2

Ellie was studying Early Childhood Development at the University of Kansas. Royce had met her at a party, some six months before and they had hit it off. After a few months, Ellie wanted to move in with Royce and had agreed to take care of the house in exchange for tuition and free rent. Royce liked the arrangement and having a girlfriend was fine. He generally liked to hear her endless stories about her family life, but as time went on, he tired of the scatter-brained tendencies of her younger sister. They had great sex and Royce certainly thought that was quite a bit of what it took to secure a comfortable, long-term relationship with Ellie.

One night Ellie had some friends visiting from high school, traveling across the country. They had stayed up late, talking about old times until Royce went to bed. Several hours later, he woke up to the continuing sounds of voices making old times lively again. He wandered through the dining room and noticed a small mirror and razor blade. He knew exactly what it meant. Pissed, he went back to bed and had the hard talk with Ellie the next evening.

"Ellie, I do not want to bust you for having fun with your old friends until late hours, but were you doing coke?"

"They had some. I tried a little of it. It is harmless and fun. You should try some, too and lighten up, Royce."

"I knew a few coke heads in school and they were insane. I never could see paying that much money for something so utterly worthless. I do not want to screw around with it at all. It is addictive and leads to all kinds of problems."

"Yeah, well what kind of problems, Dad?" Ellie seemed accusatory in her defense.

"It leads to harder drugs and it leads you to hang out with a very seedy crowd. Enough said. You either want to hang out with coconuts or me. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

"Screw you, Royce. You are always so self righteous about my fun. You need to lighten way up, man!"

"Ellie, this is not working out. You need to go live with your sister and then you can do as many drugs as you want. I want you out of here."

Ellie was shocked in his reaction. She glared back at him with sheer contempt. "Screw You!" she screamed.

Royce was now very pissed. He grabbed his keys and walked out the front door. "I am headed out. I will see you later."

A week passed before Ellie showed back up again to get her stuff. She was furious at Royce's provincialism. Royce held fast to his convictions. Ellie tried to talk about it, but she knew it was to no benefit. Royce made up his mind that Ellie needed to go and was steadfast in his determination to have her out. Ellie packed up some boxes and asked if she could store some things in one of his closets for a while.

"Ellie, we are just too different. You cannot understand my point of view, here and frankly, you could care less about my opinions about drugs. You need to go get your head straight for a while and if you can figure it all out and if I am still looking for a wild girlfriend, maybe we will see each other again. In the meantime, please remove your crap from my house."

Ellie was shocked. She had never seen this side of Royce and she knew he meant business. She started crying. Royce stood there in the kitchen with a solemn look on his face, but not yielding a bit. Ellie began pulling out of the closet the last of her boxes. In an hour, the last of Ellie walked out his door. Royce was happy and pissed. He called Leroy and explained to him his lament.

"Now you know why I never married, Royce. Women get way too hard to figure out. Give her some time and she will be back. At least she knows how you feel about drugs."

"She knew my feelings on the subject the first night I met her. She just did not believe that I would make such a stand. Frankly, it demonstrates an attitude I just cannot live around and certainly one, where I refuse to yield. I am done with her. She can go do her drugs with anyone she wants, but the woman is not going to use up my rope to hang herself."

"Royce, you are a mean SOB. A smart SOB, but a meanie. You need to find someone else, I guess. Maybe you should go out drinking with one of your pals."

With that, Royce called Ron, his friend who sold cars wholesale to new car stores. Ron was chipper and invited him over for some beers. The two stayed up late talking about fast cars and fun women. Royce headed home at midnight, only to question his own judgment toward Ellie. By the morning, she was completely out of his mind.

Royce had a younger brother who was in Lawrence, studying Industrial Design. He was always busy with school and his rock and roll band. Mat called Royce at the crack of dawn.

"Where you been, man. I tired calling you last night. Ellie called me and told me the bad news. I am sorry, man. You doing OK?"

"I am fine." Royce replied. The woman and I are on two different planets. She can go have her life of drugs and insanity. I have bigger fish to fry. By the way, what is up with you, Bro?"

"You know I am getting out of school in a few weeks for the year and I want to open a business. I think I want to detail cars for the car dogs and get a crew of guys to work for me. I need a fun summer project."

"That sounds like much more than a summer project, Mat. What gave you this crazed idea?"

"Dad told me if I wanted to try it, he would help me out some. He has all these connections in Kansas City with his wholesalers and is always needing to get some car ready for the auctions up there. I was thinking that since Dad and I have worked together before, it could be a fun thing. Hell, I could even make some much needed money."

"Mat, I know of a building that is available and I might be interested in helping out some, too. Do you want to come over here and talk about it?"

In ten minutes, Mat showed up and the two brothers talked for an hour about the business. It served a purpose for Royce as well as the building was right across the street from Leroy's building, where Royce stored his cars. He needed to get the cars ready, too and Mat being across the street would certainly be convenient. Royce had some equipment and some money. He suggested that his brother simply rent the building and that Royce would supply the start up cash. They both agreed that Henry always placed moral restrictions on his help, somehow and that if Mat could do it without Dad's help, it would be desirable. They agreed on the deal and Mat went off to find the owners of the building, who owned an auto parts house. In three hours the building was rented and Mat came back over to Royce's to talk about signs, equipment and how they would structure the business.

"First of all, let us think this through, Mat. I am across the street almost every day. I can be an easy mystery shopper for your business, if we set it up right. If you are going to have much help, perhaps it would be good to not let them know I am involved or even your brother?"

"That could get tricky. The help would associate your last name with me and ask questions."

"Not if they did not know my correct last name or if I just observed from a bit of a distance."

"Ok. I see the brains in that. It could work. I will not tell anyone you are my brother and no one will know. When you introduce yourself to any of the help, just use the name of your company as your last name. No one will suspect a thing. We will play our cards close to the vest."

In a week, Mat had called on most of the car dealers in Lawrence and had some work lined up. He dove in and began detailing cars on his own. Royce came over a few times to check in, but Mat was busy getting his business into high gear. Mat had hired a couple of college kids to help detail. Royce gave him a couple of convertibles to touch up and detail. Things were moving along nicely. In another month, Mat had many cars parked as his newspaper ad had yielded results. A couple more hands were hired. A part-time woman was hired to do bookwork. Royce especially liked her and took a bit of interest in Cathy. She had a boyfriend and some extra time. Royce hired her to do some of his bookwork as well, but avoided telling her of his last name. Cathy was cheerful and an efficient bookkeeper. Royce especially liked her ability to charm the socks off of customers.

"What do you think, Royce?" Mat asked. "Are things progressing along like you had hoped?"

"All is well, Mat, but what are you going to do when school starts. You have to be here and your time is short. Got any ideas?"

"I think I have found a guy to manage things. He is the counter guy at the NAPA store and I like him. We talked money and he is agreeable to a salary, plus a cut of the profits. I think the guy will work. He starts on Monday."

Ed came to work as planned. He was a spark plug of a character and had the crew of seven charmed at once. Mat had a fairly good list of responsibilities for him to tackle and Ed seemed at once to be on top of things. Royce came over a few times to bring in some more work and greeted Ed with a proper, but professional edge. Ed treated Royce like any other customer, but with particular interest in Royce's business. It was just business and Royce said very little to Ed.

Several months passed, Henry was pleased with Mat's success in school, as well as in his new business. The code of silence was invoked between Royce and Henry, regarding who Royce really was. Mat was doing a fine job and the two brothers and Henry were all pleased with the success of things. Mat had found a good manager in Ed and Cathy was doing an excellent job of keeping track of all of the paperwork. By spring, the business was doing very well. Mat had a good income from his limited time in the business and Royce had invested some more money into the project, as additional equipment was needed. The two brothers got along well and no difficulties arose.

In February, Royce met Leroy at the door of his building with a worried look on his face. Leroy had been rarely seen in the past month. Royce asked him how things were going and he explained the sad news that he was sick.

"I have some odd thing happening to my blood pressure. It is high as a kite and the doctor thinks I work too much. Besides that, I have a spot on my lung that he thinks is cancer."

"Bad news, Leroy. What can they do about it?"

"They want to operate, but I told them I wanted a second opinion, so I went to Houston. I am a sick puppy. I have a cancer that will not easily take to any treatment. They suggested I change my diet and plan on making a slow swan dive into the next dimension."

"That sounds horrible. How much time did they give you?"

"Six months at best. I have to get my affairs in order. Can you come up to my lab and talk. I need you to do some things for me."

Over the next few hours, Leroy outlined his affairs. He would leave it all to Royce, except for a house he owned that was rented out, He would leave that to Mat.

"I want you to do something for me, Royce. It is seriously difficult. I want you to put me up. I need a place to stay while I croak. I do not want to go in some hospital and I want to stay at your place. In exchange for your extreme hospitality, I will leave you my farm in western Kansas and all my research on the catalyst. There is much I have not told you. I will have a nurse to tend to me and I will try my best to not be a pain in the ass. I need your help and you are the only one I really trust."

"This is a very generous inheritance, Leroy. Are you sure there is no one else you might consider having some of your stuff?"

"Royce, there really is no one else. I told the guys at work and resigned this morning. I hate to admit it, but I know I have not much time. We need to get to work. I think I want you to develop this catalyst into something very big. You need my help, in as much as I can provide."

"Ok. Let's get to work."

Over the next month, Royce spent every spare minute helping Leroy with his process of extracting the catalyst agent from the dragon weed that he had gone out to western Kansas to secure. The weed had to be crushed into a pulp and then acetone added to it. Acetone was very volatile and had to be handled with great care. The water heater had to be turned off, so no fumes could be accidentally ignited. Every effort was made to keep the process absolutely to the plan Leroy had laid out. In ten days they had sixty ounces of the catalyst. The process was complicated, but Royce learned fast. Much discussion between Leroy and Royce centered on how to make the process bigger and more efficient. Royce took long pages of notes and it was decided that perhaps a separate facility should be built to produce the catalyst in secrecy. Many options were discussed, but the one that seemed best was to build it out in western Kansas, under the secrecy of the vast farm and away from any prying eyes.

Leroy would have his days of being very weak. He would stay in bed and call Royce on the phone, giving him his orders. The brome protein was fairly easy to extract. Several bales of the grass yielded plenty of what they called the "B" agent to be mixed directly with water. The "C" agent was the catalyst and was added to the B water in the injectors directly before the two entered the combustion chamber of a diesel engine. In three weeks, they had quite a bit of both agents to test. A brick chamber was built with sufficient ventilation. Leroy rallied and the two began to test their first samples.

Small amounts were used at first to explore the range of mixtures and concentrations. They found that just a very small amount of the oily catalyst worked fine. The brome protein worked best if dissolved into the water tank under heat and pressure. This made the entire process quite simple. Leroy suggested they try to get the combustion to replace diesel fuel in a simple tractor engine. An engine was purchased and the appropriate plumbing and pumps were installed. Within a month from the beginning of the work together, they had a running diesel engine burning water. It produced 20% more horsepower and burned completely clean. A small amount of diesel fuel was required to start the reaction motor, but once running, the engine burned cleanly and emitted only some carbon and water vapor. They adjusted the water vapor to literally wash out the carbon and found the entire process amazingly simple. They had achieved a miracle.

"I am feeling very pleased with our success, Royce. We have achieved something truly worth my while, I feel."

"Speaking of how you feel…How do you feel?"

"I am very tired. I want to go back to your place and just sleep. The nurse is very undone at my overdoing things, here, but she understands. I want you to take me home."

Two hours later that night, the nurse came into the den where Royce was watching television. She announced that Leroy was in horrible condition and that he needed to go to the hospital. Royce reminded her of Leroy's insistence that he not go. It was hard to say those words and Royce felt miserable with Leroy's condition worsening. By morning, Leroy was in a deep sleep. Royce tried to wake him to no avail. By noon, the nurse said he was in a coma and that pneumonia had set in. She had him on a drip and was monitoring his blood pressure every ten minutes. He was fading fast. At three, he woke up.

"Royce. You have to take my work to the top people. I want this thing to make you very rich. Sell the technology, but never reveal the secret catalyst. Use your other identity to keep everything secret, or else those people will hound you silly."

He muttered something else and lapsed back into sleep. Royce sat with Leroy all night. At two AM, Leroy's pulse was almost gone. The night nurse called the emergency room doctor who insisted they bring him in at once. The nurse protested and asked for guidance. It was too late. Leroy stopped breathing. The fight was over. Royce felt an incredible sadness.

3

The funeral was small and uneventful. Just Royce, Henry, Mat and a few plant workers attended the small service at the funeral home. A few kind words were spoken by Leroy's plant director. He was buried in a small plot out in western Kansas, next to the family farm house, by his parents. Mat drove out with Royce to meet the undertaker and give the final directions. The weather was dreadfully stormy. By noon the next day, the two were back at work. Very few words were said. The two brothers just took life's sadness in stride as it was part of the grand design.

In his absence, Ellie tried calling Royce's house several times and left messages on the answering machine. She had called once and reached the nurse, whom she figured was Royce's new girlfriend. The nurse was fifty and married to a fireman. Royce refused to return her calls. His friend Ron, suggested some reconciliation, but Royce refused, claiming she had baked her own cake. Ron pleaded with him to reconsider. Royce was steadfast in his refusal. Ellie called Ron. He explained it was useless. She melted away into the woodwork.

Royce poured himself back into his work and the details of Leroy's estate. The loss of Leroy was very hard, but Leroy had been very clear in his marching orders to move fast on the process and to forget about any grief. Leroy had saved some money and had some other investments. Mat received his house deed and Royce inherited several hundred thousand dollars that Leroy had squirreled away, not ever spending much on anything, but lab equipment. The wheat royalties from western Kansas were sizeable.

Back at the Leroy's railroad building, Royce kept working on his diesel engine tests. He had many concerns about how to process the catalyst on any larger scale. He was puzzled at how to increase the efficiency of the diesel engine. The brome protein was a simple to extract agent, but the production of it on a large scale puzzled him. He needed equipment, but more, he needed someone to build equipment. He had many concerns about the process becoming a large operation. He knew he needed help, but was fiercely committed to adhering to Leroy's insistence that the process be kept secret.

Mat was about finished with his education and wondered what he would do next. The detailing business was humming along fine, but Mat's heart was just not into it. Royce discussed this with Mat and it was decided to try to sell the business to Ed over time. Ed had hired some new people who were very interesting people from the student aid office at the university. Mat heard about a job back in Wichita for an engineering company in which he was interested and went for an interview. By early summer, three weeks after graduation, it was agreed that Mat would move back to Wichita and that with Royce's secret help, he would try to keep the detailing business a going concern. There were twelve employees, now and it just was not smart to close the enterprise.

"Ed tells me he hired a guy who is working on his doctorate degree to work ten hours a week in the shop. Can you believe how overqualified some of these guys are, Royce? The man just needs a part time job away from the school, he says. He is some kind of engineer."

"Hmm. Mat, I want to meet this guy. Any engineer with that much education who is not working at the university must have something independent about him. What kind of guy is he?"

"I met him. His name is Bill. He is from Nevada and came here a year ago to work on his PhD in engineering. He looks like a surfer type. He has a knock- out, beautiful girlfriend who drives a pick up, named Brenda. He is an interesting character. If you want to meet him, I can have him come over to your office?"

"No one comes over here, ever. I want this place kept secret with all of Leroy's stuff still here. I would not want someone to hear the place is interesting and besides, I have a couple of cars in here that are all apart."

"What exactly did Leroy do over there, anyway? Was he making bombs or something?"

"Mat, you are nuts. Leroy was just experimenting with fertilizer chemicals and discovered some interesting things. I want to help get one of his ideas to market."

"Is there any money in it for you?"

"Should be. I think we have something here that will change things a bit. I cannot talk about it yet, but you will hear about it soon enough. Now back to Bill. Why don't you invite him over to my house this Friday night. You and your girlfriend come and I will grill some steaks. Tell Bill to bring his bombshell. I want to see this babe."

That Friday night, the foursome showed up at the house. Royce actually had met a woman again at the grocery store, a week before and invited her to come as well. She was a cute graduate student in Computer Science, named Bobbie. The six sat down to dinner with Royce asking Bill many questions about what he studied. Bill seemed very knowledgeable about chemistry and especially metals. Royce asked Bill many questions about what he knew and was also interested in Brenda, as she was a doll. Bobbie felt left out and sat there quietly talking to Mat's girlfriend, Hazel.

"Royce is an enigma to me, Hazel. He does not talk much about what he does. He works crazy hours and really does not make much sense to me."

"How long have you known him?"

"Really for just a couple of weeks. I used to see him around with a friend of his, but I really met him at the produce section of Dillon's. We started talking about vegetables and he asked me out. What a weird way to meet someone."

"What does he do?"

"He buys and sells old cars…and says he is working on some engineering thing, but I do not understand it. Very quiet about what he does. How long have you known Mat?"

"We were in some classes together. We started going out about a year ago. Mat is about to move to Wichita and I really do not know where things are going with us. He is a good guy, but moving away will be difficult. I still have another year in school and I suppose we will continue?"

"Things have a way of working out if they are meant to be."

The table chatter continued to be polite and buoyant, but Royce began to talk more seriously with Bill. They wandered off to the outside deck where Bill talked more about his areas of study. The night was cool and beautiful. Royce was very interested in Bill's abilities.

"How much more school and what are you doing afterwards?"

"I have another year, I guess. As far as a job afterwards, I am clueless. Typically, I could go work for some big company, but I am not interested. That explains why I came back to get my phud. I want to do something on my own, but do not know what." He could tell Royce was very curious about him and felt he had something he could offer.

"If you have any ability to make things and to be mechanical, I could use someone to help me in my business"

"Old cars? That is not exactly what I really wanted to do, however it is interesting."

"Not exactly old cars. I have another business. I need someone to head up my engineering of a new product. It involves energy and engines. I would like to talk with you some more about this, if you can keep a very precious secret?"

"Now you have me curious. What kind of secret?"

"Why don't we meet tomorrow evening for a couple of hours and I will explain some things. You seem to be the kind of person who would work well with me and I need a right arm to really develop some things."

"Ok. What time?"

The two talked on for a while and then Brenda came outside.

"What are you two up to, out here?"

"We were just talking about a project of Royce's. No big deal. He might want me to work for him. We are going to talk about it tomorrow night"

"Royce, you invite us over to dinner and then you want Bill to work for you? What kind of trick is this?" Brenda said humorously.

"Well. I did have my motives, but with you kiddo, it is purely just sex. Why don't you leave Bill and run away with me?"

Bill laughed and Brenda stared at Bill with a softened smile.

"Yeah, right. I go for the surfer types and you are too mean."

"Mean? I am mean because I speak my mind? I was just kidding, Brenda. You and Bill make such a good looking couple."

With that, Brenda conceded that Royce was just cutting up and smiled back her acceptance. She was a bit suspicious of Royce, but liked his wry sense of humor. She wondered about him, but realized Bill was really the better choice. Bill was Mr. Surfer to her and he had a strange sense of needing. Royce seemed too secure. He needed no one.

The next night Bill showed up to Royce's to talk. He had hoped that something interesting would develop, but was realistic. He figured nothing ventured, nothing gained. Royce was glad to see him.

"Bill. I inherited some things from my cousin Leroy. Did you ever meet Leroy?"

"No. Never heard of him. Did he live here?"

"Well, yes. He and I went way back. He passed away right before you went to work for Ed. How do you like working for Ed?"

"It is OK. It is just a mindless job to take my mind off of school and besides, I need the extra cash."

"How much money will you probably make after school…when you finish your doctorate?"

"Well, that depends on what I do. I could go to work for a big company and make $50,000 a year the first year, if I wanted to suck up to some political group of people working for the man. I guess I will, though, unless you or someone else offers me a better deal. What do you have?"

"I may have something for you. I need someone to work in complete secrecy with me. No one is to know that you are working for me. You will be working for a corporation and I am only some obscure part of it. I need you to develop a product, which will become incredibly successful. I will also make sure you never need worry about money. For your loyalty and silence, I will pay you extremely well.

"You will take the rudimentary beginnings of my product and you will manufacture it into a giant business. It is a very tall order and you will have to work quite alone. Got any problems with working in silence?"

"Wow. I guess not. What kind of product is it? What are you up to, here?"

"Well, my cousin Leroy invented a chemical process which will become a significantly important product to the entire world. I want to develop it and I have the resources to do such. I just need a loyal right arm…someone who will stick with me all the way and someone who can keep his mouth completely closed. In exchange, you will be paid well, but more importantly, you will receive bonuses that will truly become outrageous, if you can keep your trap shut. You will become a very rich man in a very short time, if all goes well. Interested?"

"Heck yes. I am intrigued. Why me?"

"You have a great education and you are independent. You have an independent streak about you. I feel I can trust you and if you ever think you can take advantage of me and let out the secrets here; I will simply explode. You must be able to keep your ideas to yourself or to me. No one, not even your closest allies, can ever know what we are up to. The impact of it will be completely damaging to both your success and mine."

"This sounds illegal."

"It should be, but it truly is not. Leroy has given me a gift of an incredible technology and I want to simply bring it into full scale industrial production. We will need to build a working plant to process a couple of chemicals and then, we will need to take these products to market and reap the rewards. I have thought about this a great deal and Leroy and I devised a fairly workable plan. There will be times when you will need to be completely incommunicado with everyone else, but me."

"How dangerous are these chemicals?"

"Not very, but if anyone discovers where they come from or how they can be made, it will significantly hurt our efforts. Do you understand?"

"Yeah. That makes sense. Now I am very curious. When do you want to begin all of this?"

"Immediately. We will need to build a couple of industrial sized hoppers to make and modify our chemicals. We will need tools, equipment, some trucks, a building, and some other chemicals. I need to show you some simple things at my lab, first, but once you see these things, your life will completely change. I will ask you to sign a binding contract with me; a letter of intent. Once we do this, we can begin. Within a couple of months, we should have some results."

"When can you show me these simple things?"

"Right now, if you agree to my terms? Remember, no one is to ever know about this, if you do not agree to my terms. I am taking my one greatest gamble right here. If you cannot come in with me and come in all the way, the project will be seriously compromised. Do you understand?"

"How much money?"

"More than you will ever be able to spend. If you agree to my terms, I will hand you a check tonight for ten thousand dollars, once you sign our letter of intent."

"Hmmm. OK. I am in. You better be telling me the straight stuff here. I guess I have nothing to lose, though. If I am not in, I will remain silent, but do I keep the ten grand?"

"Yes. Ten thousand bucks for either your beginning of a very successful career or complete silence."

Thirty minutes later, Royce pulled Bill's arm and helped him from the car, parked inside the garage at Leroy's railroad building. He pulled off his hood and apologized for the inconvenience. Bill seemed puzzled, but trusting.

"Come with me up these stairs and I will show you something."

After turning on the lights, Royce took Bill over to the diesel motor standing idle in the middle of the lab. He hit the start switch and the engine strained a bit for a second and exploded to life. It ran smoothly and evenly. Bill looked at it and said nothing. The two just stared at it for thirty seconds. Finally Bill began to ask questions.

" So…what is the big deal, here?"

"It runs on water."

4

Royce and Bill became fast friends. The trips into Kansas City to the steel supply companies, industrial hardware shops and junkyards were numerous and successful. Trucks were purchased. A larger building down the street from Leroy's was leased in the name of the new company, Kaw Energy, Incorporated. A trip to New York City yielded a sophisticated attorney who adroitly set up a corporation in Delaware, which owned a series of other corporations, one of which was Kaw Energy. Royce demanded a maze of companies to build his complex secrecy. A concrete floored, pole building was quickly constructed in western Kansas by a company from Garden City, which was told the building was going to be used for storing combines. Bill and Royce spent many long hours together masterminding every detail of the operation.

Brenda became very concerned by Bill's absence, although remained interested and respectful of his new career, but Bill never mentioned Royce as anything more than just someone with whom he worked. Bobbie failed to gain much more of Royce's attention and faded from the scene. Mat made his move to Wichita, successfully and Ellie had completely withdrawn from Royce's life, as she had found someone new and was either stoned or happy. Royce's friend, Ron asked a few questions, but Royce remained aloof as usual and kept any details away from all. Royce thought of his social life as something similar to Leroy's, however he felt he could at least do something about it when he wanted. His main focus was really on his work.

Bill came over to Royce's late in the afternoon to discuss their departure to western Kansas for the complicated next steps. Royce seemed unusually pleased that he was about to get the production plant rolling with Bill.

"We have the building almost completed. The security company from Wichita has about completed the locking system in and out of the place and the fence people are about done with their work. We will need to go out there in a couple of days and start setting up our hoppers."

"Royce, are you sure we can really pull this off? Are you sure we can keep all of this secret"

"I have been thinking. Once we take our diesel motor to Chicago Diesel and demonstrate its results, they will want to buy all the technology they can get. The attorney in New York is working on the contracts. We will just provide the agents "B" and "C". Without the fuel, the engines are just diesels. Eventually, we will only make the "C" agent. The "B" agent can be easily licensed out. We will make the catalyst and ship it through a series of secret deliveries and it will arrive in Kansas City to be sold to the open market. We will sell the technology of the engines everywhere, but without much effort."

"They will line up, but where will we meet them and how will we deal with them? I can see making the shipping fairly secure and secretive, but someone will have to represent the product"

"Maybe not. I have done business over the phone before and I will here. The federal government will quickly come in, as this will become a strategic defense issue, with something so incredibly valuable, such as this. We will deliver the "C" agent to a building that we will need to probably build out there halfway between and switch drivers, so no one knows who was where. It will be simple. The driver from Kansas City will drive an empty truck out there, park it inside the secure building and drive back a loaded truck. He will know nothing of who drove the truck there, to begin with. It will require some tricky planning, but if we are as smart as I imagine, it will be a piece of cake. Now the selling will be the hardest part."

"The trucking is easy. Once we get the first load to Kansas City and the market starts calling, it will get hairy. How can we keep the lid on this? I guess I will need to drive the truck to the halfway point so no one else knows where the plant is?"

"Bill, that is exactly what I thought. The truck back into Kansas City will require security. Hell each load will be extremely valuable. Millions and millions of dollars. We will need to have it very hush-hush."

"Ok. After Chicago Diesel sees the deal and calls about getting more, how will you deal with it all?"

"The attorney will have contracts and the money will be transferred into a bank account. With the series of companies we set up, it will trickle back to us. It will get preposterous and very complicated, how the money changes hands, but the attorney is a master at this. I checked him out and he should be able to keep us out of sight for some time.

"The calls will come into the switchboard in New York. The operator there will get the buyer's information and will agree to send them a form to fill out. They will mail it back to us at one of our other company offices and through a further series of calls and letters, it will get to us. No one will know more than he or she needs to know. Eventually, I will get a call from a secretary and have the order information. We ship the "C" agent to Kansas City, where they transfer it to their own tanks."

"OK. That makes some sense, but will it work? Can we do anything else to keep the wolves off our scent? Will anyone in western Kansas suspect anything, seeing these trucks going down the highway? What if we have a road accident? What if the fire marshal wants to come and inspect our facility? We have to think of everything."

"Bill, that is precisely why I hired you. Now, if you are going to keep Brenda in your life, you will need to go home and make sure she does not get too suspicious. We will need to be out in western Kansas for a month or so to get the equipment built and functioning. Once we make the first big sample, we will need to get it on the truck and drive it to Kansas City. After the first order, we will need to start covering our tracks very well and Brenda could spill the beans if she gets nosey."

"Brenda will be cool. I have already explained to her that I will need to go away to oversee the mechanical engineering of an important project. She seems more concerned that I am putting my education on hold, than where I will be for a while. She is going to go visit her sister in Virginia for a few weeks and I will call her a few times and write her daily. I will need to get someone to courier the letters to Colorado for the postmark, but you said you could get that handled? I guess it will be fine."

"You will drive the letters to the next town, south of there and mail them to me. I will mail them to the office in Denver, where they will forward them onto Brenda. I have already hired the woman in Denver and leased the office. She will be a good source of smokescreen for a while. The attorney will send her cassette tapes to transcribe and keep her busy most of the time and I hired another woman to stop in there every day or so and drop off additional bookwork for her. She will think she is performing some big legal function for us, but really she will be primarily used as just a forwarding agent for us, when we need her."

"That is a pain going through all of that. I guess we need it, though. Once we get the big money flowing back, we should probably set up numerous others all over the place, Royce?"

"Well, I agree. We will have to have numerous alias offices to keep this all quiet. The government will eventually start trying to crack us open and make us reveal our web of intricacy, but the attorney will keep us incognito as long as possible."

"I will meet you back here at your house the day after tomorrow at 9 am. We will drive out to western Kansas, then.

With that, Bill left. Royce thought he should go back down to the lab for some other loose end work. The sun was beginning to settle into the west and he decided to drive his '67 Corvette out west of town to see the lake and open it up a bit. No matter how important his work was, he still loved driving his fast cars. This particular Corvette was especially fun to drive and he had just picked it up that afternoon from the transport truck at the Chrysler store. It was throaty and very powerful. He started it up and took off like a shot.

After a long drive, Royce was feeling focused. All he could think about was the feeling that at about any minute his world would be changing, dramatically. He realized the implications of sudden wealth, but also realized he had so much else to work on in his personal life. Money was not just the main game. He felt he needed to resolve some inner feelings about women and social issues. He had friends, but Ron was the only one he could really connect with on any meaningful level of fellowship. He flashed on, if perhaps he was gay, but then laughed it off as being totally out of the question. He lusted after women; their beauty, their different ways of thinking, their surprising changes of tempo. Finding someone to hang out with meant he had to find a woman he really liked. All the songs that lingered in his head told him so. All his dreams about feeling passion were about women. Royce began to realize he was barking up all the wrong trees.

He drove back home and called Ron. They agreed to meet at a local watering hole they had frequented before. In twenty minutes, he pulled his flashy Corvette into the parking lot and felt he was doing something about his other needs. Were they needs or wants? He pondered that for a second and realized he was thinking way too much about the meaning of life. He wandered in and saw a dozen people sitting at the bar, drinking and having fun. He smiled. Ron was there ordering up some rocket fuel, as he called it.

"I just told Tim we needed rocket fuel. He will be pouring us cocktails this evening and I told him you were going to tip him well."

"That's good, because you never learned tipping, except for cows."

Ron laughed and glared back at Royce as if he was insulted. The two saddled up to the long marble topped bar and peered up at the twelve foot tall rows of shelves, covered with all sorts of colored bottles. The place was buzzing. People were laughing and some loud mouth was at the end of the bar yelling about how well the Kansas City Royals, baseball team was doing. There were several new cocktail waitresses that immediately sequestered Royce's attention.

"Check out the brunette, there. She must be the new waitress that Tim mentioned."

"Who is Tim?"

"The bartender, you knucklehead. He said she was his favorite. You should ask her out, Royce. I think she is quite the dreamboat."

"Maybe you should ask her out. You are obviously interested, Ron."

"I have a new girlfriend. I told you about her last week. You should go talk to the brunette."

"Are you pimping for me, Ron? Do you think I need some romance in my life?"

"As a matter of fact, you do, man. You are working way too much. What the hell are you doing down at your shop, anyway? I have tried calling you ten times and you are always down there."

"I have been busy. I have to go out west later in the week to work on a new project. You know I have all of that wheat property and I need to work on that a few days."

"Oh yeah. You are turning into the wheat farmer, now. I forgot. Any women out there in Bird City?"

"No. The women out there are all married or busy. No fun life out there at all. It is just some work. I have to…er..a.. Let's just say I have some work that I have to get done."

"Sounds like you found an interesting old car, again. What is it? 'Fess up."

"Really, it is just the agriculture. I have to meet with the man who grows wheat out there and get a new lease on the land. It is just some stupid running around."

Royce wanted to tell him what was up, but he realized Ron was not the person to mention anything about his new venture. No one needed to know and especially one of his friends.

"Tim. More rocket fuel!"

"Ron, you are going to get us into some real stupid trouble tonight. Aren't you?"

"You are getting yourself into it. All I am doing is spending your new found money in a way you should be, every night, Mr. Workaholic."

"You are right. I gotta take a leak."

On the way to the can, Royce passed the brunette at the bar as she was cueing up for another drink order. She had on some interesting fragrance and a skirt made of some slinky material. He brushed passed her and caught her eyes for a second.

"Hey, aren't you new here? You must be the new waitress that Tim told me about."

She was chewing gum and stared back at him, as if he was just another player, looking to get laid. She smiled, though and asked him his name.

"I am Royce. You must be Sheila?"

"That's me. What do you think of this place? Have you been coming here long?"

"Actually, I started coming here a year ago and stop by every now and then. I kinda know Tim. He is pouring us the rocket fuel."

"Are you the guy with the old cars? I have heard so much about you. I would love to get one, you know. How much for a '61 Falcon?"

"Who the hell would ever want an old Falcon? They are real slugs."

"My grand parents had a yellow one and I want one. It ran forever. Can you get me one?"

"Come down to talk to me and Ron at the end of the bar, when you get a break. I will get you exactly what you want."

Royce wandered off to the men's room and took another look over his shoulder at Sheila's dress. She was looking back at him and he felt embarrassed. In the bathroom, he felt like she had suddenly invaded his thoughts. She had a look and a snap about her. There was something about her that grabbed him. He shrugged it off as he walked back to Ron.

"She is a very pretty woman. I talked to her a second and she is coming down her on her break to talk about me finding her a Falcon."

"A Falcon? Have you lost your marbles? Those cars rusted out ten years ago. They were Ford's cheapest car and total bozos. Get her into a Mustang or an old T-Bird."

"She said Falcon. Anyway, here she comes"

"Tim said I needed to come down here and say hi to you. He said you looked lonely."

"Sheila, I am lonely. I need some companionship. My friend, Ron, here is too radical. Wanna go out on a date?"

"What would I tell my boyfriend?"

"Tell him goodbye and tell me hello!"

Royce felt dizzy from being so blunt. He expected she would either ignore him or flirt some more. Sheila looked back at one of her tables and said she had to take an order. She wandered off as the two playboys watched her wander off, looking like two VWs passing one another.

"Nice try, Romeo. She looks interested. You better wrestle her to the ground. She looks like real trouble."

"She certainly does. Maybe I can get her to run away from her boyfriend a while."

Ten minutes later, Sheila waltzed back by Royce and scribbled down her phone number. Royce reached for her arm and said he definitely would call her, but what about later that night. Sheila replied that she worked until 3:00 am. Royce assured her he would be back by, if they could go talk a while.

"Where can we go at 3 AM?"

"How about Denny's? Not exactly the most romantic spot but at least it is well lit and open?"

"Denny's it is. I have to get up tomorrow morning, so I can only stay a while."

"Long enough to tell if we should run away together?"

"Maybe."

With that, Royce's heart soared. Ron laughed at his boyish glee. He accused Royce of being too obvious. The two yammered on and on over a couple more drinks until eleven and left. Royce told Sheila he would be back by three.

"Guess you got what you came for, old Roycie. You made a total fool of yourself.

"Ron, someday you will best me with your own embarrassments. Mine happen to be getting me closer to the beautiful Sheila. She is a doll, don't you think?"

The two friends parted company and Royce headed down to the lab, a mile away, across the river. The moon light reflection on the Kansas River looked serene and he thought he needed to stop and really ponder it, when some bozo was blinking his brights at him from the opposite lane. Reality snapped him back and he adjusted his lights.

At the lab he mulled over the designs for the hoppers to make the chemicals. He checked the shipping orders for the raw chemicals they needed and realized he would need to pick up the barrels of alcohol and acetone at the railhead in the morning with the big box truck. The thought of driving three hundred miles in the massive truck was painful. He wondered if he could get someone else to do the driving, but then realized his own proclivity for complete secrecy. Bill and he would be on the road in two days and the big effort to make their first commercial batch would become critically important. He checked the rental truck again, parked outside. He went back in and checked through the bins of tools and equipment they had already packed. Lists of every detail had been prepared, carefully. The metal and welding equipment was ready. Extra everything was there. No detail seemed missing. Just then he heard something outside and went to the door.

"Royce, I am Ed from across the street. I met you a while back. I run the shop over there, remember?"

"Heck, yes, Ed. How can I help you?"

Royce avoided Ed most times as he did not want him to connect the fact that his brother was Ed's boss.

"I saw some activity over here and just came over to check it out. I was just leaving the shop. What are you working on over here, anyway?"

"Just some last minute details. I rented this big truck to haul some car parts to a customer….old vintage stuff, mostly."

"How is your old car business going? I saw that Corvette is looking wonderful."

"It is going fine. I sold a few last month and bought a couple more, fun projects. Got a '70 442 to redo. It has the Hurst package. I also found a '68 500KR Shelby in pieces that I will be putting back together. I will be seeing you soon with the Hurst."

"Is it inside, there?"

"No. It is over at the front end shop getting some ball joints. Thanks for checking on me over here, Ed. I have to go back inside and get some paperwork done."

"Ok. Good to see you."

With that, Royce sighed a bit and walked back inside. The heavy door locked behind him and he went upstairs to the lab office. He looked over the area where Leroy had spent so many years, just dreaming of his fortune and success. He wondered how Leroy would be today, had he made it and if he would be taking an active role in all of this. He chuckled to himself, thinking how Leroy would have tripped all over himself at the meeting with Sheila. He smiled and dug through some papers on the desk.

At 2:00 AM he left the lab and headed back to the bar. The place was still jumping, but there were many fewer people there. A few looked especially inebriated and he realized he was smart to have left when he did. His head was now clear. He spied Sheila from across the room. She was talking to Emily, one of the other waitresses.

"You came back. I figured you would. Do you still want to go to Denny's?"

"You bet your life, Lady. We are going to really live it up at Denny's."

"Yeah, the place is kind of a hot spot at this time of night. I was there last week and every bar drunk in town seemed to be there, trying to sober up, before going home. What have you been doing since you left here?"

"I went back to work a while and took care of some things. Nothing much. I was just making sure of everything. I have to take a little road trip in a couple of days and needed to make sure it was all together."

"We will talk about it later, I have to go help that couple over there by the door. They need something more. "

Royce ordered a soft drink and Tim asked what he was doing in there so late. He explained his interest in Sheila and Tim rolled his eyes. He said she seemed like a nice girl, but knew little else about her, or at least refused to offer any more details. In a bit, he cried out for the last call of drinks and everyone began the closing procedures. Customers were hustled out and the floors were swept. Royce sat at the bar, quietly, just watching the routine. Sheila came over as said she would meet him at Denny's in twenty minutes, but Royce suggested she ride with him and enjoy the night air. She asked him what kind of car he had and seemed impressed he had a flashy convertible.

"OK. You will have to leave through the front door in a minute and I will need to finish up here. I will be out the back in five minutes."

Royce went to his car and waited. In a minute she walked up in the moonlight. The light was shimmering off her polyester dress. She looked great in moonlight. He opened her door from the inside and off they sped to Denny's.

"The place is almost empty. Do you want something to eat?

"No. I just want a cup of tea and a cigarette. Got any?"

Royce fiddled in his pockets and gave her a Marlboro and a light. She looked up from the flame and smiled, sweetly. He could feel his lust stir.

"Sheila, you look like you just started your day and yet you worked all night. What gives? How come you look so fresh?"

"I had a good night. No one messed with me or my money. Things went well and someone left me a big tip. I almost have enough money to buy the new skirt I saw in the window at Weaver's."

"You are all about looking sharp, aren't you Sheila?"

"Well I do love clothes. I have other things, too. I just finished my degree and am trying to go to grad school."

"What in and where?"

"University of Chicago in Economics."

With that, Royce's opinion suddenly was elevated toward Sheila. She was smart and attractive. He saw her in a different light. She was not just a cocktail waitress, but a budding economist. They talked about the economy a while and other serious topics. Sheila had strong political opinions and came from a well educated family.

"Tell me about your boyfriend, Sheila. Is he really the jealous type?"

"I was just kidding. I am not dating anyone right now. Too much going on. I only decided to go out with you, because you seemed truly lonely, I guess."

"Do you ever get lonely?"

"I never think about it, I guess. I dated a guy all through college, but we were not meant for each other. We split up a couple of months ago and he ran off with someone else. I wish him well, but time to move on."

They talked until dawn at Denny's. The more they changed the subject, the more they found in common. She seemed interesting and he was definitely interested. Finally, he excused himself and told her he would take her back to her car. They blasted through the empty streets of morning mist and just cruised in silence. At her car, they talked a bit more and Royce asked Sheila if she would go out with him on a real date.

"What did you have in mind and when?"

"I have to go on a business trip and take care of a big pile of things. I won't be back for a few weeks. How about if I call you and let's think about going somewhere? Have you ever been to Vegas?"

"Wow. That is a big first date. Why would you think I would run off with you to Vegas?"

"Sorry to be so presumptuous, but a few days there and we could really get to know each other. Why waste our time any other way? Come on. It will be fun. I will be a perfect gentleman and you will even have your own room."

"That is worth thinking about. When are you going to call me?"

"How about I call you in three days. Give you some time to think about it. I would really love to go somewhere and I find you very interesting, Sheila. How about it?"

"Well. I will think about it. Could I bring my roommate, Carolyn?"

"That would be fine, but won't she get lonely?"

"Well, maybe. I will think about it. Call me in the morning three days from now."

With that, Royce drove off. She kissed him on the cheek and he hugged her for a second. He was smitten.