Chapter 12

Note: Alpha and Bravo both use this and the same next few chapters.

The Preserve, the children, and yes, those damn girls really get to you. Seeing them again seemed to change everything no matter what.

Fifteen or so million acres at $2,500 an acre was a lot of money. The $50 billion lease price was almost all we could focus on and even then, it seemed impossible to be done in 30 days.

John, Harry and even David had come up with a number of ideas, schemes and even one or two devious 'blackmail' possibilities to frighten those crooked politicians. Nothing seemed to be a solution that would not land us all in jail.

Donations, conservation clubs, tax exemptions, a trust fund and countless other plans all fell by the wayside very quickly too.

Ralph had gotten maps, copies of Spanish, Welsh, French, Indian, Mexican, English and even Revolutionary and Civil War land grants to find something we might use to save the forests. Nothing seemed to have anything in it we could use though.

Everything we wanted to get was photographed, made into media covers and even put in a projection media. 'Geostar' was nice enough to send us satellite images of the land in question. The resolution was great but the DMA, on a very chance incident, provided some images that were about 1 inch resolution in details or so, in what we could see, we in-turn provided them some 'special' lens coatings and filters for space exploration.

Good old Ralph, he made up for his simple ways with the stroke of a pen, in this case, a red marker. With his AAA road map on the table, he drew a circle around the land we needed. "15.74 million acres and 30 days. Hell Ray that should not be a problem, Huh?"

"Not anymore Ralph! How come you have been holding out on us all this time, when you had the answer?"

"Huh? What answer?"

"John, how much money can we get together right now?"

"I don't really know, a few Billion maybe, but no where near the $50 Billion we would need to even lease the land, let alone buy it!"

"Gets a check made out to the Consortium selling the lands for $625,000,000. Tell them we are buying 250,000 acres at $2,500 an acre, their guaranteed purchase price."

I traced the red line Ralph had drawn with my finger.

"Make it a wide as 250,000 acres can make it and still connect to what we already own. Make certain the sale is done now, deeded and have it posted and secured, fence it if you have to, but when the lease auction takes place, make certain our little piece is shown as 'private property' and everyone is notified that there is no egress or ingress rights to anything inside that ring nor will they ever be granted, that include air rights."

I told the group. "I don't think our mining and lumber friends are going to be too happy much longer with that land and certainly not those corrupt politicians. They will not be able to get anything in or out of that land, even if they buy it and I want to keep it that way. Ask the tribal elders if they will work for us and guard that ring we will now have around the trees? Ralph, what say I buy you a burger and shake in town, and 'Can we put the lights and siren on now?"

I should have stayed in that patrol car and gone to the airport. 'Damn' I thought. Waiting for me in town were my worst nightmares. The little ones were even harder to ignore than their mothers had been. I knew I was a lost man. Then again, maybe I had finally been found.

My heart melted as the first of them came to me with a hug and a kiss. Whatever I had doubted about a future here was now in question. When the mayor told me I was wanted at, the 'Preserve' there was a voice inside me that told me everything would be all right now. The kisses from my 'wives' also had a 'soothing' effect on me.

Yepper's, it was something to be back and to revel in.

"We heard you and Ralph 'saved our bacon again', at least for now."

"It's not a 'solution' but yes, for now we bought some time. There is too much money at stake to think that they will not keep trying, whether it is legal or not. We need something definite though; we cannot give-up with only this move. Like a game of chess, some pieces may be lost in an effort to win the game. A better analogy might be 'Go' or the old game the Egyptians played, 'Something and Hounds' I think it was called?"

I rather gravitated to the girls. No matter what I had said or felt before; the sight of them brought tears to my eyes, especially now seeing the children.

Ralph shortstopped my journey towards the girls. Leslie and Daphne just nodded and the others gave me a look which seemed to mean that the understood this interruption.

"It's time 'Boss Man'. This time, after seeing more of the truth, I guarantee you will not want to leave us."