Deadly Lode (Trace Brandon Book 1) (27 page)

“
We
’
ll see, Cyrus. In any event, I
’
ll
place your short
-
sell order.
”

Al
Pantelli
met his older
brother
,
Crispino
,
at
a small
café,
in the French Quarter.

“
What
’
s the occasion, little brother?
”
Crispino asked, running his fingers through his
curly
-
black hair.

“
Whadda you know about short
-
selling?
”

“
I know if you guess wrong
,
and the market moves against your short position, there
’
s no limit to how much money you can lose.
”

“
You remember the old guy I was in the can with
,
up in Oregon?
”

“
Cyrus
,
something
or other
?
”

“
Yeah, Cyrus McSweeny. They call him Cyrus the Virus.
He
’
s
a major piece of work. Anyway, he was after the
Montana Creek Mining
shares we got from Rosenburg
.
”

“
Yeah,
s
o?
”

“
So, Cyrus calls me
yesterday
and says he
’
s going to short the stock. He thinks the company
’
s in trouble. Some bullshit about a vein pinch out at their mine. I
’
m not too clear on the whole situation. Bottom line, he says we should short the stock and cover it with the shares we got from Rosy.
”

“
You remember what Pop used to tell us
,
‘
I
f you don
’
t understand the
deal
, either
whack the
promoter
or get the fuck away from it
.
’
And from what I
’
ve heard
about
this Virus prick
,
maybe we should
vaccinate him
.
”

“
Vaccinate him?
”
Al said
,
with a chuckle.

“
Yeah,
inject a little humility in his ass. Look, just p
lay along with the scam but don
’
t short the stock. When
we
got the
shares
from Rosy, I had our accountants dig into Montana Creek Mining. They think it
’
s the real deal. Cyrus
is looking for an angle to tank the stock, make some dough, then buy back in on the cheap.
There might be an opportunity to catch him in a short
squeeze
.
Maybe
bail hi
s ass
out at a steep discount
,
or
take his shares.
”

Al laughed
,
and damned near choked on
his beignet
.
“
Pe
rfezionare, I
’
amo
,
dead solid perfect
, brother
.
”

Fish and I hiked up to the rig.
Red was at the controls and turned in our direction as we approached the drill.

“
She
’
s drilling like a damn gopher,
”
Red shouted
,
over
the compressor
noise
.
“
How deep do you think we
’
ll have to go to intersect the offset vein?
”

Fish checked his calculations
.
“
I
f she doesn
’
t flatten out any, we should hit it around seven hundred feet.
”

“
It
’
ll be some time tomorrow morning,
”
Red replied
.
“
A
ssuming Nick
’
s crew doesn
’
t have any problems on the night shift. You all may as well head to town and get some chow
,
and shut
-
eye. If there
’
s any problems
,
we
’
ll call your cell.
”

“
Okay, Red, sounds like a plan,
”
I said.
“
See you in the morning.
”

Early the next morning Fish and I were just finishing breakfast at the
W
when
my cell went off. Caller ID showed it was Wally.

“
Hey
,
Wally
,
”
I said
.
“
Wh
at has you up at the crack of dawn?
”

“
The markets just opened
,
and someone has shorted our stock one million shares.
”

“
Holy crap, Wally. Do you know who
’
s shorting us?
”
I said, looking over at Fish
.

“
I
’
m working on it
,
but there
’
s only one shareholder I
’
m worried about.
”

“
Cyrus?
”

“
Yep, his companies
own enough of our shares to cover the short position
. A
nd a move like this is pure Virus.
”

“
How
’
s the share price holding up?
”
I asked.

“
Down ten percent.
”

“
Damn.
”

“
Exactly
, Trace
. How
’
s the drilling coming
?
We need to put out some major good news
,
ASAP.
”

“
Fish and I think we
’
ve figured out the problem. It
’
s a fault. Red is drilling a steeper, deeper hole to see if our calculations are correct. We should know something later today.
”

“
Okay, sounds good. Let me know if you re
-
locate the vein
,
and I
’
ll get a press release out to the market.
”

“
You do realize, Wally,
that
nobody but the directors and the drillers know we ever lost the vein. We haven
’
t put out any drilling updates.
”

“
Yeah, sure makes you wonder who the hell leaked this info.
”

“
If the seller is Cyrus, the leak came from Malcolm. Keep digging Wally and check with Dominic. She has great contacts
i
n the Caymans. If it is Cyrus, Malcolm is history.
”

“
It
’
s not easy to remove a director, Trace.
”

“
Oh, I think he
’
ll go of his own volition once we threaten to turn him over to the securities regulators. They
’
re getting damned tough on insider trading. We
’
ll
Gordon Ge
k
ko
his miserable ass.
”

“
I
’
m all over it, Trace. Let me know as soon as you confirm we
’
re back on the vein.
”

The
Pantelli
family worked out of a restored nineteenth
-
century mansion on Saint Louis Street
,
in the Quarter. Crispino
Pantelli
walked down the
hall
to his brother
’
s office.

“
Buon giorno
, Al.
”

“
Morning
,
Pino
,
”
Al replied,
using his
brother
’
s
nickname.

“
Listen, my broker just called and confirmed a large short position was posted this morning
against
Montana Creek Mining shares.
”

“
One thing about the Virus
,
he doesn
’
t fuck around,
”
Al replied
, shaking his head.

“
No
,
he doesn
’
t
,
and neither do we. Whatever info Cyrus
thinks he
has is not
yet
public
. It
may just be a scam he dreamed up to knock down the share price. My guys are telling me to buy. The shares are down ten percent on word of the short sale. But they know of no negative developments with the company.
”

“
So, wha
dda
ya think?
”

“
I told them to start
buying
. Nothing too serious, just
nibble a bit at these lower levels.
See if we can make a few bucks when the stock recovers.
By the way, I heard some sad news about Rosenburg. I understand he
’
s no longer
with us
.
”

“
Yeah,
I heard
he had some kind of s
eiz
ure
?
”

Pino lowered his voice
. “
The Chemist?
”

Al nodded.

“
Well, we all gotta go sometime,
”
Pino said
,
with a chuckle.
“
I
’
ll keep you posted on Montana Creek.
Maybe we
’
ll get lucky and catch
t
he Virus in a short squeeze.
”

Chapter
16

B
etween Red and Nick Wetzel they
’
d managed to drill down to
650
feet.

“
Morning
,
Red,
”
I said
.
“
L
ooks like you and Nick made some serious hole?
”

“
Yep, she
’
s drilling away
,
and we
’
re catching a few drilling breaks now.
The r
ock
’
s
drill
ing
like
it’s
fractured. You might want to check the cuttings. We could be getting close to
the vein
.
”

Fish and I checked the last twenty feet of
drill
cutting
s
. The last samples showed some alteration
in the rock
. The type of alteration that accompanies mineralization.

“
You
’
re right, Red,
”
I yelled
,
over the rig noise
.
“
L
ooks promising.
”

Red continued pushing the down
-
hole hammer bit through the rock.

“
Trace,
”
Red yelled
,
“
f
eels like a transition. I
’
ll
stop drilling and
circulate so you can check the samples from the bottom of the hole.
”

It takes a few minutes for the air compressor to lift the cuttings from the bottom of the hole to the surface.
“
Lag time
”
is what geologists call it. Right now
,
I
’
d have called it an eternity.

Finally the
rock chips
hit the splitter
,
and we were able to grab a sample. Through my ten
-
power hand lens I could see fragments of quartz and sulfides mixed in with the granodiorite.

“
Bingo, boys
!
”
I shouted.
“
Trip out of the hole, Red
,
and run the core barrel in. I think we
’
re back in business.
”

“
The core will tell the tale,
”
Fish said, standing next to me
,
looking at the cuttings.

Red ran the core barrel and diamond bit into the hole
,
and started coring.

In about thirty minutes the core barrel liner was full
,
and Red used
the
wire
-
line to retrieve it.

“
Grab your asses, boys
!
”
Red yelled
.
“
H
ere she
comes
.
”

Luke Johnson, Red
’
s helper, decanted the core into the wooden core box.

“
Holy
m
oly,
”
Fish said softly
.
“
W
e
are
back in business.
”

I took a paint
-
brush from the supply table
,
dipped it in a coffee can full of water
,
and wetted down the entire five feet of core
.
“
Damnation,
it
’
s pure
pitchblende.
”

The next seven core runs we
re
nearly identical. Nearly forty feet of the purest uranium ore
n
either Fish
nor I
had ever seen. On the eighth run we penetrated the footwall schist and
were through the massive vein.

After a bit of celebration, Fish and I were on our cell phones
,
relating the good news to both James Lee and Wally.

“
Send me the particulars
,
and
I
’
ll
start drafting a news
-
release
,
”
Wally
said, adding,
“
What about Malcolm?
”

“
Let
’
s leave Malcolm out of the loop for now
,
”
I replied
.
“
If we
’
re wrong about him, I
’
ll just have to fade the heat.
A
nd r
emember, Wally,
”
I cautioned
,
“
n
o press release until the core assays are back.
”

“
But it looks good, right?
”
Wally asked.

“
Yes, Wally, it
’
s high grade, but
hold
the press release
until
assays are
back
.
”

“
You got it. Boy
o
h’
b
oy, I
’
d sure hate to be the short seller when this news gets posted.
”

“
Yeah,
”
I replied
,
“
i
f it is Cyrus, he
’
ll be in for a rude shock in a couple of days.
”