Deadly Lode (Trace Brandon Book 1) (33 page)

C
hapter
2
5

T
he core results at the Sullivan Mine continued to be
good
, and
Montana Creek Mining
’
s share price continued to climb
. The asking price
was
now at
three dollars
.

Cyrus seemed relatively dormant
,
and I
’
d not heard a peep out of Malcolm Trueblood since
the board
sacked his sorry butt.
Christmas was coming
,
and we
’
d be shutting the drill down next week
,
th
r
ough New
Year’s
.
And
,
I had a date with Tina for Friday night.
Everything seemed to be on very solid ground
, which is usually when the bottom falls out.

I was deep in thought
s of
Tina
naked
in my Airstream
when m
y office phone rang
.
I
jumped and
nearly spilled my morning coffee.

“
Montana Creek Mining, Trace speaking.
”

“
Trace, it
’
s Cyrus. Have you got a sec?
”

“
Sure, Cyrus. What
’
s up?
”

“
A trader buddy of mine in Hong Kong se
n
t me an encrypted
e-mail
early this morning.
”

My
attention mode
kicked into hyper
-
drive
.

“
Y
es?
”

“
As you know, Trace, the Chinese are all over the damn place trying to tie up uranium reserves.
”

“
Jim Lee and I were discussing
that very thing
when we were up at the mine
last week
. The Chinese just inked a deal to acquire a majority interest in an Aussie uranium company.
They also bought a majority interest in a Namibian uranium mine
,
from
a British company.
”

“
Exactly. My trader tells me Montana Creek is on their radar.
T
he
Chinese are
quietly
acquiring
a position in
our
company
.
”

“
Is it just an investment, or are they up to something more?
”

“
I think
it
’
s something
more
,
Trace.
”

“
Well
, without my share block, there
’
s no way for them to get control.
”

“
True, but they could get what I call
‘
negative control.
’
Get enough shares to do what we did with Malcolm. Get a seat on the board.
How many shares in the float?
”

“
Fully diluted
,
including warrants,
about three mil
lion
.
”

“
They might do a tender offer
,
at a premium to the market
,
and pick up a good bit, it not all, of the three mil.
”

“
What
’
s
your
recommendation
, Cyrus
?
”
I said, not quite believing I was
asking
t
he Virus
for his opinion
.

“
Well, I
agree with you. Without your shares, they
can
’
t get control, and
I won
’
t tender my shares unless you, Wally
, Will
,
and IUC decide to sell. Which I don
’
t see happ
en
ing at these
levels.
”

“
Thanks, Cyrus
, and you
’
re right.
W
e
’
re
not sellers at these levels. Also,
I know IUC is more interested in adding to their uranium reserves than
in selling their shares.
But
,
there could be a price at which the
i
r shareholders would force them to sell.
A
t the end of the day
,
it
’
s
all about the bottom line.
”

“
True enough. O
kay, Trace
,
I just wanted to give you a heads
-
up. I
’
ll keep you informed if I get more information.
”

“
Thanks, Cyrus. I
’
ll brief
the other directors.
”

I hung up and sent an
e-mail
to Jim. He was in IUC
’
s Melbo
u
rne office this week. I called
Will and then
Wally
,
who
about had a heart attack. We decided to wait to hear back from Jim and then get
everyone
on a conference call
, i
ncluding
t
he Virus.

Jim
e-mailed
back
,
and
we arranged to have a conference call at
2:00
p.m. Thursday afternoon
,
our time
, w
hich would be
9:00
a.m. Friday morning in Melbourne.

It took a bit of doing and some help from an international operator, but we got all parties on the line.

“
Fellows, I called this meeting to discuss the information Cyrus received from his trader contact in Hong Kong,
”
I said.
“
Cyrus
,
can you bring the board up to speed
?
”

“
Certainly, and I do have an update to what I passed on yesterday. The Chinese company buying our shares is
URAN-China
Nu
c
lear Co
rp.
, or
UC
NC. They
’
ve recently acquired interests in uranium companies in Africa, Australia
,
and Ka
z
akhstan. They
’
re extremely aggressive and very well funded.
”

“
I know the company,
”
Jim
said
.
“
They are very active in the Australian uranium play. The
i
r speciality is underfunded j
unior small caps with potential significant reserves.
”

“
Except for the underfunded part, that
’
s us,
”
I said.

“
Their MO,
”
Jim
continued
,
“
i
s to get a minority position in the target company through open market share purchases
. Then
,
they typically
put together a tender offer for control of the company.
They
don
’
t operate
any
mines they acquire.
They prefer to
contract with a major mining company to do the actual mining.
”

“
Fits tight with your information, Cyrus,
”
I added.

“
What
’
s the worst
-
case scenario?
”
Wally asked.

“
Worst case,
”
I replied
,
“
is
t
hey acquire
all
of the shares
in the float.
Which
would
give them around thirty
-
seven percent of
the company.
”

“
Negative control,
”
Cyrus said.
“
Not enough to
take over
,
but certainly enough to get one or two of their people on our board.
”

“
And then they
’
ll
tender for the rest,
”
Jim added.

“
But U
.
S
.
uranium can
’
t, at least for now, be exported to China, can it?
”
I asked.

“
Possibly as enriched uranium in fuel rods for
nu
c
lear power generation,
”
Jim replied.
“
But they might be able to export yellow cake to
a country with no export restriction to China.
Or swap proven reserves here for reserves elsewhere.
Or, they could merely be investing in our shares with an eye towards higher share prices down the road. The Chinese are buying up so much uranium
. T
hey know the price is going up
, along
wi
th
our share price.
Another one of those self
-
fulfilling pro
p
hec
ies
.
”

“
So what
’
s our defensive strategy?
”
Will asked.

Cyrus cleared his throat
.
“
W
ell
,
fellows, we can
’
t stop them from acquiring our shares. But as Trace pointed out, they
’
ll fall short of control. My advice would be to wait a bit, see how this plays out. If it really gets nasty, we may have to seek out a white knight to better any tender they put forth.
”

“
Jim, would IUC
be interested in picking up additional shares to thwart the Chinese?
”
I asked.

“
As I mentioned
,
when we agreed to acquire
a
twenty percent interest, we
are
interested in a larger ownership percentage
,
”
Jim replied
.
“
That said,
we couldn
’
t wage a bidding war with the Chinese. They
have very deep pockets.
”

We all agreed to run with Cyrus
’
s
wait
-
and
-
see approach.
I
,
only
half-
jokingly
,
suggested
w
e all re
-
read Sun Tzu
’
s
Art of War
.
Hostile takeover attempts were
nothing short of corporate warfare.

C
hapter
2
6

O
n Friday night I picked Tina up at her apartment near the
u
niversity.
I
’
d
earlier
hit the IGA
for groceries, including
two
rib eyes
, salad stuff
,
and
two
bottle
s
of
Cabernet Sauvignon. The
c
abernet was a
local
-
boutique wine made by a
Spokane
entrep
reneur
turned winemaker.
The wines were
blended and bottled in an old converted
warehouse in
the historic district of Spokane.
I
t was shaping up to be a hell of a night.

As Christmas was getting near, I
’
d decorated the exterior of my Airstream with colored Christmas lights. I even decorated a couple of small pine trees growing near the trailer and hung a wreath on the door. There was about six inches of snow on the ground
,
and the margins of the Yakima River were iced over. It looked
and felt
like Christmas.

When we pulled
up to my Airstream
, Tina was duly impressed.

“
Boy howdy, cowboy, you went all out this year,
”
Tina
said with
a laugh.

“
Yep, even got a small Christmas tree inside. Might even be a present under it for you.
”

“
Really?
”

“
Let
’
s go in and take a look.
”

We got out of the Bronco and walked hand in hand to the door of the trailer. It was cold
,
and the snow crunched under our boots.
The Christmas lights on my trailer reflected off the Yakima River. It was a pretty neat sight.

Inside we hung up our coats
,
and I grabbed a couple of wine glasses.

“
Wine, babe?
”
I asked, holding up
a
bottle of cabernet.

“
Wow, the good stuff,
”
Tina
said with
a smile.
“
Trying to ply me with liquor?
”

“
Absolutely,
”
I said
, removing
the cork and pour
ing
us each a glass of the ruby
-
red wine.

I took a sip and walked over to
the
miniature Christmas tree I
’
d place
d
in the center of the dining table.

“
Well, I
’
ll be damned. There is a little something under the tree for you. You must have been a very good girl this year
.
”

“
Uh-huh. Let
’
s have it cowboy.
Can I open it now?
”

“
Absolutely.
”

I handed her the gift
-
wrapped package
,
and she tore off the paper but
carefully
set the bow aside. It must be a
female thing
;
they all do it. Then
she
slowly
opened the
felt
-
covered jewelry
box.

“
Holy cow, Trace. Is this what I think it is?
”

“
Yep,
B
lackfoot
Canyon
sapphires from Montana. Do you like it?
”

Tina held up the bracelet made of white gold and brilliant deep
-
blue sapphires
.

“
O
f course I like it, Trace. But I don
’
t have anything like this for you.
”

I smiled and raised my eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

Tina laughed
.
“
Give me a couple of minutes and then meet me in the bedroom
.
”

I spent a few minutes tid
y
ing up the kitchen and finishing my wine
,
and then headed to the front of the Airstream. Tina was
lying
on my queen
-
sized bed
,
wearing nothing but the sapphire bracelet.

“
Damn
,
I knew I liked that bracelet,
”
I said with a husky laugh. I shucked my cloth
e
s and slid in beside her.

She threw one leg over mine and pressed her full breasts into my chest. Her nipples were hard as thimbles, and so was I. I kissed her deeply and cupped her breasts. She ran her hand down my stomach and stroked my member.

“
You
’
d better get on
,
if you
’
re going to catch this ride,
”
I said softly.

She rolled me on my back and mounted me like a comfortable saddle. Arching her back
,
she rolled her hips
,
taking me deeper into her. I felt the pressure building deep in my groin.

“
Don
’
t wait for me,
”
she whispered.
“
Tonight is for you.
”

I didn
’
t.