Bootstrap Colony 5 Snippet 4

 So, an update from Goodlife: Shelley said that she'll have the manuscript back to me sometime later this week. :)

I'm also almost finished act 2 of the latest book. :)

On to the Snippet!

Chapter 4

 

Montana, Earth

 

Stewart Yellowknife downed his drink and then poured another. He glanced over to the others in the room and silently sized them up.

There were eight men in the room. All were movers and shakers. They all owned a stake in various companies. But a few stood out over the rest. When they spoke, everyone listened attentively.

Their group was set to take over the world. It sounded melodramatic, like some sort of bad-action flick, bad guy, but it was true. They were on the cusp of taking over another world and with it securing control of Earth.

Or, at least that was the end goal. But to do that they needed to figured out how to solve a few problems. At the moment, it was Mitch Chambers and the new aliens.

He had been to the other world, the one that Eugene Ryans was on. It was rich with opportunities. He’d failed in his mission though; he had been sent to get Ryans to sign over control of his company to the Cabal. They could of course fake it, that was on the table, though Ryans had set up protections against that.

The fact that they were exploiting natives of the other world wasn’t lost on him. But it was a new world, and this time he and the people he represented would be on top. Besides, the real exploiters were Ryans and his group. They were just going to make sure everything Ryans had done was fixed.

At least, that was how he sold himself on the project. But first they had to get back to the damn planet.

“We need to find a way to get Chambers’ help. He’s on the fence,” Rajani said.

“Hell with that,” Farook said. “I’d like to get my hands on the tech of those aliens,” he growled. “They are light years more advanced than we are.”

“Good luck with that. So far no one can understand what they are,” Ian said with a shake of his head.

The meeting was at Senator Crandal’s place. The senator had unfortunately been stuck in DC for a vote so he couldn’t attend. The others had decided to continue the meeting without his presence. By their rules, he would have to abide by the decision of the collective since he hadn’t attended the meeting. They needed a way to lay out their goals and the problems to achieve them.

It had already been determined that Chambers was the key to fixing the wormhole problem. But how to do that was still on the table.

“How do we get leverage with him? We tried to get control of his company but failed. It isn’t public,” Farook Aziz stated flatly. The Saudi didn’t look happy at that statement.

He had deep pockets and was known as one of the money men of their corporation. The others in their cabal suspected he had ties to terrorist organizations as well as certain powerful Middle Eastern governments. No one wanted to know how deep he was into the various organizations. Just as they did not want the others in their cabal to know their own skeletons.

Yellowknife suspected that Farook was a money manager for many shady groups. Even terrorists and revolutionary groups needed funding. Some washed their money in various ways, even going so far as to invest in various things that would generate a steady income to fund their causes.

They were normally targeted by various secret agencies in the west. Farook, however, had ties to the Cabal so he was immune from such unwanted attention.

“There are other ways to gain control of his company,” Rajani Bakshi stated lazily. He glanced to the shadowy figure in the corner of the room. A dark hand with rings on it made a slight motion as if to say yes and no.

Rajani was from India with ties to various call centers and industrialists. He had ties to various governments in that region of the world.

“No,” Ian stated flatly.

“No? Just that?”

“Too much media coverage. If anything happened to his company, it would come out. Even with our control of some of the media outlets. We don’t need that sort of spotlight.”

“There is literally a gold mine there. Plus platinum, and then the biologicals …,” Farook shook his head.

“And don’t forget the hunting. How much would someone with deep pockets pay to go to an alien world and see, let alone shoot and import back, an alien or dinosaur?” Ian McMaster said with a sniff as he poured himself another whiskey. He was a power broker. He had a slight Irish brogue in his voice but he was actually from Chicago. He had just cultivated the accent to hide his true past.

The dark man in the overstuffed chair in the shadows snorted softly. McMaster glanced his way and then over to the others.

“If they can get asteroid stopped, won’t need another world.”

“You aren’t listening. We have a golden opportunity here. One we can exploit for incredible profit. Two of them.”

“Oh?”

“Not just aliens …”

“They don’t have tech we can exploit.”

“True, to some degree. What I am pointing to are entire worlds. Why go to space when we can jump to another world? Possibly two of them?”

“Ah …?”

“Mining and resources are tight. We’ve got bleeding hearts everywhere. Pollution, global warming, don’t step on the butterflies, that sort of thing. Think about it! Entire worlds! We could find gold nuggets like back in the olden days!”

“Which do us no good here.”

“Our investors would beg to disagree. Especially if we shipped back some of it.”

“How? And wouldn’t that affect the markets here?”

“So, we do it carefully. Control it. We control what comes and goes. We’ll be the ones to control trade between three entire planets,” Rajani stressed. “Possibly more over time! Who knows what else we might find? A new material? New drugs?”

“That Chambers character was making a killing selling materials from his world. Dinosaurs … the kooks and science geeks are eating it up!” McMasters said with a shake of his head. “Imagine what collectors would pay!”

Yellowknife snorted. “That they are,” he said. There had been a recent story in the world news of scammers getting involved.

“Can you imagine tourism? Or emigration? A theme park on an alien world?” Farook stated.

Ian suddenly looked thoughtful.

They all knew that the money for a theme park wasn’t just in the park but also in everything leading up to and from it. Logistics, travel, lodging, food, gifts, all sorts of money could and was made from any good theme park. They were revenue generators for an entire region.

Farook chuckled and shook his head. “Are you seriously thinking about a Jurassic Park scenario? That didn’t work out well in the books or movies …”

“That’s fiction. This is real life,” Ian said dismissively. “Everything that happens will be there. We’ll control the narrative here.”

That was certainly true, Yellowknife thought. They had managed to control the narrative about Ryans and how he had killed American and UN personnel before forcing those who had surrendered back home and then destroying his side of the gate.

That wasn’t going over well in many circles. The standing story that Ryans had turned out to be a power hungry tyrant who had raped and then married the local teenage queen and was controlling her and her kingdom was holding up very well.

“True. What about alien pathogens? Crashes? Another revolt?”

“Ah, that’s where your mercenary friends come in. They will be our problem solvers.” He glanced at the retired colonel in the corner.

Colonel Gaylord Smith smiled ever so slightly as he shifted in the chair. The smile of white, even teeth briefly lit up his dark face. “If it is a problem, we can solve it,” he said affably as he selected a cigar and began to roll it between his fingers. It was Cuban, rather expensive. A humidor was nearby with several cases of other cigars to imbibe with.

“There speaks the true patriot. We can set up dog and pony shows about how we’re liberating the savages. Show us bringing modern education, healthcare, and such while catching and kicking out the bastards who took over their country in the first place,” Ian said with mock innocence and virtue.

The others snorted. It was a well-played game, one they all had experience in.

Yellowknife didn’t say anything.

“Okay, I have my reservations. If you can find a way to handle the alien pathogen problem …”

“We didn’t find anything in Chambers according to the medics,” Rajani said.

“I still don’t want another Covid. Though many did profit from it,” Ian said, rolling over the other’s protest. “I definitely do not want to be saddled with the blame for bringing an alien pathogen over or whatever else. Like that worm thing.”

Farook nodded. “We’ll take it cautiously. But this is an opportunity. One with riches beyond belief. Without risk there can be no reward.”

Yellowknife had to wonder if there was an element of religious expansionism in Farook’s motives. He wouldn’t put it past the other man. Then again, it was said that Farook’s only religion was money.

Ian held up a finger and then pointed to the colonel who was puffing on his cigar and waving the match off to snuff it out. “He’ll be the first to tell you that we need accurate and up-to-date intelligence.”

The colonel sat back, lifted the cigar out of his mouth and blew a smoke ring. “Definitely,” he said. His voice was gravel and bass. “We definitely need to look before we leap. But I’ve got my contacts working on it.”

The others in the room nodded.

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