C H A P T E R    F I V E
 
 
 

        "It's destiny, Quixote," Jessica smiled over to Kit as she
thoughtfully placed the large-sized first aid kit into Romeo's
rear baggage compartment.
        "It's sure one," Kit smiled back, winking at her, as he
checked the oil level in the right engine.
        "A veritable odyssey," Felecia added, handing Jess the
pack of flares.
        "A grande vision," Estrella shared the excitement as she
handed the heavy wool blankets to Flece.
        It was feeling like a great adventure to them all as they
stowed the last of the survival gear, then piled into Romeo,
stoked up the engines and started up the Canadian Pacific
coast out of Bellingham, Pute handling the governmental
airspace and customs protocols before they evcn hit the air.
        They lunched in Juneau with the lawyer BR had
recommended to them for up there. AD was young, bright,
vibrant, alluring and beautiful, the daughter of a good friend
of BR's from Harvard. They talked land, mining claims,
people, money, the concert and all, and formed fast
friendships, then our four flew up to Anchorage for the night
and partied in their hotel bar with the pilots, fishers, loggers,
hunters, miners, Eskimos and everyone else. The word got
out fast about the beauties, or what, in the bar, so they had
to group up with the couples and others there whom they
could trust for a little comfort zone of safety.
        There was a little craziness on their way out. Kit didn't
have to go to his gun, but did, with help, have to stand off
some 'neebed up frontiersmen wanting to fight him for his
women. Pilots and others escorted them out of the bar and
up to their rooms. Kit offered them good money, but their
new friends just enjoyed helping the girls out. It was a full
night of door banging and debauchery out in the hall, but no
breach of the inner sanctum, though the orgy was subdued
some.
        In the morning, after an interesting breakfast with
apologetic and hungover men all around, they flew up to
Denali - Mount McKinley - and around, looking for where
they wanted to set up a ranch, air-village and dig for Gold.
They narrowed it to a few locations they GPS'd, flew on to
Fairbanks and lunched with a lawyer friend of AD's.
Finding Aileen just as beautiful, charming, sweet, bright,
young, vibrant and alluring as AD, they realized that they
were obviously plugged into the top of the food chain there
at the top of the Western Hemisphere.
        Back over Denali that afternoon, with Aileen between
Es and Flee in the back seat, Jess, then Kit, confirmed the
place, a particular stream just sort of "gleaming" up at them,
they told us. It definitely looked majestic amidst all that
wilderness out there at the base of North America's highest
peaks. They saw a few cabins spread around, too, which
seemed perfect. So they wanted some land up that stream
and a little up the East slope for their ranch and mine, and
a large area down around the highway for the airport and
village, flying around awhile to take it in and get the GPS
numbers and all, then headed back to Fairbanks for the
night.
        They tried that hotel bar before "retiring", and it
turned out to be a little less troublesome, due only to less
population, though even heartier in spirit. It was wild
kingdom Marlin Perkins stuff.
        "These guys are BEARS!" Essy remarked her
amazement to the girls at one point in the raucousness.
And the bears were challenging Cody to arm wrestling and
other frontier "games" to get him away from the ladies,
drunk or both. Hotel staff was guaranteeing the girls' safety,
but not necessarily Kit's. Our guys made it to their rooms
all right, though, but there was still all of that dam knocking
on the doors along with the proposals of love well into the
night again, despite the good efforts of the staff.
        In the morn they met again with Aileen for breakfast
in the hotel and the men there stayed in control, knowing
Aileen well. Puter had worked on the paperwork overnight,
besides everything else, and they were ready to file their
mining claim on the 80 acres contiguous to the National
Park and ready, too, to buy ten square miles down along
the highway, and borrowing a million and a half for down
payment. AD and BR were overseeing, Pute was tying up
loose ends and Aileen was drawing up the papers to sign
for both the property and the new corporation - North Air -
along with taking care of the legwork and deals.
        They hired a married couple and some men there in
the dining room with them right on the spot, asking them to
find some more crew for clearing their land at $25 an hour,
and then signed the papers Aileen had brought back. Then
she took them to the bank to meet the president, set up the
accounts and borrow another half million for the first
payroll and supply bills.
        Well, Aileen was married to John and they invited the
guys over that night for dinner and bedrooms, after our four
did a bunch of shopping and driving around the rest of the
day, and agreed to be the front guys for the new place. So
Kit cut them a check for $1oo,ooo, for starts, and offered
them 5 per cent of the company, which they gladly accepted.
And that was one real darn nice orgy that night.
        And everything was "go" in the morning. By 10, they
owned the property, except for the mining claim, which
would take awhile longer, and their loan was approved. So
they bought a big used pickup and camper trailer, filled them
both with supplies, food and several shotguns, then drove
the 3oo miles South to the site.
        They spent most of the rest of daylight setting up camp.
There was still snow on the ground and the cold was coming
down off the mountains after the peaks blocked the setting
sun, so they were plenty invigorated into gathering the wood.
        Their site was a little South of Denali State Park, where
the Susitna River bends around the Talkeetna Mountains and
follows Route 3 South, though that's obviously vice versa.
The closest towns are Cantwell to the North (well named, A?)
and Talkeetna to the South, about 50 miles away each. They
had stopped and met everyone at the stores in Healy, Denali
and Cantwell on the way down and were assured that
everyone would be good for emergencies and supplies, and
the same came right back from our guys.
        A crew of 14 were setting up camp and clearing the trees
- and griz - by the time they had gotten there in the afternoon.
Our femmes were pursued from the git upon gittin' there, but
Kit was laying down the law with the bucks, with backup from
John. And the girls could dam well take care of themselves
besides, they were telling and showing with hubristic gusto. So
our four set up their camper, started the bonfire and began
putting the big dinner together, some of the guys bringing over
the fish they had caught out of the Susitna.
      They had brought three of their guitars and played a lot
that first night and gained mucho respect from the men. But
there were still drunken tries for the ladies' affections. Our
guys had extremely quiet sex that night after they were pretty
sure that everyone else was asleep or passed out, then were
up early in the frigid air to get breakfast together for everyone,
along with the coffee spiked with Yukon Jack. Then they were
taking down trees and piling them up at the cabin sites along
with everyone else.
        Their initial plan was a 5,ooo-foot grass runway, office-
bar-restaurant and cabins. Expansion was the plan after that,
including a trail up the slope to their ranchsite and the mine
after that. And they could envision their little village already.
        Kit was on the phone to Arkansas in the afternoon, it
being very early morning there in the Ozarks, and was trying
to talk Wiley, Orville, Elaine and Tommy into bringing their
planes and their selves up for the summer and into running
the flying operations up there for them. And dang if they
didn't agree to think about it strongly, Kit telling Wi that if
ANYbody was going to run an Alaskan flying village it would
be THEM, the Kitster being his absolute persuasivest. And
Kitto was getting into some pretty lucrative offers for those
ole razorback rockheads.
        Well, that day turned into a week in no time. The land
for the runway all got cleared. Some cabins were well on
their way. The office-bar-and-grill was way ahead of
everything. And they had 22 workers there by the end of that
week. They had started with a grove in a meadow and dam if
they didn't have a new beautiful little village growing up right
beneath their busy paws and tails, their crew suggesting all
kinds of names. Kit wanted to name it "Jessica", and all the
guys agreed totally, but "Jessy" was the name everybody
loved. It was Alaska, for Godssakes.
        Anyway, North Air borrowed another half million to
cover the next round of wages and supplies, and Jess
reminded Code that that was all he had HAD when they had
joined up all of what, a month earlier. And they recalled and
rejoiced together their first day's talk about luck, among other
things, going through their memories with Flece as best they
could.
        They were making up to a million a week in profits in
the market by then - the stock market. Fark, it WAS the mid-
90's bull roar. And they called Casa de Migas and learned
that there was another $30 million blown, dugged and ready
to go! Putey calculated up their worth at somewhere around
that $30M that night and they were what? Overwhelmed?
Ecstatic? Crazy? Well, sure. But they were handling it like
they actually knew what they were doing. Ah, the trick.
        They still commed with Sundance. Every night. Even
just for a "hay". But the fund was doing incredible work.
Money was coming in from all over the world. The fund had
reached $1oo million. And the album was ready to come out.
But that was all the news.
        Kit finally convinced the guys in Arkansas to come up,
offering them major stakes in North Air. Plus they would be
the first to land when the runway was ready - about another
week away - unless the guys could beat them to it.
        They went shopping for aerovehicles that next week
and started buying bush pilot operations that had run out of
money, luck, gumption or persistence, even contracting
Frank Bama and Trevor and their Grumman Goose on a
loose arrangement out of Anchorage. And they bought
deHavillands, Cessnas, Pipers, Boeings, Beeches and such,
hiring on the pilots and mechanics as well.
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