Chapter 27: Ferengson – Nazca, Peru – February 22, very early
With his arms folded behind his head, Sven lay on the pillow of her bed and reminded himself that although Chuck may have sent his crew home, yet he remained in Nazca. Chuck was almost certainly spying on Sven for General Wessel. If his suspicions about Chuck were true, then Sven reasoned that he should not stay with a woman for the entire evening. Therefore, at approximately 3 AM Sunday morning, he left her and returned to his hotel.
Once returned to his hotel suite, Sven drank black coffee, and ate some fruit and nuts. He read everything that interested him about the world beyond, on his laptop. He could read on his laptop in Swedish or English, but he shunned the local newspapers because he did not speak Spanish.
At 7:45 AM, he departed for what he named his 'pre-inspection inspection'. Clarkson-Smythe's team of broads were coming to inspect the mining facility tomorrow morning, and Sven promised the General that everything would be in order beforehand.
Sven had already informed the mine supervisor to alert security that he would be on site performing an inspection this morning; thus, to ignore any security breach alerts at the mine between 8:30 AM and 11:30 AM.
This was especially important because the security company loved to bill Malevcon for emergency visits on Sundays, as Malevcon found out last Sunday when something, or someone, set off the alarm thus causing a costly check of the facility. Malevcon paid a double rate premium on Sundays.
Sven was sure the culprit was a local loser that Malevcon had denied employment. After a few too many cervezas and a couple of large shots of Pisco, some rejected would-be miner decided he had enough courage to express his anger at Malevcon by setting off its fence alarm.
As Sven drove to Malevcon in his company Humvee, he glanced at the time, and slowed down. There was no point in arriving early, as he could not enter the property any earlier than 8:30 AM. In a short time, he pulled into the vacant parking lot, turned off the car, and then waited until 8:29 before leaving the vehicle. At 8:31, Sven shut down the security system and entered the site.
Malevcon's security system was two-tiered, but simple to use once an employee learned the basics. The on-site system consisted of the four areas within the mining site under constant local video surveillance. This system could theoretically stay on the whole time that Sven needed to inspect but he would turn it off anyways as a precaution: any video of him walking around the grounds the day before a big inspection could later become evidence.
If Clarkson-Smythe demanded video access, then the General would want to grant this privilege because otherwise, she would claim Wessel was denying her transparency. Sven would not allow that evidence to come into existence. If Clarkson-Smythe demanded video from this Sunday, there would simply be none available for the period of time Sven was on site. Sorry, Lady Ruth, I guess we had a malfunction from 8:30 to 10:30 that morning. Too bad!
The second security system; however, was a bit more complicated, and Sven had to manipulate it carefully. Malevcon hired out its second system to a remote security company. The Rodriguez Bros. Security Company had a contract with Malevcon to monitor a touch sensitive system from their central base in Nazca.
When a Malevcon employee activated this system, then, within a short period thereafter, anything moving within the activated zone would set off an alarm. Malevcon investigated all such alarm alerts itself with an on-site security guard, except on Sundays, when the Rodriguez Bros. handled security alone: Malevcon refused to pay any employee double wages to guard its facility on a Sunday.
When something or someone had tripped the alarm last Sunday, it cost the company almost double the wages of its normal security guard to have a Rodriguez employee drive to the site to investigate the breach.
This sort of thing pissed off the General who was a particularly cost-sensitive employer. Sven had his own secret word for it: cheap. Whatever he called it, Sven needed to respect that he should shut down the Rodriguez system upon his arrival, and not activate it again until he left.
Even though he did not intend to use any more than a fraction of the two hours he had reserved, nevertheless Sven would play it safe. He would perform his entire inspection with both security systems completely shut down. He reasoned that the safer he did things now, then the sooner he was on a jet plane flying out of this hellhole. Twenty minutes ought to do it!
After Sven had shut down the Rodriguez system inside the main gate, he did the same thing with the Malevcon video system. After that, he headed directly to the mineshaft area because it held all the evidence of illegal activity.
As he walked, Sven imagined himself conducting the tour the next day. He tried to anticipate the questions the old broad geologist would ask him so he could prepare suitable answers. He would construct answers that minimized or eliminated suspicion.
He decided he should adopt two personal attitudes for the duration of the inspection. First, he should be obsequiously compliant. He should agree to do anything the inspector wanted with a toadying smile on his face. He laughed to himself as he imagined falsely praising the inspector's knowledge and dedication to such a noble cause.
Secondly, Sven decided he should also take on a feebleminded aspect. This would lure the inspector into feeling superior to Sven not just in her professional capacity for the day, but also as a person in general. He would appear to be a dimwitted fool, thus incapable of even conceptualizing illegal activity at a mining site. Politically correct idiots!
In a few minutes, Sven arrived at his facade and scrutinized its entranceway. He had worked with Chuck on a plan to hide the intended location of the directional drill. They settled on Chuck blasting and excavating a large, rectangular area that would eventually hold the drill; however, Chuck left as much rock in tact in front of that area as possible in the form of a makeshift wall. At the top of that wall, Ferengson had built a small room, almost like that of a school janitor. That room would have a false doorway at the back with a set of stairs leading down into the blasted out area.
Sven looked at the entrance to his small room. He had hand-painted the English words Equipment Room: Authorized Personnel Only below the same thing in Spanish painted by Pedro, the mine foreman.
He thought that the door seemed as inconspicuous as possible. He had built the room small enough so that even if the inspector wanted to look within then she would see only a tiny broom closet and quickly move on.
Sven entered the room and stood for a moment to examine the space. He admired his deft touch at adding dusty soil to the burlap rolls he placed to cover the false doorway. The dust added a neglected aspect to the room. Piece of cake!
He examined the floor next, and noted there were still faint traces of his dusty footprints from his being the last person in the space. He decided that he should sweep the floor to be safe and to spread some of the floor dust onto the walls and equipment for added authenticity of neglect.
As he swept, Sven looked towards the floor, and before long, he noticed his EMD warning light flashing. That was odd because his Electronic Mineral Detector should have no reason to flash. He thought about what could cause his EMD to do this. Normally it detected metals or minerals in the soil. It also had a secondary function in that it alerted its user of potentially dangerous poisonous, electronic, or radioactive emissions occurring within a limited radius: it was the latest in innovative technology.
When he moved towards the secret doorway, the readings grew stronger. As Sven walked towards the door, he remembered that Chuck had informed him he had set off one last charge in the blast zone the last day he worked; the same day Chuck sent his crew home. Chuck said he was setting off what he called a 'fracture blast' that would crack the south-east corner of the blast zone indicating to Malevcon's miners where to begin drilling when they were eventually able to deploy the directional drill.
Chuck had said his fracture blast was a personal touch he had been developing within his field of speciality dynamiting. Sven recalled that he had larg
ely disregarded Chuck's message because he was busy planning his own night out on the town. It had seemed to Sven that Chuck wanted to brag about being an industry innovator at the time, and so Sven had nodded politely while thinking about his own plans.
As his EMD continued to flash, Sven decided to check the source of the alert. To make his way to the source of this anomaly, Sven had to move aside his perfectly placed rolls of burlap and pull to one side, the stone-coloured flap behind the rolls. He passed through the hidden doorway, turned on the headlamp on his safety helmet, and began his descent of the crudely fashioned steps to the blast zone below.
As he descended, he thought about returning to the main office to collect a gas mask, but it was too far away. Sven understood that the sophisticated sensors in the EMD unit would alert him long before potential toxicity became an actual health threat.
When he arrived at the bottom of the staircase, Sven scanned the room through dim lighting. He discovered that the corner where Chuck must have conducted his fracture blast was the lone source of the EMD readings. Perhaps it's a giant vein of gold! I must move closer!
He approached the area slowly because the only light in the place, besides his helmet lamp, was one small overhead light bulb that illuminated the staircase just enough for someone to see safely down the stairs.
Suddenly, Sven stopped completely. He could feel goose bumps growing large and numerous on his skin. He could not recall the last time he felt goose bumps on his skin that a woman did not cause and even those did not linger as these ones were.
As he approached the crack in the southeast wall, he wondered child-like, if perhaps the hole was too narrow for a man his size to pass. Why the hell didn't Chuck report this!
Of course, Sven knew he would receive no answer down here. Sven Ferengson was alone. He wished he were not alone.
As he approached the hole, he thought he detected a light source beyond. To be certain of this however, he needed to turn off his headlamp. He hesitated when it occurred to him that this action would leave him in the dark on this side of the hole. Will I be afraid in this darkness?
He told himself that only children were afraid of the dark and then felt at once both glad there were no children here to witness his fear, and sad there were no children here to hold his hand.
The doctor felt that he could really use some friends right now and then he remembered that he had some. He had his little steel amigos with him: the extra bullets for his loaded gun. Sven pulled it out of its holster and pointed it straight ahead in his right hand.
As Sven passed through the hole into the space beyond, he turned on his headlight and saw that he had arrived in a perfectly formed and proportioned room. The walls were black, but running around the center of the room was a pulsing red light. When he examined it more closely, he surmised something had damaged it. Chuck's dynamite blast?
As he looked around the room, his helmet's headlamp illuminated what resembled equipment of a type Sven could not identify. Before he could think of what someone would use the equipment for, he located a closed door. He double-checked the safety catch on his gun, making sure he had unlocked it.
Spotting a rather hi-tech looking button on the very tall door, Sven slowly moved his left hand towards it, wondering what could be beyond.
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