Deadly Lode (Trace Brandon Book 1) (25 page)

C
hapter
14

R
ed motioned from the drilling rig for Troutman to come over
to the rig.

“
Something
’
s not right, Fish.
”

“
What
’
s the problem, Red?
”

“
We should be in vein
,
but
I can tell by the way the bit is cutting
.
we
’
re still in granite.
”

“
Finish this run, then trip out. Let
’
s be sure.
”

Red finished the core run and pulled the tubing from inside the core barrel.

“
Here she comes,
”
Red said.

The drill helpers emptied the contents of the core liner into a core box.

“
Damn—
you
’
re right, Red. Nothing but granodiorite.
”

“
What do you want me to do?
”
Red asked.

“
Cut another five feet of core. If we
’
re still in granodiorite, I
’
ll call Trace and get him up here.
”

An hour later
my
office phone rang.

“
Trace, it
’
s Fish. We
’
ve got a problem.
”

“
What
’
s wrong, Fish?
”

“
The vein is gone.
It
’
s e
ither pinched out or been displaced by a fault.
”

“
Holy shit
—n
o vein at all?
”

“
None. We cored
ten feet
in granodiorite
,
where the vein should have been. I had Red
pull
out of the hole and go back in with the
down
-
hole
hammer
,
and drill until we hit the footwall schist. We grabbed samples
every two feet, just to be sure.
N
o vein.
”

“
Okay, move the rig to the next location and start drilling. Drill down to where we would normally start coring.
I
f I
’
m not there by then, put the rig on standby. I
’
m on my way.
”

I called Will
and
Wally
, and
e
-
mailed
Jim
Lee
,
and filled them in on the situation.
I decided to wait to call Malcolm until I got on-site and reviewed the situation
in person
. I knew he
’
d be on the phone to Cyrus the minute we hung up.
I packed my gear and headed for the Sullivan Mine.

Cyrus refueled
the Lear
in Houston, skirted some thunderstorms
,
and made Grand Cayman by
8:00
p.m. Lisa Miller was waiting in the terminal. Cyrus had longstanding arrangements with Cayman customs officers
,
and he breezed through with no luggage check.

“
Thanks for meeting me, Lisa,
”
Cyrus said, giving her a hug and kiss on the cheek.

“
No problem, Cyrus. What
’
s up?
”

“
I
’
ve got eight hundred thousand U
.
S
.
in this briefcase
that
I need to get it into Carib
’
s account.
And
,
I want to strategize a bit on our plan of attack now that Malcolm
is
on Montana Creek Mining
’
s board.
”

“
Anything else?
”
Lisa said
,
with a seductive smile.

“
Well
,
maybe just one or two other items,
”
Cyrus replied, a grin spreading across his face.

C
hapter
15

“
C
hief Constable Rand? This is David Osgood
,
with the
Ministry of Public Safety
here in Vancouver
.
”

“
Yes, Mr. Osgood
. W
hat can I do for you today?
”

“
It
’
s actually more what I can do for you,
sir
. We
’
ve got a cause of death on Richard Rosenburg
, a
nd you
’
re not going to believe it.
”

“
Really? Not your run
-
of
-
the
-
mill heart attack or stroke?
”

“
Only if you call VX a run
-
of
-
the
-
mill nerve agent.
”

“
Come again?
”

“
Rosenburg was killed by percutaneous exposure
,
that is
,
skin contact
,
with the nerve agent known as VX.
”

“
How is that possible? I thought only the military had access to VX
.
”

“
VX is a derivative of a
1950
’
s
pesticide called
OPP-D
. It
’
s possible not all of the
pesticide
on the market was collected or destroyed. A good chemist could upgrade the
pesticide
to
a
weapons
-
grade nerve agent.
”

“
Absolutely sure on this?
”

“
We nearly lost one of our
paramedics
getting Rosenburg out of his car. Only the fast decontamination of her exposed skin and an injection of Atropine saved her.
So, yes
,
I
’
m sure.
”

“
I see.
”

“
Whoever killed Rosenburg applied liquid VX to the steering wheel of his Jag. The
poor
bastard died
one horrible death.
”

“
A terrorist hit?
”

“
I shouldn
’
t think so. They wouldn
’
t waste something as valuable as VX on
Rosenburg
. T
hey
’
d just cut his throat.
”

“
Okay, thanks
,
David. We
’
ll check with RCMP, the military
,
and I
’
ll contact the FBI down in Washington.
”

“
Good luck,
sir
. And be careful
. T
his is one of the worst nerve agents on the planet.
”

Rand shook his head in disbelief
.
“
B
etter living through chemistry, eh?
”

I arrived at the mine
-
site around noon and immediately checked the core. Red had moved the
rig
and was drilling down to the projected coring interval. He still had about seventy
-
five feet to go.

“
Well, you
’
re sure as hell right about the vein, Fish,
”
I said, looking at the last core runs.
“
The vein
’
s either pinched out in this area
,
or she
’
s been offset by faulting.
”

“
Have you been to the working face at the end of level one?
”
Fish asked.

“
No, we
’
d need to bridge a winze to get all the way to the back.
”

“
I think we should get a crew up here and get some planking across the winze
. We need to
get a look at the vein where they stopped mining. If it is faulted off, we may be able to tell the direction of offset.
”

“
Agreed. I
’
ll get Bob Malott to put the timber together and get up here with a crew. In the meantime, we
’
ll see if Red intersects the vein
from the new location.
”

I called Malott
and
explained what we needed. He said he
’
d have everything together and be on-site around ten in the morning.
I hung up
,
and F
ish and I went up the new drilling location.

“
How
’
s it look, Red?
”
I asked.

“
We
’
re in granite but should be at the projected vein intersection in another couple of feet.
”

Fish and I went over to the sample splitter where the driller
’
s helpers were catching samples. I grabbed a handful of the drill cuttings and showed it to fish.

“
Granodiorite,
”
Fish said, looking at the small cuttings with his ten
-
power hand lens.

Red yelled down
from the rig
.
“
We s
hould be in vein now, but it
’
s cutting like granite
.
”

We drilled another twenty
-
five feet of granodiorite and then hit the footwall schist.

“
Damn, she
’
s not here,
”
Fish said.

“
No
,
she
’
s not,
”
I replied
,
in disgust.

“
What do you want to do, Trace?
”
Fish asked.

“
Only one thing to do, Fish.
Have the rig stand by while we put together some cross sections and maps.
Maybe we
’
ll
be able to figure out what
’
s going on
after we get to the working face on level one.
”

Fish nodded and waved his hand at Red. When he got Red
’
s attention,
Fish
drew his index finger across his throat
.

“
S
hut her down
,
”
h
e yelled.

Paying rig time while a drill stands idle
is a worst
-
case scenario for a project
geologist
. B
ut in this cas
e, I could see no alternative.

Fish and I went back to our storage warehouse at Malott
’
s yard in Winthrop. We cranked up a couple of space heaters and went to work. While Fish worked on cross sections, I made a call I didn
’
t want to make.

“
Malc
olm
, it
’
s Trace. Got a sec?
”

“
Sure, Trace, what
’
s up?
”

“
We
’
ve lost the vein. We drilled two holes along the projected strike of the vein. When we hit the vein interval, she wasn
’
t there. Tom Troutman, the IUC geo
logist
, and I are working up cross sections of the drilling to see if we can figure out what
’
s going on.
”

“
Any guesses?
”

“
Well it
’
s either a pinch out, which could be just a local event, or not. Or
a fault has cut the vein and displaced it in some manner. We
’
re going to do some work in the main adit in order to get back to the working face and see if the vein is still in sight. If it
’
s not, we may get some indications from fault striations as to the direction of movement.
”

“
Okay, Trace, I know you
’
re on top of it. Thanks for calling me
,
and please keep me informed a
s work progresses.
”

Malcolm hung up and hit Cyrus
’
s number on speed dial.

“
This better be good, Malcolm. I
’
m in the Cayman
’s
and dead center in the middle of a piece of work.
”

Malcolm could hear
a
muffled female giggle in the background.

“
I just go
t
off the phone with Trace. There
’
s a problem at the Sullivan Mine.
”

Cyrus focused immediately
.
“
W
hat kind of problem?
”

“
The last two core holes did not intercept the vein.
”

“
Who
knows about this?
”

“
Just the directors and the drillers.
”

“
Okay, I
’
m going to make a few calls in the morning. We
’
re going to short the stock. When news of this gets out, the shares
price will drop
. We
’
ll take some profits now
, and i
f they relocate the vein, we
’
ll know ahead of time
,
and we
’
ll cover our short position. And Malcolm, not a
damn
word to anyone,
c
lear?
”

“
Understood,
sir
.
”

Al
Pantelli
was on his second Bloody Mary of the morning. It
’
d been a hell of a party last night
,
and he was paying the price.
His cell phone rang and he picked it up.

“
Al, Cyrus here. Are you in Vegas or New Orleans?
”

“
I
’
m back in the Big Easy
. W
hat
’
s up?
”

“
Listen, Al. There
’
s a problem at Montana Creek
’
s
mine in Washington.
”

“
What kind of problem
?
”
Al asked, taking a healthy pull on his
Bloody Mary
.

“
I don
’
t know how much you know about drilling out an orebody.
”

“
Not a hell of a lot, so educate me.
”

“
Well, they
’
re drilling along the trend, called strike, of the vein
,
and the vein has disappeared.
”

“
What the hell you mean
,
disappeared?
”

“
It means it could have petered out
,
or it could have been cut by a fault and displaced, moved laterally or vertically
, or both
.
”