Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 16:59:18 -0800 (PST) From: Orrin Rush Subject: Lifeguard Chapter 34 Disclaimer: The following is a work of fiction. If you are offended by graphic descriptions of homosexual acts, go somewhere else. Copyright c 2000 by Orrin C. Rush. All rights reserved. Neither this story nor any parts of it may be distributed electronically or in any other manner without the express, written consent of the author. This is a work of fiction, any resemblance of the characters to anyone living or dead is pure coincidence and not intended. They are all products of the author's imagination. -------------------------------------------------------------- THE LIFEGUARD Chapter 34 Mary took one look at Eric and asked "You on a diet or what?" "Yeah," he teased her, "Goin' for the lean and hungry look like all the male models have. Even thinking about having all my back teeth pulled so I'll have hollow cheeks." She looked at him like he'd lost his marbles. He kept a straight face as long as he could, then started laughing. "Hell no, I just missed your cooking." Edgar hadn't conceded defeat and was still actually running the Railroad. That had to be changed. Fast. The Peabody guys advised us on the procedure we'd have to follow. This time, Eric was a very active participant. We had to call a "special" Board of Directors Meeting, propose a new slate of directors to replace Edgar's cronies, and, since we had control, elect them. Once the new Board was seated, they could pass a resolution to take the Company private. We'd have to repeat this procedure with the Development Company. "Remember, though," the Peabody guy warned, "You won't be a totally private company for three years until you can call some of the bonds that are out there. Until then, you'll have to report everything that you do just like a Public company does." "I've got an idea," Eric said. "See if you think this'll work. They're fixed interest bonds and only fluctuate in market price when interest rates move up or down, but that really doesn't concern us. When we call them it's at a fixed amount. Am I right so far?" The Peabody guys all nodded. "What if we set up an Escrow account with the principal amount in it, and enough extra to cover all the interest payments as they come due. The money could be held by a third party and invested in something real safe like Treasury Bonds, and when the Railroad's Bonds are paid off in three years, we'd get back whatever's left over. Would that keep the SEC happy and out of our hair?" The Peabody guys looked at each other and shrugged. "Nobody's ever tried anything like that. Logically, it makes sense, but I don't know if the SEC would go for it. It's worth a try, though, if that's what you want, but why would you want to do something like that?" "We're a private company," I told them. "We don't particularly like making what we do public knowledge. We don't have anything to hide, but we don't like to have anyone looking over our shoulder either." "We can propose it, the SEC should go along with you," the Peabody guy said. When the group broke up, Bill walked over to Eric and me. "You're back," he said to Eric, "and am I ever glad. Now, who are we going to put in as directors? We need nine." "The family, of course, all four of us," I said. "You, Bill, Jack and Dale from Legal, and Mike Burdette. At least he knows something about running a Railroad." I winked at Eric. "That's eight," Bill said. "We need one more." "How about Dad," Eric suggested. "He'd be a friendly face." "Settled," I said. "We'll put the same ones on the Development Company Board." "Do you think Burdette'll go for it?" Eric asked me later. "Count on it. He did help us, a bit reluctantly, but he deserves recognition. And," I told him conspiratorally, "If his games ever come to light, it'll look like we didn't know anything about it." - - - - - Annie and I worked at dismantling our clandestine operation. It had served it's purpose, and soon we would be tied in with the Railroad's computers and putting our guys to work plugging their leaks. "How's Kevin?" I asked. "Haven't seen much of him lately." "He's history," she answered. "I'm sorry, want to talk about it?" "There's not much to talk about. He's a wimp and I don't need that. He caved in to his father, and if he can't accept my family, what's next that he wouldn't be able to accept?" "Unfortunately, there are a lot of people like that," I told her. "I'm sorry that you're in the middle and had to suffer because of me." "Sure, I suffered a little. I cared about him, but I'd rather know that he can't think for himself now than later. It's not your fault, that's just the way he is. I'm damned sure I can do a helluva lot better!" "Do you want to take some time off?" I asked. "And miss all the excitement? No way! Maybe, though, in a month or two when I've got him entirely out of my system. Then, I'll be ready for some serious hunting." "Just let me know," I told her, giving her a big hug. - - - - - A secretarial pool office on the 30th floor was moved to the floor below and Eric moved in. It was about a hundred feet from my office which pleased him. Near enough to be "in on" everything, but giving him his own space. John Bussey called wanting to know how to proceed now that we owned the land. Knowing that Eric was as curious as I was about it, I invited him to come to our office and insisted on sending a plane for him. Eric and I agreed that we'd handle this aspect of our acquisition ourselves. It would be exciting even if we didn't find anything. When I introduced Eric as my "partner", John got a knowing grin on his face. He didn't comment, however. From the USGS maps and other sources, he and his crew had ranked the various tracts of land. At the top of the list were "Highly Probable", then "Probable", then "Possible" and on down the scale. "This is Arizona only," he said. "We haven't had time to work on the other States yet." "What would you do next, if you were me?" I asked. "If I had your resources, I'd do a thorough survey on all of them, starting with the ones that showed the best prospects. If others that didn't look quite as good were in the same area, I'd work on them, too, while we had our equipment there." He took out a map and spread it on the conference table. All the sites were color coded by rank. "I'd start in this area," he said, pointing at a concentration of little flags. "There's enough work here to keep my boys busy for six months." "Why there?" Eric asked. "Call it a gut feeling," John told him. "There's a lot of 'Highly Probables' and to my knowledge, nobody's ever done a thorough survey job on it. It's relatively accessible, and a good place to start." "Sounds exciting," Eric said. "Just wish I could be there." "It's really just a lot of hard work," John chuckled. "When we get our base camp set up, you guys should come over and see for yourselves, that is, if you don't mind 'roughing it'." "When can you get started?" I asked. "Damn, I was hoping you'd say that! We're all ready to go. Give us a week or so, then come on over. All you'll need is a sleeping bag." Financial arrangements were worked out, and John couldn't wait to get back and get started. "I'm serious," Eric told me. "I really do want to go over there. I took a Geology course for dumb jocks a few years ago. It was dull as hell, but this is a lot more interesting. Let's do it!" "OK, but make sure the sleeping bags you get zip together," I leered at him. - - - - - Annie's Guru, Henry, paid us a visit. Eric was there this time, for sure, asking probing questions, involved up to his armpits. So was Tina. Eric explained our plan of attack. It would take us up to six months to finalize our acquisition, then we intended to start selling off the marginal properties. First, however, we wanted Henry to evaluate each and every one and give us his opinion. "A very good idea," he pronounced. "The timing couldn't be better. Just about all California Real Estate is in demand, and I predict that the trend will continue for another two years. Prices are higher than they've ever been, too." "We'd like you to concentrate on this, but don't forget about the land we've already decided to develop," I put in. "I think I'd better explain exactly what I do," Henry said. "My firm is small, a carefully selected group of people who are imaginative. We look at a piece of land, study it in relation to it's surroundings, and decide what would be it's highest and best use. From there we develop a concept of what should be done with it, taking all factors into consideration. "We produce a 'concept' only. We are neither Engineers nor Architects. We leave that to others. The drawings that I showed to you the last time we met were produced by other firms following the concepts we had developed. We can use the firms that you choose or some that I've worked with successfully over the years." "You have to understand that none of us has any experience at developing anything," Annie told him. "We're going to need all the help and direction we can get." "Are you going to do this 'in house', or are you going to use Consultants to get through the permit process?" Henry asked. "Hadn't thought about that," Eric said. "Which would you recommend?" "With the number and scale of the projects you're contemplating, I would definitely recommend that you do it yourselves. The elected officials who will be approving your projects are, as a rule, put off by consultants. They appreciate direct contact with the principals, not 'hired guns'. I can also recommend several people who would be ideal to head your effort. You might also consider your own Engineers," he added. "Where are we going to put them?" Annie moaned. "We're already adding another section to the new building for that," Tina spoke up. "How long does the permit process usually take?" Eric asked. "It will vary," Henry said. "A lot depends on how badly a community 'needs' what you're proposing, and I've observed that projects that are presented with a great amount of detail go through fastest. Of course, you will encounter a certain amount of opposition on every one. The NIMBY's have to be dealt with." "What's a 'NIMBY'?" Tina asked. Glad she did because I had the same question. "Not in MY backyard," Henry explained. "Those who usually support progress as long as it isn't close to them. With a few minor modifications, they can usually be pacified, or overruled if necessary." This guy was a real find! He was sensitive to people's needs, but at the same time a total realist. Up to this point, we'd assumed that he'd work with us, now it was time to find out for sure. "You've been of enormous help to us, Henry. Would you consider working with us on an ongoing basis?" I asked. "As a consultant, definitely, but not exclusively," he answered. "That would be excellent, Henry. I'm going to leave contract details up to Annie." Back in my office, Eric had a few things to say. "That guy really knows his shit! His presentations are impressive, but in person, the guy is awesome." "Do you realize what it's worth to have his stamp of approval on a project?" I asked him. "I do," Eric nodded kind of sheepishly. "I may have been pissed at you but I still kept up." "Feel better now?" "I'm where I wanted to be all the time, and didn't have the balls to say so." "No more misunderstandings," I told him. - - - - - "Ready to go play in the desert?" I asked Eric, my hands stroking his wonderful hard dick. "Did John call?" "Late this afternoon," I answered. "They're all set up and hard at it. He said to come over anytime." "Have they found anything yet?" "He didn't say." "When do you want to go?" he asked. "Anytime, everything's under control on my end, how about yours?" "I'm OK too, how about day after tomorrow?" "Let's do it," I agreed, getting a little more vigorous with the toy in my hand, all thoughts of camping evaporating fast. I was still coming down from an incredible orgasm when Eric asked "Think we'll have any privacy?" "Wha..... Where?" I asked, totally confused and disoriented. "In the desert," he laughed. "Oh. I don't know." "I want to make love to you under the stars." "You're really excited about this, aren't you?" "It's exciting to be in on the start of what could be another big adventure for both of us." I propped myself up on an elbow facing him. "We'll make it one." John met us at the airport in Prescott, the nearest town with a runway that could handle our plane. Eric winked at me when he saw me looking over John's battered Jeep. Our stuff was tied down on top of the load already there, and we were ready to go. I told the pilots we'd let them know when to come back for us. We started out on pavement, then dirt road, then no road at all. For hours we went across what looked like uncharted territory. When we started into the mountains, it was much slower, John guiding the Jeep over terrain that I, quite frankly, would not have cared to cross on foot. It was a white-knuckle ride. Whenever I could take my eyes off the non-road, the scenery was awesome, huge rock formations stretched in every direction. We crested another ridge, the 476th, it felt like to my sore butt, and there was a little patch of green about a half mile ahead on the other side of the canyon. A couple of trucks were parked off to the side of the green, and several tents pitched closer. This, I prayed, was our destination. "Home sweet home," John announced as we pulled up. Eric bounced out of the back and came around to help me. I felt like I was 200 years old and had just had my entire body systematically worked over with a ball peen hammer. A little moving around and stretching helped a lot. As soon as I was able to concentrate on anything else, I noticed the sound of gas or diesel engines running in the distance. John and Eric were talking and I hobbled over. "That's our tent over there," Eric said, pointing to a four man dome tent about fifty yards away from the others. "I'll get our stuff and we can get organized." I followed him to the Jeep and took the sleeping bags. Eric grabbed the rest and I followed him to our tent. A big tarp was spread on the ground in front of the tent. "The Patio of our cottage," Eric giggled. I groaned. We unzipped the tent and found two double air mattresses, already inflated, thank god. They were the big, thick ones. "The playroom," Eric intoned, continuing his guided tour. I collapsed on the matress and started laughing. He dropped down next to me and rolled me on my stomach. His hands moving on my back brought me back to life. My moans weren't sexual, just pure relief. A few minutes of this and I was feeling a helluva lot better. I rolled over, reached up and kissed him. "Looks like we've got a little privacy," I observed. "Yep," he said, leering. We got busy and organized our stuff and got our sleeping bags laid out and zipped together. The motors were shutting down when we walked back over to the "camp". Folding aluminum chairs were arranged around a fire pit where wood was stacked, ready to be lit. I dropped into a chair and looked around. Five more of the dome tents were set up in a row. There was a large rectangular tent. Gas cook stoves in front of it had big pots boiling on them. Everything was organized, orderly, and clean. A tiny little stream flowed along the side Eric brought me a soda and sat down. "This is fun," he said, "but I wouldn't call it exactly 'roughing it'." John joined us. "Not exactly the Ritz," he said. "Don't apologise," I told him. "You have everything you need." "That ride bother your back?" he asked. "Yeah, kinda stiff and sore," I told him. "Get that big fella there to give you a backrub tonight," he suggested. "I fully intend to," I told him. "It gets dark real fast up here," John explained. "All my men are on their way in. We start as soon as it's light in the morning, so it's a long day. Tomorrow I'll take you out and show you what we're doing." Men were walking up, collecting a boiling pot off the stove and disappearing behind the big tent. "Bath time," John explained. When they reappeared in clean clothes, they looked ready for a night out on the town. We were introduced as they wandered up. Some were friendly and talkative, others didn't have much to say. Gas lanterns were lit, and everyone pitched in to cook. Some were making sandwiches which I assumed were for the next day's lunch, others worked on dinner. Everyone seemed to have an assigned task. They worked as a team, John included. Dinner was hearty and so were the portions. A two pound steak was a bit more than I was used to, but it disappeared. The lanterns were turned out and we sat around in just the light from the fire, and the stories started. All of them had either been full-time prospectors at some point in their life, or were out in the hills in their spare time. They were of the unanimous opinion that only a small fraction of Arizona's underground wealth had been located. Finding gold was everyone's dream, but, as John explained, the really big money was in finding deposits of other minerals that could be feasably mined on a commercial scale. "We don't exactly ignore gold," John said. "It's just not our primary objective." Eric asked a few questions, and one of the guys chuckled "You must've taken a Geology course somewhere along the line." "Yeah, back in college." "Bet you slept through most of it." "Sure did," Eric admitted, laughing. "It was an easy course for dumb jocks." The fire died down and the men started going off to their tents. After washing up a bit, Eric and I went in our own direction. "Ready for that massage?" he asked. I didn't answer, just stripped and spread out on the sleeping bag. He started on my legs, working upward. The tension dissolving as he went. Straddling me, he gave my shoulders and lower back a thorough working over, relaxing the knotted muscles. Rolling me over, he repeated the process. "Too tired?" he asked, taking my half hard dick in his hand. "No," I told him, "just enjoying what you're doing to me." By the time he finished I sure wasn't half hard any more. He lay down next to me and rolled over for a kiss. Feeling his wet dick against my thigh, I moved around so I could lick it off. He tasted so good I didn't stop there and before I knew it he was all the way down my throat. One hand rubbing his left nipple, the most sensitive, my other hand rolling his balls, and a few long deep strokes with my mouth had him on the edge. I backed off and teased him with my tongue. His guttural groans told me he was ready, so I went back to his dick and finished him off. It wasn't until he rolled over for a kiss that I realized that I'd cum all over the sleeping bag. "You're no fun!" he said, digging out a cum towel to clean up the mess. "Didn't mean to, it just happened." - - - - - The noise of rattling pans woke us both. "Jesus Christ, it's still dark," Eric muttered. It was barely light when we heard the diesel motors start up. They weren't wasting any time. John insisted that we eat a big breakfast. "You'll need the energy, we're going to do a lot of walking." Over coffee, he explained what they were doing. "We have four small drilling rigs out there," he said. "We're drilling 'cores' to get a sampling of what's underneath." He gave us each a backpack and a bottle of water and we started hiking. The first rig was about a half mile away. The diesel generator powered the drill and it was operated by two men. We watched for a few minutes then John explained what we were looking at. The bottom ten foot section of the drilling pipe had the coring bit on it. It cut a circle with the "core" going up the center of that section of pipe. After every ten feet of depth, the whole thing had to be pulled up and the core removed for analysis. "Sludge" was pumped into the hole to lubricate the diamond-tipped drill bit. When a "core" was pulled up, another bit was attached and sent down the hole. While it was grinding away, the contents of the core just brought up were removed. A rod was inserted in the upper end of the pipe and the center was pushed out, a foot at a time. These were put in heavy-duty ziploc bags and labeled. John told us that he then coded each bag with the location and depth before they were sent off to the lab. This certainly was no haphazard operation. We walked another mile or two to the next rig. They had just pulled a core and we watched as it was carefully extracted. "There's a souvenir for you guys in bag 32, that is, if John'll let you have it," one of the operators told us. John found bag 32 and rolled it around, then showed us the small gold nugget. At that instant, both Eric and I contracted "Gold Fever". "We'll take it back to camp," John said. "I'll wash it, weigh it and log it, then you can have it. Our first 'color'." We loaded our backpacks with bagged samples and started back, picking up more at the first rig we'd visited. We unloaded and headed out again in the opposite direction. This trek was longer and over much rougher terrain. When we got back to camp in midafternoon, I was tired, but not sore. Both of us were full of questions which John answered while he coded the bags. First, however he ran a Geiger Counter over them to check for radiation. "There's a lot of Uranium out here," he said. "Isn't worth much anymore, unfortunately." We learned that the drilling sites had been selected by studying the underlying formations, experience and plain gut instinct. The underlying formations also were factors in how deep they went with each test hole. Depending upon what they hit and the depth, test holes could take anywhere between one and five days to complete, averaging a little over two days each, and more than 300 test holes were planned for Arizona alone. I borrowed John's pocket calculator and went to work. Factoring in their work schedule of 10 days drilling then four days off, I figured that it would take 428 days or about 14 months to survey Arizona alone, and we owned much more acreage in New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Colorado than we did in Arizona. At that rate, it would take more than seven years just to find out what we had, if anything. I made up an excuse to go to our tent and motioned for Eric to follow me. I told him what I'd come up with, and he agreed that that was just too long. "Let's make John a deal," I suggested. "Get him whatever it takes to finish this in two years or less." "We got the land for virtually nothing," he said, "so a small investment wouldn't hurt." "Let's look at the odds. We've got a thousand square miles worth of potential. There's got to be at least one 'find' in all of that. We already know that a couple of pieces have copper that's worth mining." "I like John, he knows what he's doing," Eric added. "Let's see if he's interested." We went back over to where he was finishing up the samples. "I've been playing with some numbers," I told him. "Looks to me like it's going to take you about 14 months to survey our land here in the State of Arizona." "That's about right," he agreed, "barring any major breakdowns. Then it'll take us a month or so to get another State mapped and ready to go." "What would it take to speed things up?" I asked. "More equipment, which I can't afford," he said calmly. "I'm not a big operator like the ones out of Texas." "What if we bought it for you?" I asked. "I don't want to get stuck with a lot of equipment that I have no use for when this job is over," he said. "Those drilling rigs are expensive." "Don't worry about that. We'll buy them and let you use them. When we're done, they'll be our problem," I told him. "We'd need support equipment, too," he said. "No problem." "Why don't you just go to one of the big outfits in Houston?" he asked. "Because I'd a helluva lot rather deal with a straight-shooter like you, not some starched asshole in a highrise who doesn't have a clue about what's really going on." He smiled. "I like working with you, Dave, you don't mince words. I'd like to think about your offer, can I let you know in the morning?" "Sleep on it," I told him, "then make up a shopping list. Think about adding at least twelve more drilling rigs so we can get this done in two years." "I will," he said. "I'd appreciate it if you don't say anything in front of my men." "We won't," I assured him. Now it was Eric's turn. "It must be a sonofabitch getting all your equipment into these remote places," he said. "We've got that worked out pretty good. The real problem is keeping them supplied with fuel and the other supplies we need," John answered. "You ever think of using choppers?" Eric asked. "Too damned expensive. Only the big outfits can afford them." "Who ends up paying for them?" I knew where he was heading, and nodded my agreement. "Whoever's having the surveys done, I guess," John answered. "If you decide to go along with us, use them and add it to the tab." "You guys are going to make me run a first-class operation whether I want to or not," he said, laughing. The sun was partially over the horizon, so Eric suggested we get our sleeping bags arranged for the night. "I want to sleep under the stars tonight," he said, winking at me. "Are you going to join me?" he asked facetiously. John started chuckling. "Don't be shy, fellas," he told us. "All us old prospectors indulge in a little stick pussy from time to time. Get's mightly lonesome out in these hills." I felt my face getting red. Eric, however broke out laughing. "Never heard it described that way," he laughed. "I like it!" "I KNOW my boys had wet dreams about the two of you last night, at least those who didn't find another outlet," John chuckled. We drug the air mattresses and our sleeping bag out onto the "patio". "This is going to be so much fun," Eric giggled, "watching the stars while we're seeing stars, and we don't even have to try to be quiet." I grinned in agreement. "Do we have lube?" "I put in a couple of bottles and some 'Wet-Ones' to clean up with." We washed up before the crew got back. It was a far cry from a shower, but we washed each other, making it a lot of fun and difficult to get everything back into our pants. That night we were treated differently, like members of the gang. Our trip out to the rigs had evidently changed their opinion of us. "You're the first one of John's clients ever to come out to the site," one of the men told me. "We didn't know what to expect. Thought you'd be a couple of city dudes and just sit around camp for a few days then go home, but you seem to really want to know what's going on." "We like to take a hands-on approach to everything we do," I told him. "That's why you're successful," he said. When bedtime rolled around, I was ready, but not for sleep. We lay side by side, looking up. It was so clear the stars looked enormous. We took our time, touching, stroking, loving. "I hate to intrude on this wonderful quiet," Eric whispered, "but I need you to make love to me real bad." My answer was to reach for the lube, put some on my fingers, and start preparing him. There was just enough light that I could see his body outlined. No way was I going to ignore that stupendous dick waving in my face. While probing with my fingers, I took just his head in my mouth. My tongue slowly worked it's way around his corona. He moaned audibly. We were ready and entry was smooth and easy but causing a few gasps to come from both of us. My strokes were slow and deep. I watched his face, his eyes in particular. He was so peaceful and serene as I made love to him. Slow and easy, with a stream of sensations running up my spine with every stroke. Sitting up so I could see his face, I felt him stir. His muscles contracted on me, then spasmed and grasped me. His body shivered and lightly convulsed, his dick shot arching ropes in the air. That's the last I saw as my eyes closed involuntarily and short strokes deposited my seed more deeply than ever before. I eased myself forward carefully, spreading his cum between us. I licked the drops from his chin and nose then just held him, my head beside his. "I think I just had a religious experience," he half whispered, half groaned. I just held him to me tighter. "I think I saw a comet just as I started," he chuckled, "but I can't be sure." I rolled off, still holding him. "Even if we have to stay an extra day, you HAVE to experience that," he said. "I see stars every time you make love to me." "This was different. The stars, the universe out there, and the man I love a part of me. Fucking awesome!" - - - - - "I see the lovebirds are up early," somebody giggled when we joined the crew for breakfast. I tried to act like I hadn't heard. Eric brazened it out with a big "Cat ate the Canary" smile. After the crew had gone off to work, John asked us to sit down and talk. "I've come to a decision," he told us. "I'll never get another offer like the one you made yesterday. I like working with you guys, even though you are a little noisy at night, and I think I can do a good job for you." We both laughed. "In fact," he continued, "if I take Eric's suggestion, we can do an even better job." "How's that?" Eric asked. "Using a chopper, we can drop men and equipment into spots we couldn't possibly even have gotten to before. I know, your next question is 'so what if you do find something, how do you get it out?' Let me assure you, if a commercial deposit is found, there's always a way to get it out. "Now here's something else to consider. WHEN, not if, we find something that looks highly promising, one or two holes aren't going to prove that much. That's just the starting point. We'll have to go back and drill holes all around it in all directions to prove that it's not just an anomaly. That'll slow down new exploration. "I have a question for you two, now. When we find these deposits, what are you going to do with them?" I looked at Eric, shrugging my shoulders, "Just start digging, I guess." "Wish it were that simple," John chuckled. "There's extraction, transportation, and smelting or refining to consider. You could be out hundreds of millions before you even got started. But, there are other options." "Hadn't thought about that. You can see how naive we are, John. That's why we need somebody like you," I told him. "Somebody who'll explain things to us without treating us like a couple of idiots. What options do we have?" "There are a lot of mining companies that are always looking for proven deposits to exploit. They work with the landowners in several ways, buying the land outright, or a percentage of profit basis, or, the best, in my opinion, a royalty basis." "Why do you consider that the best way to go?" Eric asked. "The least risk with the greatest potential reward," John told him. "Let's face it, any mining venture is a crapshoot. What you think you've found may turn out to be much less than you expected, or it could be a lot more. Let somebody else take that risk, and if they're successful, you reap the rewards." "Looks like we have a helluva lot to learn," Eric said to me. "And a good teacher," I said, "but I don't want John wasting his time tutoring us. He's got more important things to do. He's pointed us in the right direction, and now it's up to us. Have you thought about what you're going to need?" I asked, changing the subject. "I plan to work on that today," he said. "Now that I know a little more, I'd like to go back up to where they're working," Eric said. "Want us to bring back the samples?" "Nah, the men'll bring them in tonight. Appreciate the offer, though." "It's getting hot today, I'm gonna put on shorts, how about you, Dave?" The drillers were a lot friendlier, answering our questions and volunteering a lot of information. I'd taken my camera and got pictures of everybody with the spectacular scenery in the background. After visiting two of the sites, I went back to camp. Eric went on to the other two. John had put up an awning, and after drinking a gallon of water from the stream, I joined him in the shade. It was hot now, I could only imagine what it'd be like when summer rolled around. During our conversation, John threw out an interesting question. "I don't want to seem nosy, but is Eric your 'partner' in every sense of the word, businesswise too?" "Absolutely," I answered. "He's my lover, my best friend, and he's financially involved in everything I'm doing now." "He's a damned sharp cookie." "Eric sees what I miss," I told him. "We work as a team. Over the past two years, he's saved me hundreds of millions, and he's piled up a fortune of his own." "You've been together two years? I thought you were still on your honeymoon." "Yeah, I know, we're the 'lovebirds'. It'll be two years in April." "Don't mind them," he chuckled. "They wouldn't bother to tease you if they didn't like you." "We can handle it," I assured him. "You're completely different than anyone I've ever worked for before," he said. "Most of the time it's Eastern types in three-piece suits looking to make a quick buck. I get the impression that you're in this for the long haul, and with that attitude, I think you'll do well, very well, but I can't guarantee it." "We got into this by accident," I admitted. "We went after the Railroad for other reasons, and didn't even know about all this land until we started digging around. My daughter dug it up. "Sure, we could sell it all off and make a bundle, but what's the fun in that? We don't need the money, and we're always looking for something new." "You can put up three billion for the Railroad and not have to worry?" "It'll be closer to four billion before the dust settles," I told him. "I usually don't talk much about our finances, but since it looks like we're going to be working together for a long time... We bought the Railroad with surplus cash, and it looks like we may put a lot more into it before we're through. A subsidiary of the Railroad has a lot of undeveloped land in California. That's what we were after in the first place." "I thought you were in manufacturing, not real estate." "My family has been in manufacturing for about 80 years, real estate is something relatively new. Last year we bought a company that owned hotels, and now we're branching out. Natural resources weren't in the plan, but it's beginning to look like we're going to get involved there too." Eric wandered back. He got a small pot and came over. "Will you give me a shower with stream water?" he asked. "I stink! I'll give you one too if you want." "Too goddam cold for me," I told him. He got soap from our tent and we went downstream and found a small pool. Eric perched on a rock to take off his boots, then his shorts. I dipped and poured. Spring water is cold, but after the inital shock, he enjoyed it. "You gotta try this," he insisted. "Feels so good." What the hell. I stripped and he gave me the same treatment, washing my back like I had his. With the sun and low humidity, we were dry almost immediately. It did feel good and it was nice to feel clean again. Back in the shade again, John had his shopping list ready. I glanced down the list, not really knowing what I was looking at, and saw the total. It was less than I expected, $1,400,000. "Looks reasonable to me," I said, passing the list to Eric. He scanned it. "Less than I expected. Looks like we have a deal," he said, getting up to shake John's hand. I shook his hand too. "Since we'll be using choppers like Eric suggested, we don't need as much support equipment," he said. "Get backup," I suggested. "You never know about the weather." "Then add another hundred and fifty thousand," he said. "Done," I told him. I went over to the tent to get my checkbook. When I handed John the check, he took a look at it. "This isn't right, it's too much," he said. "You're going to need front money for a lot of things, new employees, supplies, fuel. Just consider that an advance on your services. We'll work it out in a couple of years." "I've been a little concerned about that," he admitted. "You've solved all my problems." The men filtered in and the cooking ritual started. "Stop everything," John shouted. "Don't put the steaks on yet. Go sit down a minute." They obeyed, taking seats around the fire ring, John too. "After looking over what we're doing, Dave and Eric here don't think we're moving fast enough." He let that sink in. There were expressions of surprise and a few of anger around the circle. "So," he continued, "since we can't drill any faster, I guess we're just gonna have to expand. They're going to buy us twelve more rigs and everything else we need. How does that sound?" The frowns had all turned into big smiles, and they started getting up to go give him a handshake. One even gave him a nervous hug. They just glanced over at us, smiling but not saying anything to us. "Another thing. From now on, we're using choppers!" This brought a shout of "All rights". "We're going to have to build ourselves a fucking organization," he continued, saying each syllable of organization separately, bringing hoots and laughs. "Get some cups," John said to noone in particular. "This calls for a celebration and I've got my stash." In a minute or two, he was back with three bottles of Jack Daniels. Cups appeared and water from the stream was mix. Back in the circle, John raised his cup. "Dave and Eric have shown a lot of faith in us, and we're not gonna let 'em down. Here's to them!" "Speech!" somebody said, then it became a chorus. I looked at Eric and nodded. "I know we're just a couple of 'city dudes' who don't know diddly shit about mining," he started, which got a good laugh, "but we're willing to learn. "We don't know what we'll find or if we'll find anything at all. Hell, we don't even know what we're LOOKING for! "We do know, however, that working with John and you guys, our chances are vastly improved." He got a round of applause. "Dave?" John said. "I'll admit, we're anxious to get an idea of what we may have," I said. "That's why we talked John into getting more equipment so you could do the preliminary work on a two-year timetable. That won't be the end of it, though. You've got over a thousand square miles of land to cover, and we're only looking at the 'hot spots' now. This project will probably go on for years and years after that. We're in this for the long haul. "One more thing," I added. "We're interested in what you're doing so you're going to be seeing a lot more of us." Three bottles didn't go far with eleven thirsty men. After dinner, the fire was lit, not for heat, but hell, you just had to have a fire! Instead of sitting on a chair, Eric sat on the ground between my legs, his arms draped over my knees. Nobody even noticed. The moon seemed much brighter than the night before. The stars as bright or brighter too as we lay there looking up at them. We leaned toward one another to kiss. It was tender and sweet, unrushed. Our dicks bumped together and our hips involuntarily moved closer. We each knew what we wanted. Preliminaries weren't necessary. Eric's lubed finger found me, circling and stretching, unnecessary because I was so totally relaxed. He sat up between my legs and slid in, just the head, then stopped, then further and further until I felt his body against mine. I wasn't watching him, feeling him instead while I gazed upward. I looked down. His eyes were glued to mine, a smile on his face as he moved backward then forward inside of me, slowly, but neverless causing my breath to catch. The love I felt, as much as the stimulation he was providing, made me feel warm all over my body. I looked at the stars but thought of him. I glanced at him. His eyes were intently on mine. I spotted a comet over his shoulder, bringing my attention back to the twinkling stars. The warm feelings started at my toes and moved upward covering my entire body. I didn't fight, I just let it happen. The stars disappeared as the intense feelings swept me up and away. When my eyes reopened, they were focused on his. There was a smile on his face as he slowly rocked back and forth. The much larger than usual puddle of cum on my chest attested to the intensity of my orgasm. "You were right," I whispered. He remained still while I recovered. "Did you get there?" I asked. "Not yet. Relax, we have all night," he said so softly I could barely hear him. "Wanna roll back," I suggested. "Let me be on top so you can see the stars." He wiped off my chest then laid back. I followed, still impaled. With my knees under me, I rose and fell on him in slow motion. I surprised myself by hardening again, and when I felt him begin to tense up, spewed another load on his chest while I felt him spurting inside me. I worked my muscles to get out every drop, then fell on his chest to share the afterglow. - - - - - We were going home that day, so we got up as soon as we heard activity. There were a couple of remarks about the "Lovebirds" that we laughed at along with everyone else. "We're taking a different route out," John announced. "It's a little longer but nowhere near as rough." That sounded good to me. I dug out my phone and used it for the first time to let the pilots know when we'd arrive. John, seeing me talking, wanted to know how it would work, way out there. "Direct Satellite," I told him. "It works anyplace." The trip back to Prescott was a helluva lot easier, well worth the extra two hours it took. John was going on into Phoenix to drop off samples and go on a shopping spree. At the airport, we thanked him, and he urged us to come back. "We're going to have to find something that makes it absolutely necessary for you to come again," he said. - - - - - To be Continued. AUTHOR'S NOTE: I appreciate hearing your comments on the story, my writing, and anything you would like to offer - good or not so good. Send me a message at orrinrush@yahoo.com and also let me know if you would like to be included on my "alert" mailing list for new postings.