Although they were good friends, Thomas and Jake were very different people and had very different reactions to my presentations. When dad and I had presented my maps to Jake a year ago, he’d compared the maps to his own and started making calculations. He was all business.
Thomas wasn’t nearly as calm. He took the map that I gave him and started swearing almost as soon as he took in what it was showing him. He spent five full minutes railing against all the experts that had assured him that there was no more ore on his land. He cursed that he’d been making do with older equipment for this mine because he’d been assured that it was near it’s end of life. All the headaches or broken-down machinery and all the planning for closing the mine had been a colossal waste of time.
Denise, sitting beside me, quietly assured me that he wasn’t mad at me. She said that Thomas would calm down in a few minutes and he’d see the upside. He just needed to get this out of his system. Regardless, it made me very nervous to tell him about the surrounding properties with significant deposits and how I was buying them up.
It turns out that I was right to be nervous. Luckily though, Thomas took out his rage on Jake. “You knew she was going to do this. You set me up!”
“I did and I’ve been enjoying every minute of it. She got me the same way. Although, I wasn’t such a big baby about it. She just made you a fortune, you should be celebrating and instead you’re stomping around and yelling like she just shot your dog. Come on Tom, your favorite mine has a new lease on life and Isaiah will have a chance to run it for the next ten years or more. Sure, you’ll have to share some of that with Abby or her foundation, but most is better than none.”
“What do you mean by ‘Abby or her foundation’?”
“Some of the properties she buys herself and some she buys on behalf of her foundation. She started one up a year and a half ago.”
“What’s the foundation for?”
“It’s called the Hannah Foundation. It’s named after her mother. They were both abducted fourteen years ago. Hannah managed to get Abby away, but she was taken. Abby’s mother was missing for thirteen years and was finally rescued six months ago. Abby set up the foundation to help the victims of human trafficking.”
“Slavery. Her foundation helps rescued slaves?” Thomas was genuinely shocked. All this anger and frustration disappeared in an instant.
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“Yes. Abby funded the foundation herself and she puts the properties that she finds in the foundation’s name so that it will become self-sufficient, with it’s own long-term source of income. That way she never has to compromise on how she wants to run the foundation. Abby’s in charge of the show. I’m only on the board of directors as a figure-head.”
“Damn. How’s the foundation doing? Is it successful? Is it helping people?” The eagerness in his voice came out.
“Next month, Abby and I are heading off to an official ceremony in Washington to receive a Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons on behalf of the foundation.”
Thomas came over to me and took my hand in his. “You go on and buy up those properties. I’ll sign the documents Jake’s lawyers set up and we’ll get those properties revenue positive as soon as possible.”
Denise was by his side in moments as his emotions got the better of him and he turned away. She explained that five years ago, his sister Edna’s granddaughter disappeared. She was twelve at the time and the family is certain that she was kidnapped. The police treated the matter as a runaway. The family has been devastated by it all, especially Edna. They were very close.
“The Hannah Foundation works closely with the FBI and we’ve assisted them on several occasions. If you get me the granddaughter’s name and the specifics of the case, I’ll ask them to look into it right away. They’ve recently come into possession of a huge database of victims of human trafficking victims. I can run her picture through that to see if there are any new information.”
Now Denise was tearing up and saying that she’d get Edna to meet us at the picnic with everything she had.
We left for the picnic shortly after stayed there for half an hour before leaving for home. We were taking an extra passenger with us in the form of Edna Carver, who wanted to see Hannah’s Home for herself and gladly took me up on my offer for her to stay there for a few days and talk to Kevin, our FBI contact. On the flight back, I took pictures of the case file that Edna had concerning her granddaughter, Ann, and send it all to Shauna to relay to Kevin. The timing was excellent, as Kevin was already on his way to see us tomorrow and to give us an update on where the FBI stood with the Agora database and the FBI’s attempts to find all those people.
I spent the rest of the plane ride home renegotiating my rates with Jake for the files that I’d created on his mine in Montana and on the property next door. He thought I’d been kidding about his ‘dibs’ remark costing him and he’d been right about that. However, that didn’t mean that I couldn’t make him sweat it out for a few hours. Mark was enjoying Jake’s discomfort immensely and he occasionally chimed in with a few words in my favor. As he and I had planned, he kept his input to a minimum so that Jake wouldn’t get suspicious. Eventually though, Mark and I couldn’t keep our smiles down and Jake cottoned on to our game. Jake was not amused and I had to remind him that I wasn’t amused by his antics either. That set him back a bit and we called a truce.