B008IFNJZM EBOK (26 page)

             
“Gentlemen, can I have some quiet?”

             
“Some of you came here of your own free will and others were brought here under threat of force to attend this meeting.  I am sorry if the necessity of your attendance may have caused you any inconvenience.”

             
“Just what kind of trouble are we in Crosley?”

             
Crosley and Jerrick knew everyone in the room and Crosley responded to the person in his mid-forties.

             
“No trouble and after you listen to part of this presentation, you will be free to say ‘no’ and leave.   Madam Secretary, you may address the group.”

             
She looked at the dozen men sitting uncomfortably in the chairs in front of the head table.

             
“Gentlemen...  I have been authorized to offer you a deal.  In these envelopes is each of your records as tourist guides.  As part of those records, the Australian Government and member states have numerous active charges against everyone in this room.  These charges range from barroom brawls to endangered animal poaching.  Several of you have lost your licenses to even serve the tourist industry or drive a vehicle in this country.  However, if each of you joins Mr. Pittman and Mr. Sawyer’s newly formed company as a part owner of that company, your records will be expunged.  All canceled licenses and all investigations regarding your past alleged illegal actions will also disappear.  Working for their company of which you will be an equal share owner will mean you are indirectly working for the Australian government as we like to call ‘arms-length’.”   We are also aware that participating in this venture, has the strong possibility of making you all extremely wealthy and in that regard, we will be making sure that you will tender all money necessary to pay your fair share of taxes of the money you earn.  Once you sign on, your silence in what this company does, and how it does it, will determine your future.  If you tell anyone, you will forfeit all money earned and immediately be imprisoned not only on all former charges against you but also for treason to this country and its government.  I expect you will do what is right and join these men in our joint business venture.”

             
The secretary hands Crosley all the packets.  She leans over to him.

             
“I will leave you now.  Remember, your government is the first to be served by this venture.”

             
“I understand madam secretary.”

             
“I have other business to attend to.  I will take my leave.”

             
The four men stand up and the woman leaves the conference room.  Many of the poorly dressed unshaved men are talking about what she has offered and said.  Crosley remains standing ready to brief his group on just what this new business venture entails and how it is at ‘arms-length’ to the government of Australia.

             
A blond headed young man name Shawn, in the back stood up and raised his hand.  He wore a floppy jungle hat, camouflaged fatigues and a black wrist band on his right hand.  He carried a large knife sheath but the weapon had already been detained at the entrance to the building.

             
“Excuse me governor, may I ask a question?  The woman who just left said we would make a lot of money… Just how much are we talking about?”

             
“Please wait until the end of my presentation for any questions you might have, but I will answer your question now.  We have every reason to believe that all twelve of you stand to make one hundred thousand American dollars in the next three weeks.  If all goes according to plan, each of you will be millionaires by the year’s end.”

             
All small talk among the audience immediately stopped.

             
“Now if there are no more questions, let me explain to you just how we are going to make you very rich.”

             
Crosley Pittman was now ready to address the curious group.  Well over half of them had some kind of government infraction that could be forgiven in exchange for their service.  The interest of making a large sum of money in the short term also appealed to the group given the state of the economy.

             
“Okay, if you are in this room now you are a guide for tourists to the outback and either I or Jerrick trust you.  We all know the economy is bad now and the tourist business is being hard hit.  That’s why we have been lucky enough to have such a large group of professionals here today.  The plan is simple.  We know the location of a hidden valley.  In this valley is a flock of hundreds if not thousands, of Dodo birds.  These birds are believed by the rest of the world to be extinct for a considerable amount of time.  You will each be given two females and two males.  We have contacted zoo locations around the world.  Then each of you will board a flight to one of these buyers and sell the two pair of dodo birds.  This find has made some handsome zoo offers and each of the zoo facilities will pay you one hundred thousand dollars for the birds.”

             
A bearded man in the front row raises his hand.

             
“Yes?”

             
“How do we get them out of the country?”

             
“The woman who was just here will create all the paperwork and renew passports for each of you to make the round trip.”

             
“Besides making sure we pay taxes on these payments, what’s in it for her?”

             
“We are required to catch and send four males and four females to both Sydney and Melbourne for our country’s zoo facilities.  They get their birds for no charge in return for our service.”

             
“What about the remaining birds in this valley?”

             
“We may elect to sell more pairs of birds, but we see the price of the birds dropping once they begin to breed and have young in captivity.  But, there are other treasures down in this valley worth more than just these birds.  That is why we can see all of you becoming millionaires by the year’s end if not by summer’s end.”

             
“What else is in this valley?”

             
“Gentleman...  You will receive a detailed briefing after you become partners in this venture.  At this point, we need your signatures on some documents before we continue.”

             
“Where are these zoo locations?”

             
“There are three in the United States, Two in the Soviet Union, Two in China and the other five are in Europe and India.  A zoo will be drawn for each of you and that will be your first transaction as partners in this venture.  I must remind you that this whole plan only works if no one outside this room except for the three women funding the project knows its location.”

             
“Where do I sign?”

             
Everyone began to stand up and sign for their packet of documents and also received a second packet of documents regarding any infractions that may have caused them to be prosecuted by the Australian government or its member states.  The two oldest guides sat looking at each other and not in any hurry to run up and sign.

             
“Well Willie, what do you think?”

             
“I don’t know Henry… It sounds too good to be true for our government to get involved.”

             
“Aye, I am sure the other shoe is about to fall…  No one hires what they believe to be the best guides in the business to stroll into a valley and pluck out a bunch of birds…  There has to be some to be a serious danger in this operation. “

             
“Well Henry, I am going to sign up… the way business has been lately… I think I would rather die getting these oversized chickens than spending the rest of my life washing dishes in some greasy spoon.”

             
The pair of old timers joined the back of the line.  Once everyone signed, they return to their seats and Henry raises his hand.

             
“Yes Henry?”

             
“Jerrick, Willie and I have known you most of our lives…. We are waiting for the other shoe to fall.  No one recruits this much talent and knowledge of the bush to just stroll into some valley and pluck out a bunch of oversized chickens.”

             
The entire group stops conversing over their packages and looks up at Crosley and Jerrick and the pair of mercenaries.

             
“Now that you all have signed on, I can give you the rest of the story.  This valley is not visible from the surface.”

             
“So there are no GPS references as to where we are going or any overhead aerial shots?”

             
“No Willie.  Where we are going is to a valley some three miles below the surface.”

             
“Then what is the light source that far underground?”

             
“Some type of phosphorous material that leaves the area in a predawn light twenty four hours a day.”

             
“So all of us becoming millionaires is going to require more than just capturing a bunch of birds?”

             
“There are other things down there worth much more than the Dodo birds gentlemen.  Not to sell the birds short, no one these days has even got a complete Skelton of a Dodo.  The last time these birds were found alive was back around sixteen hundred.  Our science advisor has also said that the valley has many Calvaria trees.  These trees provide the fruit the dodo birds eat.  They are also extinct and last seen on an island off the coast of Africa around the same time frame that the Dodos became extinct and will also be a strong source of income as well.”

             
“There are also other sources of income that we can receive from this valley but first, we as a group will have to escort a small party across this valley and back safely before we can begin our harvesting effort.”

             
Crosley holds up a rifle.

             
“To escort this group across the valley and back, you will each be issued one of these.  This is a ‘MHPT’ (Military High Powered Tranquilizer) rifle.  These banana clips with the red tape on the bottom hold sixteen darts with an extremely strong knock out agent that can drop a rhino or a Brahma Bull in a matter of seconds.”

             
“So there is something bigger and more dangerous down there?”

             
“Yes and each is worth a fortune if we can bring them out alive.”

             
“So we are not talking about crocs?”

             
“No, but the projectiles fired from one of these rifles will penetrate a croc’s hide and knock it out as well.”

             
“Gentlemen, let me now share a story with you.  For the moment I will ask you to accept what I am telling you and later, all that I am telling you, will be proven to you by your own eyes.”

             
Crosley began to tell them the entire story including the unfortunate Mr. Hart’s condition as well as the three vampires that are funding the entire group.  There were smiles of disbelief around the room and Jerrick expected as much.  Then, Jerrick took over the briefing as Henry asked a question.

             
“So swamp gliders and flat boats are out?”

             
“Yes, we can’t get them down into the valley.”

             
“So we will have to walk through shoulder high grass with a mud and water base across this valley and back?”

             
“That’s about the size of it.”

             
“What about roller cages?”

             
“We think we can get two man cages down there.”

             
“What about motion balls?”

             
“Yes.  We will have them.”

             
The young man Shawn in the back of the room had never heard of roller cages.  He knew about motion balls.  He had used them around camp sites in the bush to sound an alarm if anything approached the tent area of his encampment.

             
“Excuse me, but what are roller cages?”

             
Willie turned to look at the youngest member of the team.

             
“Picture in your mind a real light roller that looks like the kind that someone might use on their lawn.  Only this one has a wire cage attached to it with another roller in the back.  You and another person then push the roller in front across the mud and water while you and your partner is protected by the wire cage around you. “