Deadly Lode (Trace Brandon Book 1) (11 page)

Nick Wetzel and the night crew
were headed up to the drill when they
drove up
on us.

“
Damn, Trace,
”
Nick said, looking at Ike
on the gurney
,
“
w
hat in tarnation happened?
”

“
Luke here got hungry,
”
I replied.
“
I tried to get him some road
-
kill.
”

“
What?
”
Nick said, grinning from ear to ear.

“
D
ickhead in the ambulance tried to hijack our core,
”
I replied, pointing toward
s
Ike.

“
D
id you shoot him?
”
Nick asked
, looking at Ike
’
s bloody leg
.

“
No, but I ran over him pretty good.
”
I replied
,
with a chuckle.
“
Can you give Luke a lift back to the rig?
F
i
ll Red in
,
and t
ell everybody to be on their toes.
”

“
Will do, Trace. Do you need any help getting back to town?
”

“
No, I
’
ll follow the
d
eputy
. I
’
m
good to go. Thanks.
”

I
pulled into
Bob Malott
’
s yard
and told him
about the attempted hi
-
jacking.
We
stored
the core boxes in
the
warehouse
I
’
d rented and locked
it up.
Afterwards, I
checked in with
my cousin
.

“
Sheriff
, Trace here. Have you spoken to Deputy Haines?
”

“
Yep, he gave me a rundown on what happened. Are you okay?
”

“
Yeah, nary a scratch.
”

“
Haines said you don
’
t want to press charges?
”

“
No
. Poor old
Ike
’
s just a flunky in this deal.
I
think I
know who put
him
up to this
,
but
we
’
ll never
be able to prove it
.
”

“
You think it
’
s Cyrus?
”

“
No one else. He knows we
’
re operating on a shoestring. I think
his
plan
is
to run us short of cash
by making us
re
-
drill
holes.
If we went broke drilling,
he could step
up with the cash to save the project.
”

“
The Virus for a
white knight
. D
amn
ation
,
”
Henry
said,
laughing
.
“
So
,
where do you go from here?
”

“
We
keep
drill
ing,
split and assay the core
s
,
and head back to Vancouver with the results.
”

“
Uh-huh
. W
ell
,
as a precaution
, I
’
m going to have Deputy Haines stop by the rig from time to time. Sort of show the badge,
like
we discussed.
”

“
Thanks,
Henry
. I appreciate it.
”

Coring on the second
and
third
hole
s
went off without a hitch. We cored nearly forty feet of strongly mineralized vein
in each hole
. Back in Winthrop, with the help of some of Bob
’
s crew, we got all the cores split and shipped to
Mineral
Valley Labs
,
in
Coeur d
’
Alene
, Idaho.

It took about two weeks for the lab to report the assays. The cores average
d
about
seven
-
tenths of an
-
ounce gold per ton, One and a
half
percent copper and
eight
percent uranium. One hell of a vein.

I spent about a week putting together a first
-
class
P
ower
-
P
oint presentation. Will and Wally worked the phones
,
setting up meeting
s
in Vancouver with investors and brokers. We planned to
do
a round of dog and pony shows to launch our private placement.

For this round of financing,
Montana Creek Mining Corp
.
would sell one million
treasury
shares of stock for fifty cents per share. Each share would have a
three
-
year
warrant attached for the purchase of an additional share
,
at seventy
-
five cents.

If the private offering sold out, the company would receive
half
a million bucks
, less fees and commissions
.
T
he
warrants
could
bring in a
n additional
$750,000
.

Now all I had to do was convince a bunch of very savvy investors that we
’
d hit the mother lode.

C
hapter
7

W
ill and I met Wally at the
Harbor View Hotel
in Vancouver. Wally procured one of
their
large meeting
rooms and invited about fifty brokers
and analysts, plus a hundred
investors
,
to attend our presentation.

At
9:00
sharp the next day, we kicked off the dog and pony show. I
started
running
through
and explaining each
PowerPoint
slide
.
When I clicked on the slide with the core assay results, the room went strangely quiet.
It
took a few moments for the
mining analysts
to realize
they were looking at Athabasca Basin
-
type uranium grades. The
n the
ir cell phones lit up the room.

I noticed a tall, white
-
haired
,
older
,
but hard
-
looking
-
individual
sitting
toward the back of the audience
. I looked over at Wally on the side of the stage and cut my eyes in the direction of the investor.

By noon, I finished the presentation
,
and we invited the participants to enjoy a light buffet. While the waiters set up the food
,
I located Wally and Will.

“
What
’
d you think, fellows?
”
I asked.

“
Good job, Trace,
”
Wally replied.
“
I know most of the brokers and analysts
,
and I could tell they were eating it up with a spoon. I have copies of the private
-
placement documents to all the
brokerage
houses. I think we
’
ll be oversubscribed.
”

“
Either of you notice the older, white
-
haired
,
gent sitting near the rear?
”

Will
nodded
.
“
Yes, I noticed him
,
but I don
’
t know him.
”

Wally laughed
.
“
F
ellows, you just gave a presentation to
t
he Virus himself.
”

“
No shit
. T
hat
’
s Cyrus?
”
I asked.

“
In the flesh,
”
Wally replied.

“
Excuse me for a second, fellow
s
,
”
I said, heading off in Cyrus
’
s
direction.
“
I want to meet the gentleman.
”

I worked my way through the crowd, shaking hands and thanking the participants for coming.

“
Mr. McSweeny?
”
I asked.

“
Nice pitch
,
Mr. Brandon,
”
Cyrus replied, extending his hand.

His hand was hard and dry as granite.

“
Thank you,
sir
,
”
I replied
,
holding his grip until he loosened it
.

“
If the tonnage is there, you
’
re sitting on a world
-
class uranium deposit. Not to mention the gold and copper values.
”

“
Thank you, Mr. McSweeny.
”

“
Please
,
call me Cyrus.
”

“
Okay
,
Cyrus,
I
’
m Trace. Are you interested in participating in the private share placement?
”

“
Could be, Trace. I
’
m always looking for good mining investments.
”

“
Sorry about Ike
,
his leg and all
,
”
I said
.

Cyrus looked at me
.
“
S
orry
,
I d
on
’
t believe I know anyone by that name
.
”

I could tell by the flash in his eye
s
that,
I
’
d hit a nerve.

“
Oh
,
he
i
s
, or was,
kind of
an amateur rock hound. Had a big interest in our core.
Said he was a friend of Thorny
’
s.
”

“
I see,
”
Cyrus replied,
shaking his head.
“
Sorry, doesn
’
t ring any bells.
”

“
Well, it was nice to meet
you Cyrus
. I want you to know I appreciate your interest in Montana Creek Mining.
”

“
Thank you, Trace. I
’
ll probably buy a few shares in your offering
,
so I can follow your progress. A little equity keeps me interested.
”

“
Very good,
sir
. I don
’
t think you
’
ll
be disappointed.
”

“
I seldom am,
Mr. Brandon,
”
Cyrus said, patting me on my shoulder.

Cyrus
left the conference room and headed to
the
hotel
bar to meet
Bill Thorn
ton
.

“
Well,
Thorny,
Brandon gave a hell of a presentation,
”
Cyrus said, taking a sip of his Crown Royal and water.
“
And he let me know
he
’
d taken care of
Ike
.
”

“
Damn kid
’
s
a player all right
, a
nd he
’
s
latched on
to
a
once
-
in
-
a
-
lifetime property
,
”
Thorny replied
.

“
Appears so
.
Who
’
s the lead underwriter for their placement?
”

“
Vancouver Pacific Securities.
”

“
Thorny, g
et on the phone with our broker
at Vancouver Pacific and
tell him
Twisp River Resources
will
subscribe to
two hundred fifty thousand shares of
Montana Creek
’
s
private placement
.
”

“
Yes,
sir
,
”
Thorny replied.
“
We
may
be hard pressed to
get the two hundred fifty thousand.
Judging from the reaction of the brokers at the presentation, I suspect the offering will be oversubscribed.
”

“
I have a good relationship with the principals over at Vancouver Pacific. They
’
ll get us the two fifty.
I
’
ll start buying
shares
in the open market through our offshore account.
If I can pick up another two fifty in the market
, we
’
ll have
half
a million shares. Well
,
below the ten percent reporting level
,
but enough to flex some muscle.
”

Back in our hotel suite, Wally
briefed
Will and
me
on sales of the private
-
placement shares.

“
Vancouver Pacific Securities received subscriptions for
five hundred thousand shares
right after the presentation,
”
Wally reported
.
“
Northern Equities
placed
two hundred and fifty
thousand shares
,
and
Ba
ystreet Securities and Commonwealth
placed the balance
.
Boys, w
e
’
re totally subscribed.
”

“
Nothing like
eight
percent uranium
grades
in a
hot
market to spark a feeding frenzy,
”
Will said, rubbing his hands together.

“
Damn,
fellows
. T
his calls for a celebration,
”
I
said.
“
Let
’
s have supper
and a night on the town.
”

We hit
Vancouver
’
s
Chinatown like
MacA
r
thur
hit
Inch
o
n
.

The next morning, with near
-
terminal hangovers,
Will and I headed back to Ellensburg
.
When
Wally
recovered, he
’
d see to
deposit
ing
the net proceeds from the share sales
into Montana Creek Mining
’
s bank account
.

Wally called my office a few days later.

“
Trace, just wanted to let you know we
’
re trading around twenty thousand shares per day. Not too bad with only a million shares in the float. And were hanging in around sixty cents per share.
”

“
Anyone in particular buying a lot of shares?
”
I asked, thinking about
t
he Virus.

“
Hard to tell, Trace, but Cayman Island Securities is a buyer
. No large blocks
,
but steady buying, especially on dips. The shares are
held in street name, so no way tell who the
y
’
re buying for.
”

“
Better get
an
updated shareholder list from the transfer agent every couple of months. I don
’
t want any surprises.
”

“
One
other
thing did catch my attention, Trace.
T
he largest subscriber to our private placement was a company called
,
Twisp River Resources.
”

“
How much did they take down?
”

“
About
half
of what we allocated to Vancouver Pacific
. T
wo hundred fifty thousand shares.
”