Page 1 of Tom's Chance
CHAPTER 1
Tom Stolls lookedup from his paperwork and smiled at the man who walked into their shared office. “Manchester, how’s it going?”
“Good, and you?”
“Okay I guess,” Tom said, and could have kicked himself for saying what he did. As soon as he said it, he knew his private business would be aired.
“Something you want to talk about?”
“Not really.”
“But?” Duane asked with a smirk.
Tom leaned back in his chair with a gigantic sigh, tossed his pen on the papers he’d been looking at, and stared at the man he was beginning to think of as a friend. “First, thank you for these,” he said as he tapped the files on his desk, the ones he had been working on. “Did you do them?”
“Yes, is there something wrong with them?”
“No, not at all, but usually after Erin tells me we have orders for Riceman Stallions, it takes up to a month to get the background checks back.”
“Oh, Erin asked me if I could take over for Jake over at Brotherhood Protectors. I don’t know what he’s doing, but he’s been extremely busy lately and told Erin it might take longer than normal.”
“Well, I thank you, since I’m only here once a month for Riceman Stallions, it makes it easier for me to have these checks handy as I do my paperwork.”
“But you’re here all the time, or it seems like it.”
“Oh, I come out to do routine checks on the horses and emergency services, but I don’t seem to have the time to sit down and do the paperwork for Riceman Stallions.”
“Not to sound stupid, but what exactly is Riceman Stallions?” Duane asked with a confused look on his face. He got even more confused by the look of glee on Tom’s face.
“How much do you know about what the men call the sex barn?”
“Oh shit,” Duane said with a laugh. “Yeah, I know all about the sex barn.”
“Good, because I didn’t want to have to explain it to a grown ass man like yourself.” They shared a laugh, but Tom became serious again. “No, after we gather what we do in the sex barn, I take the samples to the room that only Erin and I have access to. I cantell you this because you’re a former FBI agent, so you’ll know the importance of what is in that room.”
“Sperm? How important can that be?”
“One sample can bring in a hundred grand or more.”
“You’re shitting me?”
“Nope, I gather the sample, take a small amount for testing, then store the rest. It’s all labeled and without seeing it, it’s hard to explain. All I can say is picture a lab in the movies where people are gowned up with masks and gloves. Because of the importance of the samples, I have them on ice. When Erin gets a request from the website, she does her research on the person that’s making the request. It’s my understanding that if they’ve ordered from her before, she just does the basic search. If it’s a new person, she goes deeper with her stuff, then she passes the name of the potential buyer to Jake over at Brotherhood, but now it seems like you’ll be the guy to do the background checks. When everything clears, I contact the vet, and we discuss the next steps. Once it is all said and done, I get the sample and ship it out overnight to the rancher’s vet.”
“Why not directly to the rancher?”
“Because a vet has to do the procedure with the mare.” He saw confusion on Duane’s face and chuckled. “Think IVF for horses. If it’s sent directly to the rancher, there’s a small chance it might become contaminated. If it goes to the vet, then he knows how tohandle it and the chances of it being ruined are minimal.”
“Ah, okay, now I understand the entire thing. I had a buddy at the office where he and his wife went through IVF at least three times. He explained it to me one night, and I never thought something like that could be used for animals.”
“Yeah, it took me a few months to learn it, but I think I’ve gotten good at it. I don’t know whether this is a good thing or not, but I’m at the beginning of the process. Like, I gather the sample, test it for any abnormalities, then put it on ice. It doesn’t leave the lab until there is a request for it, then you do the checking, and when it’s all good, I mail it off. The vet on the other end is responsible for getting the sample into the mare.”
“I understand,” Duane said as he filled his coffee cup from the pot that just finished brewing and poured a cup for Tom. From watching the other man in the past, he knew he took it black. Once Duane settled at his desk, he looked over at Tom and saw him staring into space, lost in his own thoughts.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
“They’re not worth a plug nickel,” Tom laughed, then shook his head sadly. “This brings me back to the question you asked when you first came in.”
“Which was?”
