Deadly Lode (Trace Brandon Book 1) (55 page)

Chang and Zhoa took out their hand lenses and pulled small sections of the high
-
grade uranium ore from the core boxes.

For a moment
both
men were silent. I glanced over at Cyrus and Will
,
and raised my eyebrow
s
.

“
Trace, if I was not holding this ore, I would not believe it,
”
Chang said, glancing at his engineer
,
who appeared to be in a near
ly
orgasmic state.
“
The
uranium
grade is unbelievable,
and there are gold values as well?
”

“
Yep, in an adjacent vein system,
”
I replied, trying not to gloat too much.

“
Very impressive,
”
Chang kept repeating.

I looked over at Cyrus and Will
,
and smiled.

After about an hour of salivating over the cores, I finally got Chang and Zhao back
in
to the
S
uburban.

“
Well, I gather you liked what you saw
?
”
I asked
, heading back to the
W
.

“
Very impressive
,
”
Chang said, for the umpteenth time.

I laughed
.
“
Yes,
sir, I
t
’
s what we call the
‘m
other
l
ode.
’
”

Chang said something in Chinese to Zhao
,
which I guessed to be a translation of
m
other
l
ode.

“
Okay, fellows,
”
I said.
“
Let
’
s get back to the hotel, have some supper
,
and get some sleep. We
’
ll head up to the mine first thing in the morning.
”

At supper, I introduced our two Chinese friends to
Washington State
Black Angus steaks.

“
Trace, this steak is like Kob
e
beef. It
’
s very delicious,
”
Chang said
,
between mouthfuls o
f
medium
-
rare rib
-
eye.

“
Yep, it
’
s hard to beat,
”
I replied, glancing over at Cyrus.
“
I
’
ve only found one other place with steaks
this good
.
”

“
And where was that?
”
Chang asked.

“
One of the casinos
,
in
Las Vegas
.
”

“
The Comstock?
”

I nodded and smiled
.
“
Y
ou do your homework, Mr. Chang.
”

“
I like to know my adversaries, Mr. Brandon.
”

“
As do I,
”
I replied, making eye contact with Chang.

After
the steaks and
coffee, I suggest
ed
we retire and meet for breakfast at six sharp.
I wanted to be done with the mine
tour
by
late
afternoon
,
and
be
back in Spokane by evening.
Chang and Zhao had an early flight out the following day.

The
next
morning we all had a light breakfast and loaded into the Suburban. In about thirty minutes we were at the Sullivan
M
i
ne
.

Fish walked over as we were climbing out of the truck.

“
Morning, fellows,
”
he
said with
a wave.

“
Mr. Chang, Mr. Zhao,
”
I said, gesturing toward Fish,
“
I
’
d like you to meet our project geologist, Tom Troutman. Tom
’
s been seconded to us from International Uranium. Who, as you know, own
s
twenty percent of Montana Creek Mining.
”

“
Good morning
,
Mr. Troutman,
”
Chang said, shaking Tom
’
s hand.
“
Please meet my chief mining engineer, Mr. Zhao.
”

Fish shook each man
’
s hand.
“
Good to meet you
,
and please call me Fish.
Come
on
over to the drill
. W
e
’
re just pull
ing
some core from the ore zone. It should be pretty good.
”

We all ambled over to Red
’
s drill
as his helper decanted five feet of fresh core into
a
wooden tray.

Fish took a paint
-
brush
,
dipped it into a coffee can full of water
,
and wetted the cores.

“
Wow,
”
Chang said.

Fish laughed
.
“
W
ow is right. Have you fellows ever seen uranium ore like this?
”

“
Only in the Athabasca mines
,
in
e
astern Canada
,
”
Zhao replied, kneeling to get a better look at the shiny
,
wet core.

I gently nudged Cyrus
,
who I knew was thinking the same thing I was. Chang would make an unconditional tender for the
Pantelli
’s’
shares. I couldn
’
t blame them. It was the
m
other
l
ode
.

C
hapter
60

W
ill and I were having lunch at the
First Inn
a couple of days after we
’
d deposited Chang and Zhao at the Spokane airport.

“
Well, I think the guys from Hong Kong were well please
d
with what they saw at the mine,
”
Will said, wiping some ketchup from his upper lip.

“
Yep, I thought ol
d
Zhao was going to pee his pants when he saw the cores,
”
I replied.

“
You think they
were
dazzled enough to try and buy out
our shareholders
down
in
New Orleans?
”

“
I think they
’
ll try. T
hey know
none of us
insiders
are selling, and that i
nclud
es
Cyrus.
If they want to acquire a chu
n
k of shares
,
outside of the market, t
h
ey
’
ll have to deal with the
Pantelli
s.
”

I
’
d just finished my
observation
when
my cell phone started vibrating.

“
Speak of the devil,
”
I said, finishing a
f
rench
-
fry.
“
Our good buddies from the Big Easy.
Hello, Mr.
Pantelli
. What can I do for you this fine day?
”

“
You can tell me what
kind of smoke
you blew up the Chink
’s’
ass
es
on their visit to the mine?
”
Al
Pantelli
said with a laugh
.

“Oh, j
ust the usual dog
-
and
-
pony stuff. Why
? W
hat
’
s up,
Al?
”

“
What
’
s up is, our commie friend, Chang, called me and offered
to buy my shares outright, no strings attached. And at a twenty percent premium to today
’
s price.
”

“
Well,
Al,
all I can tell you is they got quite excited when they go
t
their hands on
the
cores. There was some serious Chinese being tossed around,
”
I
said with
a chuckle.

“
I
’
ll bet. So what do you think?
”

“
W
hat
’
d you mean, Al?
”

“
Should I sell to the fuckin
’
commies
,
or not?
”

“
Hell, Al, it
’
s up to you. I
’
ve already told you what I think about the mine and the company
’
s future
, but
there
’
s always the unexpected.
”

“
What unexpected?
”

“
If I knew that, it wouldn
’
t be unexpected.
”

“
Goddam
n
it, Trace
. W
e
’
re talking about a hell of a lot of money here.
”

“
I know it, Al
, b
ut it
’
s your call.
”

“
What about you? What
’
re your plans?
”

“
You
’
re
talking
apples and oranges. I have different goals and responsibilities than you all.
”

“
How so?
”

“
My first priority is to the shareholders
of the company. Your first priority ou
ght
to be, and right
ly
so, making a profit.
The Chinese have just presented you and Pino with that opportunity.
”

“
I see
, a
nd w
hat about you, Trace? Would you ever consider selling your shares to the Chinese?
”

“
As I said before, Al
, a
t this
point in time
, I
’
m not interested in selling my shares to anyone.
”

“
Well
,
you
’
re consistent
,
I
’
ll give you that.
Okay
, Trace,
thanks for
your time
. I
’
ll let you know what Pino and I decide.
”

I hung up and looked across the table at Will.

“
Just like we figured, huh?
”
Will said
,
between bites of his hamburger.

“
Sort of. Reading between Al
’
s lines is not easy
,
but I get the feeling he
’
s going to have a hard time letting go of his shares.
H
e
’
s afraid to pull the trigger
, a
fraid he might leave something on the table.
”

“
Damn
.
I was hoping we
’
d get those fellows out of our company.
”

“
We
’
ll just have to wait and see
how this all plays out
.
”