"Si, we senoritas have the poder," Maria smiled.
        "What's that, Ri?" Jess queried.
        "The power," Jul translated, Kit nodded and Jess smiled.
        "Well, power girls, who's up for some more jewel pickin'?" Kit
asked.
        "Vamanos!" Jul responded, and they all got dressed. They
spent most of the night chipping out the jewels, after taking pictures
of it all, and stashed them in their cellars, except the ones that they
had given each other.
       They were still catching the concert. The first-weekend
performers were slowly leaving for other engagements and such, and
the "second string" artists and bands were taking over, though plenty
of the originals were hangin'. The Blues took over around midnight -
Hooker, Waters, King heading it up, Clapton, Rait and a bunch of
others sitting in.
        Evan, Stef and the kids were on their way back with Kenja
early in the morn, and Josh was with them. They all drove in in the
rental Jeep and found the guys in the jewel treasure cove and went
wild, Josh and Kenj the most awed. Those two were sworn to
secrecy, of course, and everybody was ready for Z's after calming
down.
        The reunion with Josh was totally emotional, Kit too glad for
words that he was safe and finally there, Jessy feeling the same.
Flee, too, hugged and kissed him just as much. Josh and Kenj were
hitting it off real well already, which was highly cool. They sacked
out in Jul's and Ri's living room with the other kids.
        Everyone was up by noon and hit the mine after breakfast.
Wallo and Junior had come up early and had just let everyone sleep
in and they had had the jewel shock of the day, though there were
hardly any left in the cove. Es and Phil went into Taos for the
satellite dishes, groceries and stuff. And Kit and Jul got the baffles
and mufflers back on Juliet.
        Julian was proud to be associated, re-impressed with all Kit
was doing, or presumably doing. Kit, though, apologized for maybe
putting the family at risk. But Jul told him not to worry about it.
        "The giants were great, 'meeg...heck of a thing you're doin'
there....O, I mean, if that's what you've been doin', of course," Jul
smiled over. Kit winked back.
        Agricultural and space development was the part of the plan
that Jess, Kit and Sundance commed about in the late afternoon.
They worked on the figures for the water pipe projects - you know,
from oceans, through desalinization plants (reverse osmosis) and on
to arid areas for irrigation and development, Kit envisioning a boom
in fish farming with the seawater pipes bypassing the RO plants.
And if global warming does melt the ice caps, then all the better to
have "drain" piping.
        Then they commed about the ideas of developing the moon and
Mars, and the bucks for it, when they won, borrowed on the value of
those two new pieces of real estate and the following infrastructure.
That would give our adventurous military souls PLENTY of
adventure. And give the defense industry plenty of new business,
much more than they have had with military stuff, in fact, as time
would go on. It was time for Civilization to grow up, stop fighting
among itself, dive into the "water" and venture in peace was the
slogan. Dammit. Even on to Alpha Centauri and beyond, when the
propulsion and all was figured out. NASA was at what, $15 billion a
year? And the rest of the world's civilian space budgets maybe another
$10 billion? WPG would do ten times that in the first year, and much,
much more as the spending needs of the Peace Force, humanitarian
missions and water projects subsided.
        The idea was that the WPG would be self-sustaining in five
years or so, and able to pay back on the debt from transportation,
land sales on the other planets and infrastructure business, primarily.
Then there is that asteroid close by with trillions of dollars worth of
metal on it. That is REAL estate out there, folks! And a livable
atmosphere might be able to be developed on Mars within a century
or two. O, it would be cold. But developable. Especially pertinent
when you consider an asteroid can wipe out a good chunk of Life on
Earth, if not ALL of it. Let alone a nuclear holocaust. Of course, the
sun is going to blow out too, but we have to be a lot further gone by
then.
        Next, Pute and Cy did the quarterly taxes, comming with BR's
computer, and Kit sent the money to BR, which was not too bad a
sum because of all the contributions and interest deductions that they
could deduct. Then they sent more money to their missions after
talking with Rachel, Madeline and Theresa. Our three felt awfully
dang good, but told their mission directors that they were the good
ones, and deserved all they were getting, which was more than the
month or weeks before. Then the guys made an interest payment,
then gave every dollar they could borrow to the WPG fund, another
$7 million, then worked on their stock portfolio, still making millions
there every week. It was the real hay days of the 90's bull.
        Elaine reported terrific profit from Rockhead Village and a little
over breakeven for North Air when they called there. She was in the
B'ar with the others for late lunch, Wiley getting on the phone to tell
Kit that they needed more old planes. Kit told him to go ahead, after
they consulted with the ladies.
        Es and Phil got back and everyone helped them unload. The
guys in the mine - Josh and Kenj included (Kenja already having
called in sick to her employers) - came down with the day's Platinum
and the dinner fire was sparked.
        "God, is this the way to live or what?!" Jessy whispered into
Code's ear as she kissed him.
        "Mmmmm," he kissed her back as they helped everyone feed
all the animals and birds and all. "I think so, precious," he added.
        There was a horseshoe match that Sonia and Emilio won. And
Kit and Jul talked to Wallace about building another cabin and they
discussed over a puro and Frogs on where to put it. They told Wallo
that they wanted to give he and Junior another half million each out
of the next pickup, which both Wal and June finally agreed to accept.
Kit also firmed up the guys' help on Juliet before they took off for
home, though Phil was staying again, concerning Maria just a little,
seriously wondering if her baby girl was still a virgin, or being careful
enough if not.
        Kit and Josh talked a lot that night, the old man trying to give
his son all the fatherly advice that he could think of, besides their
filling each other in on the years gone by. And the ladies all
powwowed around the fire about everything under the stars. Then
they got to their music and turned the radios off, and played away
past midnight, Jess loving getting back to that, Josh and Kenj floored
by her talent. The weather was good, so they couldn't get Juliet out
of there that night.
 
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