Deadly Lode (Trace Brandon Book 1) (47 page)

C
hapter
5
5

W
ally and I left frozen Toronto at the close of
the mining conference
. We
’
d met with hundreds of potential and current investors. The presentation
s
had gone well
,
and
our share
price was
steady
in the upper five
-
dollar range
, well
above Lei Chang
’
s proposed tender price.

All in all
,
a hell of a good trip
, but we
’
d both be glad to get home.
I
’
d asked Tina to check on my Airstream to be sure it didn
’
t freeze solid in my absence. I was looking forward to thawing out my bed with a little help from her.

We landed in Spokane
,
and Wally caught a flight to Vancouver. I
located
my trusty Bronco in the long
-
term parking
lot
,
and
,
thankfully
,
she fired right up. In a couple hours I was back in my office.

I called Tina and arranged to have dinner with her. Then I checked my snail mail delivered while I was in Toronto. I was just
about
to shut down and head to my trailer for a shower and a change of clothes
,
when my cell started vibrating.

“
Montana Creek Mining
.
Trace Brandon
,
speaking.
”

“
Mr. Brandon, this is Al
Pantelli
calling from New Orleans. My family owns a considerable number of shares in your company. I
’
d like to speak with you for a moment, if you have the time
.
And m
ay I call you
,
Trace, Mr. Brandon?
”

“
By all means, Al,
”
I replied,
using his first name
. F
air
’
s fair.

“
Okay, Trace, here
’
s the situation. We
’
ve been approached by a group that would like to buy our shares
,
a
nd at a significant
premium to the current share price.
”

“
Good for you.
”

“
Yeah, well
,
it could be good for the both of us. See, this group would like to buy your shares as well. Matter of fact
,
they won
’
t buy our shares unless you sell them your shares. It
’
s a very good price, Trace. You
’
ll make a hell of a pile of money.
”

“
Trouble is
,
Al, I don
’
t have any interest in selling my shares to Lei Chang
’
s company.
”

“
T
ouché
, Trace. I
’
m impressed.
”

“
Yeah, well, Chang pitched me a similar deal in Toronto
, b
ut our share price blew through his tender offer.
I turned down his offer, and I think I offended him. Fried his wontons, I believe is the term one of my directors used.
”

Al laughed
.
“
I
s there any room to negotiate on this?
Can
we
work something out w
h
ere both you and me, and
of course
the other shareholders, make a shit pot full of dough
?
”

“
Look, Al
, m
y advice is hang on to your shares.
Our share
price is
headed north, right along with the price of uranium
.
The company has a l
ot of very positive developments pending. Hell, Al, there
’
s no guarantee the US government w
ould
let a Chinese company take control
of
domestic uranium reserves.
And
,
I think it would be fair to say there
could
be other
,
more suitable
,
suitors.
”

Al paused and absorbed what Trace was telling him
.
“
You make a number of very good points, Trace. Listen, do you like Vegas? My brother, Pino, and I go to the Comstock Casino in Vegas from time to time.
How about we meet in Vegas and get to know each other better. After all, we
’
re a
large
shareholder in Montana Creek Mining
.
W
e
’
ll
get the casino to comp your trip
, RFB
.
You can
bring your wife, girlfriend, wh
o
ever. Wha
dda you say?
”

“
What
’
s RFB?
”

Al laughed
.
“
Room, food
,
and beverages
, and
I
’
ll
even
introduce you to some very nice show
-
girls.
”

“
Tell you what,
Al
.
I need a few days to get caught up and to check on the drilling.
Once I
’
m caught up, I
’
d be glad to meet with you.
I
’
ll bring
a wh
o
ever
with me
by the name of
Cyrus McSweeny. H
e
’
s also a big shareholder and an advisor to the company. I believe you may already know Mr. McSweeny?
”

Al paused for a second
.
“
S
ure, Trace
.
. .
Hell,
Cyrus and I go way back
,
”
Al
said with
a snort
.
“
Bring him along.
I
’
ll have the concierge at the Comstock get in contact with you
,
and you can give
him
your arrival info.
”

“
I
l
ook forward to meeting
you, Mr.
Pantelli
.
”

I hung up
and
immediately called Cyrus.

“
Cyrus, you
’
re not going to believe
who
just called me.
”

“
The CIA?
”

I laughed
.
“
T
he CIA?
”

“
Yeah, well
,
last time you asked me that question, it was the FBI. I just moved up a notch.
”

“
Uh-huh
,
”
I
said with a
chuckle.
“
No,
this time it
’
s the other end of the spectrum
. Try
Al
Pantelli
.
”

“
What in the hell did he want?
”

“
He wants to meet with me in Vegas in a couple of days. Seems Lei Chang contacted him about acquiring their Montana Creek Mining shares. And from what Al told me, Chang
’
s offer was
contingent on
me selling Chang my shares
,
at the same price.
”

“
What price?
”

“
All he
’
d say was Chang told him it would be at a significant premium to the current share price.
”

“
Hells bells
. M
aybe you should go down and hear what they have to say
.
”

“
My thoughts
,
exactly, Cyrus.
We
’
ll leave as soon as I get caught up on the drilling.
”

“
We?
”

“
You got it,
compadre
. Al said
I could
bring whoever, so I told him I would bring you.
”

“
How did he react?
”

“
It took him by surprise
, b
ut
it didn
’
t take him long to
recover.
”

“
I
’
ll bet.
Don
’
t forget,
I hold
Al
’
s
voting proxy for three years. I wonder if Chang would be so hot
for
their shares
,
if he knew that
.
”

“
Good question. Let
’
s just keep that between us and the
Pantelli
s for now. We may want to play that card later.
”

“
Okay
, b
ut just
keep
one thing
in mind
, Trace,
”
Cyrus said, his
tone now very serious.
“
We
’
re moving into the big leagues with these fellows.
Both Rosenburg and Trueblood had face
-
to
-
face sit
-
downs with the
Pantelli
s
, and
they
’
re both dead.
”

“
Should be an interesting meeting,
”
I replied
,
and
hung up.

The next day, I threw some clothes and gear in the Bronco and headed up to the Sullivan Mine to get an update from
F
ish.

I checked into the
W
hotel
in Winthrop and drove up to the mine. When I pulled up to the rig, Red waved and pointed in the direction of the core shack. I nodded and waved back.

I
walked over to the core shack, my knees just about recovered from last night
’
s
après-
dinner romp in the sack with Tina
, and
opened the door
.

“
Hey, Fish
. H
ow
’
s it going?
”

“
Hi, Trace. Good to see you.
How was
Toronto
?
”

“
Almost as cold as here
,
”
I said, noting I could see my breath, even in the core shack
,
“
b
ut a damn good conference.
We v
isited with lots of shareholders and tons of potential investors
. E
ven the Chinese came by.
”

Fish wrinkled his brow
.
“
T
he Chinese, huh
?
The s
ame Chinese
Jim said were
buying Montana Creek Mining shares?
”