Roman 12:03 PM Saturday
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"Exactly what is the issue here Roman? This data looks good...hell, it looks good enough I may use it in my next campaign." The state level senator said to me over the zoom call. Technically Dominic was one of my bosses, but more in name than practically. He sat as the lead chair on the oversite committee for 'Environmental Considerations' in Colorado. When I brought up that I worked for NOAA he asked what that was.
Not the best sign.
"As I was saying before; the speed of the change rules out any natural or cultural changes. This is a coordinated, competent, and far reaching operation that is occurring without oversight and across your entire state." I said, forcing passion into my voice. I have been told by everyone that I have a natural monotone. This is a time for passions and pathos. "It is violating the statistical models." I said
"Then we will have to give the guy a medal. From what I see this is a win win. No cost to me or the state, effectively cleaning it up with no ill effects, and I don't have to deal with the bastards in the other party shutting down a good thing for a quick win next election season." Dominic said while looking at something off screen. I was loosing him.
"But we have no idea how it is happening. There are no new pieces of equipment, not on the roads or vehicles. Isn't that concerning to you?" I said, attempting to reach him
"Not really, no. I don't really care how my power gets to my house either. Neither do my constituents. We'll throw a few rah rah events about the better numbers, but nobody really notices the smog. It's there some days, some days it isn't. They're more concerned about traffic. The fact there is no equipment is a plus. No big scary things for the nimbys to protest against. My suggestion is that you take the win and adjust your models. The environment improving is a win for you. You caught it first, take credit. It's what a politician would do." He said with a self deprecating smirk. I am aware that is what a politician would do. "You can use it for career advancement if you play it right. Since you are in the area you can come by my office and we can talk about how I can help you" He said dismissively. It wasn't a real invitation, I had received enough of those over the years to know. But one thing about being me, everyone expects me to miss social queues, and I will be taking advantage of that now.
"I can be at your offices in an hour." I said in quick response
"I...wh...I meant that as more of an abstract. I am busy tonight. I am leaving for a party and networking event in the next hour or so." He said with the pivot of a professional. He was not happy with me, but he hides it well.
"Do you have a plus one? I can meet you there." I said. Ideally I would like to bring Chelsie with me to bolster my point with emotion, and outnumber him, but the sooner I can get him to seriously evaluate the data the better.
"It's not a party I think you would enjoy. Just a bunch of politicians talking about a new recycling plant. Innovative recycling is outside of NOAA's expertise." Dominic said. Oh, now he knows who we are.
"Anything that affects air quality is within our domain. I can accompany as an expert." Cornered. He now has to drop the façade of professional courtesy, or surrender.
"Do you have a black tie attire with you?" He asked
No. "Yes." I said anyway.
"Fine. You can come, and try to shove your data at me one more time. But other than that you will stay quiet unless I ask your opinion." He said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. You may be a politician, but I am a bureaucrat. Game and match.
"I will be there. When and where?" I asked
"The event starts at 3." He would almost certainly be late, especially now that he knew I was coming. Doesn't matter. I am capable of mingling, despite my discomfort with it.
"And the event takes place at Greener World Recycling and Processing" Dominic said.
I pulled the name up in my search bar, no results. "Wait a minute, I don't see them listed." I said
"They're new." He said flatly, disappointed I had caught him. Not my first time senator.
He shuffled around his papers till he found what he was looking for. The address was on it. The address yielded a closed scrap yard with a different name, but if the place was new that would make some semblance of sense. But what caught my eye was the city. Commerce City. The place where the sensors started going haywire.
I had to ask. I had everything I wanted, this was unnecessary to my goal of getting the meeting, but something inside me was telling me to, demanding I ask another question
"How new are they?"
"Not sure really. This is their first event. I am sure you can ask all about it when you are there." Dominic said. He was impatient to end the call. My distraction was giving him an opening. It didn't matter. Not really. Not any more.
The address put them in a straight line to the first sensor to go off, and nearly dead center for the others.
"Thank you senator, I will see you there." I said without looking him in the eye, ending the zoom call.
I had a lot to do. Chelsie was coming with me for this one. She had seen the 'Verdy' character on the road, she could identify him again. We both needed more than the work outfits we had come with, and a way to sneak in our equipment. We had very little time to get ready.
Now where can I get a black tie suit on short notice on my salary?
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Roy 12:03 PM Saturday
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I was working with Nola to make new ramps all morning. The 'demonstration' ramps for our new guests would sort differently to show off our capabilities. Rather than dumping things off to the side so the processing could continue naturally with people dumping and collecting at the same time, this configuration brought the ramp back to the front of the pit where garbage was put in. Tyler would then be in charge of moving the waste to a display table for the big wigs to point and look at against the north wall. We wouldn't be going for quantity this time. We would be dealing with garbage a single bag at a time, mostly to not overwhelm our limited space. And we were very limited.
Kathy had taken the entire front of the yard with the buffet table tent and bar set up. That and seating in front of the stage. Not excited about giving a speech, but at least someone else wrote it for me this time. Kathy and Dave would be handling most of the heavy lifting on that, but I was told I couldn't be completely absent from the launch of my 'baby'.
"Roy, can you raise the ramp in front of you just a touch. I want it above waist level so things look better in pictures. Also, Nola dear, can you place some potted plants that rise to just below the lip of the ramp in front. I don't want to see legs in the picture, but I also don't want to block any part of the ramp." Kathy said. What is wrong with my legs? She must have seen my face because she answered the unspoken question "We want your presentation to look like it is taken from behind a podium, it will give you extra authority. That's the same reason you will be wearing a lab coat and fake glasses over your overalls." She said
"But, I mean, people know me. Won't that, I don't know, get found out?" I asked as I saw Nola start placing beautiful living flower arrangements in front of our ramp. Reds, whites, and blues mixed with green. They were well coordinated with the rest of the décor. "Are you going for patriotic theming there Nola?" I asked out loud so Kathy would know I was asking.
Kathy said the politicians would like that color scheme more than the green and yellow.
"Oh, I missed that." I said
It was while you were at home with Verdandi. She talked, and requested things and we tweaked the design. Hope you don't mind
"I don't mind at all, it is just different to be out of the loop when it comes to you. I feel like for the most part we know everything about each other." I said, while Kathy gave us a wry smile
You could know more if you expanded your mind more often.
"Yeah, hard pass on the mind expansion. That feeling is no bueno. We'll keep in touch in other ways unless we have to." I said mirthfully. I didn't hate mind expansion, but it was not something I'd choose to do. Like exercising with Verdandi. I ended up having Nola sneak me a healing potion, or I guess a 'best self' potion, to me before bed last night. Honestly, some of those forms and exercises hurt more than the beating he gave me. But he is enthusiastic about training me. So it looks like I am going to be stuck with that. And his stupid diet.
"Oh, lets also put some of those anti slip mats down over the dirt. The raised ones with out the small holes. We don't want anyone's heal getting stuck tonight. And we definitely don't want any of our donors to get dirt on their clothes." Kathy said, not stopping. She had a point.
The event starts in less than 3 hours.
The event staff would be here even sooner than that.
That had been a bit of a fight, everyone had different reasons, but we all were against it at first.
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"How are we possibly going to pay for your friends catering company Kathy, we don't have any money! Not any I can justify." Dave said exasperatedly. Tyler pointed and nodded at that point.
"We will hide it, just like you hid the Melvin payout and the rest of the expenses. We have some receipts now." She said dismissively
"I am a lawyer, not an accountant. Cooking the books is hard enough with what we have in the past, we need to stop spending money." Dave said. "This place is our only source of income now, and they can't pay me either with everything that's happened. I'd prefer not to loose the house, how about you dear?" Dave said attempting to get through
"After tonight, we will have partners. I have big money donors and all my major political contacts coming. If this doesn't work out you have my permission to pawn my jewelry. If it does, you owe me something from Cartier." Kathy said with some confidence. Dave made a fence that let me know he had just signed up for an expensive bet
I can help him out if you can figure out what a cartier is.
I don't want to get in the middle of their marriage, do you?
No
Then lets focus on making money so we can give Dave some cash to buy some expensive stuff. Better than relationship drama
It was a Big bet from her on the party though. But she was spending an obscene amount of money. She had agreed to a catering contract of eighty grand for steak, sides and servers for the party. Eight zero. And another 10 for bartenders with us (Nola) providing all the alcohol. They were just providing glasses and bar tenders. Another 10 for a valet/ bouncer service at the outside of the gate.
I just wanted to do things buffet style with street parking and have Nola make more as needed. But that 'wasn't classy enough' for this crowd. I had disagreed. Dress it up all you want, this is still a recycling plant, a place where garbage goes to be less garbage. It is dirty, loud and smelly. How classy can you reasonably expect this place to be.
But because we were moving fast and wanted high end service the cost had to match. Apparently the caterer had helped spread word of how nice the event was, and we even got some state reps to come by. One national congressional rep who was in the state was showing up too. We 'couldn't have gotten attendance like that' with buffet style.
I would have thought the message mattered more, but that had just gotten a full body laugh out of Dave and Kathy.
If it works, I guess it doesn't matter. If we can get ourselves some sponsors and contracts we can cover it and get some more recycling done. And get some more legitimacy for our organization.
Tyler was against the staff for a different reason. Hell, he was against the whole party being held 'on location'.
He was worried about spies, human and otherwise coming in and discovering the operation. Not an unreasonable fear, but presented in an unreasonable way. Nola can detect anything the delvers leave behind, cameras, microphones, energy weapons. She can dispose of them or make sure they see nothing with relative ease.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
In the end we all came around to Kathy's way. Despite our continuing reservations.
Here's hoping it works out.
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"Ground control to major Roy." Kathy said waving at me from the other side of the trash ramp.
"Yes. I am listening" I said
"Sure you were. Finish up with the pit changes and then meet me for a quick group meeting before the party staff starts to arrive." She said
"But it's like noon? Why so early?" I said
"They wanted to be here first thing in the morning, I pushed them as much as I could so we could work without watching our words. But they need time. So hop to, we have to get this closed out."
"Yes ma'am" I said
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We had accomplished the tasks necessary to the event that required magic. From here everything got a little more mundane. Except for two residents.
We had to figure out what to do with them.
"I watched Tremors last night. Burt? Are you going to be bothered by the music or the large numbers of people moving around" Dave asked to our resident worm.
"Naaagh" Burt said. Dave turned to me for clarification
"Nola said that was his attempt at 'no'." I said in response. I thought it was an improvement.
"Alright. If it gets too bad I want you to take the mountain path and get out of here with out getting caught. But until then, you are on guard duty. Silent and watching for any suspicious activity. If you see anything, tell Nola, Nola you tell Roy. Roy, you alert everyone else."
We all nodded along. All good so far.
"Tyler. I can already tell that there is no chance you will be disarmed for this event, correct?" Dave said
"Correct. Too many members of the... "
"Whatever. I don't need more nightmares. Can you keep it truly concealed? Like, no one will see it unless you need it concealed?" Dave asked
"I'll need Nola to switch me out for some of my smaller guns, but yeah, you won't see a thing." Tyler said. I think freaking out Dave gives him a perverse sense of pleasure.
"I wish that were more comforting. Moving on..." Dave started
"Hey Roy and Nola, how fast can you get the Fed-Shredder to me if I need it." Tyler interrupted with a smile. You pot stirring bastard.
Less than a second, especially if I have it queued up
"She can get it to you immediately." I said. I have several questions.
"I'm sorry, the Fed-shredder?" Dave said incredulously. Cole was also looking at Tyler with an open mouth. Verdandi hadn't caught all of it, but he knew enough to know it was funny.
"Yup." Ty said smugly.
"I am going to regret this immediately, but what the hell is that?" Dave said clearly dreading the answer
"2 AR's with hundred round mags in each hooked together with a Gatling attachment. 200 rounds of tungsten tipped fun in 4.5 seconds." Tyler said with pride
"How... why.. I.. as your lawyer I recommend that you do not.. EVER.. bring out that weapon. And please stop calling it that." Dave said.
"If I bring it out, I'll get one for you too buddy." Tyler said to Dave
"Thanks." Dave said with a face of a man sucking a lemon. If we ended up in a position where we needed one, I can appreciate that we have one, but that still seems like a lot.
Dave shook his head to get back to sanity. He needed a minute to process another Tyler-ism. If I hadn't known him for a few years before this I would probably be joining him. He gets mellower over time, that or you get used to him.
"Alright. Last order of business before the staff gets here. Verdandi, let Roy know if you are falling behind with what I am saying." Dave started "I think we need to get you out of here and hid you at one of our houses for the night"
"I...guard...core...safe...here...shed" Verdandi said. English lessons with Cole went well this morning, apparently. The 'r's are coming out a little like 'L's, but he learned how to speak beginner English in under a week, so I have nothing to complain about. I couldn't have done that. I am just glad we had someone who was excited about teaching English.
"We can't have you in the chemical shed. People will want to look around, and we cannot watch them all. There's a chance you'll get discovered." Dave said
"Only... warrior... Tyler...Burt... not...safe" Verdandi said. He knew that the two of them, while capable, were not exactly a robust defense force. He also had first hand knowledge on how useless I was.
"These aren't our enemies. We can be fine without you for a night." Dave said
"I might have a solution." Cole piped up and said. This aught to be interesting
"You can make him invisible?" I asked
"Not quite, but, I can make him fade into the background. I have...I can get access to a... mascot... costume. Nola would have to change the size, but we can have a big mascot for the place. It's even green and yellow already. Just a little more fluorescent." Cole said while turning a little red.
Tyler and I gave Cole some bombastic side eye at that, but stayed quiet. Dave and Kathy either didn't have the same thought or didn't care and said that was a great idea. Kathy started putting together a wish list of features for our new mascot. Verdandi also missed the subtext entirely, and was excited at the possibility of sticking around and meeting people.
Nola, make sure you clean it thoroughly when you are changing the size.
When I change the size I am basically making it from scratch. Nothing will be there.
Cool.
"Cole, we will need you to go get that from your friend as soon as possible. Verdandi, you will have to stay in the shed and hide from the staff until after he gets back. From there you can interact with guests and watch... Kathy, you may need to coach him on crowd activities." Dave said
"Way ahead of you hun. Already working on the list. Best part of mascots is, no speaking lines. That should make it easier on you Verdandi." Kathy said
He nodded along, excited to be part of the group and not hiding for once. He started asking Tyler for a hidable gun.
"You are gonna have a hard time getting to one inside the costume bud. If it comes to it, have Nola get you one outside the fursuit." Tyler said.
Verdandi was not put off by that, nodded and went over to talk with Kathy for his training.
Cole started heading back to his car to go get the thing. "I didn't have him pegged for that." Ty said from behind me, quietly.
"Me neither." I said
"I don't feel like explaining that one to the old folks, do you?" Ty said
"Only if it comes up." I said back.
But should we tell Verdandi.
Not tonight.
Kathy's phone rang. She looked at the caller id and shouted out.
"Ok people. the staff are at the gate. Cole, don't open it till we get Verdandi in hiding." She stage whispered to us as she answered her phone. Verdandi took the hint and jogged over to his shed.
I jogged over to Cole. "Hey, before you leave." I said as we both reached his car
He was bracing himself for what I was about to say. "We will talk about that later. Specifically about you and Verdandi. But for now, this is just about the costume. I want Nola to have as much time as possible to work on it. If your street is clear I want you to dump it there. She'll absorb it and then you don't have to drag it through here." I said.
He let out a deep breath. "Thanks. I'll figure it out on dumping the costume." He said as he hurried to leave.
Add that to the list of things to address later. Man that thing is getting long.
Nola, I forgot to ask, is he on your route yet or do you need to expand?
He is not. But I have the energy. We need to talk strategy after tonight. I think there are some things we need to discuss on that front.
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Roy 2:35
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The staff set up went well. The grills were fired and ready, with steaks in giant coolers waiting for our guests. The bartenders were prepping glasses and organizing bottles.
Kathy was training Verdandi on how to walk with the costume on. He is a really big dude with that thing on. The top of the head extended another 6 inches beyond his already 6'6" height. made him a bit imposing, even with the silly grin.
Nola ended up making a pair of matching overalls for the costume so all the employees could look the part. After she switched up the color pattern a little it actually didn't look half bad. It was a bear, which was weird considering there was a wolf man inside it. But Verdandi didn't mind. He was excited to see other humans, even if it was through a mesh screen. I think the isolation was getting to him.
I was left with very little to do other than practicing my garbage presentation. The staff didn't comment on me talking to myself, even when I was sometimes talking to Nola. I hope they thought that I was just practicing my question and answer portion.
Dave had to yell at Tyler for staring down the staff after one of the female servers complained. Subtlety was never his strong suit. He put on a pair of sunglasses to hopefully cut down on complaints.
Cole was back. He was mostly hanging around Kathy and Verdandi, but it seemed to be more to avoid me and Tyler than to do anything else. He was being useful there.
There were guests starting to congregate. We didn't officially open till 3, but some early birds were milling about the place. They mostly hovered around the bar. Already several people not on the list had tried to get in only to be turned away. Mostly the same tourists we would see when we were operating normally, I recognized their faces. 2 bums as well. Kathy let them all know there was a dress code, but they were welcome back if they could meet it. The tourists were happy about that, the bums were not. And the bouncers had to earn their paycheck. We were all glad that happened before the bulk of the guests started arriving.
And then they started arriving.
Like a tidal wave.
And I got sucked into my presentation. Over and over again.
We had made special bags of garbage for the demonstration. Nothing dirty, nothing slimy, but with enough variety to show the full capabilities of the 'machine'.
Pull open the bag. Array the trash on my table. Explain why each item was impossible to recycle. Multiple layers on this one. Complexity on that one. Labor intensive on this one. Dangerous for this piece. Then I would send it through the machine only to have the pieces come back out to me. Separate little piles ready for the next step.
Most people watched the presentation with the bored detachment of a work obligation before going back to mingle among their peers. But one in ten, they were excited. More than excited in some cases.
There were some among them that called bullshit, as was expected. We had prepped our response to this, a free ticket to come back during normal operation tomorrow to see that we could not possibly be faking it. We also had video from Cole's b roll showing how much we processed in just one day. The skeptics were, unsurprisingly, unconvinced. One man went so far as to try and climb up into the processor intake for a look. The bouncers got him first. Which is good, cause Tyler and Verdandi were only a few steps behind them. That would have been much worse for the guy.
I received a bunch of business cards and phone numbers from the skeptics and the fans, but they all blurred together.
Just keep running through the presentation. Kathy and Dave would do the heavy lifting with their contacts. I am just here as a tech. I can do that.
An hour into the event I saw a woman I thought I recognized. Couldn't place her though. She looked out of place in the crowd. Brilliant red sequin dress. Cheaper than most of what was in attendance, she must have been one of the tourists. She took a few pictures of me during my presentation before smiling and walking away. Where do I know her from?
I'll have to go say hi when Kathy comes to relive me for my break.
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Kathy 5:21 PM
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This was my element.
I was the ruler of this room. Even if it was a junk yard.
Passing interest in our venture turns to enthusiasm.
Excitement turns to fanaticism.
Desire into action.
Like clay in my hands.
We would not only have our pick of partners after this, we'd have to beat them off with a stick.
The comptroller of the Fort Collins dump offered me a ten thousand dollar consulting fee just to assess his operation, and he was only the first of the night. The check books of the government were opening to us, and with that, the access that Nola needed to grow. We could very easily end up handling most of the states garbage by the end of the year. First come, first served of course.
We would need more metal flowers, but from my understanding of Nola's power, that wouldn't be a problem. The problem is trusted staff.
But that is a problem for the future. One the investors could help us with. And here comes another one now.
"Oh Cyrus, it is so nice to see you and the missus here. How is the day job going? Still saving the world?" Investment bankers love to think of themselves as the hero's, always play into that for the best checks.
"Kathy, lovely as always. Obsidian had made some excellent moves in developing markets. But I must say, this is one developing market I would love to be a part of. You must introduce me to your partners." Mr. Woodhaerst said with an exaggerated kiss to each cheek.
"Our team would love to talk with you more Cyrus, but tonight is not the time for one on ones. So please, mingle, explore, have some lovely food prepared by my friends from Regal. and we will catch up later in the week." I said with a smile and a flourish, ready to speak to the next guest. I saw Karen and her husband from Summit Partners and waved.
"I don't think you understand." Cyrus said coldly. This was unlike him. I almost let my face slip. "I want to be the first on your list. No one else. Tell me how I make that happen. We all know the rest of these small fish aren't worth your time." He was staring into my eyes intensely. And holding my wrist. Low and across, so the bouncers couldn't see. There were too many people around for this to be a real threat, but it was still an unacceptable breach of decorum for this sort of thing.
"Cyrus" I said as I jerked my hand out of his grip. He let me go. "I can understand your enthusiasm. I jumped at the opportunity to be part of this venture too. But there are rules to this sort of thing."
"Like the ones your founder is breaking?" Cyrus said back. "I know about crimes. The shady deals. And that is before we get into the funding. How is a manual laborer funding all this I wonder? I imagine the books are...interesting. I would love to have a forensic accountant go over them with a fine toothed comb." he smiled darkly and his wife pulled out a folded sheet of paper and handed it to me. "We are your first meeting. No exceptions. Or this all goes loud." He turned to walk away, I unconsciously slipped the page into my handbag. I didn't dare open it here. "Have a lovely night Kathy!" He said as he walked away.
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Roman
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"It's the same guy, I am 100% sure. He was operating the machine up front. We should go talk with him. He is our guy." Chelsie said while excitedly waving her cell phone in front of me. "We need to go confront him. He isn't Verdandi by the way, his real name is Roy. So we know he was doing something illegal. He gave me a fake name. Only criminals do that." She was getting excitable again. It was a useful trait, but I could not handle it.
I had seen the impossible
I had seen a paradigm shifting revelation
I had seen the future
This... venture... had an impossible technological leap that could revolutionize...everything.
If they were also responsible for the smog reduction, well, we were looking at the future kings and queens of the country. This tech...
I couldn't begin to explain it. But I watched it. Over and over again.
"If they aren't our enemies I suggest we both apply to join them immediately." I said to Chelsie, stopping her mid rant. "If they are our enemies, we should probably run to the furthest corners of the earth. We aren't going to stop that." I said gesturing to the flower. "There will be 10 more of them before the end of the month. Listen to everyone around us. Everyone with an ounce of sense wants one. And they are going to have it." I leaned back against the wall. This was a lot more than I was equipped to deal with.
"Hello there!" One of the men in overalls was walking to us. Waving at Chelsie. This aught to be interesting. Is this the one she met on the road.
"Hey there yourself Verdandi." Chelsie said back with mock sweetness. Stopping the poor guy in his tracks.
"Oh...hello again... I guess." He said, wind out of his sails
"We are with NOAA" I said.
"Who?" He said. Of course
"Not important right now. What are your intentions with California?" Might as well get right to it.
"I have no idea what you are talking about" He said. He got closer and replied quietly "The party is winding down. If you are willing to wait, we can talk after the other guests leave. I will want the team present."
I nodded and that seemed to end the conversation. The young man walked away from us briskly. As he left I noticed for the first time he had been holding two cups. Chelsie may have burned a bridge there. But we may get some answers.
And now... we wait