the cliff. From the
edge, I estimated that the rigs were about 700 feet back.
Just for the hell of it, I paced it off. 240 steps, about
720 feet. The line of rigs stretched at least twice that far
parallel to the cliff. I didn't even attempt to do the
numbers in my head of what potentially lay below us. It was
just too staggering.
I talked with some of the drillers, learning a lot more about
what was going on now that they were more at ease around me.
I also learned that a lot of the crew were Graduate
Geologists. This was surprising, but they told me that this
kind of work was preferable to sitting around in an office,
and that the pay was a lot better. They also had the highest
respect for John.
Eric was moving from rig to rig, laughing and joking with the
crews and probably picking up more information than I was. I
found a rock to perch on and watched.
John and the chopper pilot were collecting core samples and
hauling them back to the chopper. After a while, John
wandered over and took a seat on another rock. "This'll be
our last day here," he said. "No point in wasting any more
time on this one."
I nodded in agreement.
"We've already proven that there's more than a commercial
deposit here, so it's time to go look for something else."
"Where are you going from here?" I asked.
"We'll be splitting up again, four different sites about 20
miles in that direction," he said pointing.
"Do you have all the core samples tested?" I asked.
"No," he chuckled. "If we did, your lab bill would be bigger
than mine. With as many Geologists as we've got, we go over
them and set aside the obvious, shale, sandstone, and others
that we know aren't mineral bearing. Only the 'possibles' go
to the lab, but we keep them all for 'history' in the event
the lab comes up with anything. We're going to need a
warehouse pretty soon."
"I was surprised to find out that so many of your men are
Geologists," I told him.
"We call them 'Field Geologists'. There aren't that many
desk jobs in this field, and most of the younger guys would
rather be out here even if it is hard work. Being part of a
find like this one is an experience of a lifetime."
"It's a real experience for us, too, even if we're only on the
fringe," I told him.
"You're a helluva lot more involved than any owners I've ever
seen. You're not afraid to get out here and see what's going
on. Any other owner who made a find like this would've flown
out, taken a look, then gotten back to the air conditioning.
"Are you aware that the exploration you're doing is probably
the largest effort going on anyplace in the country?" he
asked.
"I didn't know that," I said. "Shows how much I know about
the mining business."
"Think we should be heading down below," he said. "They
should be close by now."
Before we left, I walked the line of drilling rigs and said
goodby to all of the men.
Down below, they were pulling the shaft up. The bottom
section with the core was carefully set aside, the rod
inserted and the core contents emptied, foot by foot. It was
there. We could see the sparkles in the sunlight.
"Maybe not as thick," John commented, "but, like the
Energizer Bunny, it keeps on going."
Back at camp we got our stuff together and gave each other a
quick shower from the stream. As hot as it was, the cold
water felt wonderful.
I personally carried the framed nugget all the way back to
Prescott.
The trip to Phoenix was really short. We got a rental car
and John drove.
Loren Rattner looked awfully young to be retired. Tall,
rangy, and not a gray hair, he greeted us warmly. His home
office was book-lined and cool. Mrs. Rattner brought us iced
tea.
"Sounds like you fellows found something mighty interesting,"
he said.
"Could be," always conservative John answered, then proceeded
to give him a detailed description, ending with "You're the
best man I know of to show Dave and Eric how to get it out."
There was a minute's silence, then Eric asked "Do you think
you might be interested?"
"What would you want me to do?" Loren asked.
"Either advise us on what to do, or run the whole thing for
us, your choice," Eric said.
"To be perfectly honest," he said, "this retirement business
is a bunch of bullshit. I'm bored shitless and have been
thinking about looking for something to do. Your timing
couldn't have been better, as far as I'm concerned. I'd like
to take a firsthand look, though, before I make a decision."
"When would you be available to do that?" I asked.
"I know you're anxious to get going," he said, "would
tomorrow be soon enough?"
"What time do you want us to pick you up?" Eric asked,
smiling.
"Let's leave early. It's a pretty good drive up there."
"We're not driving," Eric said. "We have our plane here, and
John can have his chopper pick us up in Prescott. We'll have
you home by dinnertime."
Loren was beaming. "You guys do things first-class. It
might be fun working for you."
"You'd work 'with' us, not 'for' us," I corrected him.
"Even better," he said.
We decided to spend the night in Phoenix. I thought we owned
a hotel there, and called Annie to find out which one.
"You own hotels?" John asked.
"Around a hundred and thirty of them at last count," I told
him.
The pilots would meet us at the hotel and bring our gear.
"Any gay hangouts in this town?" Eric asked John.
"I've hear there are a few," John answered, blushing bright
red. "Don't know where, though. In this town I'm a happily
married man."
We all laughed at this. "We'll find 'em," Eric assured him.
Ron and Jason were waiting for us, with all our stuff. John
would pick Loren up in the morning and meet us at the airport.
"A couple of Desert Rats in the Presidential Suite!" Jason
commented in his normal sarcastic way. "Did you guys strike
gold or something."
"Yep, bigtime!" Eric shot back.
"Yeah, right," Jason continued.
"No, seriously," Eric told him.
"No way!"
"Knock it off, guys," I said laughing, "Yes, Jason, we did
strike gold, and in a big way, too. Now get your ass out of
your uniform and go get us a bottle of Scotch. We're going
to celebrate again tonight."
A warm shower felt really good. Eric, in a playful mood
joined me. We lathered then rinsed, a lot of tickling going
on in the process. He wouldn't leave me alone until I was
fully hard, then dropped to his knees and sucked me in.
"Yech," he spat "You're too soapy, rinse off some more, it
tastes terrible."
I was obedient, then enjoyed one of the fastest, most
enthusiastic blow jobs in history.
Jason was there with a bottle and ice. Smartass, he'd called
room service.
"We want to hear all about this gold mine of yours," Jason
said. "This is the first we've heard about it."
"We only found out about it yesterday," I told him.
Eric filled them in on the whole story, from my "quiet" trips
to Phoenix through our watching them pull up cores with gold
in them earlier that day, even giving full details on the
"stick pussy" incident.
"So they all swing both ways?" Jason asked.
"That's the impression we got," Eric told him.
"I can see the Headlines now 'QUEER PROSPECTORS FUCK EACH
OTHER TO DEATH IN ARIZONA DESERT'. Wow, can you imagine 30
horny miners stuck out in the boondocks together!"
"Calm down, babe," Ron said, patting his knee. "This is
fascinating, any chance we could go see the mine with you
tomorrow?"
"There's really not much to see," I told him. "Did you bring
shorts? It's hotter'n hell out there."
"Hell yes," he laughed. "After following you guys around, we
come prepared. Everything from snow gear to bikinis."
"We'll only be there a few hours," I told them. "You're
welcome to come along."
Eric and I discussed who we should tell about this discovery,
settling on just three - Annie, Tina and Bill, and invited
them for dinner at home the following evening. None of them
had a clue what we were up to.
Jason had a Gay Guide, so after dinner the four of us checked
out a few bars. We found a nice piano bar, then a Country
Western where Eric and Jason would have danced all night if
we'd have let them.
4:30 came early enough as it was. Before dressing, Ron made
sure with us that it was OK to wear shorts in the cockpit,
offering to change once we got to Prescott. He's such a
stickler for decorum on the plane, but elsewhere is just as
irreverant as Jason. Of course it was OK.
No traffic that early so we made it to the airport early.
Good thing, John and Loren were early too.
Loren was surprised. "I expected a little one-engine prop
plane," he said, "not a private jet!"
"We have two of 'em," I told him, "and we're getting a third
in a couple of months."
Loren and Eric got into conversation, and John, sitting
nearer to me leaned over and quietly asked "Find any of
'those' places last night?"
"Oh yeah," I told him. "Eric and Jason would still be
dancing if we didn't have to get up so early."
"Who's Jason?"
"One of our pilots?"
"They're....?"
I nodded.
"You really shook me yesterday when you asked about bars," he
said. "I just couldn't imagine you guys looking around for
'strange' stuff."
I couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry, John," I told him.
"We don't play around AT ALL, but sometimes it's fun to be
around our 'own kind'."
"That makes me feel a lot better! You two are so obviously
in love that I couldn't believe my ears yesterday, but I got
the whole thing wrong. Sorry."
"It's a shame that so many people think that just because
we're gay, we'll jump anybody's bones. That just isn't the
case in reality," I told him.
"By the way, if it's OK with you, our pilots would like to go
with us today. They won't get in the way," I promised.
"No problem at all," he said.
"I kind of figured that you'd want to show Loren around, then
we can talk to him after he's seen everything."
"That'll work," John said.
We landed in Prescott, and pulled up to the waiting chopper.
The plane was locked up and the chopper took off as soon as
we were all strapped in.
Neither Ron nor Jason ever asked any questions. I figured
that they'd like a little background information on what they
were going to see, so explained that this land was owned by
the Railroad, and we were doing some exploration work to find
out if there was anything of value in 'them thar hills', and
as a result had found the gold deposit.
I also mentioned that this "find" wouldn't be made public for
a while. They understood what that meant.
We set down on top of the cliff. John and Loren headed for
the core samples that were still on the big tarp, Eric and I
led Ron and Jason over to one of the drilling rigs.
Eric introduced them to the drillers. He had a knack with
names, hearing them once then never forgetting them, knowing
every driller by name.
We explained what was going on and what they'd found. They
asked a lot of questions, and surprisingly, we had most of
the answers.
One of the rigs had just pulled a core from the 330 foot
level. We watched as they pushed the core out, and heard the
"Aha!" when the seam of gold showed up where it was supposed
to.
Ron and Jason were fascinated, carefully examining the baggie
with all the glittery stuff in it.
John was waving at us so we went back to the chopper. It
took us to the flat below.
John and Loren went in their own direction. Eric explained
about the seismic slip, and how the seam continued down
there, but was 300 feet below the surface.
The four of us found soft rocks to sit on and waited while
Loren and John looked everything over.
"I've seen everything I need to, for now," Loren said when
they walked up. He turned and stared at the base of the
cliff for a few minutes. "I've made a decision, too. The
wife's going to kill me, but I'd like to be in this with you
all the way."
Eric and I rose to shake his hand. John stood there beaming.
"Do you want to talk here, or go back to Prescott and find a
cool place?" Loren asked.
"Let's go," Eric piped up.
We piled on the chopper again. "Why do you use Prescott?"
Loren asked. "There are several towns a lot closer."
"It's the closest one with a runway that'll handle our
plane," Ron explained.
In Prescott, John offered to return to the hills so Loren
could talk with us, but I insisted he stay. He was very much
a part of this whole thing, and the last thing I wanted was
for him to feel left out.
We took one of the town's few taxis to what the driver swore
was the best restaurant around. Ron and Jason said they had
work to do, politely bowing out.
After ordering, Loren got right to the point. "In my
opinion, John has made one of the major finds of the
century. Of course, that remains to be seen, but I'm
extremely optomistic.
"Now, I have a couple of questions before we go any further.
Do you have the money to develop the mine, and how in hell
did you manage to get hold of that land, and just exactly who
am I dealing with?"
John was chuckling, and Eric responded. "First, you're
dealing with a family company owned by Dave, his two
daughters and me. Second, we got the land through our recent
purchase of the Railroad for roughly $4 billion dollars,
cash, and that should answer the first part of your
question," he said with a grin.
"I didn't know. I've never heard of you guys before," Loren
said.
"That's intentional," I said. "We keep a low profile. If
you want personal or bank references, we'll be happy to
provide them."
"If John thinks you're OK, that's good enough for me. Now
that that's settled, let's talk about what we're going to
have to do. John's idea of digging a ramp down to the seam
is about the best. To get to the rest, we'll have to sink
shafts, which will be expensive, but well worthwhile if we
prove that the other is as rich as we believe it to be.
"Before we can move in heavy equipment, we'll have to have an
Environmental Impact Report prepared and approved by the
proper authorities. The fact that you're willing to return
the site to it's original state will mitigate damages to the
landscape. By the way, I commend you on that.
"Since there is very little rainfall in that area, the danger
of pollution is minimal and shouldn't be a problem.
"That takes care of the Officials, and, depending on how fast
we get the EIR, should get rubber-stamp approval."
"What kind of timeframe?" I asked while he was getting his
breath.
"Sixty to ninety days with a little luck."
"Then, what do you propose?" I asked.
"Dig down to the quartz strata, prove that the gold is
there. After that, we start doing some mining. We blast our
way in, and start taking ore out. The formation above the
quartz is stable, so we won't have to do a lot of shoring.
"OK. Now we have ore. What do we do with it?" He paused to
take a drink of water then continued. "If the cores are
giving us a true picture, it's going to be enormously
high-grade, but even high-grade costs a lot of money to
transport.
"I'd suggest that the primary processing be done on-site, set
up on the flat below the cliff and concentrate it down to
around 80% metal, then take it somewhere else for refining.
At that level, it would probably even be economical to
chopper it out.
"All of the machinery for primary processing is electric, so
we'd have to bring that in. That's going to take time and
money too, but I don't think we should start that until it's
proven. It's a helluva lot cheaper to string a power line
than it is to build roads."
"When do we start?" Eric asked.
"Hold your water there, young feller," Loren told him with a
grin. "That gold isn't going anywhere, and, if my guess is
right, it's going to take at least 20 years of mining to get
it all."
Our lunch was served, so we talked and ate, Loren throwing
out more and more suggestions on how it should be done.
"If you want to do it right, I think you're looking at about
$20 million to get started," Loren said. "It'll take about a
half million to get the report and the ramp dug. By then
we'll know whether to go ahead with everything else."
"And you'd be interested in running it for us?" I asked.
"I think it's time to talk about money," he answered.
"Here's where I leave," John said. "I'll grab a taxi back to
the airport."
Eric and I got up to shake hands and thank him for everything.
We agreed to remain in close touch. He gave Loren his mobile
phone number and warned him not to "gouge" us.
"I think I can do a good job for you," Loren started, "and I
really want this job because I think you've got one of the
most exciting projects that I've ever seen."
He threw out a salary figure which was a lot lower than I
expected. We made a deal on the spot.
"I hear you named it the "Lovebird" Mine," he said.
"We didn't, John's crew did," Eric said.
"I'm not even going to ask for an explanation. No doubt I'll
hear, sooner or later."
Loren's first job would be to arrange for the EIR to be
prepared. After that, he would prepare a detailed report on
the steps he planned to take toward making the mine a
reality, along with cost estimates.
"Remember one thing," he told us, "the minute the EIR is
filed, what we're doing will become public knowledge.
There'll have to be hearings, but since nobody else owns land
close, they'll be for the record only. Chances are that
nobody'll notice, but there's always a chance that it'll
become a big story."
"Just let us know so we can be prepared," I asked.
We took Loren back to Phoenix, then started home. Eric
snuggled up to me. "I don't think anybody in the whole
business world moves as fast as we do," he said. "It's
barely been 48 hours since we learned we even had a mine, and
we're just about ready to start digging."
"Not quite," I chuckled. "Things are happening, though.
We're going to have a lot of fun explaining the name they
gave it."
"I love it," he giggled. "It's true, you know. We ARE
lovebirds, and I hope we stay that way forever."
"It really meant a lot to me. Probably the first time anyone
outside our close friends recognized what we have together.
I got all choked up when they told us."
"Where the hell have you guys been?" Annie greeted us with a
big smile.
"We'll tell you when Bill and Tina get here," I told her.
When we emerged from showering they were all waiting.
"I couldn't wait for seven o'clock," Bill said. "I know you
guys are up to something."
"Tell us," Tina begged. "Don't make us wait any longer."
"Get a drink, and get comfortable," I suggested. "This is a
long story."
While everybody got settled, I closed the double doors to the
den.
"This must be serious," Bill commented.
"In the beginning..." I started, winking at Eric.
"Oh come on, Dad," Annie groaned.
I was in a playful mood, and they were anxious. "Annie, do
you remember when we were looking into the Railroad's land
holdings?"
"Yes."
"Do you remember that we found a lot of land scattered all
over the Southwest?"
"Vaguely, yes," she answered.
"I don't think any of the rest of you know about it. I
mentioned it to Eric, and he wasn't terribly enthusiastic, so
I said to myself 'to hell with all of you, I'll do it
myself'."
I paused to take a couple of sips from my drink.
"Unbeknownst to any of you, I made a few trips."
"When was this?" Bill asked.
"While we were trying to buy the Railroad," I said, "quite a
while before we actually got it. I made a copy of your
parcel list, Annie, and took it to a Geologist.
"He and his crew went to work on it. None of you may know
this, but the U.S. Geological Survey has made an inventory of
the resources of the entire country. Maps of the Railroad's
property were overlaid over USGS maps to get an idea if any
of it might have any mineral value.
"They concentrated on the State of Arizona. The first thing I
learned was that one of the pieces of land contained a major
deposit of copper that several big mining companies were
salivating over. That one is pretty common knowledge.
"During the time we were bidding against Edgar, he evidently
told one of his partners about it, and they rushed to Arizona
to have it evaluated. The Geologist and I got pretty nervous
over this, thinking that they'd realize the real value there
and push the bidding for the Railroad out of sight, but
instead, they lost interest, thankfully."
I stopped for a few more sips.
"Come on, Dad, pleeeeease..." Tina begged.
I winked at Eric and continued. "About the time that we got
control of the Railroad, I told Eric what I'd been doing.
He's been in on it ever since. We found out that there were
a lot of 'Probable' sites on the land that we now controlled,
and started digging around. That's where Eric and I went the
last time we disappeared. We were camping out in the Arizona
desert.
"At that point, we controlled a majority of the stock in the
Railroad, but we weren't 'in control', so what we were doing,
if you want to split hairs, was trespassing on the Railroad's
land. If Edgar had caught us, there could have been a
helluva stink, but we were lucky."
"Oh come on, get to the point!" Annie said, exasperated.
I nodded to Eric to go from there. "Well," he said, "we got
a call Sunday that they'd found something, not exactly what
they were looking for."
"What ARE you looking for?" Tina asked.
"Copper, zinc, molybdenum, lead, something like that," he
answered.
"Then what did you find?" Bill asked.
"Gold."
"Nuggets? What?" Annie asked.
"Oh, a couple of nuggests. We've got the little one over
there," he said pointing at the frame which was turned toward
the wall. "The other one was too big to bring home."
"How big is it?" Bill asked.
"Oh, about seven inches thick, and it covers about forty
acres," he said dryly.
"You're kidding, of course?" Bill said.
"Nope, and there's another teenie weenie one that's only four
inches thick right above it, about the same size."
Annie and Tina were looking at each other. I could tell the
look. They were wondering if we'd gone off the deep end.
Bill asked the question for all three of them. "Are you guys
on LSD or something like that?"
I started laughing and Eric got a fit of giggles. That
really didn't help our credibility at all. They just stared
at us like one does at unruly children. We laughed harder at
the expressions on their faces.
Eric continued laughing, and I tried to get under control.
"Seriously," I said, "we did find gold."
"But surely not in the quantity that Eric told us," Bill said.
"Maybe more," I told him, dead serious now. "We haven't
determined the full extent of the seam yet. As one of the
Geologists said, 'Like the Energizer Bunny, it keeps on
going'."
"Unbelievable," Bill said shaking his head. "Leave it to you
guys."
To be continued.
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