The Twelve Stones (18 page)

“
OK, so
…
where do we go from here?”

Alex felt a great relief wash over him
.
H
e
wasn’t sure what he would’ve done without Scott’s help. Energized by his reunion with his best friend, he got up from the chair and began to map out a plan of action.

“
Find out for me who that man is that bought that land in Joshua Tree. It had to be approved by all sorts of committees and Congressmen, so there’s got to be a public record of it somewhere.”

Scott nodded and opened up his laptop.

“
What are you gonna do?” Scott asked, waiting for his system to come online.

“
I’m gonna take a shower and change into something that isn’t covered in blood and desert sweat.” Alex removed his tattered shirt
,
revealing several scars that resembled bullet wounds.

Scott glanced up at his friend with a slight double take in concern. “I thought that stone of yours healed your wounds completely?”

Alex glanced at the scars on his body. They were old wounds, some he wasn’t ready to talk about just yet.

“
The stone heals new wounds, not old ones. Where’s the shower?” Alex asked, ignoring the unasked and implied questions.

Scott knew when
not
to
pester
his friend, so he took the hint and pointed him in the direction of the bathroom, and fresh towels.

Alex closed the door behind him
,
reaching into the tub to start the water in the shower. He was hoping that the hot water and thudding sound of it hitting his head could help him relax, even if only for a moment. The memory of his father falling over the side of the cliff had embedded itself deeply in his mind, playing itself over and over again every time he closed his
eyes like some horrifying movie
projected on his eyelids.

He stepped inside the shower, letting the hot water pour all over him. He put his head against the cold tile of the shower as the water began to wash away the grime and dust.

Drops fell down his face, off his nose
,
and
,
onto the black stone hanging in midair from the necklace his father had fashioned together for him.

He shook his head
,
attempting to snap out of it. If he was going to survive this
,
he needed to focus. His father was dead
,
and there was no time to mourn him now. What he needed was information
,
and at the moment, Alex knew the best man for the job was sitting in the other room working on it. And knowing his best friend was there helping him
;
that, more than anything else, made Alex feel better.

Chapter Fifteen

After a half hour of scrubbing and rinsing in the shower, Alex came out in the living room brushing his teeth while the minty white foam frothed around his mouth. He tapped Scott on the shoulder
.
“
Anything good?”

Scott glanced up from his laptop screen and looked at Alex seriously; his friend wasn’t happy. Whatever he
’d
uncovered, Alex thought, it probably wouldn’t be
good at all
.

“
Sooo...” Scott drawled evenly, “You’re in a fight with a man worth several billion dollars.”

Alex spit into the cup he was holding. “I figured that much. Anyone who could buy national forest land meant they have to be rich enough to buy a
C
ongressman
or two. Maybe even a couple of
S
enators
to complete the collection.”

Scott turned t
he laptop screen around to Alex.
“He’s not just any billionaire.”

Alex studied the screen as Scott filled him in.

The man’s name was Rupert Kline
.
A
ccording
to Scott’s research
, about thirty years ago, he had made several almost
-
prophetic moves in real estate, oil
,
and gold futures that took an initial investment of thirty thousand dollars into his first ten million. The man had the Midas touch.

Scott came around and pointed to
an image of a
Wall Street Journal article headlined, “The Disappearing Billionaire
,
” complete with a captioned photo of Kline. Alex squinted at the photo.

It was the same exquisitely
-
dressed man, the same cruel black eyes, covered in strands of swept back brown hair. Kline’s high cheekbones and protruding brow gave him a deceptively innocent look, one Alex was sure he had used to his advantage over the years. Stranger still, the twenty
-
year
-
old photo
of the reclusive billionaire wasn’t much
different from the man who had killed his father on the Mesa a few hours before.

The rest of the article was
a
standard puff piece on the Wizard of Wall Street
,
which
—
as noted in the article
—
was written just before he had declared himself retired.

“But Kline couldn’t pack it in. When the first Iraq war started up in ‘
9
0
, he moved into the whole
‘
private security
’
area, very hush
-
hush, crazy stuff. Remember Blackwater and Haliburton?” Alex nodded
,
not wanting to interrupt Scott's crash course in the who's who of billionaire industrialists.

“
He invested in a failing security firm
,
promising to make it the biggest in the world in a year’s time. He only needed half that.

“
One by one, the rest of the world’s private security teams found themselves knee deep in scandals and litigation. No one ever connected MARS security, but the tinfoil hat in me is screaming there was something hinky going on…”

Alex looked at Scott with some skepticism. “Try to stay with what we know.’

Scott sighed, “Fine, but it’s not gonna be as entertaining.”

Alex waved at him making Scott move on.

“
Anyway, through it all, Kline kept his nose clean. After a slick presentation to the Senate
a few
years ago, MARS Security Corp was put in charge of operational security in the Green Zone in Baghdad. It was a pretty big deal
;
the President didn’t want to use private security anymore, but somehow
,
Kline convinced him.”

Scott leaned back, a smile spread across his face. “Good stuff
,
right?” He cracked his knuckles satisfied with himself.

Alex felt the disappointment grow inside him. “That’s it?”

The smile faded from Scott, “Well, yeah…
I mean, Kline’s lived a pretty private life overall
.
T
he
stuff I found here was seriously buried.”

“
I don’t mean to bash your hacking s
kills or whatever.” Alex paused.
“What about real estate
?
Y
ou said he was heavily involved in that.”

“
Yeah, he was.
” Scott leaned forward and began tapping the keys on his computer. “See? He stuck with developing Los Angeles most of his life, safe stuff really, but the last few months, he’s made some really off
-
the
-
wall purchases, including that land in Joshua Tree.”

“
When did he buy the land?” Alex asked.

Scott typed on his keyboard, clicking through several news sites.

“
I don’t see anything.” Scott said, his eyes squinting at the
computer monitor. “There’s...ah
a, here we are.” Scott clicked a link, leading him to an article about the National Land Use Act. “The story isn’t even a paragraph long.” Scott read it quickly, Alex looking over his shoulder. “Nothing really, just something about Kline setting up a wildlife refuge.”

“
Today was the day,” Alex said
,
reading the rest of the article.
“The vote was today
…
”
He checked his watch.
“
E
rr…yesterday
,
and it passed with no challenges. How’d he do that?”

“No one’s gonna have it on their record that they voted against a national land use preserve.”

Alex studied the articles in front of him. It all made sense, in a roundabout sort of way. If you hid the purchase deep in a congressional budget
,
with a bill name sure to garner votes
...
Get a few key
S
enators and
C
ongressmen
on board
,
and presto, a hidden treasure for Kline to mine in the middle of nowhere, a worthless piece of the desert that no one, not even the tree
-
hugging hippies, cared about.

“The most interesting part,” Scott continued, “is an old gas and mining survey by the Department of Energy from the 80’s I found. It specifically said that the area Kline bought is devoid of any useful mining or natural gas speculation.”

“So, why did he buy it?” Alex wondered aloud. Scott nodded.

“I wondered the same thing too. You mentioned he had brought in a lot of equipment earlier, so if we believe this survey, whatever it is he’s looking for, it’s not gold, oil or anything else useful
.
I
t’s
something more, something
bigger
.”

Scott came around from behind Alex and sat down across from him
,
letting Alex absorb all the information Scott had found.

Alex considered their options. The most obvious was to go to the police. Perhaps by explaining everything while leaving out the all healing stone stuff somehow, they could come up with a story that didn’t land them in straightjackets.

It was clear
,
however
,
that going to the police would probably lead to one of two outcomes. Either they’d dismiss his claims as insanity
,
like the deputy in Joshua Tree
,
and attempt to lock him up, or they’d take Alex in as a suspect in the Joshua Tree Police station massacre, confiscate the stone that healed him
,
and he’d probably spend the rest of his life locked up in some government institution far out of reach of civilization.

Neither option sounded especially good to him. He could continue to risk his and Scott’s life by trying to find out exactly what the hell was going on, or he could run away, safe with the stone and his money.

He shook his head. This wasn’t how vacations were supposed to go.

“
If you’re thinking about how you’re risking my life by staying here, get it out of your head.” Scott said firmly, surprising Alex. “You saved my life once a long time ago
,
healing me with that stone. You've always been there for me, through high school, college…” Scott met Alex’s eye
.
“I’m here for the long haul
,
buddy
,
whatever it is you decide you want to do.”

Alex smiled, impressed by his friend’s loyalty. It was then he knew that he had made the right decision to involve Scott.

“
You’re a good man to know, you know that Scott?” Alex said clapping his hand on his friend’s back.

“
If I’ve learned anything over the year
s
from TV, movies and comic books, it’s that the good guys always win. We’re the good guys.” Scott paused
.
“We
are
the good guys
,
right?”

Alex nodded
in
the affirmative.

“
Besides,” Scott added, “I’ve always wanted to take down an evil billionaire.”

“Fair enough,” Alex nodded
,
prouder than he’d ever been of his friend. “Now that we know who we’re dealing with, what can we do about figuring out where this stone comes from?” Alex
grabbed
the stone hanging from his neck with his thumb and forefinger. “Does your lab at JPL have anything good?”

“Buddy, we’ve got stuff there that you only saw on
Star Trek
,
” Scott said
,
his face breaking out in a wide grin. Alex couldn’t help but smile with him; Scott was always happiest when he got to play with his toys.