Chapter 2

The forty minute journey was filled with gentle conversation. Genja and Fiona were talking to Claire about her situation. It seems her boyfriend, also called Jimmy, like her brother, was a bit of a layabout and tried living off of other people’s money. The present dilemma had been caused by not paying back a five hundred dollar loan from a shady character in the area. All of this had been unknown to Claire, up until this evening.

The girls then made small talk about their day to day lives, and generally took in the sights of the small towns we went through.

It was 10.30 pm, but luckily it was a very clear night. A very full moon, in the starry sky, illuminated the homesteads we were passing. We came off the main road and drove for another mile down a side road. The entrance to camp wasn’t marked by any signage but I turned off into a driveway very familiar to me. Coming up in front of the large six metre tall wooden sliding gate, I pressed the remote and waited for it to fully open. After we went through, I checked to make sure the automatic gate had closed, before I continued our journey.

Privacy was paramount for what existed beyond. What couldn’t be seen from where we entered was the four foot Electric fence that was woven into the tall bush and shrubbery that circled the full 3000 acres of my property. Beyond that boundary was a continuous five foot trench. If anyone wanted to climb any part of the fence, he or she would have a minimum of a ten foot drop on the other side. I had also set up security cameras, sensors and radio jammers that could block the signals sent to drones anyone might want to use. This was to allow anyone that entered the total privacy they would desire.

Even after we entered the gate, we had a mile to drive before we came to any of the buildings on the property. The girls were so silent that you could hear them breathe. They watched the lights automatically turn on up the drive as I got within 100 feet of each one, and automatically turned off after I passed. The road split. Taking the left fork would take us to the camp, which could be seen by the lights breaking through from the clubhouse and a couple of the cabins. We took the right fork that took us to the immense structure looming in the darkness. As I got within 100 feet the five sets of dual spotlights suddenly burst on, causing some excited expletives from inside the car. Suddenly, it was as light as mid-day and the 230 foot wide, 80 foot high, frontage of the ex-storage facility I called home was towering over us. I had the building on lock down, since I was due to be in town overnight, so the massive iron shutters were covering the entrance. I clicked the remote when I was close enough. The shutter started to rise, exposing the massive glass windows and doorway that was protected behind it. I parked to the side of the entrance and shut off the engine.

I turned in my seat and said, “Welcome to my project, I call it ‘The Warehouse’.” I was staring at three astonished faces, all of them had their mouths wide open and eye’s as wide as saucers.

“Where are we?” Claire nervously asked me. I could see the fear in her eyes, and it dawned on me that within an hour she had been saved from a very scary situation and now she was in the middle of nowhere and was equally terrified.

“This is my home. Don’t let the facade fool you, you can’t tell a book by its cover.”

“But, it’s just what you called it, a warehouse!” Fiona added.

“Well, yes. I actually called it ‘The Warehouse’, and how many warehouses have you seen with forty foot tall and fifty foot wide glass doorways?” I asked.

“True,” Fiona agreed.

“Come on, I’m pretty certain you will change your view when we go inside,” I said, opening the door and getting out of the car.

I walked over and opened the entry door, stopping and waiting for my three guests to follow. They didn’t emerge for over a minute and I could see that they were talking to each other in the car. Finally, Genja got out and was soon followed by Fiona and Claire, as they tentatively joined me at the entrance.

Since it was complete darkness inside, we couldn’t see anything until I clicked the light switches just inside the entrance.

“Fuck, WOW, what the hell!” Genja screeched

“OH ... MY ... GOD!” Fiona added.

Claire was absolutely mute staring in disbelief.

I had a very proud and smug smile on my face. This was the first time I had let anyone other than a contractor or Jane see my dream.

In Front of us was four floors of pure glass, walls, and floors reaching nearly two thousand feet into the distance with the exceptions being the 30 foot Entrance room we presently stood in and the large fully fitted kitchen that was just beyond the entrance, both having oak hardwood floors. I hadn’t shown them everything yet. They still didn’t know there were four floors!

Like a magician, I still wanted to keep some surprises as we starting to walk through the building. And my project was far from being completed. In truth, I had only completed 40% of the building. I had laid all the floors on all the levels. But I had only completed the first half of the floor plan on this level, and seven suites on the next level, measuring sixty-six feet by sixty-six feet each. I still had another fifty-three suites to build on the second floor and still hadn’t decided what to build on the third floor. Each suite had a large bedroom a massive thirteen foot wide bed. They had a large bathroom with a walk in shower, freestanding bath, toilet and bidet. Finally, each suite had a small seating area and dressing area. The suites all had sliding doors giving access to the continuous balcony that ran the length of the outside of the building on each side

And then, of course, I had the biggest job of all to do ... the penthouse!! Presently the roof had the standard warehouse finish, my plan was to replace this with special heat resistant tinted Glass. It was already being manufactured for me, but 460,000 square feet of glass takes a long time to make, especially to the spec I wanted.

The second and third floors both went seventy-five feet from the outside wall to the balcony that overlooked the ground floor and the living space. This left an eighty foot wide area that had a very impressive eighty foot ceiling. Everywhere else the ceiling height was twenty feet. The floors were over three foot thick and made of the strongest glass known to man, with all the pipes and lights embedded into them. I had also designed it to be able to regulate the temperature by either using the air condition ducts through it or generating the heat flow if required.