Chapter 10

I set about cleaning up the mess we had left and getting rid of the trash and beer bottles. I tried to think of anything we might have forgotten in this plan. If we fucked up, then we'd all be spending a lot of time in jail. I didn't relish that thought at all. I spent the rest of the evening going over everything in my mind and trying to think of scenarios that could mess us up. The only one I could think of was that he would recognize one of us or escape before he was sedated. Everything else was pretty secure.

In an effort to get that off my mind, I drew up plans for the landing lights and the cave entrance. I had enough free circuits at the landing field to accommodate all the lights we wanted to put up. I figured we'd run one inch PVC pipe from the hanger to the runway. We could run five 12-2 grounded romex and then branch off in each direction with smaller pipe and put in receptacles along the way to plug the lights into. Once we were done with the operation, I could just unplug the lights and store them in the hanger until I decided to put them in permanently.

I wasn't as sure about the cave. I didn't know if I wanted to keep the hallway as a permanent fixture or not. It was not like I used it all the time and it really didn't need to have plywood walls, but the lighting would be nice to have. I had the power door on it to keep anyone out, but why would I need a plywood hallway in there. Well, we'd just put it up with screws and it would be easy to disassemble later on. I could use the plywood in the basement to finish the walls down there. The bathroom was finished, but most of the basement was just that, a basement with concrete walls.

It was getting late and I opted for some sleep in hopes of trying to clear my mind. I closed things down and had a Dos Equis and watched the news. They had a segment about the upcoming Democratic Convention and all the security that was in place for it. With a little luck, we'd have an internal surprise for them during the their celebration.

I had a fitful nights sleep. I tossed and turned most of the night with thoughts of the mission running through my head. When I woke up, I wasn't rested at all. I got up and got moving and planned my day. I wanted to split the order for wood into 3 parts so no one would get suspicious about what I was buying. Plus, I couldn't carry it all in one trip.

I headed for Hollister, about 50 miles away. I got the first load of plywood there, along with a nail gun for my compressor and a power painter. I also got the PVC pipe and fittings and 1,500 foot of wire for the landing lights and the necessary outdoor receptacle boxes. Then, on the way back, I stopped at a rental place and rented a walk behind trencher to dig the trench for the PVC. In this soil down here, using a shovel is just stupid. The trencher would save us probably two days work.

When I got back, I dropped the trencher, wire and PVC at the landing strip and then headed for the mouth of the cave to drop the plywood there. By the time I got to the house, I had about an hour to relax until Earl buzzed from the entrance.

I opened the gate and turned off the mines and waited for him. He was fit to be tied when he pulled up. He had paid the IRS and was not the least bit happy about it. They had charged him another $314 in penalties and interest to pay off his debt. He was ready to go to war with them.

I got us a beer and tried to calm him down some. I finally got him to the point where he was only going to castrate Snelling instead of the entire IRS and White House and I settled for that level as a good job.

I showed him the stuff I had bought and we unloaded the 30-halogen lights he had bought for landing lights. We figured we should start there and get that out of the way while we had good weather. I fired up the trencher and began cutting the ditch. I cut one trench from the hanger to the runway and then one in each direction from that main trench. It took us the better part of 3 hours just to get the trenches all dug.

We started at the runway with the wire and PVC. Fishing five 12-2 grounded cable through PVC is not a picnic. One or more of the cables would always get kinked as it came off the roll and we would need to stop and straighten things out. The one good thing was we didn't need to glue the joints on the PVC, so if we did have to take it apart, it wouldn't be that much of a job.

We pulled through enough to get the circuit box and leave room to connect it. Then we had to put the five wires through a Tee. Two from one side and three from the other. That was a problem that I didn't anticipate. The only way to get it in the tee was to string all the wire out and start at one end with three cables and then start pulling the other two through the other side. We got part of it done and said screw it for today. It was after 6 and we were hungry. I put the trencher in the hanger and we headed for the house.

We had supper and some beer and swapped lies until it was time to go to bed. I did sleep better that night and we got a fresh start the next morning after breakfast and coffee. We got ourselves moving and got dressed for the day's work.

Starting fresh, we had a fresh approach. We figured where each receptacle should go so it could take two lights. That place got a tee and we cut the one cable for there and left enough to hook up the receptacle. Once we got all of that laid out, we started at the far end and began pulling the cable through the PVC. It was pretty straight forward, but it just took a lot of patience and work to get it all done.

After we got both ends of the runway done, we started hooking up the receptacles. That is not a hard job, but it is time consuming. I started at one end and Earl started at the other. We took a break for lunch after we had them hooked up.

After lunch, I hooked the circuits to the breakers and we got the lights put out on the runway and plugged in. We did a check on them and all were working. But the really good thing was, none of the breakers tripped. We had a good spacing on the lights and we would check it out tonight to see what kind of coverage it gave to the runway. We just left them where they were and headed for the house.

I got us a beer and fired up the grill for some steaks. Earl went in to take a shower while we were waiting for the grill to heat up. When he came back, I put the steaks on while he nuked a couple potatoes to cut the grease some. The meal was good and we were starved. The work we did wasn't hard, but mentally draining and that can work up an appetite just as much as physical labor.

After we ate, I took a shower and we sipped another beer until it started getting dark. We drove over to the landing strip and I turned on all the lights. We had to make a couple of adjustments, but the strip looked like it was daylight out. There shouldn't be any problems in landing with them on.

We unplugged all the lights and put them back in the hanger and returned to watch a pre-season football game on TV. We sipped beer and just enjoyed the football game. Even though it was pre-season, it was good playing. We got to see some of the newer players that would be stars in the future. After the game, we called it a night and headed to bed.

The next morning, after breakfast, we decided to start on the cave. I opened the door and we started taking measurements. The eight by eight foot hallway would not be a problem for the size of the cave, but it became quickly apparent we would need to have something to fasten the hallway to. We couldn't just have a floating eight by eight structure. We went back to the house and were considering our options when someone from the gate buzzed.