Page 10 of A Simple Mistake
Gareth recognised the map from their weekly board meetings, and a quick scan gave him the answer he sought.“Most of those you marked are past environmental impact and into permitting.”
“Quite.And whoever is interfering is either holding up permits or trying to muscle in and bid alongside us.I won’t have to explain to you what the result will be.”
The muscles across Gareth’s back tightened.Adrenaline tingled in his fingertips in a way he remembered from his days as a soldier.His instincts perceived a threat, even if his mind couldn’t see it yet.“Have you talked to Alex?”
Julian’s raised eyebrow betrayed his surprise.“Actually, no.Do you think it’s something in her line?”
“No idea, but I wouldn’t rule it out.There’s unrest all over the place, and everyone’s scrabbling for advantages.”He took a deep breath and told his body to stand down.This wasn’t a problem he could shoot or punch into submission.“Let me just…” He snapped a photo of the map and texted it to Alex.
Any activity in the areas with black tags?
Her answer came moments later.Not to my knowledge, but I’ll check.
Gareth put his phone away.“She’s going to check.Now let’s see what all these projects have in common.”He waved around the untidy office.“I suppose you’ve started on that already.”
“So I have.Let me walk you through it.”
That sounded more like the Julian Nancarrow he was used to dealing with.Gareth took off his jacket and hung it over the nearest chair.Then he rolled up his sleeves and poured himself a coffee from the carafe on the warming plate.
“Lead on,” he said.“We’ll figure it out.”
“Are we planning an invasion?”The last time Jack had seen such an excess of cartography, he’d been preparing for deployment.Maps covered the conference table in Julian Nancarrow’s top floor office, three deep in places.Sticky notes and coloured markers lay in heaps, and more maps draped the sitting area beside the window.
“Horwood.Finally.”Julian Nancarrow, shirt open at the throat and sleeves rolled up to his elbows, waved him inside as if Jack had kept him waiting for an hour instead of the ten minutes it had taken for him to leave his dungeon and walk upstairs.“Fortify yourself with caffeine and then join us.We need your expertise.”
Jack didn’t ask.He poured himself coffee as instructed and joined the two men by the conference table.“How can I help?”
“We’re hoping you can see a pattern we’re missing,” Julian told him.“You know how we operate, yes?”
Jack wanted to roll his eyes.He took a sip of coffee instead.“Nancarrow verifies and quantifies mineral deposits,” he recited.“If they seem viable, we perform feasibility studies and environmental impact assessments before acquiring the necessary permits to develop the find.After that, we either sell the information to a larger mining company for extraction, or secure finance for the project before offering it for extraction at a higher price or a share of the profits.”
“Correct.”Julian stared pensively at the maps, not saying anything more.
Beside him, Gareth was just as thoughtful.
“And you need me for…?”
“Your pattern matching skills.”
“Excess of cartography aside, you realise I’m not a geologist, right?”He thought of Tom, whom he hadn’t seen since before he quit the service, and who’d fit into this world like a leaf into a forest.
“It’s not that kind of pattern we’re looking for,” Julian said.“You know exploration is a risky business with considerable up-front cost.Projects fail for any number of reasons and lose their investment.The last thing anyone wants is an unknown competitor muscling in when you’re halfway to goal.”
“And that’s happening?”
“Yes.”Julian’s voice came through gritted teeth.“During the last three months, fourteen of our projects have acquired active competition.They’re coming in alongside us during assessment and feasibility or they’re trying to delay or scupper permitting if they’re not in the running.And I don’t know who they are or what they want.”
When mining was a small world with the operators known to each other.Both Gareth’s presence and Julian’s edginess now made sense.“Right.Let’s start with the obvious—Alex?”
“Nothing on her radar, but she’s gone digging,” Gareth jumped in.“We need to know who and why.”
Jack flipped his slate open, pulled the stylus from behind his ear, and contemplated the stacks of maps.“And you’ve started with?”
“Commonalities.Mineral paragenesis.Market.Market applications.”
“That’s the why.You want me to work out who?”
Julian slumped against the table.“Either would help at this point.We need a thread to pull on and there’s nothing there.”
