Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (18 page)

Back in the house he grabbed a cup of hot chocolate and a couple of toaster waffles hot out of the toaster without syrup or anything else. He wandered over to where he’d seen the computer the previous evening, and sat down. Happily it was set up without any need for a password, and he was able to get onto the Internet without problem. He’d forgotten how handy it was to have virtually anything one wanted to know only a few keystrokes away. In a few minutes he learned that the gold coins were worth more than double what he’d bought them for, so he had over forty thousand dollars there alone. He also was able to find an item that he had hoped was readily available, what the name was and where it could be purchased locally. For the next thirty minutes he sat and worked on the list that he’d been developing mentally for months, occasionally checking the Internet, and making additional annotations next to certain items. He was still there when Janie came down a bit later.

“
Couldn’t sleep?” Janie asked as she came up behind him. “I heard you moving around earlier and through the window saw you head out to the barn.”

“
I wanted to check on that,” Randy said, pointing to the box of gold coins. “I was checking to see what gold is worth now. There should be somewhere between forty-three and forty-five thousand in there, depending on what it costs to exchange them.”

“
You had that much stashed away? I don’t know where we can do that,” she said honestly.

“
The value has really gone up while I was gone,” he admitted. “I found a couple of places in town, and more in Denver, that claim to be exchanges for both coins and raw gold. I thought we might take half of the coins with us today and see what happens.”

“
Once we get the kids off to school, the rest of the day is open. I suppose we need to get you a car so you can move around on your own. This weekend I’ll be pretty busy with the kids. School just started a few weeks ago and we haven’t finished with new clothes and supplies.”

Randy had met the kids the previous evening. They accepted his presence as no big deal. Over the years they had seen him off and on, and the fact he’d been gone for some time was just another discontinuity in their encounters with him. Their interests were elsewhere, and after the mandatory greetings, they’d headed off to whatever held their attention these days.

* * * *

“
So many questions,” Janie said as they drove away from the bullion exchange. Seems like they take a large enough cut.”

Randy was driving her Subaru so he could get used to the act of driving again. Technically he wasn’t sure of his status. His license was current and valid, except for the fact he was legally dead. That might be interesting if a policeman were to stop him, so he’d have to drive carefully while he was here. The skills hadn’t been lost, and he found his reactions automatic, if a bit rusty. He was surprised at how easily he could recall the streets and his way around town after so long, but then he had spent more than twenty years here.

Randy now had more than twenty thousand dollars in his pocket. He didn’t know how good a deal he’d made, and suspected there were ways he could have reduced the exchange costs if he’d the time. It didn’t matter. Time was more important than the extra money at the moment. He had also learned that exchanging the raw gold in the quantities he had was going to be a bit trickier than he expected. He would leave the gold here with Janie, and deal with that matter on his next trip when he had more time.

Their first stop was a large hardware store that he’d called earlier to see if they stocked the items he wanted.

“
Two coats minimum,” the man told him. “I would use three if it were me. Cover the bottom of the boat thoroughly and make sure to have it extra thick next to the waterline.”

Randy nodded his understanding, and purchased ten gallons of the paint, which he knew surprised the man. He could tell the clerk wanted to ask Randy what kind of boat he had, but he had refrained from doing so. After putting the paint in the back of the car, which was now nearly full, Randy and Janie went back inside to look for copper. He bought several large spools of bare un-insulated wire in various sizes. In addition to the more common gauges, he bought one spool of fifty feet of .2 inch diameter wire and a couple pairs of cutters to make it easier to snip off the desired lengths. They didn’t have any sheets of copper, but the salesman directed him to a metals shop across town that would have what he wanted. When he finally realized how much he had, Randy paid for delivery, and unloaded the paint from the car to be delivered later in the day with the rest of their purchases.

“
Why so much copper?” Janie asked a bit later after he had purchased a dozen sheets of quarter inch thick stock. “What are you going to do with it?”

“
Honestly, I don’t know. I just know that there isn’t any to speak of on Gaea, and I can see the need arising. It just seemed prudent to stock up. Besides, I’ll be rich. The copper we have bought today will make me the equivalent of a trillionaire there.”

The next stop was an electronics shop. Randy bought an Apple MacBook Pro, two external 2 terabyte drives, and something that hadn’t existed when he had been pulled from Earth a couple years ago, an iPad. He also bought two iPod touches, and two solar charging sytems. One of the chargers was for the iPod and iPad, and the other for the laptop. They were a bit slow and bulky, but would work even better than the “batteries” Buris had available in his lab. Randy also bought a variety of cables and adapters for the units to be sure he had enough.

Next Randy headed for the two-way radios. He purchased a dozen of the top of the line units, each with eight selectable channels and a nominal range of five miles. The units used a nine volt rechargeable battery, which Randy knew he could charge with his solar charger, but he also bought ten packages of throwaway batteries as backup. It wasn’t enough, but until he was sure what he could take, he was probably overstocking.

As they drove away from the store and headed to the car rental, Randy had a thought.

“
When was the last time you saw the man in the back yard?”

“
Six weeks ago,” she answered without hesitation. “I started marking it on the calendar. He comes every couple of months.”

That was good and bad, Randy thought. The timing was a bit of a surprise to Randy though. There were good and bad aspects to the spacing between the man’s visits. It didn’t sound like Randy needed to worry about the man showing up while he was experimenting with the transition, but he wouldn’t have a chance of trying to track the man for some time. It sounded like he might only get the one chance, so he’d better not screw it up. So far he hadn’t come up with any ideas on how to locate the man. Even hiring a professional seemed pointless because he couldn’t give the man anything other than a description. He wouldn’t be able to provide names, history, or any other information that would help make locating Cheurt’s wizard possible.

Janie had rented a large sized car at Randy’s request. He’d rather have an SUV for hauling, but none had been available. The large trunk would have to do. He followed her home, where they’d unloaded her car of the purchases made earlier. Then Janie had to run some errands of her own, while Randy waited for the delivery from the hardware store. He’d had them place everything on the small knoll in the back yard, and after they left, Randy had stood there as if to make the jump back to Gaea. He remembered that Cheurt had been able to sense when he’d brought too much stuff with him, yet even with all he had purchased, Randy could sense nothing telling him he wouldn’t be able to activate the spell to return home. He wondered if he was taking a risk trying to bring so much, but finally decided it was something he needed to know. It looked as if using the proper departure point for the Nexus significantly improved the amount he could bring with him. He was somewhat reassured by the memory that the one time Cheurt had tried to make the jump with too much weight, he’d simply arrived without some of the stuff he’d intended to carry. Randy had never found anything in his back yard, so he had no idea what might have happened to the excess.

The next morning after Janie headed off with the kids, he made a run down to the local gun store. He looked over their stock of rifles and came away uncertain what would be the best choice for what he had planned. He had been thinking about a Remington heavy barrel .308 which he knew the army had used for years as their primary sniper rifle. It used a readily available cartridge, and seemed to do well out to impressive ranges. It also wasn’t such a powerful rifle that it would be difficult for those on Gaea to learn to shoot. He needed more information, and that was something he wasn’t planning for this transition anyway.

He got one of their small carts and loaded up three cases of double ought buck for the twelve gauge, four bricks of .22 Long rifle, two of the one thousand round cases of .223 with full metal jackets, and cleaned them out of the .300 Win magnum rounds in the brand and bullet weight he wanted. He’d have to go to another store to get more if he were to bring the three hundred rounds he had planned on. On the way to the counter he passed a shelf loaded with books, and grabbed one that offered a detailed explanation on creating one’s own jacketed bullets.

Back at the house he unloaded the purchases and temporarily added them to the items already waiting on the Nexus node. When he was done and he stepped onto the node to see if he could sense anything, he knew he had exceeded the limit. He felt an oddly uncomfortable feeling that he recognized from Cheurt’s memories. He wasn’t going to be able to bring all of his purchases on his first trip. He hadn’t even brought out the guns and the electronics. That meant there was little point in overdoing the book buying he’d planned. He would have to be selective on his trip to the book store. For now, he needed to decide what he didn’t really need.

It was an obvious choice. He’d bought all the copper against possible uses, but it wasn’t essential. He’d offload the extremely heavy large flat sheets for now, putting them in the garage against the chance of taking them later.

By the time he had taken everything into the garage, he wasn’t in the mood for more shopping, and decided to have a look in the large study. He and Janie had talked about it, and like himself when he had lived here after his father died, she simply hadn’t gotten around to poking around in the room. Randy knew that somewhere there had to be the wills and official documents from his ancestor. He hoped that he could find what Oscar had left behind and that it might contain something of use to him.

His father had been quite organized. The desk contained all the family documents and all recent financial records. There was nothing that belonged to anyone going back further than his grandfather. He looked in every drawer, and then started in on the bookcases. It took several hours and when he was done he was convinced that there was nothing behind any of the books, and that it was unlikely that anything was hidden inside any of them either. He would have had to page through every one to be sure, but he’d carefully looked at each title, and nothing seemed relevant. The only thing he’d found was a large wall safe hidden behind one section. It was locked and he had no idea what the combination might be. He would have thought there would have been something in the documents he received when his father died, but nothing he could remember even mentioned a safe, and he’d never bothered to check. He’d have to wait and ask Janie when she got back if she’d received anything or knew about it. If she had no idea, they’d have to get someone out here to open it up.

Somewhat at a loss of how to proceed, Randy headed upstairs for a shower. It was time to go and see Gene and see if he could get him to help.

“
That’s quite a story,” Gene said, taking another pull at his beer. It was his third can of beer, so things were getting a little mellow. “We were told you had died, but no one ever said what happened.”

Randy looked over at Gene. The past couple of years hadn’t changed him at all. He was still tall and thin, with long very light brown stringy hair. He shaved at random times, so he always seemed to have a couple of day’s fuzz on his face. He had intense blue eyes, which were watching him curiously now.

“
Hard to believe, I know,” said Randy. “But it’s all true nonetheless. Gene, I need your help.”

“
Can you show me that trick again?” Gene asked, still focused on Randy’s story.

Randy sighed. If only he could be at full strength. Then he could perform a few tricks that would surprise him. He looked at the empty beer can sitting near the trash can where it had fallen when Gene had missed his throw earlier. He used the force to pick it up and bring it across the room and dropped it in Gene’s lap. He was stronger than before he’d left Earth, either from practice or his higher level, but it was still taxing his ability to do something so small.

Gene picked up the can and looked at it. “Magic. I’ll be damned. It’s too bad you didn’t bring pictures.”

“
Shit!” Randy said. He pulled out the three by five card from his pocket and added a digital camera to the list. How could he have over looked that? The iPhone he’d left behind had a marginal camera on it, but he hadn’t thought about the value of pictures when he came here. He’d pick up a decent camera and some thumb drives to bring back pictures on the next trip.

“
How come you never showed me you could do this before?” Gene asked.

“
It was impressed very strongly on me that I shouldn’t reveal the ability. Dad made me feel that there was something wrong with me. I was intensely curious about what I was able to do, but scared what people might do if they learned about it. By the time I got older, it became habit to simply keep it secret.”