The Day The Oil Stopped Burning. Chapter 5: Beaver Island, Singing the Blues

CHAPTER 5: Beaver Island, Singing the Blues

 

 

"Ok you lazy bums, time to get up" Shirley yelled into the bunk room of her cabin where Jack and Geno had crashed. Annie had laid up a fire in the wood stove and slept next to it on a couple fur rugs. She and Shirley had let the boys sleep for a couple hours after they had gotten up. They sat in the kitchen and drank coffee ate bacon, and some biscuits with Shirley's homemade honey. They talked about what had been going on lately and shared their own perspectives on how life had changed dramatically in the last sixteen years. Shirley allowed as how she had not really been affected by all the new technology that much one way or the other. Most folks on Garden Peninsula had precious little use for high technology unless it involved a better way to distill booze, poach a deer, or maybe build a better meth lab. She did however recall a kid that got thrown off his four wheeler and was paralyzed from the waist down over near Garden. His family took him to U of M medical center for a stem cell transplant and had his own DNA marked nerve/ stem cell precursors injected. The procedure was a sucess and now the kid is back riding his four wheeler in a drunken stupor every night......such were the social achievements in the modern Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Drinking and driving- whether cars, ORVs, dirt bikes, or snowmobiles- was regarded as proper sport, in the U.P. so was drinking and shooting. Shirley considered it as humorous that riding around on a quad runner shooting holes in abandoned refrigerators was held in such high regard by most of her costumes. She had once tried using an old discarded walk-in freezer as a smoke house. She made good money selling smoked fish, beef, and venison jerky until it was too full of bullet holes to hold the smoke. None of the locals actually intended any financial harm to Shirley, it's just that they all understood that any appliance placed out of doors for a week or more was simply intended to have holes shot into it. In a matter of weeks Shirley had realized the folly of her action and built a cement block smoke house instead. She also dragged the bullet hole ridden freezer out into the field next door for further pot shots until it was more bullet hole air than metal. One of the unintended consequences of owning a bar in Garden Peninsula was amassing a huge collection of firearms. As Shirley explained to Annie G as they stepped into her gun room. "Ya see dar sweetie, da only thing most of dees boy got dats worth a darn is dar guns, and da only thing day likes more den dar guns is dar booze". "So.....if they got no money left......" Annie said...."dats right sweetie I gets da only ting dats worth a shit......dar guns". "Holy shit, and you do have some guns don't you" Annie G announced as she stepped in the room. "So, I just start to collecting dem, now let's see here, you'll be needin one a dees, and one a dees.........".... By the time Jack and Geno had poured their first cup of coffee Annie G had a duffel with a 5" Glock 9mm with two, 17 shot quick change clips (Glocks were a favorite in the U.P. due to the fact they could shoot in sub zero temps, and underwater) a Colt model 1911 .45 ACP (45s were another favorite due to the fact that they left the biggest holes in refrigerators and road signs) two Savage sawed off 12 gauge shotguns, a Browning BAR .308 Win. With 14x Nikon scope, and a U.S. Marine issue M4 full auto with 8x night scope and grenade launcher. "Jesus fucking Christ, Shirley, we're not going to invade North Korea ya know". North Korea had been a running joke for the past twenty years. Former NBA star Dennis Rodman had made several visits to North Korea during the early rule of Kim jun Un. People in the U.S. thought he was just a nut case- which he was- and figured he was just going for weird publicity, but as it turned out he was nuttier that anyone thought. On his final visit he had somehow smuggled in a bunch of weapons and explosives. He had also found accomplices and managed to assassinate Kim and at least two dozen of his closest Generals. Of course, this spelled the end of the Rod, but the ultimate result was a total breakdown of the totalitarian government and reunification of the Korean Peninsula under the democratic government of the south.

 

"We'll ya never know when ya gonna need a friend...dats what I always say. Jump in da land Cruiser and I'll give ya a lift to da boat". They all climbed into Shirley's Toyota Land Cruiser and Shirley drove them down to where their dingy was tied. "You boys take care of dat lady now" and sent them on their way with a duffel full of fire arms and a couple bottles of Shirley's best whiskey. "Excellent combination" thought Jack "welcome to the U.P." . As they climbed on board, Jack pulled the Colt out of the duffel and tucked it in his belt, then pulled the cork from one of the bottles and took a long swig. He handed it to Geno who followed with a healthy swig of his own and proceeded to tuck the Glock in his belt. "You guys think you're Butch fucking Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or something"? Asked Annie G as she grabbed the bottle, not to be outdone by Jack or Geno, and took her five second gulp. "More like the three Musketeers I guess.... And what piece do I get"? "Here you take the Glock, it's more of a chick gun anyway, I'm more of a sawed off savage kind of guy" said Geno as he handed her the 9mm and took the sawed off twelve gauge out of the duffel, popped a couple 00 buck, three and a half inch nitro shells in the chamber. He thought to himself about how hard a double aught, three and a half inch load had kicked in his Benellie Super Back Label when Goose hunting and shuttered at the thought of what would happen if he had to pull the trigger on this gun with the same load but with the barrel and stock sawed off. "Holy shit, I hope I don't have to shoot anybody with this thing" he said out loud. "And you got one for each hand" Annie laughed. Geno had dropped greater Canadian geese from fifty yards with the same load and a modified choke and was sure about one thing; anyone within a twenty yard circumference even in the general vicinity of a shot from this thing was toast.

 

"So now that we are equipped like seal team six, where the heck do you guys wanna go"? "Beaver Island" Jack and Annie said together. "So, what the heck are we still doing here, let's get the main up and pull this anchor". "On it boss" they both yelled as Jack went forward to the windless and Annie started to hoist the mainsail. Geno went to the helm and turned to port as the half raised main filled and Jack quickly took in the anchor road. As soon as the boat had passed over the anchor, it broke free and Jack yelled "FREE" as he brought up the anchor and secured it on the anchor roller. Geno swung the helm to starboard into the wind and Annie G hoisted the mainsail the rest of the way. Geno turned back off the wind, sheeted in the main, and unfurled the jib as Jack arrived back in the cockpit to put some wraps on the primary winch and grind in the jib sheet till it was trimmed out perfectly. "Next stop...Saint James Harbor..... Now, lets have some beer on deck please".

 

Saint James was named after King James Jesse Strang, the self professed Mormon king of Beaver Island from 1848 till his assignation in 1856. Strang had been party to the struggle for power in the Mormon Church after the assignation of its founder Joseph Smith, between him, Bringham Young and Sidney Rigdon in Nauvoo Illinois. King James had twelve thousand followers and over the course of the next three years had found his way to Beaver Island where he founded his Mormon Kingdom and reigned for eight years. To say that Strang was a nut case would be an understatement, however he seemed to possess the kind of charisma and eloquent oratory skills that allowed him to not only act as king of his own island but actually get elected to and serve for a term and a half in the Michigan State House of Representatives. As it turns out, he probably should have counted his blessings and enjoyed his success, rather than helping himself to the wives of his followers, which turned out to be a very bad idea. His kingdom came to an abrupt end when two of his disgruntled followers shot him down in broad daylight on the pier in Saint James Harbor. Since the villages on the mainland had suffered pilfering at the hands of the Mormons for eight years, after the word of King James’s death, they mounted an assault on the island and routed all the remaining Mormon "subjects". Since then, the population has consisted of a mixture of Irish, and Scandinavian, immigrants and Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. Beaver has been the only island with a full time population in the Great Lakes since 1856, and it's history has been sorted to say the least.

 

To say that Beaver Island was an island of misfits would be an understatement and Geeze fit in perfectly. He had sailed to Saint James many times with Geno and Jack. The Island had a large population of what we now call “little people" but Geeze called midgets. They sailed miniature twelve meter sailboats in competition around Saint James harbor and often Geeze had sailed through the fleet when coming into Saint James. He was always amazed at their sailing skill and loved it when they brought the Leading Lady in while a race was going on. The Shamrock was Geeze's favorite watering hole and the boys had seen their fair share of drunks and bar fights between inebriated Native Americans and the hot blooded Irish immigrant descendants. One hundred years of inbreeding did produce a few character traits like eyes being a bit too close together and a somewhat nasty disposition. Jack seemed to think it could be a perfect place to hide out, at the very least it would be entertaining.

 

They had sailed out from Poverty Island Passage around noon and set a course for the south end of Beaver, rounding the south end by seventeen hundred hours. The wind was gusting to twenty knots out of the southwest so they popped the kite when they turned north at the south end of the Island. It only took a couple hours to sail the length of the island and turn back west into St. James Harbor. They gibed to port and flew the spinnaker to within thirty feet of the township dock. They doused the kite, Annie and Jack ran forward to collect it on deck and Geno guided the Lady into a slip with the main sheeted out and dropped it just before turning to enter the slip. Geno tossed a line on the spring pile as they coasted by and Jack jumped to the dock and caught lines as Annie tossed them to him. Within a minute they were fast and safe at the dock. "The Eagle Has Landed" Jack shouted! "Cocktails anyone"? "Thought you'd never ask" was the reply in perfect unison.

 

After a few drinks and finishing all the required tidying up they all found themselves in the cockpit sipping their Rum "pain killers" and chatting with each other and several friends that had passed by to welcome them back. "So Jack, aren’t you a bit freaked about Shirley spotting some strange dudes in the neighborhood"? "Yea does seem a bit strange, doesn't it"? "You actually think there is a connection"? "Shit....I don't know....I mean, one the one hand it's kind of farfetched to think there is actually someone tailing me, but on the other hand, strangers in Fayette that would get Shirley's attention......I don't know. Anyway it really doesn't matter since we bolted and even if they were keeping an eye on me...they're not any more..right"? "Right"! "So, I say we go to the Shamrock, get a fat greasy burger, see if Denny and Beans are playing, and get totally baked again.... What da ya say"? "I'm in" said Geno "I think the last time I was here with the Geeze and Denny and Beans were playing at the Shamrock was the most bakedest I have ever been". "Is that even a word, or did you just make that up" Annie G said as she came out of the companion way, catching the tail end of the conversation". Geno did have a propensity for making up his own words. "Hey...it's a word...look it up... You got baked...them more bakeder...than most bakedest". "Easy for you to say, he who speaks fluent Beaver Islandish" Annie retorted in her best smart assed inflection.

 

Sure enough, as if time had stood still, when they approached The Shamrock, they heard the familiar sound of Denny Kline on the Drums and singing "Shot Gun" by Jr. Walker and The All Stars. "Dam, it's as if nothing ever changes round here" Jack said as they reached the door. Beans was playing guitar and singing, Johnny Bag-a-doughnuts on keyboards, brother Dick Rutherford on the bass, and of course Denny on drums. This had been the same weekend line up at the Shamrock for the last twenty years more or less. There had been a few changes in the line up over the years and of course lots of different guys “sitting in" on various occasions but these four guys had been the mainstay and they were one tight, hard rockin, badass band. They had gone by several band names over the years; the Shiners, The Drunks, Phil Dirt and the Dozers, but most folks just knew them as the shamrock band. They did gigs over on the mainland on occasion in various towns in the northern lower peninsula. Every so often they would take a three day gig down state, ether in Annarbor or East Lansing at one of the collage clubs. It was real good money and they always packed the house. In the summer though, they preferred to stay on Beaver and play weekends at the Shamrock. Shawn Conner who owned the Shamrock had vast empirical data that he could bring in three times as many people with good music and more importantly that everybody regardless of sex, age, race, or color.... drank three times more booze when they were dancing and listening to rock and roll.

 

"Well you going to get your ass up here and play some music or what" Denny said through the PA just as they ordered drinks. "Good to see you boys" said Shawn as he served up three shots of Patron and Dos Equis beers. "So geno you up for a few tunes, sounds like the gang's not going to let you off the hook". Geno was a top notch guitar player and a darn good singer who had played for a living on and off since middle school. He had also been in a band with Denny four three years and sat in with the shamrock band many times. "What do ya say Annie G , should I play some music with these losers"? "That all depends on what you intend to sing for us" she replied. "A little Wilson Picket perhaps"....."Stones maybe" she said. He replied with

a rather snide " ah yes, the Stones, I can't believe their still doing it after all these years, wow, you know........Fred...Barney...Wilma... Dino. "HEY Denny, how bout we start with a little Gimmie Shelter, boys". "You got it man, then let's break into some Midnight Hour" Denny said as he handed Geno a Fender Telecaster. Geno toasted jack and Annie, slammed his patron, took a swig of his Dos Eques and jumped on stage. One, two, three, four.........

 

"What you been up to anyway" Shawn asked Jack. "Oh, just sailing, fishing, drinking, eating, and ummmmm........". "Fucking?? Is that what you were going to say" interrupted Annie G. "Yea, that's it, that's the ticket" Geno finished. "Well alrighty then, same shit you always been doing". "Actually Shawn, I've been in D.C for six years now and doing an environmental lobbyist gig. Seemed pretty cool till just a few days ago. We are kind of on the lamb, so to speak, and tiring to hide out from these guys who I figure are out to get me". "Shit man, who are they? Want me to put the Gillespie boy on um". "I would pity the fuckers then, that's for sure, but I'm not so sure that'll be necessary just yet". "Thanks though, I might have to take you up on that one"

 

"Going to wait till the midnight hour"... "He hasn't lost a thing has he"? Shawn said to Annie G as Geno broke into his second song. "Oh, he's still got it going on that's for sure". "Jackie boy, better take me to that dance floor". "Let's do da boogaloo baby".

 

The bar was full, as was the the dance floor. By the end of the night the Shamrock dance floor resembled something more along the lines of a demolition derby or at least bumper cars than a dance floor. Twelve years before, Geno was driving a van to the back door with Denny and Beans when it broke through a sink hole and dropped right to the rear axle. A dozen drunks came out of the bar and lifted it right out of the hole and carried the van right to the back door. Later that same night, as Geno was ripping an incredible solo he heard the applause and looked up to see an inebriated Native American dancing on a table top with his pants down. By one thirty the place was so wild that Shawn had o pull the power cord and shut the bar own early. After he had packed up his gear, Geno had gone outside where at least twenty five people were sitting around drinking and getting stoned; the local Cop had pulled up and gotten out of his car. He had suggested that the party break up and everyone head home. Geno who had learned that it was best to do what a police man asks, was standing up to move along when a girl in the crowd yelled "fuck you Fred". The next thing he knew he was at Bean's house at a party that lasted till dawn, drinking and eating hash brownies.

 

Beans' great grandfather had invented the locking ratchet wrench and held the patient. His original company had become Snap-on-tools which went public back in the mid seventies and made his whole family billionaires. Beans had inherited a bundle when he turned eighteen, and after half a dozen years of school and various adventures he wound up on Beaver Island. He purchased a large portion of property along the west shore, built a very cool house on the beach, built a state of the art recording studio, and a couple of green houses in which he grew all the vegetables he and all his friends could possibly consume and several varieties of the most potent, high grade, dube in the world. His recording studio was equipped with state of the art digital ability as well as an original Ampex ART-124 twenty four track, two inch tape recorder, built in 1977, a year before it's commercial production. He had purchased the Ampex from a private collector who had bought the machine from Don Henley of the Eagles. It had been built as a proto-type to replace the sixteen track machines being used in most L.A. Studies at the time. The Eagles were the first band to record on this new machine and the result was the album Hotel California. Henley had bought the machine from the Record Plant Studios in L.A. In 1995 when they went belly up and had it completely and meticulously restored. A billionaire private collector had bought the machine when Henley died to use in his private studio and had kept it in prefect working order. When it was installed in Beans' studio it was as if it was brand spanking new. Over the years several top notch bands had recorded at “Saint James Sound Studio" as it was known including Glen Frye who was originally a Detroit boy before moving to L.A. and forming The Eagles. Also Bob Segar who was a sailer and had visited Beaver Island for years. Ted Nugent had wanted to record a solo album in November of 2015 and do some deer hunting with his bow, but Beans told him to stick it because everyone on Beaver thought Ted was a dick head. Not that folks on Beaver were opposed to taking a few deer whether in season or not, because they did it all the time, it was just that Ted was such a blow hard about it. Geno had jammed at Beans studio numerous times; he cut two CDs of his own material, playing all the instruments himself except drums and some background vocals. He had also joined in on a couple CDs of the Shamrock Band and played guitar and mandolin on a dozen or so other projects by bands from all over the world that came to Saint James to record. Before his untimely death Geeze had even sat in with the boys and laid down a few tracks. Geeze was a hell of a harmonica player. He preferred the country and folk stuff but could blow a mean blues harp and was usually amenable to rocking out if plied with a few bourbons.

 

"So, you guys want the guest house" beans asked? "That would be awesome" answered Annie G. "How long are you hanging out"? "Not exactly sure yet, we are kind of in limbo for the moment". "Lets jump in the jeep, we can go get your stuff at the boat tomorrow. Is everything all battened down"? "Yup, let's go". "Hey, you drunk bags, I scored us a pad, you ready to go?" "Shawn just set us up with a patron and a Dos Equies". "Oh, so two minutes then". "That will just about do it". They all hopped in Beans' Jeep and headed south down the King's Highway. About eight miles down they took a right heading west down Beans' six mile long drive. Beans' was a bit on the eccentric side and did enjoy his privacy so he had a bunch of surveillance and security installed. A bunch of residential grade security probably couldn't do squat to stop any real professional spook from unfettered and unnoticed access to whatever he might want, however Beans' four Great Danes would probably draw attention to anything that moved.......and like everyone on the Island....Beans has firearms.....lots of firearms.

 

Upon arriving at the compound Beans called home Annie G climbed out of the jeep and declared "I'm pretty darn beat, this has been a crazy couple of days. I'm hitting the hay" she turned to jack "going to join me, or are you boys going to drink till dawn"? "Hey baby, I love my friends and I love to drink but I just love you more". "Your sincerity is wanting Jackie boy, but I'll take you anyway". "Night guys" Beans said, than turned to Geno “nightcap"? " Whatdaya got" Geno answered. "Whatdaya want". "How's about a snifter of 1959 Sandmen Tauney Port". "Coming up, meet you on the back deck". "You are my hero". Geno headed to the deck and had a seat in one of the Adirondack rockers. There was a slight warm breeze out of the west with six inch waves lapping on the beach which was only about thirty feet from the back deck. The sky was spectacular with a crescent new moon, super bright stars and the Milky Way running diagonal across the sky. The combination of warn summer breeze smell, the sound of waves lapping the shore and the visual splendor overhead created a sense of total serenity. " "Dude, I completely get why you live here. This is almost perfection". "Ok buddy boy maybe this will take out the almost" Beans said as he handed Geno his glass of Port. “Umm…that is delicious man. I am sorry I am so buzzed already, because the warm, fuzzy glow that only a fine Port or a find brandy gives is one of life’s true pleasures, and I am totally wasting it by pouring it on top of this tequila, rum and beer buzz”. “Stop with the negative vibes man. Just enjoy the moment, oh and fill me in on what’s going on.” “Well……..I don’t even see Jack for two years, I mean we talk and email or skype every couple weeks or so but he had been super busy for the last six years in D.C. and hasn’t been back to Michigan for the whole time. The only reason I saw him two years ago was that I was in D.C. delivering a boat up from Key West to Willington Delaware and stopped to see him for a couple days. Annie G, I had not even talked to for a year or so since her last stint on that NOAA research vessel. Anyway a few days ago, I am logging a few hours of work and I get a call from Jack; he and Annie G are in Omena having lunch and say “let’s go sailing”. How of course, I am not surprised because we are all rather spontaneous nut cases…..and we know it…. So I don’t miss a beat and say “sure, meet me there in an hour”. Next thing you know we are heading for Fayette”. “Did you go see Shirley” Beans asked. “Oh yea, that’s why we are armed to the teeth. We get to Fayette, catch up on some sleep, which Jack claims he has not been able to do for years learning the Potomac two step, as he puts it, and catch a few trout for dinner. Well, we get to talking and Jack is starting to expound on his sudden return. It seems that he stumbled on to some information that somebody doesn’t appreciate him knowing. Funny thing is that he has no idea what it is. Let me rephrase, I think he knows the general idea of what might be going on, but doesn’t know exactly what it is he is supposed to knows……. if that make sense”. Oh Yea….clear as mud…..what the fuck are you talking about man”? Beans yelled “You sound like Donald fucking Rumsfeld”. “I know, right..doesnt make a lot of sense. So anyway, it has to do with the Global Climate Treaty which has to go through the dick brains in the House and Senate before going to the UN. The money is on President Kelly getting her way and the legislation getting the thumbs up and landing on her desk which she will readily sign. The smart money is on the treaty getting enacted in short order if the U.S. is backing it and having the enforcement element up and running in six months”. “So what’s the problem? This all sounds like great stuff” Beans questioned. “I guess that there are certain interests that are not excited about actually outlawing the reconversion and/or burning of fossil fuels on a global basis with actual accountable enforcement to back up the treaty. Even though no one has been able to reconvert oil back to a combustible state so far, Jack is pretty sure some groups are ether real close or already there”. “But I don’t get it; why does somebody want to use fossil fuel when we have so many other alternatives around that are better in like most every way? Seems stupid to me”. Beans interjected. “Ya well it seems stupid to me as well but you got to understand, there is an awfully large amount of left over macheriney for every imaginable purpose lying around that could be obtained for a penny on the dollar that could suddenly be worth a dollar again if we suddenly had Gasoline again. This possible economic incentive is probably enough for some greedy unscrupulous bastards to act on alone but the real clincher is that there is even more currently useless military hardware that could be worth gazillions in the world of developing and under developed nations. Now if we suppose, as Jack does, that some entity has already been working on a reconversion formula, and has been buying or otherwise obtaining masses of machinery and military hardware secretly for years, it is easy to imagine that whoever that might be would be a very well connected, powerful, well financed and far reaching organization. It’s also easy to imagine that certain elements within the U.S. and even the U.S. Government could be involved. It is no secret that the Trad’s and the PPPEPs along with half a dozen other left over super neo-conservative type organizations and the war hawks all would love nothing more that to relight the fires, so to speak, in more ways than one. Add to that the religious zealots that still refuse to believe that the eggheads actually created life on earth even though they have certainly provided mountains of proof, which is ninety nine point nine percent more proof than any religion ever provided. Anyway these guys would rather cling to a verity of thousand year old books and if reconverting oil into a combustible substance again even though we don’t need it can somehow help them believe more strongly in their silly superstitions, that they probably don’t give a shit about the consequences……or the means”. “Ok, I get that there are still a lot of twisted fuckers out there who would screw the rest of us to serve their own interests, but what has that got to do with Jack”? Beans was starting to see the big picture but was asking questions now as more of a drunken brain storming session. Hey, it worked when it came to recording cool spontaneous Jams he thought. “Jack was working closely with all the proponents of the climate treaty. After all, he is an environmental lobbyist. Our guess is that he just accidently discovered some shit that someone within this supposed organization took the wrong way. That or Jack hasn’t figured it out yet. So you know Jacks ability to do his mind-read thing. He told me that some guys came to see him that were supposedly with the PPPEP and Jack got a weird vibe from them but he said it was like they knew how to block his telepathy. Anyway, that threw him for a loop and he figured it might be better for him to step out of the picture and assess the situation. He says his boss Ron is probably freaking because Jack was taking the lead on this and Ron had made some promises and assumptions, which were pretty safe under normal conditions, but quite another thing now that things were getting weird. The icing on the cake came night before last when we were at Shirley’s and she told us about a truck with two guys that looked totally out of place and were asking questions. Now we all know the propensity for suspicion in Garden, but Shirley didn’t think anything about it till we started talking about how somebody might be after Jack. We spent the night at her cabin and she set us up with some firearms just in case”. “whatdaya got” Beans asked. “Glock 9, Colt 1911, Browning 308 win., M4 auto w/ GL and two sawed offs”. “Wow, I guess she didn’t want anybody to mess with you”. “YOU THINK???” So we pulled anchor ASAP because we figured it best not to take chances with whoever those strangers were even if they were dentists on vacation from Madison or whatever…Twelve hours later we find ourselves in St James. Six hours after that we are sitting here drinking your really expensive port and enjoying this night, which is an example of Mother Nature at her finest by the way". "You know, before we knew about the eggheads I always thought of our supreme being, or god if you will as a woman....you know Mother Nature" Beans added. "Maybe you're right Beans, I mean the eggheads could be female, we don't know....I kind of always liked the Mother Nature idea myself".

 

"So just to recap the situation" started Beans "we would all be naive not to realize that some nefarious types could make a humongous bundle of money, and gain the accompanying power through the afore mentioned activities, and it is most likely happening as we speak......right"? "Right" Geno answered. Geno was well aware of Beans' propensity for conspiracy theories. Beans had actually held a conspiracy theory that former Vice President Michelle Bachmann was actually an alien from a different universe that were the ancient adversaries of the eggheads and were bent on destruction of the human race. Geno could still envision his rants; "just fucking look at her man......just fucking listen to that shit she says....she simply can't be a human being". While Jack and Geno granted Beans and his theory total plausibility, they both considered Ms Bachmann as just a highly misguided woman with an incredibly uncanny ability to look you in the eye and say stuff that totally ignored reality without the slightest hesitation. Jack had spoken with her before and with his intuition and telepathic abilities, was simply blown away. "I have experienced people who take deception and lying to the highest level imaginable, but she actually BELIEVES all of the outlandish shit she says. It's fucking phenomenal, I have never met anybody else quite like that". "And therefore" Beans continued "not only would there be gazillions involved in machinery, there would also be mega-gazillions involved in sales and distribution of gasoline and other petroleum distillates. Right"? "Right". "And therefore, if someone or some group were to have spent the last ten or fifteen years accumulating distillates for nothing or even get paid to take it (there were hundreds of operations that charged for the collection and safe disposal of  petroleum products) and suddenly the stuff could burn again......well, suffice to say, they would be in an advantageous position right"? "Right". And therefor, if the GECA goes into effect, whoever might be in said position would suddenly be in a significantly LESS advantageous position. Right"? "Right you are again Beans". "We'll there you go then, that is plenty of reason to lie, cheat, break laws and murder people. Shit man, many a group has done much worse for much less than what we are talking about here. I know you guys always think I'm a nut case conspiracy theory type at times, but you have to realize that if the treaty doesn't pass, and a formula to reconvert oil could be developed and someone had actually taken even some of the steps we just talked about and did not have benevolent intentions....... Well, they could stand to gain an incredible amount of power. They might not be in the world domination league but they would sure as hell be a pretty big fish in the developing nations pond if you know what I mean". "Know what I mean Geno"? Beans realized that Geno was snoring fast asleep in his chair. At that same moment Beans noticed the lights of an aircraft off to the west southwest flying very low. "Hey Geno wake up and check this out". "Hun....what". "Check this out, looks like a chopper coming in hot, right on the deck". By this point the heard the hydrogen battery powered jet turbine, Bell A Star Plus helicopter approaching at close to top speed and only about twenty five feet off the lake.  "Holy shit, that's a forty million dollar machine man!! Not a lot of folks around here could afford one of those. Hell, not a lot of folks anywhere that can afford one of those". "You ever seen that before"? Asked Geno. "No, afraid not" answered Beans as he bolted into the house to grab his Bushnell 2.5x42 night vision binoculars. He focused them on the incoming craft. "Yea, it's a fucking hi tech machine. Three hundred knots top speed, twelve hundred knot range, they don't hand those fuckers out in a Cracker Jack box.....what the hell are they doing here"? As they watched, the chopper made the south west corner of the Island, increased altitude slightly to just above treetop level, slowed to about sixty five knots and descended from their line of sight. They listened, as the engines maintained the same level for another thirty seconds or so and then backed off in power in what sounded like a landing with engines idling and ready. After exactly two minutes the engines increased in volume and they could tell it was taking off again. Within another thirty seconds the chopper came back into view and increased speed heading due west and staying less than fifty feet off the lake again. Beans disappeared inside and Geno kept his eye glued to that chopper till it had completely disappeared to the west and the engines could no longer be heard. Beans was coming back out as he was talking to somone on the phone, "yup, that's right, yup, right by Rodger's old place, yea go check it out." "Who's that"? Asked Geno. "That was Danny Gillespie, he and his brothers are going out to the place that chopper set down and check it out". "Why". "Because numb nuts, that was a pretty strange thing having a forty million dollar chopper fly into Beaver Island at breakneck speed and ground level in the middle of the night and land for two minutes just to take off again. Considering that Jack seems to be warped up in some clandestine shit and you said somebody might be after you guys don't you think we might just want to take a peek up there and see what the heck is going on"? "Yea, good idea. I am just too tired and waisted to think clearly right now". "You go get some sleep. The Gillespie boys will check things out and I'll wake you guys up if anythings up". "Cool man thanks".

The Day The Oil Stopped Burning, Chapter 4: D.C. Shit hits the fan

CHAPTER 4: D.C. Shit hits the fan

 

 “Any luck” Ron asked Sam the instant he appeared at the office door. “Afraid not..He did leave an encrypted message that he had to bolt. It seems that his last meeting with some PPPEP guys really freaked him out. I don’t know if he is being paranoid, or if he’s losing it, or if someone is actually meaning to do him harm”. “Shit, this is no fucking good…No fucking good at all”. Unlike Sam who had only known Jack for eight months, Ron had known Jack for six years. They had tackled some of the hardest and at times hairiest assignments Ron had ever known, together, and Ron had unmitigated confidence in Jacks abilities. “If something has got Jack freaked out, then it’s defiantly not good”! “How do we find him” Ron asked. “Not sure, I left him a message, but so far, no response. He has his personal brain wave frequency disabled, and we have absolutely no location data on him”. “That’s probably a plus…..If somebody is after Jack and we have location data, than, they will most likely have location data and if he’s in trouble, it’s best that no one have location data. Dam, I wonder what the fuck he’s gotten into”. “Must have something to do with the GECA, I mean what else could it be…..right”. Ron picked up the phone and got Dr Watson, Dr Chang, Doug Matthies, who was one of Jack’s closest partners on the Hill, and Dr J. Laura Jones who was taking lead on the GECA. The Global Energy Cooperation Act was an international treaty proposed by a dozen of the most developed (and advanced, as far as new energy technology integration and effectiveness was concerned) Nations in the U.N. The gist of the treaty was that it would outlaw all burning of fossil fuels once and for all. It would also serve to provide a global commission for the monitoring of any Co2 emission and empower said commission with the authority to implement sanctions and other punitive action against violators. Those opposing this treaty (including certain elements of the U.S. Government) were mostly motivated by a desire to reconstitute various fossil fuels and use them for various nefarious purposes. Primary among these were of a military nature.   

 

The immediate impact of the 2016 visit from the eggheads that bestowed the most incredibility advanced energy technology that saved our atmosphere and later rendered fossil fuels noncombustible from a National Government Defense perspective was disaster. All the most powerful, most sophisticated, largest militaries in the world were extremely concerned due to the fact that a large percentage of their weapons of war relied on fossil fuel consumption. While it was not a complete start over (many weapons such as basic infantry, artillery, nuclear powered naval vessels were still perfectly operable) it did serve to level the playing field for a moment and give nations with a lesser military foot print the opportunity to expand that footprint substantially if they harbored a desire to do so. A new style of arms race had become one of the unintended consequences of the benevolent actions taken on humanities behalf by the eggheads. Part of this arms race, particularly with under developed countries, was the desire and continued attempt to reconfigure the molecular structure and reconstitute Carbon based fossil fuels in order to utilize decommissioned military hardware. This global race to reboot militaries and reconstitute oil had been going on in one way or another for the past sixteen years and was certainly not new news, however the GECA which served to increase greatly the negative consequences of engaging in this race had put a new light on an old situation.

 

“Charlie, Linh, Laura grab Doug and anybody else you see who’s been working with Jack on this GECA thing and get to the conference ASAP”. Ron hung up and turned to Sam “what do you think”? “well sir, I have been working pretty close with Jack recently” Sam started “and as far as I know the GECA has to pass through the legislature and get approval to proceed to the United States Ambassador to the United Nations for our support of the measure in the U.N. Security council. If we can get support in the Security Council, which is expected to exist, then we can move to the General Assembly for ultimate approval. If this all goes through, it will most assuredly be a net positive and every interest we represent is hoping that we can pull it off. Now, that being said, it’s not like we don’t have any head winds. First, the People for Proper and Peaceful Energy Production or PPPEP, which is basically just a bull shit front for a bunch of old petroleum industry types, and a coalition of extreme conservative Trads, have mounted an extensive opposition to the passage of this legislation. While Jack has expressed some frustration with regard to these folks, I don’t think he has ever really regarded them as a viable threat. President Kelly has been pushing hard for passage and a majority of the Democratic Republicans, and the Democratic Socialists are on board. Before he left, Jack had a bunch of meetings with various committee chairs to garner support”. Sam went on to explain that Congressman Derrick Bahley, who had won in Michigan’s 1^st district in 2014 and had worked his way to Chairmanship of Ways and Means and was a staunch ally, had assured Jack of passage in the House. Senator Evin Bayh of Indiana who had left the Senate in 2008 in total frustration and come out of retirement in 2020 and was now majority leader in the Senate had basically promised the same. “So, I don’t see any real danger coming from any of those angles. I mean, Jack saw a lot of those guys as a pain in the ass, but defiantly not dangerous”. “So, who has the most to gain from this Legislation getting killed” Ron asked. “It’s probably not an interest in the U.S…..unless it’s some kind of clandestine undercover shit. I mean it could be a conspiracy of some kind but I can’t really see who stands to benefit….at least not enough to justify the risk and certainly not enough to kill people. Of course it could be an international thing; there are quite a few nations that could benefit from a military and/or economical point of view from the ability to burn a little oil and be able to use any weaponry or machinery that’s just sitting around collecting dust”. “Did Jack ever mention anything like that….anything that indicated he was aware of some kind of dirty work going on” Ron quizzed. “He might not have even realized it was a clue” he added, suddenly realizing he was talking about Jack Saffell who with his superior intuition, never let a clue go by unrealized. “I don’t think so sir. Let’s face it, this is Jack we’re talking about”. “Yea, Yea I know…..forget that last question. Come on, you’re coming with me to the conference room. We are meeting with the wiz team and trying to get to the bottom of this”.

 

By the time Ron and Sam got to the conference room of the Environmental Alliance Group the rest of the team had already assembled and were busy discussing exactly what was bugging Ron enough to call this meeting. “Ok guys, here is what’s going on. Sam is going to bring everyone up to speed then we are going to develop an action plan and see if we can get to the bottom of this shit. Sam, you’re up”. Sam went through the same details he had spelled out for Ron, answered several dozen questions to the best of his ability and turned the floor back over to Ron. For a guy just out of grad school who was just serving as an intern for the past eight months, Sam was really surprised at the fact that he was being included in an upper level meeting at EAG with guys who were arguably some of the smartest guys in the world. “What countries do you think might be involved” asked Dr Watson. Holy shit thought Sam; these guys are taking this seriously. “I have a hot list on file; here I’ll pull it up for you”. A projected data screen with various lists and spread sheets appeared in the middle of the conference table. Sam reached over and moved some of the data groups around, added another screen and organized while mumbling to himself for a minute. When he was finished he turned back to face the group and said “this list here, are the most likely to be involved in any energy conversion activities for a variety of reasons; this list represents priorities from a military stand point; this list is of outward or known hostiles and this final list is comprised of any known groups, state sponsored or not, that have economic or idealistic interest in ether energy conversion or “new tech” disruption.” “Good work Sam” said Dr Watson, “hey Doug, you see any patterns here”? “Laura, what about you, anything jump out at you”? “OK” Laura said “let’s try this”. She quickly wrote an algorithm and plugged in the data. As images on the midair transparent data screen flashed across she said “I just asked for a probability study based on the info we have plus a probable hierarchy of priorities. I used a bit of speculation and placed Power and/or enormous financial gain as top priority. After that we have Religious ideology, Nationalism, and so on down the line”. “Also I interfaced every entity, organization, or country that anyone who met with Jack in the last two months is associated with”. What filtered out on the data screen was a list of possible culprits and when cross referenced with those who had contact with Jack, it made for a decent starting point for investigation. “Good start guys” Ron said, “now, let’s figure out who or what is after Jack and why.

Then we figure out what their overriding agenda is and everyone who is involved. Than we figure out just how to proceed to stop it without causing a shit storm or getting anybody killed; not to mention trying to avoid an atmospheric melt down and/or world war three”. “Ok, here is the action plan for now: Sam, you track down everybody who Jack had contact with in the last two weeks. Cross reference with Laura’s probability schedule and report back at our next meeting at 7:30 AM tomorrow. Charley, can you get the exact status of this GECA legislation from a House, Senate, Special interest, and Executive point of view. I want to know the name of every ass hole that ever even uttered the phrase Global Energy cooperation Act. Call in every favor that’s owed you, or me for that matter and find out just exactly who stands to gain and who stands to lose from this shit”…..”Got it”? “Yes, I got it Ron” Dr Watson said. “Linh, you take the international front. Do a total comb of our global data access and cross reference with Laura’s data. I want the data to be fluid with Laura taking command central and interning the data and adjusting the algorithms as we filter the information. In twenty four hours I want to know just what the fuck is going on. Dougy, you go find Jack, take a couple guys from security and don’t take chances. If Jack contacts anybody patch him to me right fucking now. If you can’t patch him to me, you tell him to stay secure and wait for Doug to provide backup”. Ron finished up be asking “Anybody got anything to add”? Doug requested an update of Jacks meeting schedule from Sam and they planned to do a brief strategy session in Doug’s office. Doug also asked Jane Keen if she could contact Max Cunningham and Tom Rum in the EAG security division. Dr.s Watson, Chang and Jones spent a few minutes hashing out a few details and after everybody was ready Ron said “Ok let’s hit it”.

 

“Jane, get me the president’s chief of staff ASAP” Ron shouted to Jane Keen, his personal assistant. “Ms Meng is on the line Ron” Jane said with the mix of respect, sarcasm, affection, and wise assness that so totally became her. Grace Meng was President Dr. Sarah Jane Kelly’s chief of staff. Ron thought of her as one smart, shrewd, babe. She was fifty seven years old, had been elected to the House in 2012 representing the 6^th district of New York. She was a Chinese American from Queens Y.N. and landed a seat of the foreign affairs committee in her first term. After a third term she lost a bid for the NY senate seat vacated by Senator Kristen Gillibrand. This was in 2018 and the midterm election during President Santorum’s single term. The general trend had been toward the right and several long held democratic seats were lost in the transition. Of course this was two years before the Party break up and rearrangement to the new three party statuses.

 

“Hey Grace its Ron, you got a minute”. “Sure Ron, what’s on your mind”? “You know how we’ve been lobbying for this GECA that your boss is all hot on”. “Yes Ron, you know how happy we are to have your guys support”. “Well, my main guy on the hill Jack Saffell seems to have run into some mysterious goings on”. Oh yea, I know Jack, what’s he say is the problem”? “That’s the problem, he can’t say because he seems to be missing. His aid Sam Marky says he got spooked by ether something he found out while pushing for GECA support or somebody that may have paid him a visit for the intended purpose of scaring him into bolting. We both suspect the latter and I’m just wondering if you can shed any light on this for me”? “I can talk to the boys at National security, and check with CIA. Let me do some digging and get back with you. Do you have any suspicions yet”? “Not really, we just developed and action plan and have the data bases filtering stuff right now. We have run a couple algorithms but so far we are just guessing that somebody has a big reason to kill the GECA and Jack must have stumbled on to something they would rather he not know”. “So Ron, you want us in at this point”? “Yea, I think so. We don’t have anything at all concrete, but, you know, if there is something going on, at least the NSA should poke around. What do you think Grace”? “I agree, when is your next briefing”? “7:30 AM tomorrow morning, here, at the EAG conference room”. “I’ll send Peter Miller over to attend; will you bring him up to speed”? We’ll do”. In the mean time I will see what’s up on our end, CIA might have some info, let’s coordinate tomorrow”. Sounds good, Thanks Grace”. Ron said. “Jane, get me Dougy will ya”? “Yes boss, he’s on”. “Hey Doug what’s up”? “I got Max and Tom meeting me in an hour at the airport. I have the pilots ready; we are taking the Bombardier 260 and should be in Traverse City two and a half hours from now. We ran a few software samples and his old cottage on Lake Leelanau is a high probability for where he’s gone. We are getting continuous data updates from Laura and are feeding back anything we find. Hopefully he’s there and we can scoop him up. Then all we’ll have to worry about is if there is monkey business going on, Which is a hell of a lot better than worrying about the safety of one of our own”. “I hear you there Dougy, good luck and be careful”.

 

Dr J. Laura Jones was a genius with a 200 plus IQ as well as being a drop dead beauty. She was not the kind of Alpha female that needed to be in charge. In fact she possessed the kind of inner confidence and utter serenity that she could solve the most complex of problem without anyone noticing and not give it a second thought. She liked Jack and was impressed with his intellect and his dry and quite sense of humor. She was seated in her office at EAG headquarters and had five different screens projected in the air. She was using voice activation and typing at the same time. With her IQ and super connected Neocortex Laura was actually able to perform up to five activities at a single time…at least from a brain activity stand point. She was also communicating with Dr Watson, Sam, Doug, Ron, Jane and Dr Chang along with at least a dozen others on a pretty much continual basis. She could do this just by thinking about the proper connection protocol and talking; conferencing in as many people as she wanted was no problem. She chuckled when she thought about the days when one needed to hold a box to ones ear to communicate. As she was speeding through screen after screen of data and information she suddenly froze. Humm....this is interesting she said to herself.

 

Since 2016 the nations of the world engaged in a lot of jockeying for position on the world stage. Some countries were much quicker to embrace new technology as it became available.

Others, slower to switch from traditional petroleum based industry, energy, transportation and military, had to play catch up in order to maintain their status in the world economic order. Pre 2016 saw the U.S. as the world's largest economy followed by China, Japan, Germany, France, Brazil, Italy, India, Russia, Canada, Australia, Spain, Mexico, South Korea, Indonesia, Netherlands, and Turkey. As a result of the rapid building of new infrastructure and adoption of new and advanced technologies, the world economic ladder had changed a lot. The U.S. and China remained the largest since the U.S. was just so much larger than the rest of the world to begin with and China by nature of its raw size of population and strong upward trend for the previous two decades. Turkey moved into third, India forth, Canada and Australia, fifth and sixth. Japan, once the second largest economy in the world, moved to seventh.

 

 

Turkey was on the cutting edge of the new technology implementation right out of the gate. The Turks had way more motivation to establish new energy technologies than just about any other country on the planet. The Turkish government being the only secular, free, parliamentary democracy in the area, had always been a bit nervous about being surrounded by mostly wacked out dictators, monarchy's, tribal war lords, war torn fragile states, and out and out anarchy. Since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the modern secular Republic of Turkey in 1923, It had found itself smack in the middle of some of the most bizarre and deadly regional conflicts in history. Turkey had once been the cradle of civilization and the Fertile Crescent where by most every measure civilization had begun. It was the first society to grow crops and domesticate beasts of burden to perform tasks, and provide dairy, eggs, and meat. The first society to be free from the all consuming hunt for food and have time to develop government, artisans, and philosophy. The Ottoman empire of Turkey lasted for 623 years, from July 27, 1299 to November 1, 1922 and influenced much of the western world; longer than the Roman Empire; longer than the British Empire; longer by far than the U.S. had been the predominate influence in world power and economics. By far the most overriding reason for Turkey's immediate and fully fledged adoption of all the new advancements and technology was that for sixty six years they had been the only Middle East country without substantial oil reserves. For sixty six years Turkey had been surrounded by oil rich, hostile neighbors, who they depended on for their energy needs, but who generally ran completely counter to Turkey's philosophy of secular democracy. The government and people of Turkey had grown tired of being both nervous and pissed off about living next to countries like Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and a bunch of other ass hole countries that wanted to fry there asses. Since all the surrounding Petro- Dictators had little more going for them than an abundance of oil and a really bad attitude, Turkey was just itching to tell its neighbors where they could stick their oil and exercise a little ass kicking.

 

Within the first year following the Alien visit which promised to advance human civilization beyond measure, the Turks went into full production of all readily available new- tech energy production facilities. They geared up research and devoted every resource they could muster toward furthering all the technological advancements that the eggheads had granted to humanity. Along with total revamping of their energy infrastructure - and selling this perfected technology to other nations- re-powering their military, implementing nationwide healthcare using new technology and greatly enhancing their artificial intelligence capabilities and Internet, they also utilized new-tech desalination and turned what had become an arid desert back into the Fertile Crescent it had once been. By the year 2032 Turkey had become a net exporter of food, computers (which were now implantable into just about anything due to nano tech) automobiles, and assorted other forms of transportation. A dozen companies in five different countries had experimented with and produced a variety of "flying cars" that could hover to at least a hundred meters and travel at one hundred miles an hour without terrestrial constraints; however they posed a whole additional problem of infrastructure and regulating traffic flows. The biggest problem was the development of integrated computer software so people didn't fly around crashing into each other. Besides this was just in its infancy and not legalized for personal use.

 

Most of the area known as the Middle East had fallen into utter chaos in the decade following 2016. After a decade of anarchy and confusion most of the former countries of the Middle East had been annexed to ether Turkey, Israel, or India. Both Israel and India, along with neighboring Pakistan had followed the path of Turkey. India and Pakistan, once arch enemies had signed a treaty of cooperation sharing technology and military to establish order and end the conflict between tribal war-lords which erupted and continued throughout the decade following 2016. It turns out, that the ideological hatred between citizens of India and Pakistan had little basis after humanity had learned that all of their individual ideas of religion were mistaken. While differences in religious ideology had been taken out of the picture as a reason for conflict; it’s not to say that self interest no longer existed....because it did at every level of society just as it always had. The global balance of power had indeed shifted, but there remained no lack of national interest around the globe. Russia, being an oil rich nation and having once provided over one third of Europe's natural gas was now a waste land. Their corrupt government that was still controlled by Vladimir Putin in 2016 was simply to ineffective to implement any kind of efficient sweeping change. Once fossil fuels became non-computable, Russia started down the tubes and after only a few years they had become the vagrant, homeless, crack-head, drunken, bum of countries. The fact that the United States had managed to finally get its collective shit together and maintain its position as a global economic and military leader was nothing short of miraculous. After four years of social bickering and political blundering under President Santorum, it found itself playing catch up. Were it not for its previous power and economic strength, along with lots of tech help from its ally's Australia, Great Britain, the E.U. and Canada the U.S. might well have found itself in Russia's shoes and been the beggars of the world. Brazil had lost some traction, but regained its status due largely to its generous mineral deposits. Eggheads had given humanity the ability to synthesize whatever was necessary to achieve energy without fossil fuels, however it was discovered that many of the requisite materials could be extracted from the earth thus saving the time and expense of synthesizing. Brazil and the lower half of the African continent were found to be rich in such minerals. Of course no one bothered to recognize that we had previously behaved in exactly the same way regarding oil and should have learned a lesson after aliens showed how to get along without it. Ah but such was the nature of human behavior and even though the eggheads had granted mankind a few tricks on how to survive, they probably didn't intend to force humanity to save itself.

 

 

Dr. Nisen Berfin Hamarat was in her lab at the Istanbul headquarters of the EAG. She had been with the organization for sixteen years now and was responsible for much of the data they had banked regarding human migration since 2016. There had been a sizable refugee migration overland in search for food early on, but irrigation technology combined with desalination had food production in places like sub Saharan Africa possable, and global famine was quickly becoming a thing of the past. The U.S. along with a host of developed countries had eventually adopted open immigration policies that prompted large movements of humanity in a rather short person of time. This sort of modern migration had obvious environmental and economic impact and the EAG was keen to study and record the effects.

Dr. Hamarat or Fin as she was known by her friends and associates was a profession of Human Geography. She had studied human migration from the time humans first started to migrate out of central Africa and populate the globe. She was intrigued by the movement of people; where they moved, when they moved and why. She had once explained to Ron Smith and Dr Watson that if you take a model of the earth or any part of it and pour a fluid, say water, over it; the water will simply follow the laws of physics so if you know these laws than the flow of the water will be easy to predict. Now, if on the other hand you were to replace the water with people.....well then you have an infinite number of variables to weigh and consider. In some instances the people may simply follow the flow of the water, that is to say "follow the path of least resistance" just as every molecule will do according to the laws of physics, however it is equally possible that they take a different path; one with more resistance thus defying the laws of physics. "People are funny that way" was a favorite saying of hers. "What motivates a people to take the path of more resistance" she asked? "Is it food, water, shelter or more comfortable climate...sure...is it chance, luck, human curiosity, or something more....who knows". One thing that Dr Watson and Ron Smith knew for sure was that Fin knew more about this stuff than anybody else on the planet and that this information was useful stuff to have. Fin had every major human migration (major meaning over one hundred thousand people moving in five years or less) committed to memory and what she didn't have in her head, she had in a data base that had taken her ten years to compile.

 

“Hey Fin, This is Laura”. “Hi Laura…here let me pull you up on visual”. “Oh god no” said Laura “whoever thought it was a good idea to actually see each other while talking from miles away was a dick head”. Laura had been working nonstop in her office for the last sixteen hours and felt like shit. She was convinced that she looked like shit too, even though it would take a lot more than a sixteen hour work bee to make her look anything less than stunning. “I hear ya sister” fin replied “I use to work from home all day long in my cozy pajamas and goofy animal slippers and talk with people all over the world until we started using visual calling. I once had an emergency conversation with the Prime Minister of Sweden and his staff for two hours in my PJs and the hoody I use to paint in….now I have to get all dressed up for a freaking phone call”. “Technology… got to love it”. “Ok Laura, I guess I wouldn’t want to trade getting dressed for a business call, for say Polio or Small Pox or any of those stupid diseases that we have cured and people use to die from.”….”but I still like to conduct business in my cozy PJs”. “Now that we have solved the world’s most pressing problems like video conferencing and proper at home business attire, what else is there for us to conquer”. “I want you to run some analysis on some migration that’s going on in all the countries north of a line from Turkey running east to China including the north coast of the Caspian Sea”. “So, you are talking about Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan right”? “That’s right”. “Well you know Laura that there has been a fourteen year general migration to the south in all those areas due largely to the continually degenerating conditions in Russia. Lots of folks out in the boonies got cut off when the fossil fuel stopped working. I’ve tracked this stuff for a while and it appears mostly like folks moving south in search of food, shelter and a warmer climate”. “Yea, I’m with you on that, but I noticed a more recent and much larger move and that’s what I’m interested in. Of course I have got nowhere near the kind of data that you have and that’s why I’m wondering if you can check it out for me. I want to know if it’s real, and if it is….why”. “Hey Laura, that’s no problem but……..what the heck is going on”? “It’s kind of need-to-know stuff but I can tell you that Jack Saffell is missing and I think the GECA has something to do with it”. “Missing?? What the fuck do you mean missing”? “I mean that nobody has been able to get in contact with him for three days and he left Sam a message that something or somebody had spooked him so he was going to bolt and hide out for a while. I’m pretty sure he’s ok, but we want to make sure and Ron wants to know just what the heck is happening. It could just be that Jack is just being paranoid and silly, but then it could be some kind of covert shit that had something to do with the GECA. We’re not unaware of the fact that if that treaty goes into effect that some people stand to lose. Now I would argue that they are generally the bad guys and we want them to lost, but I’m sure that if there is something to all this that those guys will feel differently than me”. “What do you think the area we’re talking about has to do with this”. “I really have no clue, just following up on any little thing I notice that’s different”. “Well, you got it sister, I sure hope Jacks ok. Maybe he’s just hanging out fishing and drinking, you know he’s been known to do that from time to time”. “I hope so to Fin, I’ll keep you posted. Send me that data as soon as you can, Ok”. “Right, talk to you soon”.

 

“Humm, I wonder what’s going on” Fin uttered to herself….”let me see”….She moved a few screens around, sent a few more commands with the keyboard, made a few more adjustments with voice command that said “Ok, run this one” After a few minutes of filtering she found herself staring at a screen of data that surprised the shit out of her. In the last one and a half years eight million, seven hundred and sixty two thousand and five hundred, plus or minus two hundred people had migrated south to an area within one hundred kilometers of the southern borders of all the countries of the list Laura had given her. This was an area about fifteen hundred kilometers long, so and area of about one hundred and fifty thousand sq. kilometers. “What the hell” she thought “what the hell are a eight million people doing moving into an area of only a hundred and fifty thousand sq. kliks”? “Hey missy (her name for her artificial intelligence or computer as people use to call them) better get a hold of Laura again”.

 

That was quick". "I just ran a preliminary algorithm and it looks like a lot of people are moving south. It's sure a lot more than you average refugee migration......and I really don't think that's what it is". "Any military"? "Don't know.....but I doubt it". "Ok, can you get demographics"? "Maybe...at least an overview". "Good, if we got a bunch of twenty something's that could spell trouble". "Let's just see, if it's propagated by need, we'll see a pretty diverse age range, but I can't imagine anything that the area north of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan has to offer in the way of relief". "I don't see it as offering much in the way of anything"."I gotta agree with ya there Laura.....I'll get on it now". "Start with Sat images". "Just what are we looking for" Fin asked. "Im not sure, but when half the number of people that moved into the U.S. last year, move into an area that's basically inhospitable for no perticular reason.....it makes me wonder". "It's got my curiosity working, that's for sure". "Thanks Fin, I'll talk to you in a few".

 

The Day The Oil Stopped Burning, Chapter 3: Garden Peninsulia. Hiding out

CHAPTER 3: GARDEN PENINSULIA. Hiding out  

 

The wind had remained constant out of the North and built to twenty knots during the night. By zero six hundred hours the Leading Lady had cleared Poverty Island Passage (appropriately named for the Garden Peninsula in Michigan's U.P). Jack was at the helm and had to harden up to 315 degrees which was as hard on the wind as she could sail. " Hey guys, we are coming into Green Bay, why doesn't somebody start some coffee. We are gonna have to start tacking up Big Bay De Noc in an hour or so". Annie G stuck her head through the companion way, "hi ya there big boy" she said " you doing ok"? "I'm driving a sail boats so what do you think". "Guess that answers my question". "You still love me"? "I worship the ground you walk on baby". "Yea, would you eat the forbidden fruit for me". "As long as its fermented..... Speaking of which, why don't you throw a shot of Baileys in that coffee". "coming right up sweetheart". Annie G poured a couple cups of coffee, both with a hefty shot of Baileys Irish Cream and went up to the cockpit to join Jack. "Here's your coffee sweetie, how long you been up". "I came up and relieved Geno at about o three hundred, it was an awesome night sail". "Any northern lights" she asked. "No, but I would love see them again, it's been at least six years. Remember that night we were anchored on South Manitou Island and they were dancing across the horizon in those huge waves"? "Sure do, I remember the awesome colors too. The usual green and blue, but I remember yellow and red....more like pink.....and violet, I'd sure as hell never seen pink and violet northern lights before....haven't since ether". "Maybe we'll get lucky and get a good show on this trip". "Hope so, I did see a pretty cool meteor shower. At least a dozen in two hours, a couple tailers that hung for several seconds". Jack was relaxed and feeling the first bit of serenity in years. Annie G could sense the difference in just two days. His tension was starting to unwind and his night watch on the boat had been the first three hour stretch that his thoughts hadn't drifted to the storm clouds that were brewing around our nations Capitol. "Should I wake Geno up"? Annie G asked. "Na, let him sleep, he was on watch from sunset till o three hundred. Besides, I know him, he'll be awake automatically when we need him". "I'll take another Baileys and coffee please". "Got it babe".

 

Just as Jack predicted, Geno popped out of the forward hatch to rig the anchor gear as they came about on the final approach to Fayette harbor. After that, he ran back to the cockpit to furl the jib. Jack continued to turn the helm to starboard as they rounded down to a broad reach with just the main sail alone. They were still cruising at seven knots and had a few hundred yards to their favorite spot to drop anchor. At twenty yards out Geno dropped the main and coasted down wind till they passed their spot at which Jack swung the helm hard to starboard, pulling a upturn into the wind. Geno ran forward and dropped the anchor. The boat drifted back, Geno payed out the anchor road, the anchor set and Geno cleated off the line when they had reached the proper scope. "All set Bubba" Geno yelled " The Eagle has landed" yelled Jack, which was their tradition whenever they came to a dock or anchorage. It was o nine hundred hours (9:00 AM, on the boat they always used military time just because that was what Geeze had taught them). "Must be noon somewhere" Geno said "let's have a cocktail". "How about a bloody"? The booze was certainly having a soothing effect on Jack's nerves along with the natural soothing effects of being on a sailboat. Of course he recognized this and had no problem with it, in fact he was totally willing to get and remain somewhat shit faced for as long as he could. "Remember to use lots of lime and lots of Tabasco".

 

After the third bloody, bacon, eggs, toast, and grapefruit Jack was climbing into the dingy with his gear to head out to the drop off north of the harbor entrance. "Think I'll see if I can go get us some lake trout for dinner". "Hang on for a second" Geno yelled "I'll go with you". Geno grabbed his gear, put nine Coronas in a cooler and climbed in the dingy. " let's go". "Remember when we caught those Brownies up north with the Geeze". " yea, that was awesome". As kids they use to catch brown trout in September in Fayette all the time. Geeze would make "trout fingers" which were simply filets cut into strips, dipped in a mixture of condensed milk and beer, breaded with drakes, breadcrumbs and cayenne pepper and fried in peanut oil. "Let's make trout fingers for dinner" suggested Jack "you got all the necessities"? "Actually...I believe I do. I'm sure I have the Drakes, and canned mike, don't go anywhere with out that stuff......gotta check on the breadcrumbs, don't have the peanut oil but I'm sure we have some chipotle olive oil that will do the trick......might not have enough beer though" he threw in just to remain the smart ass that he so enjoyed being. They trolled along the drop off where the depth went from about forty feet to two hundred. Most years it took a few weeks more for the trout and salmon to come into shallower water but it had been an extremely cold summer and autumn type weather was occurring a full month early. For the past twenty years, climate change had really made the weather patterns fickle; sometimes warmer, sometimes cooler, sometimes dry, sometimes extremely wet. The problem, it seemed, was that it was usually to an extreme one way or the other, and rarely constant. Geno said that the weather patterns these days made sailing "a real bitch" because it changed all the time and was ether ninety five degrees and no wind or fifty five and blowing stink. "Of course if it was easy, we'd have the women do it" he use to say.....because he was not yet married and could occasionally get away with being a chauvinist red neck. Of course he realized that Annie G had spent her adult life living aboard research vessels in some of the most treacherous waters in the world and could kick any mans ass on a boat of any kind........and he totally loved that about her. "So what he heck is going on in your so called professional life"? Geno finally asked when they had gotten everything set and were just coasting along the lime stone bluffs of Garden Peninsula.

"To tell you the truth buddy, I'm not exactly sure the hell is going on at the moment". "You gotta be kidding me? I mean what the fuck, you always know what's going on.....I'm the one who never knew what was going on....you're the one that always KNEW exactly what was going on". "We'll not this time buddy boy. I had a pretty good handle on things for quite a while; always a step ahead of of most of the members of Congress and most of their aids who are arguably smarter and more agile than their bosses. But for the past three months, I can't seem to get a feel on things". Geno could sense Jack's confusion and he knew it was real. For thirty two years Geno had never seen Jack be puzzled about anything. He knew that Jack was endowed with intuition that was unsurpassed and it had simply, never let him down. "So paint me the big picture, are the Trad's up to some clandestine BS again"? The Party of Traditional American Values or Trad's as they were known, had not been successful in putting a person in the White house since their inception in 2020, never the less they still held one hundred and twenty one seats in the house (28%)and seventeen seats in the senate (17%). Most of their districts were evangelical Bible Belt areas in the south, Midwest, plains states, and big coal mining states like West Virginia. The New Democratic Republican Party (DRP) or Drips as they were known held two hundred and one house seats (46%) and fifty two senate. The Democratic Socialist's held the remaining one hundred and thirteen house seats and thirty seven senate. The Drips held the obvious majority but since they were comprised of members of both formor political parties and they could swing ether way depending on the issue at hand and whether on not there was a little something in it for them. Also the President, Dr. Sarah Jane Kelly, was a socialist and the progressive liberal agenda could be pursued because enough house and and senate drips were happy to join arms with the President.

 

"As far as I'm concerned the Trad's are always up to some clandestine BS, but I can't seem to get a vibe out of anybody I talk to, I mean its weird....it's like anybody that has anything to do with the People for Peaceful and Proper Energy Production, which is a total fucking joke by the way, just doesn't even send me a clue. I ALWAYS use to be able to sense what those assholes were thinking..and even if I couldn't get a grasp on exactly what was going down at least I could sense when one of um was lying. Now I get zip, ziltch, nada, nothing....there's just nothing fucking there". "Wow man, are you losing your MoJo or something". "I don't know......maybe, but it seems to me like its just those guys...like they're blocking any kind of brain wave transmission....it's like they're god damn robots or something". "Maybe they are" Geno said jokingly "they're the Stepford wives of politics". "No kidding man, they're all like clones of Doug Netermyre from Animal House". "Yea....and you are John Baluchi". "Well, I guarandambdoubletee you that I totally plan to drink like John". "Dude...he's dead". "Exactly". " here have a Corona....oh, first, better take a hit off this bottle of Patron.....here's the lime". "That's what I love about you Geno, just like a fucking boy scout ...always prepared" Jack took a healthy swig of tequila and chased it down with a Corona and a bit of salty lime. "Do you think they are actually hiding something big" asked Geno. " Yes I do, I just don't know what the heck it is". "Holy shit I got one on" Jack announced as he pulled his rod upward and back with a swift motion setting the hook. It was a nice eight pound brown trout that Jack had inside the dingy within about three minutes. "Ah ha....dinner"!!! "Yea, for me...what are you guys having"? Was Geno's comment as he casted back out. "Guess we best be catching some more.....and I feel a ten pounder just dying to take my bait". "Ok, buddy boy, he who catches the biggest brown, get his rounds bought at Shirley's .......ALL Night". "Pretty bold bet for a dude with no money......and if I remember correctly, you still have an outstanding tab at Shirley's". "Hey...not fair to assign my poor dead old man's debt to me!! Besides.....as I recall, you were responsible for quite a bit of that tab yourself". "No way dude....you inherit his assets and his liabilities....for example, you got his boat, sooooooo you get his bar tab as well". They both laughed their asses off thinking about Geno's dad "The Geeze" and his rather uncanny ability to walk into a bar miles away from his home, without a dime in his pocket, with two teenaged boys and still get served liquor all night long and leave totally blasted. "I guess you got me there, you think Shirley remembers that"? "Are you kiddin me" Jack was shouting. "This is the Garden Peninsula ....land of game poachers, lumber jacks, and outlaws......nobody EVER forgets a bar tab". "Ok., that's it then...we're going to Shirley's .......to pay off Geeze's ten year old bar tab and catch a humongous stupor". "Sounds like a beautiful plan my man".

 

After catching two more nice brown trout, consuming three more Corona's each, accompanied by the requisite tequila shot they headed back to the Lady for a swim and dinner. "Hey fellas...looking for a good time" Annie G yelled as they approached in the dingy. "You got some more girls in there" Geno replied. "What...you think I'm not enough woman for the both of you sailor boys". "I'd never say that". "How about performing some sexual favors for two drunken sailors while we filet these fish". "How bout I just filet the fish and you two bozos go for a swim". "I don't know...do you think you're woman enough to clean these big ol fish"! "My dear, you seem to have forgotten that I have spent the last six years on a marine research vessel. I have seen, cleaned, cut open, eaten and dissected more creatures from the sea than you two boys will ever even imagine". "I suppose you boys want them cut in strips to make trout fingers"? "How did you ever guess". "I'll clean them, you cook them". "You got a deal baby". Annie G went to work filleting the trout as Jack and Geno started to climb the mast in order to dive off the second spreader which was about forty feet off the water. This had become somewhat of a ritual and usually involved a back flip at the very least. Jack pulled off a prefect backflip compelling Geno to try a one and a half which he accomplished with less than prefect precision. He got a bit of a sting from not getting around fully in the second flip. "Ouch, that really fucking hurt". "Losing you touch". "Oh, you are such a douch bag". Even though it had been a chilly summer and Fayette was well north of the forty fifth parallel, the water was still relatively warm. After their swim and a dinner of trout fingers and French bread with olive oil and crushed garlic washed down with a healthy dose of Makers Mark, they all loaded into the dingy for their planned sojourn to Shirley's. "I hope you brought that stash of cash, I know you always keep taped under the nav table for emergencies". Said Jack as they started the three mile hike to Shirley's. "So, you qualify paying off the Geeze's ten year old bar tab as an emergency". "No.....but if you can't buy me a dozen rounds, that's an emergency". "Yea, yea I brought the cash, so let's just hope Shirley doesn't charge us interest". "I suspect she'll let us slide considering the circumstances.... I'm guessing she'll be pretty bummed to hear about the Geeze". Geeze had died during the winter of 2022-23 just three and a half months after his last visit to Shirley's. He had promised to come back in May to repay his tab, but had died in an avalanche skiing the back country in British Columba ten years ago. Geno and Jack both missed him so much it hurt but they were happy that he had died doing something he loved. He was getting a bit slower in the backcountry but he was not the type to live in a retirement community and give up doing the things he loved.

 

Geeze had been traveling to the tiny town of Blue River B.C. In the North Thompson River valley at the confluence of the Blue and North Thompson Rivers smack between the Caribou and the Monashee mountain ranges, since he was twenty years old. He had done some river guide work taking rafting and fly fishing trips out of Blue River, Kamloops and Jasper. In the winter he had worked for various back country skiing outfits as a guide and eventually as a guide for a fairly large Heli- ski outfit called Mike Wiggle. When he died, he had been skiing an area called the Mud Drainage in the Monashees about twenty kilometers north east of Blue River. In spite of its rather ignominious name the Mud Drainage was an area of vast summits and breath taking beauty. He and his favorite long time ski partner Freddy had bummed a ride on one of Mike's new Bell Lab Solar Turbine Mark IV helicopters to Base Camp six otherwise known as Augerhorn Cabin. The cabin was at twenty four hundred meters on a small relatively flat area know as a bench at the bottom of the Augerhorn glacier. It was perched on a rock outcrop, ten meters above the surrounding landscape and stood a full twelve meters high with three levels of living space. It was constructed entirely out of Douglas Fur logs harvested from the surrounding area and flown to the construction site by Helicopter back in the nineteen seventies. The term "cabin" felt somewhat misleading to Geeze and Freddy since they had both logged many a night in various cabins and yurts in Utah, Montana, and the U.P. of Michigan during their lives and considered the Augerhorn Cabin akin to the Ritz. As long as you had the right selection and quantity of supply's, a stay at the Augerhorn was far from ruffling it. The foundation was poured a meter thick on solid bedrock and at four meters high had tons of room for storage of supply's, ski, climbing , and safety gear, two battery powered snowmobiles, a vault with an assortment of hunting rifles, and a nineteen sixties U.S. Army Howitzer used for avalanche control. The outer dimensions at nine by nine meters, giving slightly less than a thousand square feet per floor with three floors of living space was like a palace to Geeze. Heat was provided by a Norwegian style wood burning soapstone stove that had a radiant stone duct assemble to the upper floors and doubled as a cook stove. A solar powered heat plant had been added after 2016, as had a "smoke scrubber" which was a simple solar powered device that removed any residual Co2 molecules from the wood burning exhaust. Water was diverted from a spring fed stream that essentially ran through the cabin and was heated by the soapstone stove and pumped through the kitchen and bath rooms by hand pumps. The lower level contained the kitchen, bath rooms, and soaker tub, the second level was living and sleeping space, the third level was all bunk room with sleeping arrangements for over a dozen guests.

 

In the month of February 2023, Geeze and Freddy had intended to spend at least a month hiking, camping, and skiing in the Augerhorn Glacier and surrounding area. They had planned to take the four day ski in from Blue River, but then, Mike offered them a lift, thus saving them gallons of sweat from days of climbing with their Telemark gear and climbing skins. Geeze, unlike many of his peers, regarded the climb as a necessary evil with the decent being the reward. He just didn't see the wisdom of climbing to the top of a mountain unless you got to ski down. They had enjoyed four weeks of awesome skiing with a couple three to five day trips to some nearby peaks and three major dumps of over one and a half meters each. One of the storms was so severe that they just had to hunker down in the cabin for two days. When it finally cleared, Mike showed up in a Heli and said "I thought you guys might like to take some steep, deep, and long runs after being cooped up for two days". They spent the day making fresh tracks down some of the most extreme faces in the Monashees in the best conditions they had ever seen. Geeze had actually said "that was simply the most awesome day of skiing I have ever had.......I could die tomorrow, and be one completely satisfied and happy dude"!! It turned out to be a prophetic statement considering that he lost his life in an avalanche less than a week later.

 

It was a warm evening with the smell of "summer woods" mixed with Lake Michigan in the air as Jack, Annie G and Geno hiked to Shirley's along " 11 Lane" which was still one of the few payed roads in the bottom half of the Garden Peninsula; paved road being a relative term since the asphalt from the nineteen eighties had mostly deteriorated to what could be referred to as gravel and was only about twelve feet wide to begin with. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly on the beaten track. Jack suddenly felt a Pavlovian response when he spotted the lights of Shirley's in the distance. It was a mixed feeling combining the Oder of tequila, the warm and soothing effect that came on quickly, with the less than enjoyable effects the day after his first visit to Shirley's. There were a total of three trucks parked outside, all dating back to pre two thousand and with homemade, jury rigged conversion kits. Most "Youppers" were adamantly opposed to buying anything, much less new vehicles, so most had converted their old trucks and snowmobiles to alternate energy sources in their own garages. Geeze use to say that if there were three things you didn't need to worry over about people in the U.P. it was taking care of their trucks, snowmobiles, and guns. Shirley was a stout woman, of Scandinavian decent who took shit from no one and was typical of the area. She was in her mid seventies and had seen her share of roughness. She had been married four or five times (no one really knew) and lived by herself in a cabin about a quarter mile down a two track from the Bar surrounded by hardwoods and on the shore on Big Bay De Noc. Although she was no longer married, she did enjoy the company of gentlemen and certainly was not shy about taking home whatever straggler happened to by left at closing time, which was completely variable depending on her disposition at the time.

 

"Well I'll be dipped in batter and fried in bacon fat" she exclaimed as Jack, Annie G and Geno came in the door. "Just look at da too of you boys...ell you look all growed up and like da big shots from da city dar". "No need to worry about that Shirley, we're just the same scruffy boys you always thought of us as". "Except now, we can drink more" Geno added. "Well, dars nobody gonna be drinking nudin widoud dat od man off yours paying me dat hundred he owes me......where is da Geeze anyway"? "That's the bad news Shirley, he died in an avalanche ten years ago". "Oh shit, I'm sorry to hear dat boys, you know how I loved your od man". "Yea, and he loved you too, I'm pretty sure coming to visit you was the main reason we sailed in here all those times when we were kids". "Well, lets drink to da man, I say......what ll it be den, da legal stuff or da special stuff". It had long been the practice to distill ones own alcohol in the Garden Peninsula and Shirley had perfected the process beyond measure. She made what Geeze had referred to as "the sweetest, smoothest, strongest, sour mash whiskey in the entire fucking universe". "Oh, I am pretty sure this calls for the special stuff" Jack confirmed. "You know, I tink, I got some stuff dats over twelve years od down in da cellar dare.....I'm gonna go grab it". When Shirley returned with two dusty bottles and poured hefty shots all around, she finally said "and who's dis pretty young ding, yous two boys got wid you"? "Shirley, this is Annie G, Annie G, this is the world famous Shirley. "So what's a girl like you doing wid da likes of dees two anyway"? "Just a sucker for drunken sailors I guess" Annie G replyed. "Ohh..dat I hear loud and clear...you are a woman after my own heart. If dees guys weren't charity cases, we would even care bout dem. Day tink days smart boys but day don't know fuck all when it comes right down to it". "Shirley, you are a woman of wisdom" Annie G said as she quickly sipped down her snifter of Shirley's excellent whiskey. They sat at the bar, talking and drinking for hours. They reminisced past adventures, and Geno and Jack told Shirley what they had both been up to for the past ten years. Shirley couldn't help but detect the slight bit of tension in Jack's demeanor when at last she asked "so Jack, what da fuck is going on wid you anyway"? Jack explained that the shit had been hitting the fan back in D.C. And that somehow he felt mixed up in some sort of clandestine conspiracy. He allowed as how this was far from the first time he had been caught up in a political shit bomb, but that this time he got the feeling that somthing big was happening and whatever it was, it was defiantly not good. The real difference was that with past disasters he had pretty much been able to figure what the heck was going to happen or at least what people had in mind just from talking to them. This time, the ability to "get a feel" of the situation and let his natural instinct figure things out had eluded him. It had gotten to a point at which Jack got scared, so he had bolted, and here he was. "You know, for the first time in six years, I got freaked out and actually had the feeling that someone was after me. I had a meeting with these PPPEP reps, or at least that's who they were supposed to be, and I got this totally scary vibe...like they were defiantly not who they said they were, and that they intended to do me no good. We have been lobbying for the Global Energy Cooperation Act (GECA) for over a year now and it's had it's share of resistance and the Trad's from the PTAV have been pushing hard for an act to finish a formula they think will actually reverse the non combustability of oil and reconstitute it for use. Depending on who you talk to, they claim to ether have the formula already....or be really close. For a while, this all just seemed like the same old political/ corporate bull shit, but after that meeting, I got the distinct impression that something larger and more sinister was going on. I figured it was better for me to hide out for a while and try to enjoy myself than to end up missing, or dead, over something that I really don't understand yet. So, I leave D.C. By car so nobody can locate a record of where I'm going, I don't tell anyone that I'm leaving or anyone that I'm coming here. I contact Annie G when I get back to our old cottage on Lake Leelanau and she happens to be home and comes over, then we call Geno the next day and hop on the Leading Lady and sail across the lake and anchor in Fayette harbor early this morning.....that's about the extent of it". "Oh shit" said Shirley, bouncing the palm of her hand off her forehead. "What" said Jack. "I don't know, but da odher day, dees two guys come in..... And day don't exactly look local, if ya know what I mean....well, I don't tink any ting about dis cause I figure days just tourists or some ting. Day was drivin dis new truck which I notice when day pulls up, and days dressed a bit too fancy for dees parts ya know. Days making small talk ya know and days askin bout visitors and such. Like I says, I don't tink too much bout it, but den, I'm sure I seen dar truck cruse by again da next day or so....seemed kinna funny at da time ahh, but den I just figure days city boys looking for some solitude". "You gotta be fucking kidding me" blurted Geno as he set down his glass..."you actually have spooks tailing you"? "Let's not jump to conclusions quite yet" Jack replied "Shirley, any chance these guys were just hunters, scoping out deer hunting spots"? "Could be Jacky boy, but I seen plenty of dem guys and dees guy .........I don know...... Der was somthing different bout dem ahh". "Oh, that is just way too far fetched" announced Jack "if these guys were actually after me....how in the hell would they know to come here? I mean, I have left no trail whatsoever; I have no tracking or location info out there; my personal frequency wave is disabled; Sam and Ron are the only ones who have access to my data and there is no location data......I didn't even mention what direction I was going....for all they know I could br in Timfuckingtoo"!!!!! "Still" said Geno. "Still what? There is no fucking way some spooks could find me here". "Ok, just suppose that your feelings are accurate, and that some big thing is going to go down. Then suppose that whoever has a vested interest would naturally have substantial power, money, resources, and connections. You with me so far? Good, then, it's not much of a stretch to assume that whoever it is could do some basic research and make some educated guesses regarding where they might find you. I'm guessing that your old cottage on Lake Leelanau would be at the top of the list.....now, this place here might be a bit farther down the list but ill bet it's on there. It's fair to assume that the more motivated someone is about finding you, the farther down the list they would be willing to go.......right"? "Yea, maybe, but it still seems like a pretty big stretch to me". "I know....right? It is a big stretch, but in light of what you have just told me, it's also hard to believe these guys showing up right here right now is just total circumstance". "You boys got a gun" Shirley asked as nonchalantly as if she was asking if they wanted another round. "No" replied Geno. “We’ll have to take care of dat" she said as she poured another round of whiskey.

 

After the bar closed down and the bottle of Shirley” most excellent whiskey was fully consumed the four of them walked down the two track to Shirley’s cabin. The term “walk” being used loosely in that it was more like a stager. “You kids should probably spend da night here” Shirley announced with authority. “If those bozos really are spooks after Jack, than chances are day have spotted da boat and…….well….it’s best if you just stay here…aahh. “No argument here” Geno slurred “I gotta fine a place to land this drunken body of mine before it crashes”.