Ray Moss smiled in satisfaction. They had done it! The building on the resort was completed. Now, the last step which would only take about a week, was decorating and bringing in supplies and they could start receiving guests! The large equipment would be vacating today, since they had finished their part of the build. He would go down to Venice Beach to talk with Sarah and check on how the transporting of the under 55 was going to the cruise ships. If all was on track, he figured there should be several hundred people already on the ships.
Ray got to town about midday and took a few minutes to find Sarah. Sarah poured them both a cup of coffee and they sat under the large tent that served as a dining hall for the homeless. This tent was always full, since at this location they had to feed the homeless in shifts. It was a considerably larger operation than Portland had been. Ray asked Sarah how it was going, getting the homeless moved to the cruise ships. Sarah said, “It is going much slower than anticipated. The first day, two of the three drivers of the launch simply did not show up so we were operating at 33% capacity. Day two we managed to hire new drivers for the launches, but we were sabotaged by Lord knows who. None of the launches would run. Someone had put sugar into the fuel lines of all three launches! Later that week, we had the launches replaced and locking gas caps were installed and a security guard was stationed by them at all times. Things have been running smoothly since then. “
Ray asked, “How many people would you estimate have been moved onto the cruise ships by now?”
Sarah said, “Only about 150.”
Ray thought about how his report was going to look to the higher ups and went quiet. Then he realized they were almost ready to move the elderly to the resort and that there would be much more to report at the end of this month! He tried to cheer Sarah up, saying,”We will see those numbers change dramatically this time next week!” He said good bye to her and got on the next launch heading out to the cruise ships.
Meanwhile, Donald had gotten walkie talkies for the team leaders for each day to be able to keep in touch in case of emergencies. They only had his cell phone now, having destroyed everybody else’s and they were in a remote location. It is always wise to take precautions he had learned from years of outfitting. Jim, Donald, Nancy, Bruce and a few others would get together each evening to discuss the following day’s activities so they could stay on the same page. At this point, everybody had been plugged in to different tasks to help prepare for the winter.
With 80 people, including Jim and Donald, there was a lot of organization involved. Basically, everyone had been assigned to a team. The teams included: trapping, hunting, cooking the daily food, cooking the future meals, laundry, digging the pantry, fishing, house maintenance, house cleaning, processing meats and tanning hides, sewing by hand and by machine, and, believe it or not, an ornithologist team! Even though the individuals stayed on the same team everyday, there was a lot of interaction involved between teams and the daily meetings helped iron out problems before they happened most of the time.
Donald was concerned that the pantry might not be finished in time before the first frost came and the ground was too frozen to dig into. They still needed to frame it with wood and make a roof on it and also dig out the stairs and frame them. As far as he was concerned, this was top priority so there would be enough food and storage for the food. He ended up putting more men on digging the pantry and thankfully they started seeing better results. The pantry was now five feet deep and he figured within two days, they would be ready for framing!
Max stayed in town that first night and rented a slip for his houseboat. He would need to have the houseboat returned to Seattle pretty soon, but that didn’t concern him because he had found what he came to Alaska for- the missing elderly! He got directions to the lodge from the friendly dock manager and started planning his attack.
Next morning, at the lodge, everybody was up at 5:00, preparing for their tasks. The hunting team and the trapping team left as soon as they scarfed their oatmeal and coffee. The processing team set to work on the moose that had been bagged yesterday. The ornithologist was putting last minute touches on the indoor quail cage in the living room. It was ornate and didn’t look out of place there. The quail would provide eggs and meat for everybody. Our ornithologist was going with the team hunting live quail today. They needed three pairs to begin with. Nancy and the rest of the cooks were busy, making all kinds of racket in the kitchen.
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Max had hired a taxi and was headed up to the lodge. He had the taxi driver drop him off before they got to the lodge so he had a chance to scope things out and make a surprise attack. He hadn’t decided whether he wanted to go in while the older folks slept or do it in daylight. He was still considering his possibilities. His gun was loaded and at the ready and he had plenty of ammunition if they gave him any trouble.
Meanwhile, Bob Perkins had contacted Ray Moss and told him to drop everything else and contact the media. They needed a distraction long enough to be able to get all of the elderly off of the ships in Portland, get them to the clinic for their ‘spa’ and finish at that location. He didn’t want any possible demonstrator stragglers finding out and throwing a monkey wrench into the works. Bob asked Ray to play it up big in the media about the homeless going out to the cruise ships in LA. He asked Ray to oversee the photos to make it look wonderful and have something in the news every day for the next five days.
Ray was relieved at first to be given a new temporary assignment because he had just gotten to the first cruise ship in LA and it was total chaos! He didn’t want to have to deal with that, but then realized ‘the buck stops here’ because he needed to have everything organized and working like clockwork for the photo shoots! He got the main lady in charge of the homeless on the ship and all of the ladies who would be doing the interviews of the homeless to see where they fit in on the ship and they had a major meeting. By the time he got finished with the meeting, he felt wrung out, but was pleased to see things falling into place!
Max got to the woods by the lodge just about the time everyone was wrapping up their tasks for the day and heading back to the lodge for supper. He watched from the woods and was pretty impressed that these old folks were working together and not just vegetating in rocking chairs inside! He saw three old men and a little old lady coming back to the lodge with what looked like a dog cage on top of a little red wagon with some kind of birds inside, flapping all around at every bump they hit! That was a head-scratcher! It reminded him of an old movie called ‘The King of Hearts’ about some people in an insane asylum! He hadn’t thought of that movie in years!
Max’s eyes went to the woodpile next. His eyebrows raised as he saw a 20 foot long woodpile! He wondered who had the strength to chop all of that wood! Then his eyes fell on a couple of men walking toward the lodge with a pole between them and what looked like a dozen large rainbow trout on the pole. He thought he had seen everything when he spotted three men on a side-by-side with a trailer behind full of rabbits and martens! They went for the outdoor shed and put their haul in there before going to dinner. Max’s opinion of the elderly took a direct hit. These people weren’t a drag, but were proving pretty useful! He sat down and had a peanut butter sandwich and a cup of water.
After eating, Max decided to wait for dark and attack when they were asleep. Max called Bob Perkins and after finally getting through to him, said, “Bob I have found the old folks and am waiting outside the hunting lodge for dark to go in and get them. I may need back-up to bring them in.”
Bob laughed, Max, what are you thinking? I told you to scrap the idea of going after the missing elderly. We have our hands full in Portland and LA and don’t have the time or personnel to take care of some errant elderly up in Alaska. They are just a drop in the bucket and will probably just freeze this winter and save us the trouble of going after them. It is too costly for the number of people we would apprehend there and in these other cities they actually come to us! Much less trouble. I’m glad you had a nice trip to Alaska on your time off, but forget your self-contrived plan and get back down here where the action is! And those are my final words on the subject! Do you understand?”
Max said dejectedly, “Yes sir.” Max thought, “What now?” A bright idea came to him. He loaded his gun and strapped on his ammo belt and started walking toward the lodge. “ I will walk around and look in the windows from a distance and decide where to start. I can get rid of the elderly, myself. I’ll go in after they are asleep and just go from room to room and put a slug in each one! Then I’ll be a hero!” He started around the lodge and was getting a good idea of where to start tonight when, “AAAAAAhhh!”
Donald said to Jim, “Did you hear something?”
Jim said, “I sure did. Sounds like it came from out back. Grab a gun and let’s check it out. It might be a cougar!