Options Are Good (11 page)

“I want to show you a few things I’ve added, that weren’t in the plan. I started reading some of that Prep/PAW fiction you and Ana-Bella mentioned, and got some ideas.”

Bandy groaned. “Mr. Sheridan, some of that fiction has some good advice. I admit. I’ve taken some of it myself. But you have to be careful. Some of it isn’t all that good.”

“Oh, I was careful. I researched everything myself, just like you told us to do about every part of the plan we are implementing. I only followed the advice I decided was right for the Ranch, the employees, my family and me. With some thoughts for the community, as well.”

Already having learned to respect Bob Sheridan, his esteem went up another notch or two at Bob’s words. If he was thinking of community, as well as his own family, then things, if they got bad, wouldn’t be quite as bad as they might be, without that kind of thinking and preparation.

Bob frowned then. “Angus has done much the same. And Colin really liked the idea. Of course, he plans to use the preparations as part of his takeover of the county when China attacks.”

“He’s convinced that China will attack? With nukes?” Bandy asked.

“Yes. Believe it or not, the man has something of a phobia about fallout and radiation. Angus found out that Colin carries one of those keychain radiation alarms. Apparently he has a Hiroshima survivor in his family tree. Not in the direct line, but by marriage. And she told him horror stories about the radiation and what it did to people.”

“That is interesting,” Bandy said thoughtfully. “I’ll have to remember that. It does explain a few things.”

“Angus said the same thing,” Bob replied. Finished with the tour, the two men went to the house and joined Magdalene and Ana-Bella.

“Well?” Ana-Bella asked expectantly.

Magdalene smiled and Bob looked proud.

“Your father… All of you have done a very good job. Above and beyond what I recommended. Things should…”

The lights went out and Bandy was reaching for one of his every day carry flashlights when they came back on.

“What do you know,” Bob said. “It works.” He looked over at Bandy. “I had that solar power system, wind turbine, battery banks, and those auto-start generators installed like you recommended. This is the first time they’ve been used for real.”

Bob looked thoughtful. “I wonder what took the power out. There isn’t a storm anywhere around, last I checked.”

“Probably some clown ran into another transformer,” Ana-Bella snorted. “That was what it was the last time, a couple of years ago,” she explained to Bandy.

Again that little shiver up the spine. “Let’s hope so,” Bandy said.

Ana-Bella and Bob both gave him a quick look, but Magdalene was turning away as she announced, “Dinner in about five minutes. Everyone wash up.”

It was enough to distract Bob and his daughter, so Bandy didn’t have to try and explain his cryptic remark. He was glad of that, since he really didn’t have any explanation for it.

The conversation at the dinner table was lively, with most of it about the economy, China, and the accusations flying about cyber warfare that were still being levied.

But then Bob and Magdalene began describing some of the improvements and business deals that they had been making, along with Angus and June. Bandy was both surprised and impressed. The two couples had taken large steps to ensure their future financial security, no matter what happened. Disaster or a return to more normal times, they were covered. As were their children.

They had been in good financial shape before, but it was all dependent on continued economic stability. And that was certainly no longer something one could take for granted.

Interestingly enough, Magdalene and Bob both made themselves scarce after only an hour or so in the study after dinner. That left Ana-Bella and Bandy there on their own. After watching her parents leave the room, Ana-Bella got up from the chair she was in and went over to sit down beside Bandy on the sofa.

“Bandy. What do you think is going to happen? Really. Your best guess.”

Bandy closed his computer and willingly took Ana-Bella’s hand in his when she made it clear it was what she wanted. “I really do not know, Ana-Bella. There are so many things that could happen. War with China is the most likely, of course. But there is that one guy on some of the forums…

“He has a list of over one hundred and eighty different things that people might have to deal with. He is a bit of a nut, but he makes some valid points. I don’t think some of the things he has on the list are realistic threats, and some of them are simply not survivable. But the point is we never know when there will be something totally out of the blue that we will have to deal with. From an asteroid impact, to, believe it or not, the proof of the existence of extraterrestrials.”

Ana-Bella laughed. “Space aliens?”

Bandy smiled. “Yep. Space aliens. Just the discovery that they are real. If they show up, that is a different set of circumstances. And even if they don’t exist, the belief that they do could be a problem at some point.”

“I suppose so,” Ana-Bella replied. “But for the moment I am more interested in Colin, the militia, and you. You are not going to go gunning for him or something, are you?”

Ana-Bella was getting a bit worried when Bandy didn’t answer for a while. But he finally did, after analyzing his true feelings about the situation.

“You know,” he said, “I’m a firm believer in the Constitution and what it was designed to do and be. That includes all of the original things, plus most, though not all, of the subsequent amendments.

“I know many preppers, survivalists, and the like use the Second Amendment to justify many things. But many of those would do much like some of the writers of Prep and PAW fiction. Just kill those that have wronged them, or pose a serious threat to them.”

Bandy paused. Ana-Bella wasn’t sure just where he was going with the conversation, but she squeezed his hand in silent encouragement to continue.

“Well, I believe that the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Amendments must be adhered to in the PAW just as much as the Second Amendment. The right to a trial, by judge and jury, without any cruel or unusual punishments, along with the other rights enumerated in those four Amendments, are just as important. Summary execution just doesn’t sit well with me.

“Now, in the heat of combat, or to prevent great harm, then reacting first I think is okay. Once the action stops, and someone is defenseless, then just shooting them is unacceptable.

Bandy paused and looked over at Ana-Bella. “So, the short answer is, no, I won’t go gunning for Colin. He will have to do something serious enough to provoke me into getting into any kind of fight with him.”

“Good,” Ana-Bella replied, squeezing his hand again. “I know it might come to it. But I didn’t want something like killing Colin in cold blood, or provoking a fight so you would be justified in killing him, weighing on your conscience because you were worried about me and my family, and the Longhammer’s.”

Bandy nodded, feeling better about himself. For he had considered provoking Colin into a fight. Until he thought through the entire thing as he’d explained it to Ana-Bella. He wasn’t a cold blooded killer. Nor a manipulator that could set someone up to die that way.

So the talk moved on to more mundane things. Like the economy, and China, and the problems happening everywhere, just like the lights going out.

Suddenly the lights flickered again, but just for a moment. “I think we got power back,” Ana-Bella said.

“I think so. And, with that, I think I’d better get to bed. I’m getting just a little too comfortable here with you.”

Ana-Bella smiled. “Well, that is actually a good thing in my mind. But I do know what you mean. And I’m feeling the same way. So, if you will walk me to my room, I’ll say goodnight.”

“It would be a pleasure,” Bandy said, getting to his feet and pulling Ana-Bella up to join him. They were silent as they went up the stairs. And when they stopped in front of Ana-Bella’s bedroom door. But the silence did not preclude their first real kiss. It was serious and long, and both were a bit breathless afterwards.

Bandy decided trying to talk would be too difficult, he just touched Ana-Bella on the shoulder, turned, and walked just a bit unsteadily down the hall to his own bedroom.

Watching the news the next morning during breakfast, the family learned that they had not been alone in their loss of power. And it wasn’t caused by someone running into a transformer. Actually, the power companies were not being at all clear on just what did cause the rolling power outages that covered five states, one section of grid at a time.

“Now, that is really strange,” Bandy said, looking thoughtful.

“I don’t know,” Bob replied. “Considering the shape the national electrical grid is, I’m just not all that surprised.”

Bandy shook his head. “I know. But this seems so… directed. Like someone was doing it intentionally. To see if it could be done, or what would happen… Or something.”

“Chinese hackers?” Magdalene asked.

“Possibly,” Bandy said. “But they seem to be having similar problems themselves at times. I don’t know. We might never find out.”

This time when Bandy said he was headed out to see Angus Longhammer, and Ana-Bella told him she was coming along, he didn’t argue. But he made a point to see if she was going armed. She was.

Like Bob Sheridan had done at the family ranch, Angus Longhammer had made a few changes at Farm Supply and Implement dealership. Only some of them were Bandy’s ideas. Those that were, Angus had done up even better than Bandy’s minimum suggestions.

Though a permanent fence was out of the question due to the highway easement, there was now a barrier along the highway side of the dealership even better than a simple fence. A string of 53’ long, 102” wide, 9’6” high, high cube intermodal reefer containers were lined up, end to end, with just enough room between them to get to the reefer power units.

There was a pair of 20’ high cube dry containers in the string, flanking each driveway entrance. To maintain the portability requirement of the highway easement, and still have substantial gates, those 20’ containers were equipped with fully self-contained sliding heavy steel pipe gates with chain link fencing to close off the driveways.

The existing side and back fences, consisting of 8’ high chain link fabric, were now reinforced with a two rail barrier structure made from oilfield drilling pipe. There was also a combination of blackberry brambles and rosa rugosa rose brambles planted on the inside of the fence. Tightly spaced honey locust trees were planted along the outside of the existing fence.

The Farm Supply store part of the main building was rearranged, to produce more room for the new line of products that Angus was bringing in. Much of the space was obtained by emptying the warehouse portion of the store and placing that stock in the new warehouse structure attached to the existing building on the back side.

Bandy asked Angus, after Terri called him to the office from where he was supervising even more changes to the place, “When I took a quick look out back I didn’t see any signs of the fuel tanks you installed. I did see the new tornado shelter. It is the design I gave you?”

Angus said, with a slight smile, “Yes it is. And the fuel tanks are underneath the new warehouse. I wanted to leave some space available for possible future projects. So they are next to the large underground shelter, with the new above-ground quote, tornado shelter, unquote, on top of it. Still leaves me quite a bit of room back there for other projects.”

Bandy smiled back. He noticed that Terri and Ana-Bella were engaged in an intense discussion, so he took the opportunity to ask Angus, “Colin? What’s he saying about all these changes?”

Grimly this time, Angus answered Bandy’s question. “Oh, he’s all in favor of them. He is convinced now that I am fully with him on his scheme. He is a bit annoyed at a couple of things that didn’t get done in the shelter, or he thinks didn’t get done. But the other things are keeping him distracted.”