Bending Sinister by Mordred Staak

Author:Mordred Staak [Staak, Mordred]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brabant Lion Press
Published: 2019-12-22T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

REVELATIONS

The Rawhide Steakhouse popped up on my phone easily since a signal wasn’t a problem. I had no trouble finding it, but I was surprised by the crowd. Finding parking was a problem. Monti was waiting in the lobby, rising to shake my hand as I entered.

“Glad you made it, Charlie, really.”

The latent opera singer in him was evident as I was immediately reminded how powerful his voice was.

“Me too. I’m hungry. Thanks for the invite,” I replied.

“It’s really good here,” he said and smiled.

“Right this way, gentlemen,” a pretty lady stated, smiling brightly, and led the

way to a booth in the rear.

“That was fast,” I observed as we sat.

Monti grinned knowingly.

“Ownership has its perks,” he noted.

“Oh, nice. I guess Minute Monti’s is but a footnote in your empire,” I

quipped.

“Inherited from Dad, rest his soul. It’s where my heart is,” he explained. “Get

whatever you want, it’s on the house.”

A slender young man with a man-bun and short cropped black beard took our

orders and hurried away.

“Thanks, appreciate it. So, regarding the store, you’ve had several

staffing changes, I see,” I stated, curious what he would reveal.

Monti grew calmer, looked about casually before taking a deep breath.

“I’ll fill you in on that in a moment. First let me ask, what do you know

about Britt County? That is, specifically, like history or natural resources,” he asked.

“Not that much, really. The cabin was my grandfather’s, but I grew up outside

of Lexington. The older I got, the less we visited. I think Dad and Grandpa had

issues of some kind. I know at least some of the county is overlapped by the Daniel

Boone National Forest. I’d heard talk of coal mining but never known of any

noteworthy mining,” I offered.

“That’s all true,” he acknowledged, “but just scratches the surface,

actually.”

“Can you elaborate,” I asked.

“Yes. Roughly the eastern half of the county is under jurisdiction of the

National Forest and it’s no small acreage. That’s somewhere in the range of 325

square miles. About half of that is old growth forest. The rest is mature second growth and is mostly untapped since the late 1800s. That’s more than a lot of lumber and doesn’t include the rest of the county. That’s enough to draw attention from corporations---large corporations with political pull,” he explained.

“I’m following you,” I assured him.

“Well, I’ve done some digging. There’s a couple coal mines on the edge of

Chandler County. Keep that in mind. As far as the geology of the land goes, both

Chandler and Britt counties are part of the larger Boone-Clarke Basin, possessing

certain characteristics suitable to mining. Logging on top of that would be more than a huge bonus. It turns out Britt County has massive coal reserves and its some of the highest quality coal in the world. The info is dated, from the 60’s, but is fairly detailed and reliable. Back then both state and federal agencies were contemplating economic development for the eastern region of the state as part of a larger Appalachian region anti-poverty initiative that would double as an energy resource for the nation.

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