Deadly Lode (Trace Brandon Book 1) (31 page)

“
Damn good question, Trace. I
’
d say Rosenburg pissed off some very bad individuals.
”

“
You think the casino boys wanted more than just his shares?
”

“
Who else could pull o
f
f a hit like that, besides a government?
”

“
A guy like Rosenburg would have enemies from stock
deals gone south
.
But
I don
’
t see any way a government would be involved. To me
,
it smells like he seriously pissed off someone in the
Outfit
.
”

“
The Outfit?
”

“
It
’
s what Al Capone used to call the
m
ob.
”

“
Jesus, I can
’
t wait for our next shareholders meeting. Could be some interesting characters in
attendance
.
”

C
hapter
20

C
yrus
asked Malcolm to come down to the Spokane office. He wanted him to
go through
all of Thorny
’
s business
files
. Cyrus told him to pull
anything of interest
,
and shred anything
that might be sensitive
.

Malcolm was embarrassed and mad about being
unceremoniously
dumped from Montana Creek
’
s board. He
’
d taken the hit while Cyrus
had
skated
,
and pocketed
two hundred grand on the short sale.
And to add insult to injury,
he
hadn
’
t even offered to spl
i
t
the short
-
sale profit.

Digging through the files, a
n expense report for a trip Thorny had made to New Orleans caught
Malcolm
’
s
eye.
Checking
through phone bills, he located several calls Thorny had made to New Orleans. All to the same number.
He knew Cyrus had sent Thorny to
New Orleans to
meet with Al
Pantelli
.
It was worth a shot.

“
Mr.
Pantelli
please,
”
Malcolm
said
to the secretary who answered his call.

“
Which Mr.
Pantelli
,
sir
?
”

“
Al
. . .
Al
Pantelli
, please
,
”
Malcolm rep
lied, a hint of nervousness in his voice.

“
Yes,
sir
. One minute please.
”

“
Al, here
. W
ho
’
s this?
”

“
Mr.
Pantelli
, this is Malcolm Trueblood. I run Twisp River Resources
here
in Vancouver, Canada
,
for Cyrus McSweeny.
”

Al
’
s interest immediately peaked
.
“
S
ure
,
Malcolm, I know who you are. What can I do for you?
”

“
Well
,
sir
, as you may know
,
both you and Twisp River are shareholders in Montana Creek Mining.
”

“
Yes, we own about
half
a million shares. And as you may know, Cyrus has our proxy to vote those shares for the next three years.
”

“
Yes, I do know that. He can vote your shares as long as he
’
s alive.
Upon his death the voting rights would revert to you. Correct?
”

“
Correct. Are you calling on a cell or from a land
-
line?
”

“
Land
-
line,
sir
.
”

“
Okay, go ahead
.
”

“
Twisp River Resources took down
a good chunk of the original private placement
,
which came with warrants attached.
We exercised the warrants
when the stock got to
a dollar.
”

“
Go on
,
”
Al said.

“
As CEO of Twisp River Resources,
I vote
our
shares
. But
as Twisp River is controlled by Carib International, that is to say
,
by
Cyrus, I vote as instructed.
”

“
I
’
m still listening
, Malcolm.”

“
Well, I just thought
,
as both of us have a significant in
vestment
in Montana Creek Mining
,
and its future
, i
t might make sense for us to meet and discuss our common interests.
”

Al
’
s brother Pino opened Al
’
s office door and stuck his head in. Al put his
left
index finger to his lips and motioned for him to come in and take a seat.

“
Okay, Malcolm. I don
’
t see what meeting and discussing o
u
r mutual interests could hurt,
”
Al said, looking at Pino and raising his eyebrows.
“
Tell you what
. M
y brother
,
Crispino
,
and I will be in Vegas
the
day after tomorrow. We keep an office in the Comstock Casino. Why don
’
t you meet us there?
”

“
Thank you, Mr.
Pantelli
. I
’
ll see you there. And,
sir
, I assume this conversation is in confidence?
”

“
All my conversations are in confidence. See you in two days.
”

“
What the hell
’
s going on?
”
Pino asked
,
after Al hung up.

“
Sounded
to me
like the guy who runs one of Cyrus
’
s companies wants a change in management
.
And there could be a lot of Montana Creek shares involved.
”

C
hapter
2
1

D
rilling was moving ahead
at the Sullivan Mine
. Each new drill hole extended the length of
orebody
and
added additional reserves. I
’
d gotten the name of Twisp River
’
s engineering firm from Malcolm before we
’
d lowered the boom on him. I put a call in to the firm
’
s office in Vancouver.
A young
,
very sexy
-
sounding gal answered the phone.

“
Charter
Engineering
, may I help you?
”

“
Yes,
m
a
’
am, this is Trace Brandon with Montana Creek Mining.
Could I speak to Gerald Smyth please
?
”

I heard the phone click
,
and then Sm
y
th picked up.

“
Jerry here.
”

“
Mr. Smyth, this is Trace Brandon with Montana Creek Mining down i
n
Ellensburg, Washington.
”

“
Yes, Trace. Malcolm Trueblood said you might be calling. And please
,
call me Jerry.
”

“
Okay
, Jerry. Listen, we need a full
-
blown
independent engineering report
completed on our Sullivan Mine property. As you may know, we
’
re up and trading and
need
to file a reserve report based on our drilling results to date.
”

“
How soon would you like us to start?
”

“
Well, there
’
s a hell of a lot of snow on the ground at the mine. But we
’
re drilling away.
We
’
ve got a lot of
split
core stored in a heated warehouse in Winthrop. And of course we
’
ve got all the core assays.
”

“
Okay
. A
re there underground workings?
”

“
Yes, there
’
s two levels
,
but only the upper adit is access
i
ble. The lower workings are flooded. But you can map the rock types and the vein to the end of the upper adit.
”

“
Perfect. As you know
, Trace,
we have to physically be on-site
, inspect the geology
, drilling
,
cores
,
and assay results.
Plus
,
we
’
ll also
need to
take a few confirmation core samples
. Following which,
we
’
ll prepare
a
report for your review prior to submission to the VSE.
”

“
Sounds like a plan
. Can you put together a cost proposal and
e-mail
it down to me. I
’
ll go over your proposal with the board and get back to you.
”

“
You
’
ll have something tomorrow morning
.
We look forward to working with you and with Malcolm again.
”

“
Ah, Malcolm is no longer on our board. He
’
s
resigned for personal reasons
. B
ut his company, Twisp River
Resources
, remains a significant shareholder.
”

“
I am sorry to hear that. I hope his problems aren
’
t too serious.
”

“
No
,
just some personal matters requir
ing
more of his attention
,
”
I replied, envisioning Malcolm doing five years in the big house, without a shower.

C
hapter
2
2

I
received the
engineering
report
proposal from Charter Engineering and reviewed it with Wally, Will
,
and Jim.
The costs were as expected
,
and w
e all agreed to proceed
.
I contacted Gerald Smyth and arranged to meet him in Winthrop. From there we
’
d take him up to the Sullivan Mine. Jim Lee asked to be
present
as well.

I
arranged to
pick
Jim
up at the
Spokane
airport
. W
e
’
d
dr
i
ve up
together in my Bronco.
Jerry
was driving down from Vancouver in a four
-
wheel
-
drive
S
uburban crammed full of field and sampling gear.
He
’
d meet us at the
W
inthrop House
.

Jim was standing in front of the Spokane terminal when I dr
o
ve up.

“
Good flight, Jim?
”
I asked
,
while he stowed his gear in the back of the Bronco.

“
Yep, no worries,
m
ate. Smooth as
a McGuire Sister
’s’
harmony.
So tell me about your meeting with Cyrus.
”

“
Well
,
he
’s
smart enough to know we could rock his boat pretty damn hard if he d
id
n
’
t shape up. He
’
s also smart enough to know we don
’
t want any kind of bad news
,
like lawsuits
or
SEC investigations. I
’
m convinced he
’
ll play ball. It
’
s in his best interest.
”

“
You
’re
right
,
of course. It
’
s a slippery slope once problems like Cyrus and Malcolm
’
s activities are made public. The investment community is a fickle beast and could just as easily turn against Montana Creek Mining
as
Cyrus
.
”

“
Agreed. From my point of view the most important thing we can do
now
is
concentrate on
drilling out reserves
.
Get the
engineering report
completed
,
a
nd get listed on the Toronto Exchange.
”

“
Couldn
’
t agree more, mate.
”

Jim and I were having a beer in the
W
’
s
bar
around
7:00
p.m.
when
a
character right out of
Alan Quarte
r
ma
in
walk
ed
in.
This individual was
decked out in b
loused k
hakis tucked into
leather
boots that laced to just below the knees.
He had on a
n olive
-
drab army w
inter field jacket with pencils, pens
,
and small notebooks stuffed in every pocket
. A
bright
-
red wool scarf
was
wrapped around his neck.
His open jacket exposed w
h
at could pass for a Bowie knife
hooked to his belt.
He looked to be
in his fifties,
about five feet eight,
heavy
-
set with a
ruddy comple
xion
and
a
bald
head
.
To compensate for the lack of cranial hair, he sported
a magnificent
salt
-
and
-
pepper beard.

Jim took one look and laughed softly
.
“
B
loody hell, that
’
s got to be our engineer.
”

I waved
the fellow to
our table
,
and
Jim and I stood up to meet him.

“
Gerald Smyth, gents
,
”
he said, shaking each of our hands with an iron grip
,
“
b
u
t y
ou can call me Jerry
.
”

“
I
’
m
Trace Brandon, Jerry, and this is Jim Lee
,
managing director of International Uranium Corp.
Jim
’
s
one of our directors.
You got a license for that pig sticker
?
”
I
asked with
a chuckle
,
gestur
ing at
his knife.

Jerry laughed
.
“
Yeah, she
’
s a whopper
,
al
l
right. But she come
s
in pretty handy from time to time. Mainly for skinning young geologists
,
”
he
said with
a wink
.

We
all took a seat, ordered a round of beers
,
and
got acquainted.
Later
,
over steaks
,
I briefed
Jerry on our drilling operation and
the Sullivan Mine
’
s history. We agreed to meet for breakfast at six and
then
head up to the mine.

The next morning, after a breakfast of eggs, bacon, hotcakes
,
and coffee, we loaded into our vehicles and headed up to the Sullivan Mine.
When we pulled up
,
Fish came out of the core shack to meet us.

“
Fish
,
this is Jerry Smyth one of the principal engineers with Charter Engineering out of Vancouver
,
”
I said.

“
Glad to meet you
,
Jerry
.
I
’
m Tom Troutman. But everybody calls me Fish.
”

“
Glad to meet you as well,
”
Jerry replied.
“
How
’
s the coring going?
”

“
We
’
ve just started
coring a new location. You
’
ll be able to get a look at the cores as they come out,
”
Fish answered.

“
Tom, good to see you again,
”
Jim said, shaking hands with his young geologist.
“
Freezing you
r
ass off
,
are you?
”

“
It
’
s cold, but nothing compared to the Athabasca
Basin
,
”
Fish replied.
“
Come on up to the rig
,
and I
’
ll introduce Jerry to Red. And he can get a look at some fresh core.
”

After the intro
’
s, Jerry took a serious look at the core from the hole Red was drilling.

“
Jeezus
—y
ou boy
’
s have hit the mother fuck
in
’
lode. Excuse my language,
but
,
sweet Jesus
,
this ore is incredible. You know the only bad part, though?
”
Jerry asked,
frowning slightly.

My heart sank
.
“
W
hat bad part?
”
I
asked
.

“
The b
ad part
is, I can
’
t buy any of your shares
,
”
Jerry
said with
a laugh.
“
I can
’
t own an interest in any property I
’
m doing a
n engineering report on
.
A
nd from the looks of this core, I wish I could
.
”

Jerry spent the better part of two days either at the mine or in Winthrop poring over the cores and assays. To say he was thorough would be a gross understatement. He checked the underground workings
and,
watched and recorded our drilling and coring methods.

Finally on the third day, he
’
d seen enough
. He
loaded up his gear, along with some core samples
for confirmation assays,
and bid us
ad
ieu
. He promised a draft report in two weeks.

Jim and I left Fish to carry on
,
and we headed to Spokane
,
where Jim would start his trek down under. After dropping him at the airport
,
I headed back to my office in Ellensburg
to check on the corporate end of things. Hopefully, there were no more short sellers
,
or dead shareholders.