Roy

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The sun was just peaking above the horizon. Verdandi and I had been sitting in silence since we got here. I think he needed the time to think. I hadn't asked him about before.

Wherever he came from was clearly in the middle of something, seeing as how he had come through shot, cut and singed. I had just left that as a private trauma. He probably had friends and family on the other side he was worried about. Not to mention the fear of whoever it was coming back through. I should really ask more questions about them. Later.

Sorry to interrupt. But Dave is almost here. He looks like he has someone with him too

"Alright Nola, I'll let him know." Verdandi broke from watching the sunrise and began to rise. I went to get up too, I'll have to go wake up Tyler and Burt. "Dave is on his way in, you should..." I was interrupted when Verdandi picked me up in a bear hug. It was brief, but out of no where. So I just froze.

"Thank you for being there tonight." He said after he put me down. And started heading back to his shed.

I wonder if I can get a military chaplain to do a phone consult.

I headed over to my car where Burt and Tyler were sleeping. I should probably get rid of that too. It's in the way right in front of the gate. I stole a few glances over my shoulder at Verdandi, he didn't. He just went right to the shed and closed the door behind him. I should have Nola make that building nicer today once the morning rush hour starts.

Can do boss! Also, about 4 minutes before Dave gets here. So grab Burt

I'm going, I'm going. Hold your horses.

Horses could be fun to make. Big predatory horses with fire breath. We'd need a spot for them first.

Please don't torture me. I got to the back seat of the car and started with Burt. Tyler being asleep in the car is inconvenient, but not a material danger to our continued secrecy.

"Burt" I said while rolling him back and forth on the rear seat. He took up the entire thing and had to curl his tail down to the floor to fit. "Time to get up. We have visitors." He snorted at me out of his beak thing. He lifted his head just a little bit and put it back down. We did not have time for this. I went to pick him up by his... neck... to drag him out of the car. It was like lifting a 4 foot long sack of potatoes.

"wab abb bobboboob" Burt said with a low rumble. But he started to move on his own. Slowly. He wiggled out of my grasp and towards the ground, passing right through it below the driveway. The car shifted a little and rocked once he had all his weight on the edge of the seat. But he made it out, good for him. He didn't travel to his nest under the pit. He just curled up right next to the car.

"Congrats on the vocal chords buddy. Stay there till Dave's friend leaves." Now to deal with Tyler

He was already stirring after the car rocked by Burt leaving, but I still was hesitant to wake him up. He at least has a knife on him, and he is exactly the type to wake up swinging.

"Ty, get up. People are coming." I shouted at him. "Nola can I get a stick or something. Arms length or longer please." The stick popped up standing next to me.

I'm glad I had it. Tyler did take a swing at the thing poking him and pull out a boot knife in ready position. He's probably got worse issues than Verdandi, but I don't think a shrink can touch his crazy. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes.

"Openin' time?" He asked, putting the knife away without acknowledging the fact he was ready to stab someone.

"2 minutes or less. I want to get rid of the car."

He hopped out and stepped towards me. The car sank into the ground behind him. I threw the stick into the open passenger side door to join it. Waste not want not after all.

They're here!

"Uh, Roy?" Tyler said as the gate started opening.

"Yeah?" The gate was opening in front of us to let Dave and friend in.

"Clothes." He said. The front of his shirt was covered in blood. And his hands. A little bit on his face. I probably also looked like I had just gotten done butchering something.

"Nola! Coats and water!" I said

The water was very cold in the morning air as I tried to wipe off some of the dried blood I couldn't see while simultaneously donning a jacket to hide my t shirt. I could see Tyler doing the same

Tyler's face had a bit more color than normal when he was done, but we could pass well enough to kick the other guy out.

"You're good." I said to him

"Same" He said back

Dave's car pulled to a stop behind me. You've done nothing wrong as far as he's concerned. Lets say hi and send the other person out so we can get started.

Dave got out of his truck, looked me up and down once before saying "I suppose I am not lucky enough for that blood to be yours after you spent the night beating on each other?" Not as great a clean up job as we thought.

"It's on your pants. Did you kill Melvin?" He asked as his partner got out of his car. Oh hey that's his wife from the trail.

"We didn't kill anyone sir." I said with some exaggerated formality. More quietly and gesturing behind him I said "Your wife is out of the car"

"She knows everything. Bring out the dog man and the bug. I want to get the meet and greet over with." He said with some impatience

"You...she..uhhh... Alrighy then. Didn't we talk about the first rule of fight club before you left?" I said in response. I guess the secret circle is growing again.

"She is an asset to this project. And it is too late to stop me. Lets get this started. Nola, a table please" Dave shouted in the general direction of the flower.

Should I?

Yes, if it seems reasonable just give it to him. That goes for all the people in the inner circle.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

A table with 7 chairs (well, 6 chairs and the Burt couch) popped out of the ground. If the wife was surprised, she had a good poker face about it. I should introduce myself.

"Well Dave, since we are working together can you introduce me?" I asked him

"Kathy Mills. I am a charity coordinator and fundraiser, I know people all over the state that can help us, and I have experience in front of a camera. I will be helping my husband save your disaster." Kathy said to me by way of introduction. She extended her hand for a shake, even knowing that we were covered in blood. I like her.

"Nice to meet you Kathy. Dave says that he told you a bit about what's going on here?" I asked as we shook hands

"Yes. The alien man, the shadow government, demon invaders." She gestured to the table that had popped out of the ground in front of her "The dungeon core that you are currently using" Apparently she's taking it better than her husband.

"Ty can you go get Verdandi for me?" I turned to him and asked. He nodded and headed back to the shed.

I stamped on the ground next to where Burt was sleeping. "Burt, time to come out."

He almost listened. He stuck his head out before reaching back down to the dirt to bite out a chunk, and then spit it at me. He then dove and slowly made his way to the pit nest.

"He's a little tired and cranky after last night. We made him sprint 70 miles up a mountain" I said.

74.3 Miles

Not helping

"And what did you do at the top of said mountain Roy? Something that left you covered in blood?" Dave asked. Kathy seemed interested in the answer too.

"Yes, we helped some people who got in a bad wreck. Nola detected it and we were the only ones who could have gotten there in time." I said

Kathy looked at my pants and the coat covering my shirt. "And they lived?"

"Healing potions and we also created some blood using the dungeon."

"Bloo.. You can create blood?" Finally something other than calm smiles out of Kathy. I guess she can be surprised.

"Why were you up in the mountains? And how? I thought the dungeon was just" And Dave gestured around us "This place. You are telling me you've already gotten bigger than the city"

"Yes and no, for now it's just the roads. We're up in the mountains because I'm trying to get over to California. Lots of drivers there" I said

I started explaining how much energy was being produced now with the number of delvers on the highways and side streets, how we were growing and how much more we plan to.

Dave put his head in his hands. I heard something about obstructing a highway. Kathy started to pat his shoulder.

Verdandi and Tyler walked back up.

"Dave, Kathy, I know you weren't formally introduced last time but this is Verdandi, he is a knight from the world called Vahin. He will also be helping out with this project."

"We can add illegal immigration to the list" Dave muttered under his breath as he extended his hand. Kathy did as well.

Verdandi shook both at the same time with the same frenetic paint shaker movement he had used with Tyler.

"I speak for both of us when I say it will be a pleasure to work with you Verdandi" Kathy said stifling a laugh after the handshake ended

"He doesn't speak English yet. But we are working on it. I can hear him and translate when needed." I said after relaying the message to him

"But you just spoke to him in English?" Dave asked

"Dungeon magic" Tyler said by way of reply.

"We don't know all the rules yet. We're working on it." I said

We might as well get started

Oh, I should warn Dave about Cole.

"Dave?" this probably won't make him happy. More so since he is married to a better media candidate than Cole will ever be.

He smiled the smile of a man who was preparing for bad news.

"We have another person coming. Cole. He's a YouTube news guy. I thought we could use him, and he has already put a few videos of the place in action on line." I said trying to pre sell the guy to my lawyer.

"Why not!" He said throwing his hands up and heading to the table.

"He's a little stressed right now, but he'll get over it when he's back in the things he's good at. When Cole gets here, I'll handle him, not Dave. I'm used to wrangling the press." Kathy said in defense of her husband.

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Cole didn't show up on time. So we moved on without him.

Some of our issues were easy. The fact that I never officially incorporated as a business, for one. Dave filed the paperwork on his laptop right there. Careful to differentiate the equipment to a separate llc from the company buying and subleasing the land we were sitting on. He backdated the paperwork, which apparently could get him disbarred, but 'I'm gonna break plenty more laws before today is over' was his counter argument to himself as he did it.

Next was officially hiring Tyler and Dave on as employees. Turns out even paying in gold needs to be accounted for to the irs on a form 8300. He was unhappy about the idea of paying taxes on his gold, but Dave told him that was how it was going to be.

The plan for repairing the damage of the heist was also hatched. We stopped our journey to California and sent Nola growing down a disused country road in eastern Colorado. By the end of today we would go and verify that no one was present on or off road nearby and then dump all the stolen equipment in a field. Tyler was in charge of buying a burner phone for cash to call in a tip. The equipment would be recovered and no physical evidence would be present. We'd save Harry Duval from bankruptcy and Dave would take on the security guard and the other guy the police had as clients. With no evidence of them committing crimes and the equipment coming back undamaged the whole case could be put to bed. Win win. We just had to hope the local cops don't care enough to look closer.

The assault of the drunk is a future problem, since the cops had taken Tyler and my id's at the scene. But odds of his injuries at Verdandi's hands being linked back to us were low thanks to other pre existing injuries from the crash. Dave thinks he can get the two of us off with minimal charges if it does come to that. Tyler is in a worse position than me thanks to his arrest record. Who gets arrested for not wearing a seatbelt? I thought that was just a ticket.

Melvin's contract was concerning, considering his ownership of the llc we were now renting from, but beyond that the only thing he could do with us is kick us off this plot of land and tie us up with injunctions and bs in court. They would take time, they would take money, but would all ultimately break down in our favor. The man himself was a bigger concern to us for now. As a partner to the business he technically had the right to enter whenever he would like.

I wish I had just paid him the million he had asked for. But Nola had already apologized for that so there's no point in dwelling on could have beens

None of those were too concerning

Compared to the last one.

Cash.

I had printed a lot of it.

I had generated none at the business

And my previous hourly rate did not justify the amount of money I had.

Tyler's didn't either.

Hell, even Dave couldn't justify the outlay of 100k all at once like I had done to Melvin. Not in any way the irs would believe.

Fun fact, did you know that banks report every transaction of 10k or more by law, but many report amounts as low as 2k 'just to be safe' and to prevent structuring accusations.

We now needed to find a way to backdate the reason for all the funds existing.

Of all people, Tyler offered a solution. Hire some of his prepper friends who are also anti irs, tell them to sign a back dated cash rental agreement for mine and Tyler's homes. We'd take a tax hit, but suddenly we had some excuse for the cash we had. And none of them talk to cops.

We also had Kathy start printing receipts for waste disposal. Together between the fake rentals and receipts we managed to make receipts for 50k in cash. Dave backdated a loan to the company for another 34k after checking how much cash he and Kathy had withdrawn over the last 5 years.

We'd have to start charging everyone coming in, but we could also give out coupons to people we knew were legitimate, but the receipts wouldn't reflect the coupon. That would cover some of the future cash printing.

But we were still way short.

Then I had an idea.

"Zion! he offered to have me buy out his place last time he came by. He knows what this place could do to his center." I said excitedly

"That's great for the future Roy, but right now we are trying to find money, not spend it."

"Yeah. We just did. We bring 40k worth of copper to Zion ready to process, tell him he doesn't have to pay, just backdate a receipt. He'll take that deal" I say.

"Except that presents another leak in our secret. What if he asks questions. What if he can't hide the copper in his supply?" Dave typed a few things into his computer before turning the screen around to face me. "That's ten thousand pounds of metal. I've never had experience in materials litigation, but that seems like an amount that will be noticed by someone" He said.

"Then we split it up, other metals, other processors. They'll all take this deal."

"Too many people is worse for us. We need to meet with your friend. I don't want to read him into the full story, but I want to get a feel if he will be up for criminal enterprise." Dave said

"This is not the worst thing we've done. Don't you think you are over reacting about the cash issue?" Tyler asked

"Al Capone didn't go to jail for bootlegging, mafia work or murder. He went to jail for taxes. You will too"

That shut him up.

We worked on cooking some books for another hour before Nola alerted us that she had detected Cole driving to us. I checked my phone for the time, almost 10. Nearly 4 hours late. What could have kept him?