Chapter 6: Seed of Satan

“Florida?” I exclaimed, “What the fuck Sam?”

“Oh, calm your tits, eh,” she muttered back, “I’m just having a little looky-loo.”

“For what? Your unmarked grave?” I couldn’t believe my ears. But it was so typical of her.

“I’m sure there are plenty of those around here,” she replied in a low voice, “but I’m after the fucker who blew my game wide open.”

“You mean the hacker who caught you because you didn’t scrub your butthole — something-or-other, good enough?”

She sighed on the other end, “You truly are a gem, Carter. Has anyone ever told you that?”

“I’ve been called worse,” I grumbled, “by better.”

“I’m sure you have, hoser,” she replied.

“So, have you found him yet?”

She was quiet for a minute. “No.”

I sighed. “So, what now?”

“I keep looking,” she replied. “Look, I know you think that this is silly and arrogant on my part Carter, but this guy is a menace. Any hacker who can outhack me is a scary entity that must be dealt with.”

“So, what are you gonna do when you find him — or her? Kill him?” I asked patiently.

“Don’t be silly,” she snorted, “that’s your job. You think I’m gonna wreck these nails over the likes of him?”

I rolled my eyes. “So how are you tracking him?”

“It’s not as difficult as it sounds,” she replied, “I just have to rule out everywhere that he is not. Then I’ll have him. In the meantime, I’ve put out a few feelers and left some bait scattered around. Some intended to entice and others to annoy and distract.”

“Just don’t stay out of touch for so long, okay?” I pleaded. “I get sick worrying about you.”

“That’s so sweet!” she said mockingly. “I think I got a hit. I’ll be in touch. Ciao.”

The line went dead. I grunted in frustration and returned to my task at hand. I was preparing to blast another section of the mine entrance. All the charges were set and now that I was off the cell phone, I turned it off and began placing my detonators.

The rock crusher turned out to be an excellent investment and made short work of the leavings that I collected from the first blast. The ball mill was slower but it provided a steady flow of sand that dropped into the sluice box. I ran a water supply line to the giant tumbler mill and another to the sluice from my 2500-gallon tank. Jenny and Suzy were more than eager to monitor the sluice’s progress and pick out any obvious pieces of gold as they appeared. And we were finding gold! Not enough to finance an army but it was still fun and lucrative.

Gil had decided to try and extract the round nodule of quartz at his site, intact if possible. So, he worked gingerly trying to chip away the surrounding rock until he could figure out just how big the damn thing was. I was already cringing at the thought of trying to haul a half-ton chunk of quartz out of that ravine.

Half an hour later I alerted all parties to my imminent demolition and then yelled “Fire in The Hole!” before nodding to Jenny. She eagerly accepted the honors of triggering the detonators and jumped up and down at the resulting rumble and concussion from the mine entrance. Once again there was an instant cloud of dust and debris that bounced off the metal container before the entrance. We walked away from it to let things settle for a bit before going back to assess the results. There was always the risk that the shock wave would travel far enough up the cliff face to dislodge a substantial piece of overhang. So, I made sure that we stayed clear for half an hour before we went back.

Trinity wandered over during a break from her ‘knife’ project and studied our setup intently. She pointed to the huge pile of leavings that were yet to be shoveled into the sluice. “Are you going to refine that stuff too?” she asked. It was piling up from the castoff between the rock crusher and the ball tumbler.

“Eventually, I suppose,” I replied. “Once you get the bigger pieces of gold out the rest is just an exercise in patience.”

She squatted next to the pile and poked through it with her finger. “But there is gold in here, right?”

I nodded. “Most certainly. You just need to spend the time panning out the smaller gold dust particles.”

I could see the gears turning in her head and I remained quiet as she thought it through. “Y’know ... people would pay to do just that!” she mumbled as she wandered back over to the shop to continue her project.

I was surprised to find that the second blast had penetrated twice as far into the wall of the cliff. It took me several hours to remove the rubble and dirt and begin feeding it into the crusher, but when I had cleared the entrance, I was pleased to find it recessed over 8 feet deep now. Jenny and Suzy took the hose and sprayed down the piles of leavings to cut down on the dust and make the quartz pieces easier to identify. Many of them they put aside for closer inspection before having them crushed into gravel. It was getting late by the time we had rendered most of the second blasting through the sluice and I opted to let the water run through it overnight to see if it made any difference.

We enjoyed a soak in the hot tub later and Jenny and I shared a bottle of wine while Suzy sipped ginger ale. They were less than three days away from the wedding and we had the rehearsal coming up. Both of my ladies were going to be in full wedding gowns that they had worked meticulously on over the past two weeks. Trinity was inside eating everything in the house and watching TV with Travis while we relaxed under the stars and cuddled. I kept finding my hand rubbing Suzy’s tummy seeking any sign of life. She insisted that she was developing a ‘bump’ and could feel something called ‘quickening’. Jenny spent more time curled up against her belly than anywhere else.

“Hey guys,” Trinity called as she came out the side door from the master bedroom. She was wearing a loose T-shirt and light flannel shorts. She padded out to the hot tub in her bare feet, eating an entire pint of strawberry yogurt. “You won’t believe what is all over the local news right now,” she murmured with her spoon in her mouth.

We looked at her expectantly.

She pointed at Jenny and Suzy, “You two!” she grinned, “Your marriage is the topic of the century here in Podunk Coolidge Park! And y’all got the wrath of Christ comin’ down on ya, fer yer evil ways!” she trailed off trying to sound like Gil.

“What are you talking about sweety?” Jenny asked with a hiccup, she sloshed her glass around before draining it.

“I’m serious,” Trinity replied with a laugh, “I’m recording it on DVR, you gotta come see this shit. They actually interviewed this church couple and they are talking about forming a protest and boycotting the Westin for supporting this whole travesty!”

Suzy climbed out of the tub and grabbed a towel as she marched inside. The rest of us stared after her lustfully, as her tight ass jiggled side to side.

“I gotta see this,” Jenny replied and hopped out as well. She didn’t bother with a towel. I sighed and crawled out as well. Trinity regarded the empty tub and shrugged as she dropped her shorts and stepped into the steaming water. With her free hand, she pulled her shirt over her head and sank to her breasts with a sigh as she continued spooning yogurt into her mouth.

Suzy was sitting on the edge of the bed nude and aiming the remote at the flatscreen. There was a local news broadcast that showed a male and female journalist discussing the upcoming nuptials of Jenny Oppelmeyer and Suzy Reynolds. One of the local churches was making a stink about same-sex marriage and demanding that their’s be canceled. They were threatening to protest the event en masse and were calling for the boycotting of the Westin Imperial. An elder couple was interviewed and the woman was going full tilt biblical, pulling one scripture after another out of thin air to emphasize her outrage at the entire thing. The old man beside her just looked around quietly and said nothing. Jenny just stared at the screen open-mouthed while Suzy became emotional and started weeping. They both turned to find me shaking with laughter.

“Carter!” Suzy cried, “What are you laughing about? This isn’t funny!”

Even Jenny wore a frown as she glared at me.

I couldn’t help it and burst out laughing. “Oh, it’s hysterical!” I gasped. I took the remote from Suzy and froze the screen on the couple. “Look,” I chuckled pointing. “You got this couple speaking for all of the church-going multitudes.” I grinned, looking at each of them. “Look closely and tell me what you see.”

They both stared at the screen and then shrugged at me, shaking their heads.

“Look here,” I pointed. “This old Archie Bunker-looking bastard, staring off into space. He won’t even make eye contact with that ugly troglodyte beside him. Do you know why?” I didn’t wait for an answer. “Because he fucking hates his life, everything about it. There isn’t an ounce of joy to his existence, except for the bourbon that’s causing all those blood vessels to burst through his droopy cheeks and eyelids.” I pointed at the woman. “And her? She absolutely hates the man with all her being.” I smirked at Suzy. “The only thing she looks forward to is his certain untimely death. They sleep in separate rooms, he with his CPAP machine and her with a dildo the size of my arm, dreaming she’s being railed by Dwayne Johnson every night.”

Both girls were smiling again as I went on describing how empty their lives were. “The only reason they are even speaking out is because neither of them can even fathom the kind of love that you two share for each other. They certainly never had anything even close. So, fuck them!”

At Rachel’s insistence, I made a point of coming by at least once a week to be present in the growth and development of Desiree. Travis and I made the trip into town every Monday and dropped off a small bag of gold with Kevin while we were there. I got used to holding the little package of pink-skinned talc-smelling baby. She was a good kid and didn’t fuss much. When she did get cranky nobody could settle her down like Trinity. All she had to do was hold her and bounce around the room for a few minutes and the tot was out cold. Kevin was completely smitten with his daughter and spent every second possible holding, feeding, and bathing her which gave Rachel time to catch up on her rest and exercise. I couldn’t believe her transformation from bloated and tired-looking to perky and vibrant, once more. She was always gorgeous to me but seeing her strutting around in body-hugging leggings and tight shirts made my balls ache.

I stopped by the next afternoon after loading up the truck with cement and rebar for the dam project I was preparing to work on. Rachel made her famous shaking beef dish and the three of us enjoyed a quiet dinner together. I could sense the silent communication going on between her and Kevin as we ate and I ignored it for a while. Finally, it got obnoxious to the point that I simply set down my fork and sat up straight to regard them both.

“What?” I demanded.

Rachel looked flushed and Kevin had the decency to act like he’d been caught stealing cookies.

“I ... we,” she mumbled as she played with her food, “we want another baby.”

‘Already? Jeesh!’ I looked back and forth between them. “And you want my sperm this time?”

She smiled embarrassed and Kevin nodded. I remembered Rachel’s words during the bath but I figured there was a maelstrom of hormones at play during that ‘exchange’. I leaned forward and nodded encouragingly to them both.

“I’m happy to do it, guys,” I agreed, “Just tell me where to go and when and I’ll donate as much as you need.”

There was that awkward silence and downward glance from both of them again. Oh shit, this was about to get weird.

“I’m not doing another turkey baster insemination,” she replied adamantly. “It was a fucking nightmare and took eight tries to get it to take.”

I looked directly at Kevin. He met my gaze and nodded assuredly.

“You want to...”

She stood up and leaned over towards me, “I want it straight from the source, Carter,” she drawled. “You and I are going to have sex when the time is right and you are going to pickle my little ovaries until one of my eggs catches the magic bullet.”

Well, that was direct. I sat back dumbfounded and stared wide-eyed at Kevin. “Are you good with this buddy?” I whispered harshly.

He nodded immediately and rose to clap a hand on my shoulder. “Always have been, Carter. I know this feels like a worn-out cuckold drama, but I want to assure you that, when you can’t get your wife pregnant—it takes away a lot more than your dignity. It strips you of any sense of viability as a husband or even a man,” he replied glumly. “If she hadn’t taken after that eighth attempt, I was going to have Gary start screwing her.”

I put my head in my hands and stared at my empty plate until Rachel removed it and took it to the sink. “This is just so far beyond ... I don’t even know what to think of it.”

“Je ne sais quoi,” Kevin replied.