Read Online Time & Space (Short Fiction Collection Vol. 2) by Gord Rollo, Gene O'Neill, Everette Bell - Free Book Online

dirty rotten son of a freakin’ …”
    “Easy, Roger,” Stein silenced him. “Let me tell this, okay?”
    “Whatever, man… whatever.” The thin man shrugged his shoulders and sulked back into his chair.
    What was Carson supposed to make of that? Had Bishop really said… monster? And they had pictures? This meeting was getting weirder by the second. Carson wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the rest, but decided to stick it out a few more minutes. Stein carried on with his story, barely missing a beat.
    “So we were working in the Lincoln Hills region, mapping some of the caves in the area, when suddenly we stumbled into every treasure hunter’s dream come true. There was gold everywhere we looked.
    “Not gold nuggets, but something that nearly defies description. Liquid Gold! We believe a super-heated geothermal pocket lies directly beneath the cave floor. Maybe it’s something volcanic? Regardless… something in the immediate area is hot enough to have liquefied a rather substantial deposit of gold. We tested a small sample, and it’s not pure gold… there are a lot of other compounds mixed with it, but Roger was correct when he appraised its value earlier. It’s worth millions. If, that is, we can ever get our hands on it.”
    “I take it this is where your problem comes into the picture?” correctly guessed Carson.
    “Exactly. Since our discovery, we legally purchased the farmland and wooded area surrounding our particular cave, and we also received a mining permit from the State. We should be on easy street by now… but obviously we’re not. Someone is hiding in our woods, guarding the entrance to the cave, and sabotaging us. They’ve already murdered seven men we hired to help us start reclaiming the gold.”
    “Why don’t you call the police?” Carson asked.
    “No way! We can’t go to the cops, man.” Bishop nervously shook his head, waiting until Stein gave him the okay, before explaining their dilemma. “The land is legit, sure, but the money we used to buy it wasn’t. It costs a whole whack of cash to front an operation like this, man. We didn’t have squat, so we talked your mob friends into helping us.
    “They fronted the money to buy the land, greased a few government palms to get our mining permit, and bought all the necessary tools, supplies, and whatever else we needed. Now we mine the gold, then sell it to them for less than half market price. They get filthy rich reselling it on the black market, but Karl and I still get our millions without any of the hassles. It was a cut and dried deal, man. Cut and freakin’ dried … until that psycho monster showed up.”
    “So you can understand why we can’t run to the police,” Stein interjected. “Like I said, my associate and I have a problem… so we’ve come to you for a solution. We’ll give you fifteen thousand dollars. Cash, of course. Half now… half later. Can you help us?”
    It wasn’t an easy question and Carson certainly wasn’t going to rush into making a stupid decision. Something about all this was wrong – something he just couldn’t place. He needed the cash, but all the money in the world wouldn’t do him any good if he got himself killed. Whoever was killing the mineworkers obviously was good at what he did, so killing him wouldn’t be easy. And he would certainly be on guard, and more than ready to defend himself. No, this sounded a little too crazy. Carson didn’t want anything to do with it.
    “Sorry guys… it’s too damn risky.”
    His decision made, he stood up to leave. He noticed the look of spreading panic on Stein and Bishop’s faces and said, “Don’t worry… I’m not the only game in town. Call your contact man. He’ll probably set you up with either Charlie Barnes or Jack Clinton. They’re both good.”
    The best action always seemed to get split between him and these two rivals – Barnes and Clinton. Carson considered them both closet psycho’s, but even he had to grudgingly