Beyond the Mirror
Copyright© 2012/2014
Chapter 29
Tom had just left the doctor’s office after receiving a clean bill of health concerning his concussion when his cellphone rang once more. It was Josie, who was calling using Art’s phone because they were still on the road, but only a few miles out of town. Tom looked at his watch and saw it was after eleven, so he offered to buy them lunch, but Josie had other ideas.
“I’ve got two kids here who need space to run around after they’ve spent almost two days cooped up in this car, “ she sighed. “Do you suppose we could go to the new house and order takeout?”
“Well, there is a pizza joint on the way, but do the kids eat pizza?” Tom asked.
“No, not really, but if the pizza place is like most of their kind, they probably serve pasta as well. Why don’t you meet us there, and I’ll handle ordering for the kids?”
“Actually, that’s a great idea, because there’s a grocery store almost next door to the pizza place, so you can pick up a few essentials at the same time.” Tom suggested, heading for his pickup. “I’ll meet you on the outskirts of town. Just look for a light-blue pickup truck with a snowplow on the front and a white canopy on the back.”
The next two hours were literally a combination of a picnic, a circus, and a madhouse, but by the end of that time, Art, Josie, and the kids had all their belongings moved into their new home. To be specific, the picnic evolved because the newcomers all needed a break, and the whole crew needed food, so everyone ate while sitting on the bare wooden floor of Josie’s new dining room. The circus started when the four-year-old and the toddler convinced their dad and Tom to play with them on the new carpet in the living room. The madhouse happened after the kids had tired themselves out and had fallen asleep; then, the grownups rushed to move Art and Josie’s furniture into the new house. After that, Tom told Art to take the rest of the day to get settled in, then he left with his crew to get Sami moved into her new place. As soon as Sami’s possessions were out of the moving truck, Tom paid off the movers; meanwhile, Sami and the others in his ‘military crew’ unloaded and stashed her gear in record time. By two-thirty that afternoon, Sami was moved into her condo and was asking Tom to take her out to the airfield to introduce her to the White Out crew and show her around.
“Sorry about all those phone calls yesterday,” Sami apologised once they were alone.
“Well, I like your enthusiasm, but I’m going to warn you about that; from now on, check with me before you start making demands on others like you did yesterday,” Tom said shortly. “You may have been a lieutenant in the US Marines, but in this outfit, you’re still a raw recruit. Now, I don’t imagine things will stay this way for long, but at the moment, I don’t know you, and I don’t know your strengths or weaknesses. However, I want you to remember that I’m paying the bills, so don’t throw out orders that conflict with mine; otherwise, you and I are going to have words, all right?”
“Yeah, Alvin and Arnie already chewed me out on that one, and since they got me the job with your outfit...” Sami sighed.
“Whoa, right there!” Tom interrupted. “As far as I’m concerned, Alvin and Arnie introduced you to me as their friend; that’s all. What got you the job was your background in the Seabees; in other words, your education and your experience, nothing else. You proved you were tough just by getting through the training to make it into the Seabees, so that was in your favour, and so was your service in the field, and I appreciate that because life out in the bush can be very tough. Besides that, you can operate heavy equipment, which is something I need on the lease. Then too, you’re a construction engineer, which is another thing I need, both here in Bear Creek and out at the mine. In other words, you got the opportunity to work for me on those three points alone, nothing else. Your relationship with the ‘A’ team is none of my concern, unless it has a negative effect on the work I need to have done; then it will become my business.
“To start with, you need to know that White Out Wilderness Service is an established business which is moving its whole operation here from a hundred miles away, and your job is to help design our new facilities. You won’t be working directly for White Out as such; instead, you’ll be working on their job, but for me. In other words, you’ll be on loan to them as a construction engineer, but if you screw up, I’ll be the one who will end up chewing you out over the problem.
“Now concerning your work out here at the airfield, you’ll be working with my brother JJ, because I’ve inveigled him into taking charge of the big move that’s coming this spring. Just to explain the ins and outs of the personnel situation, JJ is more or less my representative on the White Out crew. He and I are partners in the property, which we are leasing to the company, so JJ is handling the construction on the site and he’ll be your boss on the job. You’ll also be working closely with Jim Burke who handles the choppers and the rescue operation, which is the main portion of the business. Then there’s Harry Guildford who runs the bush-pilot service. Harry has lived in Bear Creek all his life, so he knows all the local secrets and where the bodies are buried. Besides that, you’ll have to consult with Art, who will be setting up the freighting and warehouse arrangements.
“I don’t expect you to know all the answers that they’ll ask you, but I do expect you to be willing to find the right answers by asking people that should know. That means you’re going to have to establish a working relationship with the people in the local planning departments and government offices who have jurisdiction here. Okay?”
“Umm, yeah, I think so,” she frowned slightly, then she sighed. “So just what do you want built?”
“How would I know what they need? After all, I don’t work there?” Tom snorted. “I’m just a shareholder and a customer, so what I’d like to see is a set of buildings that allow the crew to get their jobs done efficiently. The whole group has to be able to mesh and work well without a lot of hassle, which means you’re going to have to consider all the aspects of the work that the company does and include that in the building design and layout. I think Jim and Harry will have the most information you need, but don’t give short shrift to the details you’ll get from the pilots, the mechanics, the office workers, or anyone else who works at White Out. Remember, you’ll be building a facility that will be in use for the long term, and all of our staff members have a lot of experience, so they know how to make their jobs work smoothly. Since White Out deals with emergency situations, it has to be set up for rapid deployment if necessary, but at the same time, it needs to be well laid out and very efficient. The heavy freight I’m having hauled by the company is a separate issue altogether and should only be a temporary situation that might last a year or two. Not only that, but much of my heaviest and most awkward freight is being shipped through Misery Flats now, so in fact, my freighting needs are a minor issue here in Bear Creek.”
“So White Out is the main user of the airfield, but you use some of the machines to haul freight for your mining business then?”
“That’s right, more or less. As I said before, JJ and I own the land where the airfield sits, and we lease it to White Out. As well as that, I own two of the choppers and two of the planes, but they are leased to the company, so I pay the company when those aircraft are used for my business.” Tom smiled slightly. “Now to confuse the issue, although Liz and Russ are working with my crew right now, they’re actually paid by White Out even when they work for me. Then I repay White Out for the cost of their wages. Alvin and Arnie work for me through Sunrise Mineral, but are sometimes on loan to White Out. Meanwhile, Art works for me through either TF Dunn or Sunrise Mineral, but he’s going to be on loan to White Out when needed, just like you are. Then there are the two young fellows that work for TF Dunn until I decide what to do with them: Ben Jacobs, who is already working at the airfield, and Bobby Boyer, who came with Art and is here on tryout. Not only that, but my sister, Ann, will be working at my new office building and warehouse in town, and Lillian Samuels will be working there too. Those two will be handling most of the purchasing for Sunrise Mineral, so you may be dealing with them as well. However, all of that is background information and shouldn’t concern you much, since it’s just accounting and won’t really affect the work that is done at the airfield. I’m only mentioning it because in the long run, you’ll be working with my other people more than with the White Out crew.”
“And here I was under the impression that all you did was mine for gold, so I thought Alvin, Arnie, and I would be working miles from civilization all the time,” Sami snorted.
“Oh, you’ll be out in the boondocks soon enough, but not right away. By the way, do you have a set of fatigues that has no insignia or any other clue of your former military service or rank?”
“Well, I do have normal BDUs, either desert tan or woodland green, but anyone who knows anything about uniforms would know it was US Marine issue. Why do you ask?”
“Oh, the crew wore their forest camo fatigues last night when they were acting as guards, and it was very effective because even the cops treated them with respect. I presume being dressed like that showed that they were experienced veterans without showing all that much about where they served or which branch of the service they were in,” he paused and frowned slightly. “It wasn’t my idea for them to do that, but I noticed that they seemed to get a boost out of being in uniform, almost as if they were showing pride in having served, and I’m all for that. So I was just thinking that if I need a guard detail again, I’d like to see everyone showing that they were ex-military. What do you think? Is there any official reason that it shouldn’t be done?”
“I’m not sure, but as long as I wasn’t doing anything to disgrace the Marines, I think I’d like the idea myself,” Sami looked thoughtful. “It’d be almost as if we were on parade, but without the formality, so I’ll think about it, but I don’t see a problem.”
“Okay, do that, but for now, I need you to grab your engineer’s hat to replace your Marine headgear because we’re coming to the airstrip,” Tom smiled as he slowed, then turned down the driveway and steered toward the office building. “I know it doesn’t look like much now, but for the next few weeks, this will be your home away from home. Hopefully, you can work with everyone here to design a new facility that will work well for White Out and will look a lot more professional.”
“Yeah, this place looks a little disorderly at the moment, but I suppose it just grew, didn’t it?”
“Yes, but if you consider the fact that this has always been a one- or two-man operation, that was running on a shoestring budget, it’s not that bad. Harry Guildford’s father started the place, and Harry took over when his father passed on. You can catch up on everyone’s history later, but for now, let’s go inside the office, and I’ll introduce you to the White Out crew.”
Sami couldn’t help frowning slightly as they pulled up in front of a building that had obviously been a house at one time, but the frown didn’t last long. By the time she’d been introduced to JJ, Jim, and Harry, then had been shown the rough sketches and partially formulated plans that had already been sketched out, she was obviously in her element. Tom was soon wearing a discreet smile as he watched her interact with the others, convinced that once more his luck had held true. He was positive she’d fit right in, and his smile widened as Jim looked at him and nodded slightly.
“She certainly knows her stuff, doesn’t she?” Jim said a few minutes later as he and Tom watched Sami and JJ, who were discussing a rather detailed drawing.
“She should, she has an engineering degree and five years of experience using that training in the field as a Seabee. Of course, that was before she was injured, so she’s been away from it for a while as she recovered.”
“Oh, how badly was she injured?”
“I don’t know, because I didn’t ask!” Tom snorted sharply. “I hired her for her brain, and that seems to be working just fine. As long as she can work around any problems she has with her health and those problems don’t affect the jobs I ask her to do, it’s not my business. If it does become a problem, then I’ll ask if I can help, but until that time comes, I’ll let her keep her pride and let her show me just what she can do. Now, do you guys want her help out here or not, because if you don’t, I have other jobs I want her to do?”
“Oh Hell yes, I want her here. I was just curious, but you’re right, her injuries are her business, not mine.”
“Okay then, and I’m sorry if I seem a bit touchy about the subject, but my old man and I have been having a running battle on that subject since I hired Liz and Russ, then Alvin and Arnie. It’s just prejudice on his part, and it annoys me. Look at Sami and think about her background for a moment. She invested years into her training, and once she was judged to be unfit for service because she wasn’t able to keep up to the physical standards set by the Seabees, she was let go. I don’t need her to run ten miles through rugged terrain while carrying a full pack, or any other damn fool nonsense of that sort. So, I’d be a damn fool not to take advantage of all that training, especially when it was thrown at me like a gift.”
“Having met your father, I can understand why you’re touchy about the subject. He does have a habit of annoying people with his adamant viewpoints on controversial situations, so I apologise for speaking out of turn and sounding like him.”
“Yeah, and I might be just a touch too sensitive on several matters because of his attitudes, but then I’m his son, so my feelings are as strong as his, only he and I view things differently.”
The conversation might have carried on further, but just then Tom’s cellphone rang. Since he didn’t want to disturb the discussion going on between JJ and Sami, he excused himself and stepped out of the room.
“Hello Lance, what’s up?”
“I was just talking to your lawyer in Victoria, and I heard you were flying down this direction this evening, so I was wondering if you were flying back home soon?”
“Yeah, we are. We’re only staying there for a short while, then flying back this evening. Why, do you need a lift?”
“I sure do, if you don’t mind stopping off in Vancouver, because I doubt if I can make it to Victoria in time to meet you there.”
“Well, things aren’t definite yet, but if everything goes the way I’ve planned, we could give you a lift,” Tom grinned, because it tied in with his other plans. “Can I get back to you on that?”
“Absolutely!” Lance sighed. “Otherwise, I’ll have to spend another night here in Vancouver, then catch the milk run back to Kamloops, and – well, you know that routine.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to you in a bit. Hang tough for now, okay?” Tom smiled.
“Sure, you’ve got my number.”
As soon as Lance had hung up, Tom called Frank.
“Hello, Tom.” Frank answered on the first ring.
“Hello Frank, what’s the news?”
“Well, the broadcasters love the idea of talking to you, but they’re adamant that any interview has to be held much earlier so they can get it on the early news in Toronto,” Frank said, sounding quite apologetic.
“Frank, it’s after three right now, and I can’t possibly get there before six, so they’re out of luck on that point. Secondly, I want you to explain to them that there will be no interview; instead, I’ll read a prepared statement, then I’m leaving. I don’t want to answer their inane questions about my private life, so they can completely forget that idea. I will read a statement, but that’s it; tell them it’s a take-it-or-leave-it, one-time-only situation, and that right now I’d just as soon leave it and fax them a statement.”
“I really doubt if they’ll be all that interested in hearing a prepared statement; instead, they want to know more about you and about how this has affected your life.”
“Too ‘F’ing bad; they are not going to be allowed to pry into my private life just for the fun of it. I’m not a public figure, so they have no right to snoop - period - end of story. They can either listen to the facts that I am prepared to divulge or not; I don’t care one way or the other. Just go ahead and lease the conference room and the vehicles for six o’clock. I’ll be landing at the airport just before six, then I’ll be leaving before seven. Anything you can do to make my short visit go smoothly will be sincerely appreciated though.”
“Well, I’ll work on that and pass on your plans, but I don’t think the media people will be very happy, so you may be addressing a somewhat hostile crowd,” Frank sighed.
“Gee, that’s too bad,” Tom said, sounding quite insincere, then his tone changed. “I’m sorry to put you through this, Frank, but I think it’s necessary for several reasons.”
“Well, if you say so. I’ll be there in the background tonight though, just in case. So I imagine I’ll see you then.”
“Okay, and thank you for all you’re doing,” Tom said quietly, then hung up and redialled Lance to let him know what was going on.
When he went back into the office where the others were, JJ and Sami were still involved in their discussion, so Tom took Jim and Harry aside.
“I’m going to have to take the Lear out again late this afternoon, but I’ll be back much earlier tonight, probably before nine. If the weather holds like this, with clear skies and a full moon, I won’t need much more than a couple of lights at the far end of the runway and the lights on the buildings though. If the clouds roll in, I’ll need more though.”
“What’s up, another rescue?” Harry asked.
“No, nothing like that. The news services have been driving me crazy the last few days, so I’m flying to Victoria to make a short statement. After that, I’ll be hopping over to Vancouver to pick up Lance, then flying right back.”
“Isn’t it going to be a little late in the day to catch the news broadcasts?”
“That’s their problem, not mine,” Tom shrugged. “I really don’t care if it makes things a little difficult for those snoopy buggers, since they’ve certainly made my life difficult for the last few days. All they’re going to get from me is a statement of facts and not much more, but hopefully it’ll be enough to get them off my back. I’ll be taking along my Sunrise Mineral crew for protection though, and I’ll be using Liz and Russ as my backup pilots once again. But, if I’m going to get out of here on time, I’d better take Sami away with me now, because she’s going to want to come along.”
With that, he spun around and walked over to Sami and JJ.
“Sorry to interrupt JJ, I know you’re discussing the new layout, but something has come up and I could use Sami’s help for a few hours to take care of a little Sunshine Mineral business. I need to go pick up the rest of my crew so we can fly out of here tonight, and since she was so eager to work with us last night, I thought she might like to join us on a similar task.”
“Are you taking the whole crew?” Sami asked instantly.
“I think having Liz and Russ as pilots, with Alvin, Arnie, and you as backup should be enough. This time I want to leave someone with the plane though, and I think Liz will be best suited for that job. I do need four guards to come along with me as well, and I don’t really want to haul Art away from Josie and his family while they’re settling into their new house. You’ll be back here late tonight, and I won’t pull you off this job again until you have it in hand, not unless we run into another emergency of some sort.”
“I’m in!” she snapped, then turned to JJ. “I’ll be back early tomorrow morning, but if we’re going to do this job, let’s do it right. So if you want to run things by the book, we’re going to need a draftsman before too long, and a surveyor not long after. That way, if we get any brass hats or inspectors out here, wanting to know just what we’re up to, we’ll have decent plans and drawings to show them.”
“I’m not sure about a draughtsman, but I can have a surveyor here next week if you can’t find anyone locally, since I happen to have Johnny Bowman looking after my cabin for the winter,” Tom said quietly. “I’ll warn you though, doing a surveying job with a foot or more of snow on the ground is a tough job, so I think we should hold off on that for now. We do have a general idea of the lay of the land and we have a fairly good idea of the layout we want, so I’d say go with the plan we have for now and we’ll get a surveyor here as soon as possible. Now Sami, are you ready to go, because we need to get moving if we’re going to be in Victoria by six? See you tomorrow, JJ.”
“We’ll be back about four and we’ll need the Lear, but we’ll bring it out of the hangar when we get here,” Tom waved at Harry and Jim. “There’s no sense in taking a chance on icing it up by pulling it out any earlier.”
Once they were back in the pickup and headed for town, Sami looked at Tom and asked, “Okay, now that we’re alone, what are we up to and why are we headed back to town instead of just phoning the others and having them come out to the airstrip?”
“Because I want to have some privacy while we have a discussion concerning what I’m about to do and how all of you want to appear when we’re interacting with others,” he sighed softly. “By now you’ve heard about all the crap that’s gone on involving me and my family with crooks of one kind or another, but we’ve decided to fight back through the media. Tonight I’m going to read a statement to the media just to try to get them off my ass and I’m going to want four guards along. Now, I imagine the guys will want to wear their fatigues again, but this time it will be in front of cameras and I don’t know how that will go over with the military brass, so I thought we should have a talk about it.”
“Ah, now I understand why you were asking about it before, but if we’re not wearing unit designations or rank insignias, I can’t see any problem with wearing BDUs. After all, they’re nothing more than sturdy clothing designed for freedom of movement and rough use. Hell, anyone can buy them in almost any army surplus store. In fact, I just bought a set of woodland cammies in Seattle before coming to Canada, so I could wear those. I can’t see how the brass would do any more than shake their heads at the idea of you picking people from three different services to use as guards,” she shrugged. “Of course, if they checked and discovered that you were hiring people who had medical discharges and giving them jobs, they might applaud the idea.”
“So you don’t know of any federal regulation that we might be breaking then? I don’t want to break any laws myself, but I don’t want you to be slapped with a fine or a penalty of some sort for standing beside me in your BDUs either.”
“Not as long as you aren’t wearing a uniform and you aren’t forcing us to wear insignia of any kind that could cause dissension, there’s no way they could do anything to you at all. As a former member of the service, I am allowed to wear my full regalia on special occasions, so wearing BDUs while attending you at a meeting isn’t any problem. Now, if I wore a distinctive cover, like the one I wore with my full uniform, that would be a different story.”
“A distinctive cover?”
“My headgear,” she chuckled. “Marine officers wear distinctive headgear, and wearing that would be considered a no-no, since it would declare that I was a Seabee just as much as any other form of insignia. I’ll be honest, I like the idea of wearing camo BDUs when we’re acting as guards because it gives me an edge. Somehow or other, wearing BDUs puts me on guard, almost as if I was going into a firefight.”
“Yeah, Arnie told me the same thing last night when we were heading for Victoria, but being a civilian, all I could compare that with is how I feel when I’m out in the wilderness. When I’m hunting or hiking in the bush, I seem to be more aware of my surroundings and notice details that I might miss under other circumstances.”
“I think it might be a little more intense than that,” she commented.
“Well, yeah!” Tom snorted. “Bears and wolves don’t shoot at you with an AK47, but they can still injure you badly or even kill you, probably just about as quickly too.”
That led to a discussion about situational awareness and how various situations were far more apt to raise the level of adrenaline in a person’s blood than others. Actually, they were still discussing that subject as they pulled up at the condos and went inside to talk to Liz, Russ, Alvin, and Arnie. In fact, the others were already in their fatigues when they went inside because Frank had called them and so had Lance, but Tom still took the time to explain exactly what he planned to do in Victoria. The only person who was slightly upset with his plan was Liz, but even she had to admit that having one of his crew guard the plane while it was on the tarmac in Victoria was a good idea. As a result, Sami hurried next door and changed into her BDUs while Tom phoned Sandy to let her know what was going on, then they all headed back to the airstrip.
Tom flew the plane to Victoria and had to circle once so they wouldn’t interfere with a commercial flight, but they still arrived a few minutes before six. Once they were on the ground, they went to the parking lot where they picked up the two cars that had been set aside in Tom’s name. Then, after a quick call to Frank to see if everything else was set up and ready for them, they headed for the Lazy Dog Hotel, which is when the fun started.
Frank had warned Tom that the media had set up in front of the hotel to catch him on camera when he arrived, but Frank had arranged for them to park at the rear of the hotel and enter via a back door. A young man would then guide Tom and his guards down a back hallway so they could enter the conference room through a service entrance at the back of the room. They found themselves on a small raised stage and behind a set of partially closed curtains which faced the normal entrance to the room. As a result, all of the cameras and all of the media were facing the wrong way when Tom and his crew of four guards dressed in fatigues slipped quietly through the gap in the curtains. Needless to say, when Tom cleared his throat loudly, and the media spied the five figures standing there, confusion reigned for a few seconds, but Tom didn’t seem to care. Instead, he began to speak quite loudly.
“Good evening, everyone. My name is Tom Dunn, and I seem to be developing a reputation for appearing unexpectedly and disappearing just as abruptly. Now, before I begin, I want you to know that I believe in the due process of the law, not in the prejudgment of the facts by the media, which has become quite common these days. As a result, I am here to read a statement of certain pertinent facts, but I will NOT be answering any personal or speculative questions now, or at any time in the foreseeable future.
“For those of you that know nothing about me, I am a mineralogist and a prospector, who less than two years ago went out into the wilderness, discovered gold, and established a claim for a gold mine. As a direct result of making that discovery and registering that mining claim, I purchased the company which held the mineral lease on the property where my gold mine is situated.
“At the time, I was not aware that a group of international pirates, masquerading as an oil firm, had decided that they needed to gain possession of that selfsame mineral lease and would go to almost any length to bilk me out of it. That oil firm has done everything it can to force me to renege on my mineral lease, yet they have never once come to me face to face with anything nearing a worthwhile offer of purchase. Instead, they have sneaked around behind my back like vermin, chawing at my heels and nipping at my backside in an attempt to intimidate me into giving up the rights to a lease and a mine which I have worked hard to establish. As a result, I feel that the members of that firm and those associates that I have had to deal with are without honour or any semblance of moral fibre. In my opinion, some of their local representatives are little more than filthy scum, for no decent human would stoop to the depths that those scavengers have done. In fact, I may have inadvertently insulted the animals that others call bottom feeders, but if I have done so, I apologise to those wild creatures who survive by eating carrion. However, enough of my opinions and on to the facts.”