Chapter 29

I went down in the hole one step at a time, shining the light ahead of me as I went. I noticed dust along the sides of the ramp and grabbed a handful as I went. I was walking and throwing it ahead of me as I walked. I wasn't taking any chances of there being a floor ankle height laser system. If there was, the dust would show it and keep me from breaking the light. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble setting this all up. The ramp had a slight curve to it and came out in the middle of a huge cavern. I stood still and shined the light at the ceiling to see if there were lights mounted within sight. I could see twelve foot commercial lights mounted on the ceiling throughout the cavern. I started looking for the box or a switch to turn them on. At the side mounted on the wall was a huge electric box so I went over to it and opened the panel. All of them were marked except four that were in the lower corner of the box. They were small and had no label at all, so I had a sneaking hunch these four were the arming timers for the cavern.

I flipped the switch that said overheads and all the lights on the ceiling came on and almost blinded me they were so bright.

"Harry, ok if we come down now?"

"Come on down but stay in the middle of the ramp till you reach me!"

I watched as they came down and all of them stayed right in the middle like I had told them to do. I waited till they were all standing by me and asked Bob if he had a screwdriver I could use. He handed me one of those Swiss pocket knives with all the attachments on it. I took the flat screwdriver blade out and proceeded to remove the screws holding the outside cover on the box.

"Harry, please don't tell me you're disarming something. I hope to hell you know what you're doing. That little knife was a gift from my son, so don't break it or he will never forgive me."

I had the cover off by that time and I could see that I was right about the four switches. The set up was nothing that I had ever seen before so I decided not to try to disarm it. I handed the knife back to Bob and just stared at the setup in the box to see where the wires were leading. From what I could see, they ran inside the conduit with all the other wires so I couldn't see where they went. Someone with more knowledge than me would have to work on it later. I wanted to look around before I called any outside help in our little operation.

"Ok guys, let's look around and see what all this shit sitting around is. Whatever you do don't open any doors for right now. This thing has an arming system that I've never seen before and I don't know what will set it off. Just stay in the main cave for right now 'till I get the boys from Nellis in here to disarm the whole place."

"You can bet I will do what you say, Harry. I sure don't need a big bang to make my day."

We all had a laugh at Bob's statement before we spread out to look around the cave. I had been in underground chambers before, but this place looked to be bigger than five or six football fields all put together. There were doors leading off the main area all over the place. That was where I wanted to search because if there were any records or valuables, that's where we would find them. I had a sneaking suspicion there was an office here and I would be willing to bet my cabin it was wired to blow if you didn't know how to get in. I was thinking about the rooms and what might be in them when Shorty yelled at me to come here and look at this.

"Harry, these are some kind of missiles and there must be thirty cases of them. There are also thousands of AK-47s all stacked behind these. Man, someone is going to be out of some serious cash when they don't get these. Harry, there's enough arms here to start world war three. We need to make some calls again. I have a feeling these came from a foreign country 'cause all the writing on the crates is in another language and more than one. What the hell was the old sheriff into?"

"Let's all go back up top until I can get the boys from Nellis in here and the ATF again. We are going to be hip deep in federal agents again in about an hour. I need to call Mark and bring him up to speed and then start making some calls. This is going to be a long day, fellas, so I hope you all don't have any plans for tonight."

We all walked back up the ramp and I left Bob to guard the back while we went out front so I could make a bunch of calls. I called Mark and he listened for a few minutes and said to make the calls and he was on his way. I called Nellis and got my friend. I told him what I thought I had and they said they would fly in right away. I told them to land anywhere in town they could find room and there would be several other choppers coming in besides theirs. I called the ATF next and they said they would be there shortly too. I called Hadley to tell him to get word to the Federal District in Vegas. He said he and his boys would be coming in too since the FBI did all the domestic terror calls now. I made a call to the governor and told him what we had. He said he would send the State Troopers in for me to use as I saw fit, but to make sure they got some of the credit. I assured him they would be in it all the way but to keep the Commander away from me. He laughed and said no problem. I was sitting on the seat of my unit when one of the women that was on the porch of the casino came over to me.

"Sheriff, is this going to stop the auction this weekend? We all need jobs again and I was chosen by the girls to ask you."

"I don't see how. We will still hold the auction and I will tell you there are a lot of bidders coming to bid on the casino. If it sells, you all will probably have jobs because it was stated in the notice that all the previous employees were to be given first preference in hiring. If the new owner gives any of you problems just let one of us know and we will have a talk with him about the rules of his ownership."

"Gee thanks, Sheriff, the girls will all appreciate the good news."

"After this all calms down in the next day or so, I will be giving everyone in town all the frozen beef in the reefers out back. Everyone in town needs to meet and make arrangements to have a butcher dress all of it out. I guarantee that it will fill everyone's freezer to the top by the time it's all cut up and packaged."

"Sheriff, we will all appreciate it as we are all scraping bottom trying to feed our families. Here in the gulch we all stick together and help each other, but even with some of us working, the money only goes so far."

"I have probably two semi's full of canned goods I will make sure I hand out with the beef too. Some of it will have to go to the shelter, but I can give the rest to the families here in the gulch if you want it."

"Sheriff, you're going to be an even bigger hero to the people here if you do that. Did you know the casinos here act as the bank for their employees? All of us that had savings with the Golden lost it all when you closed it down."