Chapter 40

"You better go now. You were probably followed."

Jake looked worried but then pulled himself together. "Bye, Hugh. I hope we can still work together."

I sent out a mental call for security to walk back to the strip mall. I opened the washroom door and hurried through to the truck stop property then closed the portal. I put the headband on and looked with the aid of the coins the girls carried to see what the situation was.

There was no way to see if Jake had been followed or not and the detail seemed to be getting away.

I had to wait until Moltatas got to the restaurant at the strip mall and went to the washroom. I appeared and whispered, "Was it the authorities?"

She whispered back, "I think so. They stationed themselves around the building but did not approach. I believe they will wait for you to emerge."

The door started to open. I retreated into the stall and closed the door. There was no talking so it had to be a customer. The room was getting very cold with a gate connected to the open air so I withdrew and closed the link.

Later I was able to reestablish gate. We went back to the barn and to Woodland once more.

Fislu came to me and said, "What happened? You were gone longer than you said."

"The CSIS is after me now. I doubt they could do much besides question me. Bakhtin said that somebody, claiming to be the Canadian security, took part of the last gold shipment. We talked in code so I'm not even sure how much they got. Each of the pallets weighted three tonnes. I don't want to abandon that much metal. We have to get it unless something more important comes along."

I found a large table and started to go through the packet Jake gave me. With it were two copies of an encrypted CD of the same information. I now owned a second company in Bermuda. One of them owned the Dash 8. Correspondence with Tom Cress said that he located three other similar planes. Ruiz' message said that he was sorry to hear about my near robbery in the Dominican Republic then that he would like to do business with me. There was lots more I did not know but Jake was not in those loops to find out for me.

An hour later security and I went back to the truck stop. Gus was back and working on the plane he fetched. The family was informed of this and they prepared to leave. We went ahead with a taxi to a mall and linked with the rest of the family in the back of the building. Four taxis were called to reach the small airport. We arrived like an invading army and I guess we knew what that looked like.

Gus did not want to leave his new beauty. It was a Beech 1900 and looked good to me though much smaller than the Dash 8. Gus hurried to me with a wide smile on his face. "We're ready to go any time you want."

"That's good to know, Gus. How did you get this plane? She looks good."

"She sure is. I wish I could afford to buy it."

"Is it for sale?"

"Yes, it is."

"How is it for landing on grass or gravel runways?"

"There's no problem there. Lots of small airlines use these to get to remote places."

"Is it safe as planes go?"

"It has a good track record."

"How much are they asking for it and how much is it worth?"

"They want four million. The craft is almost worth that much. It has low hours."

"What would they take for it?"

"What! You want to buy it?"

"Why not? We need to learn how to fly."

"I'm sure it wouldn't go for less than three point seven."

The family helped stow the luggage and equipment. There was room for nineteen passengers besides the pilot and copilot. Moltatas got the detail to sit but they were deathly afraid even though we had prepared them for a possible flight. Sonna, Porta, Camsa, Osston and Matra were in no better shape but at least they could communicate mentally with us to be reassured.

Gus helped secure the cargo then we went into the terminal and I used a debt card in one of my aliases to pay what Gus paid then I gave him cash for his help.

I sat in the copilots seat and watched the takeoff. As soon as we got in the air, Camsa and Osston came forward to see what we were doing. Both heard Gus's words in English and I gave some definitions mentally. We headed north around Toronto and my or rather our flight training began. It was fun to take the controls though I was far from actually flying this plane.

Gus said, "Do you really want this aircraft?"

"It's roomy enough for small groups and we can have lessons in situations like this."

"The way you talk about the cost is very casual. I noticed that you signed under a different name. Do you have that much money?"

"I have to remain anonymous. There's no trouble with the cost. I only have problems finding competent people."

"What do you need them for?"

"Somebody to teach us and then to service the plane."

"I can do the teaching as I said before."

"Then let's talk about the costs involved." The distance was just five hundred klicks and the trip only took a little over an hour. Getting to the ground took longer than expected.

Gus was as an employee now. The entourage stayed with the plane as we waited for a return call from Bakhtin. He must have been busy because it was nearly a half hour before I answered.

"Hello, Kapsirko. Is it convenient to talk someplace?"

"I am nearly done, Sir. Where are you staying?"

"We haven't found a place yet. I was hoping to start on the recovery operation."

"Oh, in that case I should go to you immediately, Sir."

Bakhtin arrived at the airport an hour later along with his guards. It was fun to see his male security people looking at my female detail.

When we were alone Bakhtin said, "I believe that the gold is stored in Petawawa on the military base. It could have been stored just as easily in a bank vault but it was not for some reason. I don't know the details other then where the building is. I do know that there has been a lot of surveillance equipment added as well as a fifty man special unit stationed nearby. It is actually a strong room rather than a vault."

"I can get the shipment back fairly easily."

"You can?"

"No problem. Did you bring an inventory of what you bought and what you are able to get?"

"Yes, Sir. Here it is." I was handed two more CD's that were heavily encrypted.

"Thanks, Kapsirko. Tell me about the warships you got."

"They are both fairly modern, Sir. The hulls were purchased bare because the former Soviet Union could not afford to complete the construction. The ships were fitted later with the best that could be found. Most of this was stolen from the Russian military. The cost was exorbitant but I got the frigate for two hundred and eight million American dollars. The patrol boat came to twenty seven million. The owner has actually completed most of the improvements in hopes of selling the ships to the Arabs. Our offer was for gold or cash and he chose to deal with us instead.

"There are no deck guns or missile launchers but these units have been purchased separately. The cost for these is a hundred and thirty million dollars."

I assume they would not take gold directly?"

"No, Sir. I tried my best. Getting back to the ships, Russia now uses the smaller vessels to patrol her shores. The container ship could carry the smaller ship but that would be extremely difficult."

I asked, "Do you mean we can just sail into international waters with these ships and Russia wouldn't respond?"

"They look to be warships but have no weapons. The various radar masts are what set them apart from commercial ships."

"Can you produce a crew for the ships?"

"I can. Most would be former Russian military personnel."

"Where are the ships now?"

"Both the frigate and the patrol boat are in a Russian port near the city of Rostov which happens to be on the Don River. Do you know where that is, Sir?"

"Is that the river that pours into a small sea that eventually pours into the Black Sea?"

"That's right, Sir. Just off of the Sea of Azov. The container ship is in St Petersburg. The cargo is stored on the dock until enough is found to load the ship."

"Tell me more?"

"All three ships are presently under the Russian flag. When they get to the open ocean, they will register under the Bahamas flag."

"Will you have to hire people from Bahamas?"

"No, Sir. It's really unnecessary."

"I have a shopping list here from one of my people. He wants APC's and a lot of them."

"I believe we only found five, Sir. My contacts in Russia can search for more but getting them that far west will be difficult. The Chinese have some nice weapons but export licenses are hard to get. Smuggling is usually easier and sometimes cheaper than the bribes to officials."

"That would take too long."

"We may be able to get some from the United States."

"Most of them are in Iraq or other places I'm afraid."

"I will search harder in Russia then. The old republics have a lot of military hardware and it usually comes at a cheap price. I have been offered some tactical nuclear weapons. Would you like me to pursue this option?"

This was shocking. If Bakhtin would be offered them so easily, then anybody could get them. This could also be a trap. "Get what you can. If anything, I want to keep them out of the hands of the terrorists. Their purchase may give us problems if our suppliers think we are now going nuclear."

"I can find somebody else that will purchase them for you. The price is high though."

"How high?"

"A hundred million American dollars."

"Offer forty and I will pay in gold for as many as they could supply."

"Yes, Sir."

Bakhtin talked about details that were not on the CD's.

There was going to be a lot of flack after what might happen. Bakhtin sent a truck to recover the gold but it would take three hours to get into position. He sent us in four limos with people he could trust to keep quiet.

The city of Petawawa was not large and the military camp took up a large portion of it. The gold was here because I could feel the coin and then see the gold as we got closer.

Montgomery Road took us to the closest point and there was even a gate at about mid way in the fence. Today there were men at the gate searching cars fairly diligently so there was no chance for us to get in.

Near a road outside the gate I stopped long enough to make a snowball with a coin inside. We did not have a mortar and this was the best we could do. Caiti and Camsa got out and we drove off with our four drivers wondering what we were doing. It was getting dark already and Caiti was still young. Both of them wore a simple silver chain wrapped four times in a much smaller loop and put around their necks.

Camsa said mentally from behind us, "I'm inside the base and have the coin." In a few seconds he added, "Caiti is beside me now."

Caiti had to say, "It's cold here."

Fislu said to them, "Do up your shield. It will keep most of the wind off of your face."

We drove around the town as the two got closer and closer to the building containing our gold. Ten minutes after being let off, Caiti said, "There are guards walking around the building."

I said, "Can they see you?"

"Not yet. We can probably throw another snowball near the wall."

"How far away is it?"

Camsa said, "Fifty five metres."

Caiti quickly said, "It's fifty seven. He doesn't have the eye I have."

The two started a spat but it didn't last long.

We pulled off at a community centre on Somme Road. A CB was used to contact the tractor trailer. In five minutes I was in the cab of the truck and the driver was in the car I arrived in.

Addas, one of the security details along with Moltatas, came with me as I started the truck up and drove south. We took our weapons and the night vision glasses. We parked in an industrial park off the appropriately named Industrial Avenue.

Everybody knew the plan but security had to be told verbally. A coin was left in the cab of the truck which was good enough to gain entry to the trailer portion. Caiti opened a gate to us and we slipped through into the cold night. We were in a dark area and the snow had been beaten down. Finding tracks suddenly appearing out of nowhere was not a good thing to happen.

Caiti hurried us to her vantage point and we found Camsa watching the building. He said, "Do you think there are alarms in there like our house?"

"There has to be. Bakhtin said that some gold had been shifted already. There was four tonnes of metal placed in the container just before the CSIS got it. That's close to eighty million dollars so they will have lots of security."

"What are we going to do?"

"All the technology on Earth relies on electricity. I'm going to have some target practice."

I threw blank snowballs until I put a coin in one and managed to get it within a metre of the wall of the building. We retreated to a dark building and used a gate to get in. This building was just offices.

Camsa, Caiti and I searched the structure near where the new coin was and found. We could only see offices so far. There did not look to be any alarms or cameras in one paerticular room and we shifted position to our target. When no alarm went off, we retrieved our portal chain.

A bathroom off of the office shared a block wall with the area containing my gold. Another gate was set up so it would open into the large room. This one though was going to be small and very near the floor.

Camsa linked to the coin in the truck while I took my lightning tool and poked my hand through the portal far enough to give a very short blast. The lights went off immediately. The portal was expanded and I rushed in.

There was a fire burning on the far wall. I grabbed a fire extinguisher and put it out. What had caught fire was a birchbark war canoe probably used in some sort of race or ceremony with the locals. It had been stored here because of its size and probably to keep it away from terrorist inspired beavers.

I heard shouting in the hall and I looked around for a way for them to get in. There was a forklift that had probably been used to bring the pallet in. I had the fulcrum and leaver and picked up the truck and put the back of it against the door.

Caiti had the portal open to the back of the truck and I concentrated on using the fulcrum to pick up the pallet of gold. It was not a difficult task to do and in a few seconds I was walking with four tonnes of gold in front of me. The pallet was put down and Caiti and I raced into the truck body. Camsa was last. He had a coin between his finger and thumb.

"You forgot this."

Shit, "Your right Camsa. Thanks."

Moltatas said, "The guards are trying to get through the door."

"Remove all our tracks especially Caiti and Camsa's." Paper towels were used to wipe where we came through the walls and then all the tracks inside the room. This took a few minutes but the lift truck made a very good door stop.

In moments I had started the truck and drove south to Black Bay Road then west to Highway 17 going south toward Ottawa.

Ten minutes later we stopped on the side of the highway. The limos arrived and the truck driver got out. "Did you get it?"

"We certainly did and in the process I destroyed a large portion of the Canadian Navy."

He looked worried so I added, "A large birchbark war canoe caught fire. I put the flames out but its going to take years for Parliament to find the funds for its repair."

The driver said, "We can take up a collection for that."

"The government will tax us a billion dollars so they can form a committee to study the damage. They'll have to construct a building to repair the canoe and another one to house the workers. Since this was obviously an attack by terrorists, the military will have to be issued new muskets. All that costs lots of money."

"In that case I won't start the collection."

The man took over the truck and I went back into the much more comfortable limo. The driver looked at me but I didn't think he knew what we had done. It was very probable that the government and the CSIS would not openly admit that they lost four tonnes of gold one winter night.

We escorted the gold back to Montreal. The truck driver gave code words on his CB and he went to another industrial section. The cars followed the truck until it backed up to a loading dock. The driver waved to us when he got out of the cab and I wished him luck.

It was one in the morning when we checked into a hotel. Arriving in limos got us some decent treatment. We needed our rest because of portal lag. Security stayed awake in shifts until the morning.

Gus had his own room and we all met for breakfast. He whispered to me, "What did you do in Petawawa?"

"I recovered my property. That's all."

"How did it get there?"

"If you want to know more, you are going to have to enter into a non-disclosure agreement with me."

"I think I can do that."

"Let's fill in the document first, then I'll tell you. In the mean time, I've decided to purchase the Beech. A company in the Bahamas will be the one to hold the papers. I just have to telephone the lawyers down there to start the ball rolling."

Gus was happy now and said, "Will the plane be based in London?"

"For the most part, yes."

After breakfast, Gus came upstairs and I took him into the organisation much the same as Tom Cress and Marc Johnson. All of them would just have a lot more loyalty to me when they were pushed to disclose information. They saw me as a person to look up to. I worked hard to stay away from gathering slaves.

When Gus awoke he said, "Sorry, Sir. I must have dozed off there. I was sleepier than I thought."

"That's ok Gus. Now for some secrets. I have literally tonnes of gold. I own fourteen mines at last count. None of the governments know of this. I use some of the gold to fight an evil organisation. I purchase military weapons to fight them. The CSIS found out a little and jumped on part of a gold shipment. It was taken away from me and hidden on the military base in Petawawa. We just recovered it and put it on the transport truck."

"You needed a transport truck?"

"Not really, it was only four tonnes."

"Of gold!"

"Yes, now I have something even more exciting to show you."

"What can top that?"

"Watch." I turned to Caiti and Camsa and said verbally, "Set up a gate for me please."

Both smiled and set one up. Camsa was seen stepping in one end and emerging three metres away and returning. Caiti did the same thing and said, "This is fun but we've been doing this for a long time. Do you want to try?"

Gus did not know what to say so I said, "Get up and try."

Gus was loaned a medallion and went through. The portal was shifted to go through walls. Gus seemed to like this until his face suddenly clouded.

I said, "Tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing, Sir."

"Gus, tell me."

It took a moment but he then said, "Are you guys aliens?"

"I'm just as Human as you are. Everybody else in this room are Human too but some were not born on Earth."

"They weren't!"

"Nope. There is another portal that goes between worlds. The chains you saw work only on one world at a time but I found that it can be used between worlds if one of the other portals are open. We call the chain portals gates to keep our thinking straight. We don't understand the science here but we do know that it's controlled mentally." I turned to my luggage and brought out my headband and fit it to Gus' head. "You can see the coin with your eyes." I put it on a table and put a sheet of paper over it. "Close your eyes and try to remember what it looked like."

The security team got their headbands on and were doing the same thing. Their grasp of this was beyond what Gus could do but not up to ours yet.

In ten minutes Gus said, "I can almost see the coin in my mind now, Sir."

I drew a small smiley face on the sheet of paper and put the drawing right over the coin. "Tell me what I drew on the paper?"

"I can't see that, Sir."

"Just give it a good try."

It took ten more minutes before he excitedly said, "Is it one of those smiley faces?"

"It sure is." I turned the paper over and Gus smiled himself.

With a few silent suggestions, Caiti took Gus in hand and drew more pictures for Gus to see.

In the mean time, I went through Jakes papers and made notes about how to get the legal firm in the Bahamas to start the offer to buy the Beech. Gus would be their local representative. I may just have to buy it in the corporation's name.

We had two laptops and I used one to read what Bakhtin had sent me. There were lots of pictures of the ships and a long list of specifications. The weapons it usually carried were suited for hitting large armoured ships that had the ability to shoot out of the air any incoming missile. It was overkill when we were going against wooden hulled ships.

The container ship was very large even though Bakhtin claimed it was mid sized. There was a lot of material already to be loaded on it but it was still a drop in the bucket compared to its total capacity.

Getting the cargo to Bejek would be difficult if I had to use my home. There were three alternate choices and at the moment I didn't know if any of them would work. The closest was the one we had taken Christiane to see and at least we were prepared to investigate it further. The one in the States or in the Atlantic had to be checked as well.

One of the women in security as well as Osston left with me. I did not want to talk from a telephone in the hotel I was staying at. Both of my companions thought of the elevator with the same awe as Gus thought of the gate.

Five minutes after leaving the hotel, I was in another hotel using the telephone. I had to introduce myself on the telephone and then give a long password that would be no longer good after it was used. Governments monitored calls like this with a computer and I just hoped to not trip any of the logic by mentioning some of the pertinent words or phrases.

My contact at the office assured me that the documents would be made today and sent by courier to Gus when he returned to London.

When we left the hotel I was bumped by a short man and immediately after Addnas drove her fist into the man's neck. She bent down and pulled out my wallet that had been in my pants and even under my coat.

She said in Ladra, "I watched him because he looked at you for a long time before bumping into you. He's a thief or somebody sent to gather information."

"It seems so. Let's go. Everybody is watching us."

We moved off and I energised my shield and did the same for Addas. Osston did his own. There was a commotion behind us so we turned the corner and entered an alley. We crouched behind a parked car while I called for a gate. The family was nervous when we entered and I told them verbally what happened for Gus' benefit.

I added, "We have to check out one of the locations Gus found for us. There's no other way to get any of our supplies through now."

Gus became our travel agent and found a paved airstrip in Smiths Falls which happened to be close to the remote area we checked before. We boarded the plane and flew to this location. By three that afternoon we had found two passenger vans and a four wheel drive.

The road to the site had been done but it was covered in snow. There was at least one person on the site. The snow was deep and I took only two of the security detail as we went up the road. Twice I had to get out and use the fulcrum to get the vehicle out of trouble. I started to use a coin and a disk in my hand to see where the road really was.

I crested the forth hill when I found a man of fifty with a rifle over his shoulder in front of me. I drove up to him and shut off the engine. Before I could say anything, he said, "This is private property. Leave now."

This took me aback. "I know its private property and the owner sent me here to check out what's being done. Jake Headricks is the man that hired you."

I waited a moment and he finally asked, "What do you have to do? I don't like snoops."

"To tell the truth, neither do I. Let me see what has been done and we will be off."

We drove for another few minutes and we got out. There was a small trailer to one side and a log house beside it. An old pickup was nearby. Around the edge of the property was canvas covered equipment relating to the activities that had to go on if I was going to keep this land.

The girls got out and the first gust of icy wind caused them to want to shield themselves from the blast. I asked, "Do you want your shields activated?" I got two nods and I did this task.

The portal that Loca gave me was in a wood crate. This was pulled to the lake and then over the ice. I put the cup and globe onto the frame from an opening then touched the ring to the frame.

Instantly I saw the room where the other half of the portal was stored in Woodland and I breathed a sigh of relief. I could crawl through the portal but I valued my life. Instead I used a cheap walkie talkie for a while until someone came into the room. It was one of the younger girls. She saw me and smiled then hurried away as a cold blast of air hit her.

In a moment I had a delegation in the room then a few seconds later Loca hurried into the room. We talked into the frame while the prospector looked on from a hundred metres away. He could not see anything unusual from where he was.

Loca said, "Your world is beautiful but harsh, my King. I'm glad I'm here and warm."

"This is a beautiful world when it is not despoiled by people out to get rich. This portion of the Earth is just in the middle of its winter."

In a few minutes I closed down the portal and we walked back to the shore. The old man came to us and said, "What were you doing out there?"

"You mentioned a while ago that you don't like snoops." The man said nothing so I continued, "What did you do to satisfy the government that you were prospecting?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because I'm closer to the man you signed the contract with than you are. The contract states you have to report and I am officially asking you to."

Charley Fergus reluctantly showed us some frozen ground. He said, "I was able to drill seven holes. About a hundred and thirty feet down I found some silver. I figure it may be rich enough to extract."

The mention of silver started to ring alarms. All of our high tech Bejek equipment was silver and I could now see how the metal was linked to the unknown force that did such amazing things.

"We knew there was something at this location. Is there anything you need to be sent to you?"

"I could use a few cases of scotch if its no problem." This was said with the man's first smile.

There was something similar in Bejek so I said, "I have some homemade hooch. Its pretty good. I'll bring some up the next time I come."

"I'd be obliged if you did."

I got in the car and drove towards the lake then turned around. Five minutes later I had a large clay jug. I called Charley over and said sheepishly, "Hi, Charley. I see the girls stocked the car well and I didn't know it."

I handed a half full ceramic mug to Charley. He took a quick smell and then a good swallow. Tears came to his eyes and he said, "Now that's smooth. I've never tasted that before and I've tried just about everything."

From the back of the vehicle I handed Charley a fifteen litre jug and said, "It's a secret family recipe."

Charlie needed two arms to hold the jug and I got the biggest smile yet.

Getting back to the main road was just as difficult as getting to the node. Next time it would be easier because I put a coin nearby but not close enough for anybody to see our sudden appearance.

When we were back with the rest of the vehicles, Gus asked, "What did you find?"

"Another place suitable for a portal. There's one more near the Bahamas that I want to check out."

"We could fly there in the Beech."

"Let's buy the plane first then you can fly to Buffalo and pick us up. I have difficulty crossing the border. We may be going to Norfolk instead if my ship is finished.

We drove back to Smiths Falls and then flew to Toronto. From Toronto I phoned Reynolds. He said, "Your ship is ready Mr. Smith. We put a rush on it as you asked." He went on and on about what had been done. The alteration of the hull was the most important because it was the lengthening process that caused the original warpage.

"Id like to take it out for a spin. Do you know anybody that will brave the heat of the Bahamas?"

"I'd go if I was of any use."

"Then I'm inviting you. I may need some legal advice. I only want to spend a few days there then find a home for the ship. Will you find a competent crew that may want to stay on. They can be assessed on a temporary basis."