CHAPTER 18
Spinning
on its axis, the asteroid now faced away from Jupiter. In the night sky there was only stars and
other asteroids.
And of course, Jupiter.
October opened a small stove, removed
the wrapping on a chemical pellet and placed it under the burner. He squeezed a
single drop of fluid from a small can and the pellet ignited into a brilliant
blue-green flame as he slipped a pan on the fire and squeezed in some goo from
a plastic bag, poured in a dab of water and stirred.
“Stew will be ready in a minute,
gents,” he called out as he looked over at Jake, who had a similar stove with
coffee already brewing.
“Coffee’s done,” Jake said eager
for the strong brew.
Tibbs helped himself to the coffee. He sat on a rock and looked out over the
landscape dejectedly. “I’ve had it,” he complained.
Jake looked up from pouring himself
a cup of coffee. “What are you talking about?”
“We’ve been slogging through these
damn mountains for two weeks and there hasn’t been a sign of ore.”
“No one said it was going to be
easy, Tibbs.”
“Some nose for ore,” Tibbs said for
October’s benefit. “If you ask me, old
man, you’ve been lying so long about striking it rich you believe it
yourself. I don’t know what I was thinking,
teaming up with a rundown old man who probably hasn’t ever seen a real strike,
not to mention hanging out with a loser mercenary—”
Jake stood up and said, “Sit down
and shut your mouth before—”
“What? What do you think you can do?” Pitts said angrily
building up a head of steam. “You think
I’m afraid of you, Lane. I’ve killed
better men than you without breaking a sweat.
You’re just a big, dumb ox who caused a lot of men to get killed.”
Jake walked toward Tibbs, who didn’t
budge as he drew his pistol. Jake stopped
and glared at Tibbs, who smiled wickedly and brought the weapon up and pointed
it at Jake’s face.
October watched the two men as if
they were a curious attraction. He casually poured himself some coffee and chewed
on a piece of jerky.
Jake’s mule looked up from eating,
curious.
“Come on, what’cha going to do, big
man,” Tibbs goaded. “You ain’t so tough
now, are you! You think you’re such a
badass. I’ll show you—”
Jake’s mule suddenly kicked out its
hind legs, catching Tibbs in the back.
Jake dove to the side as Tibbs’
weapon went off and blasted the rock that October was sitting on, sending him
pitching backwards, as his coffee went flying. Jake scrambled up and tackled
Tibbs. The two crashed in a heap. Jake flipped Tibbs off of him and they started
to slug it out.
They were punching and gouging one
another when October’s hysterical laughing caused them to stop, still clutching
each other’s throat. They looked over at
him as he danced a wild jig like a drunken sailor on one binge too many as he
held a chunk of rock in the air and spun around shouting crazily.
“You two wouldn’t know ore if it
came up and hit you in the face,” he said gleefully. “It’s all over the place, right under your
feet, but you’re too blind or too greedy to see.”
“What are you talking about, old
man?” Tibbs shouted as he pulled away from Jake.
October held up the piece of
shattered rock, still smoldering from the gun blast. A thick vein of blue ore
oozed along a vein, dripped in a long glob and splattered on the ground between
October’s boots.
“I told you I had a nose for ore,”
he said as he ran a finger through the blue liquid and held it up like a kid
who had just dipped his finger in fresh cookie dough. He winked and flicked it at them. Some splattered on their shirts.
Jake touched it and rubbed it
between his fingers. From his time in
the mines he knew what he was looking at and smiled at October.
Tibbs rubbed the ore on his shirt.
It parted like mercury. “What do’ya think it’s worth?” he asked.
“I never seen ore this pure,”
October said. “Melts like butter...cold
to the touch...no impurities. Only
problem I can see is how will we spend it all.”
“You leave that to me,” Tibbs said
already thinking of ways to do just that.
“I aim to have one hell of a night on the town.”
“We’re a long way from that,” Jake
said.
“Right you are,” October agreed. “Under the geological treaty, Vector Corp
holds the lease on all mineral rights.
Wildcatters get twenty percent per factory-processed liter, but one
hundred percent of what they can carry out on their own.”
“We should have brought more
mules,” Tibbs said, eyeing the three animals.
“I figured one mule a piece was
plenty,” October said.
“You figured wrong,” Tibbs said
testily.
“That mule can carry enough ore to
make you plenty rich,” Jake said.
“There’s no such thing as too rich,”
Tibbs said. “I’ve got big plans and it’ll
take big money to pay for them.”
“Then you better have plans to do
some big work,” October said holding up the rock, “because this was a
fluke. We’ve got some long, hard days
ahead.”
“Then we better unload and get to
it,” Jake said.
The fight forgotten for the moment,
they started unloading their mining equipment from the mules.
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