Chapter 23

Sheriff Holman called another deputy out to take the dipshit and his vehicle in. While they were waiting, Alba came out with a carafe of coffee and offered the three a cup.

John looked at Holman and said “Captain, are we going to have to worry about some of his buddies on the force?”

Holman looked at John “Either call me Sheriff or Ray. I haven’t been Captain Holman in years. As to your question, unlikely. He’s just about pissed everyone on the force off. He was already on thin ice for bible thumping in the office and preaching to the elders. There are a lot of people who’d like to baptise him in the river permanently as it is.

Looking at Gunny he said “Keep your desires to redecorate under control, and you won’t have a problem. Everyone on the team knew which team you played for and didn’t care. But redecorating the rapist bastards’ house with their nut sacks was a bridge too far Gunny.

John laughed when her face turned red.

Holman turned to John. “Care to explain how in the hell Gunny here is carrying your last name?”

Alma broke in at that. She explained how she was John’s legal daughter and that she and Gunny had married out in California.

Holman commented “Life truly is stranger than fiction. The rest of the team are going to call me a liar when I tell them you’re Gunny’s father-in-law.” It was John’s turn to flush while Gunny laughed at him.

Holman set his cup down and looked at the house. “It’s a damn fine thing you’re doing for those kids. I arrested their parents several times but they never got their head out of their asses. They blew themselves up in their meth lab, but at least the kids have someone to watch over them now. Gotta take the wins where you can get them.”

A sheriff’s car pulled up with two deputies. Holman said “You two don’t be strangers. It was good to see you again.”

He got up and handed the badge, keys, and sidearm from dipshit to one of them, and all three vehicles left.

Gunny commented “What’s with you Ravenclaw? You always come out smelling of lilac after you fall in a pile of shit. You got a horseshoe stuck up your ass? And when were you going to tell me the Captain was the Sheriff around here?”

“No horseshoe, but some might agree with the horse’s ass part. As for when, today. Remember, I had no idea what your plans were.”

Pixy walked up “It’s getting dark, we should get back to the camper.”

John looked around and saw the sun setting. “Gunny, if you need anything call us.”

Soon John and crew were on their way. They stopped at a local Walmart for supplies. Their purchases were close to the limit on their bikes’ bag space. Before they left, he said “We’ll pull in a Walmart with the rig before going on to Kentucky.”

It was after dark when they finally got back.

John moved the power wagon out before storing the bikes. They should have used it to start with but everyone had an itch to ride.

After offloading everything, and checking the charge on the batteries, John shut off the generator and raised the stairs. The living room was in the center of the slide out, with a couch towards the back wall and seats overlooking the lake from the slide out windows.

Everyone gathered there at Johns request for a chat.

He looked each of them in the eye and said “This is not to make Marty uncomfortable, but there will be no one else. Five women and one man doesn’t bode well for the man, so I won’t be agreeing to any more regardless of the circumstances.

That last contract could have ended very badly, so let’s discuss what’s likely upcoming. I expect to hear from Henrik very soon. By now, he’s going to be aware of the change in management for Rodriguez Energy. Even still, we can’t discuss it with him directly without violating the terms of the non-disclosure agreement. Understand this, he would react negatively if we violated that. He is not Petra, or even in the same ballpark mentally. Not honoring commitments is a big deal for him. So don’t let your tongues wag, especially around him.

Next, we already got paid for that. So the question is, do we bank it as a company, or distribute it among us?

My vote is a mix of both for what it’s worth, and don’t forget, Uncle Sam will be coming around with his hand out. Brian is good, but he’s not a CPA or Tax attorney. We will be needing to contract one of each soon. The company I had been using in Oklahoma City can do it, but we need to shop options.

Finally, we have Mei’s pending medical treatment. That should be worked out before moving on to Kentucky. The facilities for that are available here in this county, so in the morning let’s get that rolling.”

Pixy spoke next. “I don’t personally need the distribution, but I vote for the split option.”

Everyone agreed to that plan. Twenty-five million would be left in the company coffers, and the rest distributed equally.

Marty took issue with that saying she was already paid.

John looked at her and said “That won’t work. You were included in the filing for the company. It would be a legal issue if you were excluded. I can all but guarantee Rodriguez will be investigating that as well.”

She replied “But that wasn’t fair to the rest of them.”

Everyone else protested that statement. “We weren’t the ones beaten and molested by that piece of shit” Mei stated.

John finished the thread with “On paper, it has to happen. Besides, Bynes helped us based on that understanding. It would be dishonorable to do anything else.”

Mary spoke up, “I don’t want to be left behind on the next one please.”

Tess spoke up next “Neither do I.”

“The most likely place we go next is the Netherlands. That presents a problem for Mei” John said to the group.

“What problem is that” Mei questioned.

“The thyroid treatment you’ve been prescribed is classified as nuclear medicine. The half life of Iodine 131 is short, but if you take it in the next four weeks, you’ll be tripping airport monitors for several weeks to come after. By the same token, your condition is not one that can be let go. It is life threatening and the sooner it’s treated the better. I don’t think you’ll be making that trip. Which means one of the others won’t be either as you will not be left alone for it.”

That started a discussion among them as to who would stay with Mei. In the end, it was decided Tess would stay as she had to get her flight medical and flight hours updated soon anyway.

John put forth the idea that PWI needed to look at getting its own bird, preferably one equipped with *magnetotelluric survey equipment.

Pixy asked “What is that, and what would it do for us?”

“Last question first; it would allow us to contract for airborne pipeline leak detection and magnetotelluric surveys in general.

As for what it is, it measures magnetic and electrical resistances which correlate to specific ground conditions, such as leaking pipelines, and other conditions, most notably, the preliminary survey of a pipeline route. It will also necessitate your license be a commercial variant instead of private. So even if this is down the road, you’ll need to get and maintain the commercial license” John finished while looking at Tess.