CHAPTER FIVE
RiotousOne had been hacking into computers all over the world. For him it was a way of life. When he wasn’t hacking he wasn’t really living. The challenge surged through his veins like blood.
His reputation in the shadow world was notorious. He had been into almost every conceivable venue from MIT to the Pentagon. He had even hacked into Bill Gates' private computer. There was a time when he was a ripper. He would put the bins up for bid and sell them to scammers. He had nearly been caught twice and decided that that was not the way to go. He stopped stealing credit card information off of tracks1 and tracks2 and decided to take a safer approach.
His latest endeavor was corporate theft. He was able to lift thousands of documents and sell the information to competitors. Of course he never got his hands dirty. He always used mules and cutouts to handle the actual transaction while he stayed hidden.
His latest contact had come from a man going by the name of Miner One. Gee, he thought, some cover name. Was he for real or not? Even though he seemed pretty much clueless he did offer a unique challenge. At this point, money wasn’t as important to RiotousOne as doing something totally unique. He had been bored with what he was now doing and this would offer a little recreation. Miner One, what a dweeb. Still it peaked his interest enough that he was considering actually hearing the details of the request.
On a blustery, overcast day in February the RC-BARD-P1 arrived at the Bedford Mine. Four flatbed trucks rolled through the gates just before noon.
“It won’t be long now,” Barney Falk, the Executive Vice President, said.
“The sooner the better. Ann is getting a little nervous over our cash flow.”
“She will be a lot more nervous if this damn thing doesn’t work.”
“It will work,” Paul said.
“How long does it take to assemble it?”
“They said about three weeks,” Paul told him.
“Hey guys, I see it’s here,” Ann said sliding up beside the two men.
“At last. Of course the downside is we will have to fork over another twenty-five million pretty shortly.”
“Oh, I am very well aware of that little detail.”
“They said their technicians would work six days a week to get it up and running. I guess they want the money too,” Paul told them.
“Just so it starts paying us back as quickly as possible. The break even analysis predicts we will have paid for it in forty-two months.”
“That’s not too bad really,” Paul said optimistically.
“Keep in mind we had to estimate the variable cost. No way to really tell if they are accurate or not,” Ann warned him again.
“I know, I know,” he said shivering.
“Let’s go inside, I’m freezing,” Barney said.
“I’m with you,” Ann replied.
“I’m going to go talk to Mac for a few minutes,” Paul told them.
Mac was directing the trucks to where they needed to unload the valuable cargo. He waved at Paul and held up a finger to indicate he would be with him as soon as he finished.
“Hi Paul,” he said, taking off his heavy work gloves.
“Good to have you back. The thing is here at last.”
“In all its glory. Everyone did a good job at training with the exception of one.”
“Sally?”
“Sally.”
“I wasn’t sure about her. We probably should have sent Karen but she is six months pregnant. No use training her and then having her going on leave. Can you whip Sally into shape now that you are back here?” Paul asked.
“Yeah. She is young and doesn’t get out much so she was pretty distracted. She was the first one ready to quit and the last to get started. I’ll have her work with me the first few weeks until she can get on track. We have a lot invested in her at this point.”
“It’s your call Mac. If you need someone to replace her just go ahead and do it. You don’t need an okay from me,” Paul told him.
“I appreciate that. I’ll give her a fair shot before I make a decision.”
“The control room is all ready, so we won’t have any delays once the machine is assembled.”
“Three weeks. I’m counting down starting tomorrow.”
“Ann will certainly appreciate that. Well, I should get back to the office. Welcome back, I’m sure glad you’re here.”
Mac gave him a quick salute and went back to work.
CHAPTER SIX
Mac stretched his shoulders and neck before he leaned forward to start the BARD-P1. After all this time they were finally ready for the unveiling. Paul, Ann, and Barney were all crammed into the small control booth.
Mac flipped on the master switch and the bank of monitors came to life. He pressed the start button and a high pitched whine filtered through the room for a few seconds until it was fully up to speed. It seemed to taper off and all the gauges came to life.
“Everything looks good. Green across the board,” Mac said, more or less to himself.
His eyes were glued to the readouts in front of him.
“Okay,” he muttered and put his hand on the joy sticks. He pushed the velocity stick forward just a little and the BARD inched forward until it was just touching the front wall.
“Here it goes,” he said as he started the augers spinning and moved the giant machine forward until it bit into the face of the mine. Dust and chunks of dirt and coal were thrown into the air.
“Is it supposed to do that?” Barney asked.
“Only until it reaches the coal vein. Once it has opened up the entrance it will settle down and we will be on our way,” Mac explained.
The watched as the BARD literally ate a large hole in the side of the excavation site. Inch by inch it crawled forward and within a few minutes coal was being shoved out the back. The four workers at the back of the machine attached the first conveyor belt and the coal began to flow.
“Holy smokes. Look at that thing go,” Barney said, wide-eyed.
“It’s at its lowest speed right now. Once we get a little further in, I’ll kick it up a notch,” Mac said never taking his eyes off of the panel in front of him.
His eyes were constantly moving. The GPS signal was showing his progress in relation to the planned excavation that the surveyors had laid out earlier during the initial site work.
“Amazing,” Paul said.
“Wow, we may be looking at the future of mining,” Ann quipped.
“Well in a way you are. This combines long wall mining and continuous mining but without having to put up the overhead protection shields. The only thing that can get buried is the machine itself and even then it has a reverse feature that will allow it to dig itself out,” Mac told them.
“Unbelievable,” was all Paul said.
They watched for almost an hour before they left. Mac was glad they were no longer looking over his shoulder. He watched as the tonnage counter reeled off the numbers. They were right, it was amazing. Even he was impressed.
“Hey Art, how ya been?”
“Hey Sally. You know. Same ole same ole. How is that new machine doing?”
“It is really amazing. Fantastic actually. The thing just keeps eating up coal and spitting it out the other end. I forget how much the counter said but it is a lot I can tell you that.”
“No problems so far?”
“Not a one. I mean other than Mac always checking up on me. I don’t think he trusts me much.”
“I’m sure you have it under control.”
“I do, but just try to tell him that,” Sally said.
“Maybe I’ll drop over and see how the thing works sometime.”
“Hey come during my shift and I’ll show you all about it. It’s not all that hard really.”