Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
Kurt
“ How much?”
“Two hundred million dollars.”
Kurt shook his head. “Jesus.”
“Now, mind you, that’s only a preliminary estimate.” The older man sitting across from Kurt—Gary Janssen, his and Dana’s boss—held up his hand before continuing. “Could go higher, could go lower. We won’t really know until the mine goes into initial production and we see how the deposit assays out.”
“But…”
The man grinned. “Yeah. Every indication is this is gonna be another big one. A really big one.”
Now it was Kurt’s turn to smile. “Damn.”
“Yep. She did it again.”
She . Dana. The person he was talking about.
For the third time in seven years—if what their boss had just said was true—Dana had hit the mother lode. All her research, all her intuition, all her dogged exploration was about to lead McKerr-Dennison—the company both she and Kurt worked for—onto another major and incredibly lucrative mineral find, same as the previous two. And the cost? Four months in some of the most primitive conditions they’d ever lived in, working a hundred-and-fifty-year-old mine believed long tapped out, eight thousand feet up on the front range of the Sierra de Córdoba, all while dodging roving bands of Revolución Federal rebels looking for ignorant gringos to squeeze. And if that hadn’t been enough, when things had looked unpromising where she and Kurt had first searched, Dana had gone off alone into the oldest mine in the area, despite Kurt imploring her not to. And what had happened? A cave-in had trapped her for the better part of two days, in which she’d suffered two broken ribs and a fractured tibia.
But she’d found it. Proved them all wrong. Discovered what gave every indication of being the single largest niobium deposit outside of Columbia, South America.
“Yeah, she did it again,” Kurt repeated softly.
“I detect reservation in your tone.”
Kurt sighed. “Can you imagine why, Gary?”
Gary leaned his lanky frame back in his chair. “As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure I do.”
Kurt had known the man for the ten years he’d worked for McKerr-Dennison, and five years before that when Kurt had been a snot-nosed, wet-behind-the-ears geologist fresh out of college. He’d spent those five years gaining experience while Gary had kept in touch, eventually recruiting him to come over to the company they now both worked for. He’d done essentially the same thing with Dana, and three years later, it’d been Gary who’d assigned the two of them together.
“Two days trapped underground…” Kurt said grimly.
“Two broken ribs, a busted-up leg…” Gary added.
“But she did it again,” Kurt finished with no small amount of irony in his tone.
They shared a knowing look between them.
“There’s no one in our business who’ll deny Dana Aziz is one of the finest exploration geologists out there. I’ll go so far as to say in the twenty years I’ve been doing this, she’s the best I’ve ever worked with, especially in the rare earth minerals field. However?— ”
“However,” Kurt intoned.
“She’s rash,” Gary went on. “She takes risks. Risks that her peers and colleagues”—he looked at Kurt significantly—“have consistently deemed excessive. There’s no denying she gets results; God knows the board and shareholders see it. All that being said, though…”
Kurt tilted his head. “I get the feeling there’s something more here than just another dressing-down about controlling her behavior in the field.”
Gary chuckled. “You’ve been with her for seven years now, right? Was that request ever a fair one?”
“Fair? No,” Kurt answered with a grin. “Necessary? Yes. Achievable?”
“Never,” Gary finished the statement.
“It’s not for lack of trying.” Kurt held up a hand.
“Oh, I know. Believe me, I know .” Gary tapped the top of his desk. “I have a stack of complaints from the first two years I partnered you guys together about you ‘interfering’ with her methods. They tapered off after that, but Dana’s never been one for not being vocal.”
“Tell me about it.”
The room went quiet as Gary turned to gaze out of his office’s floor-to-ceiling windows. Kurt turned the same direction; from twelve stories up, the skyline was a jumble of concrete and steel shimmering in the hazy smog of the late August sun.
“Well… you’re right about what you said earlier.” Gary turned back to face Kurt. “We do have something we need to talk about.”
“And that would be?”
Gary folded his hands together. “As I said before, the shareholders have certainly reaped the benefits of Dana’s efforts, challenges notwithstanding. And until this last assignment, the board has had nothing but praise for her, too, if somewhat tempered by their unease with her methods. Unfortunately, we’ve reached a breaking point.”
“What does that mean?”
“We’ve always tried to minimize, at least on paper, the severity of the chances Dana takes. The risk management team has expressed a multitude of concerns over the years, but they’ve played ball with us, and we’ve succeeded in avoiding anything more serious than administrative reprimands. But after this South American incident, the underwriters have been digging into things, and the reports coming back have gone from warnings to threats.”
Kurt’s eyebrows shot up. “Threats?”
“Of potential lawsuits. Insurance claims. Fears of negative press that could arise if it ever got out that a seasoned geologist was allowed to operate in the field—encouraged, it could easily be spun—in the unsafe manner she has been. Especially if it got her—or worse yet, someone else—killed.”
“But she’s the one making these choices, and Dana’s never put anyone else in harm’s way, including me. She always does these things on her own.”
“And you think that’ll excuse anything at the end of the day?” Gary shook his head. “She’s well known in the industry. Smart. Charismatic. Attractive.” He gave Kurt a look. “You of all people know this, and don’t for one minute think our competitors won’t make absolute hay out of it if anything were to happen to her.”
“What could they do?”
“Umm… really? It’s a small pond we’re all swimming in, and if it were to get around that McKerr-Dennison doesn’t give a shit about its people, allows them to get themselves killed in the pursuit of profits, it wo n’t only be talent we’ll struggle to retain. The negative media attention would drive clients away in droves.”
“You seriously think it could come to that?”
Gary shrugged. “Doesn’t matter what I think. It’s what the insurance and PR flacks think. And the board. They think Dana’s done exemplary work up till now, but…”
“They’re gonna toss her ass to the curb because they got what they wanted,” Kurt replied bitterly.
“Nobody’s tossing anyone’s ass anywhere.” Gary raised his hand. “Not yet, anyways. I said threats, Kurt. And for now, that’s all they still are.”
“But you’re concerned.”
“I’ve been concerned for quite a while now. Let’s just say due to recent developments, I’m a little more so than previously.”
“You know what I’ve done to try and help. You know how I feel about her methods.”
“I know how you feel about Dana ,” Gary said, pointedly, letting the words hang in the air.
“Okay. And what’s your point?”
“You and I both know Dana’s an incredible person. She’s intelligent, warm, giving… everything you could want from a friend and co-worker. She’s an enormous asset to the company, but she’s also a liability, and the scales are starting to tip where that liability is becoming greater than the reward.”
Kurt harbored no illusions that Gary didn’t know—or at least suspected—some of the true nature of how close he and Dana were. He’d taken a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to their relationship so far, and understandably so. Kurt had zero doubt that was why they were having this conversation right now, because if Dana were let go, Kurt had little doubt Gary would believe he’d be right behind her.
And he wasn’t wrong.
“She needs discipline, but you know as well as I how she rebels at any attempt to apply it,” said Kurt.
“I do, but she’s on thin ice. If we have another incident like what we just got through… she won’t survive.”
“She’s been lucky so far.”
“Yeah, but that luck will run out someday. Trust me.”
The room went quiet as the muted sunlight streaming through the windows cast shadows across the desk and walls.
“So, what now?” Kurt asked quietly.
“Do you think she’s ready to be back in the field?”
This past weekend Dana had pushed herself to go to the club, despite all the frustration she’d tried but failed to hide. Kurt was pretty sure he knew why.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure she is.”
“Good.” Gary opened a folder. “This should be a simple one, honestly. And hopefully one she can’t get in too much trouble with.”
“Where is it?”
“Here. In the US.” Gary pushed a stack of stapled papers across the desk. “Two years ago, Dana did an initial analysis of rare earth sites in Colorado based on US Critical Mineral’s niobium find near Colorado Springs. We thought she’d be focused on the Gunnison Range, where they’d been searching, but as she often does, she went in another direction.” He pointed to a map on one of the pages. “Here.”
Kurt looked down to where Gary’s finger was pressed. “Sapphire Mountain Range.”
“Yep. In Montana.”
Kurt looked up. “And? ”
“I want you to take her there. To a mine that’s been dormant for over a hundred years.”
“Another abandoned mine.”
Gary nodded. “Yeah, I know, I know, but this one… this one should be different. Less dangerous.”
“And why would that be?”
Gary chuckled. “Well… because it’s on a dude ranch.”
Kurt blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
“Hear me out.” Gary held up a finger, then turned to another page of the report. “The location is an old sapphire mine situated on a large ranch located here in Ravalli County, Montana. Place was started by a pair of brothers, and it’s been in constant operation in one manner or another since the eighteen hundreds.”
“You just said the mine is dormant.”
“It is. The ranch isn’t. It used to be an operating one, but now… now it’s one of those places folks go to experience a taste of the old West. You know: horseback riding, playing cowboy, seventy-dollar steaks cooked over a campfire, washed down with hundred-dollar bottles of wine.”
“A dude ranch.”
Gary nods. “A dude ranch.”
Kurt tilted his head to look at the map again. “What’s it called?”
“Don’t laugh.”
Kurt looked back up.
“Rawhide Ranch.”
Kurt swallowed, his thoughts racing. That… that can’t be right. There’s no way Gary just said Rawhide Ranch.
“Never heard of it,” he replied, after a beat.
But he had.
“Not surprised,” Gary confessed. “It’s kinda an exclusive place, doesn’t really advertise much, and it caters to a very select clientele.”
Which was correct, if the things Kurt had heard from folks at munches and in the lifestyle were true. He didn’t know how much Gary might know about Rawhide Ranch, but from what Kurt did it was a kinksters’ Western-themed version of a Sandals resort, a place where Dominants could take their submissives, eat those seventy-dollar steaks, and drink those hundred-dollar bottles of wine, all while wearing leather of a completely different type than your garden-variety cowboy gear.
“So… are you telling me you’re sending Dana and I to a dude ranch to… look for rare earths?”
“In so many words. As I said, the mine on the property hasn’t been active in a hundred years. When it was, it was a sapphire mine. Those sapphires are how the original brothers financed their operation. Now, it’s an attraction at the ranch. They let people pretend to mine for sapphires and take away a chip or two for their efforts.”
“And Dana’s analysis said there was the potential for rare earth minerals to be found there?”
“Yes. Specifically, neodymium and praseodymium.”
Kurt’s head snapped up. “Wait, I thought you said niobium?”
“That’s what US Critical found in Colorado. Dana theorized what is in the Rawhide Ranch mine area are the other two.”
“Are we talking a substantial amount?”
Gary pointed to the report. “If her projections are even close, given current market valuation…”
Kurt waited expectantly for Gary to finish.
“Four to six hundred million dollars.”
“Jesus Christ,” Kurt whispered .
“Here’s the thing, though; we don’t know if this old mine is even the right spot. Dana got pulled off this project to take on the one you guys did in Bogotá, so… maybe this is all a wild-goose chase? The owner has no idea what they may be sitting on, and we sure as hell don’t want to spook them until we have more information. All we’re asking is for you guys to head there, take a look around the area, maybe see if you can get the mine owner to let you poke around inside a little closer, nothing more.”
“Mine owner? I thought you said?—”
“I said it’s a tourist trap now. The mine is closed off for all intents and purposes, but they’ve built this little gift shop and attraction around the original entrance for the guests. The bulk of the mine is officially shut down, but maybe you and Dana can get there and convince the owner to let the two of you go in and check things out without calling too much attention to what you’re actually doing.”
“Gary, you know sure as shit if Dana gets it in her head something’s in there, she’s gonna go as deep as she can.”
“I know. And your job is to make sure if she does, she doesn’t get herself hurt. No broken bones, no dislocated shoulders, nothing. I don’t want her getting so much as a wood sliver this time. Nothing that could end up on a report somewhere.”
“That’s a big ask, Gary.”
“Our options are limited. This is an opportunity for her to do good work like she always does, but without getting herself hurt or giving the C-suite people even higher blood pressure. Just… keep an eye on her. If she starts to look like she’s doing anything stupid, rein her in. Because if you can’t… ”
“If I can’t. Great, thanks, no pressure.”
Gary held up his hands. “I’m just saying, this is her last chance. If we can’t buy her some time with an assignment that doesn’t end with her in the hospital…”
Kurt clenched his fingers.
“They’re gonna let her go.”