WNWNchapII

“Conrad!” shouted Paul. Conrad entered. Tall, muscular, Conrad was well in his middle age years with graying hair, cut military style. Conrad was a SEAL in his two hitches in ‘Nam. He was awarded the Navy Cross there. Conrad had worked his way to the top of Diamondback Security. Diamondback was Paul’s military wing. Diamondback was a hired gun, primarily escorting and protecting high risk targets, securing sensitive sites and just about any kind of activity requiring armed, well trained military specialists.
Now he was Paul’s bodyguard, right hand man, confidant, friend. Paul realized that he sometimes transferred his paternal feelings onto Conrad. For his part Conrad felt extreme loyalty to Paul. Paul had given Conrad an opportunity to rebuild a life nearly wrecked by divorces, bankruptcy, alcohol. Conrad liked his job.
“Conrad, I’m going to go down to Texas tomorrow. I’ll travel by myself. I’ve booked a flight under an assumed name. I want you to come down two days behind me and get a room in Kingsville. Just sit tight and I’ll call you on your cell phone when I am ready or if I need you.”
“Got it.” said Conrad. “I’ve got everything we might need taken care of and I’ll be ready.”
“Good,” said Paul. “I know I can always count on you.”
The next day he flew to Houston, after a three hour layover, switched planes and flew into Corpus Christi. His flight had not been full and it took him no time to find his single bag in the luggage. He had carried his lap top with him on the plane in an attache case.
Paul looked the part of a professional business man but he was not ostentatious. His suits were refined but modest. He wore dark glasses. No one really paid much attention to him when he
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traveled and rarely did anyone recognize him. That was how he liked it.
At the car rental he picked up the keys to a 4WD Blazer and
asked the clerk for a few directions. They brought the truck around and off he went.
Paul did not go into Corpus Christi. Instead he followed the
directions on a map he carried. He took back roads to Kingsville where he hit 77 and turned south. Paul knew this area. His family had been doing business in Texas for nearly seventy years, and hell, he had been there for over half of it! He had been all over this state. His company still had interests here but not as much as it once did.
He was not going to any of those businesses however, something new was being developed.
Paul was “officially” on vacation, going hunting out in the wilds. To all appearances he was going to spend some time on a new property he had recently purchased. He intended to do some hunting and relaxing but that was not his sole purpose.
In Kingsville he drove to a storage rental and backed up to a shed. He opened the door and inside was a U Haul trailer which he hooked up quickly and then pulled back out onto the road. He stopped for a quick lunch at a diner and then drove out of town, still headed south.
Basically the land here was flat. Sometimes there would be a gentle rise or a slight swell to the contour of the land, but mostly it was flat. He passed acres of farmland, now under the plow and being readied for next year’s planting. Cotton and sorghum were the biggest crops here. Interspersed among the farmlands were great areas of grazing lands covered with stocky cattle.
There was yet another aspect of the local economy readily in
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evidence. Oil and gas wells were scattered, seemingly at random, throughout much of the countryside. Occasionally he saw some
sort of service rig at a well head and he passed a drilling rig eagerly digging down into the ground. “The energy industry isn’t entirely dead here,” he thought. It was definitely making a comeback with the present higher prices for gas and oil.
Paul liked it down here. There was lots of room, it was an uncomplicated place. To him the mesquite tree symbolized this
part of the country. It was tough, gnarled, but no matter what man or the seasons did it always thrived. Many large sections of the land remained uncleared. These areas were often kept in their natural state to be used as deer leases. On these sites mesquite was thick, and here and there large stands of prickly pear cactus were sprinkled amidst the dry grass. Where such natural cover existed wildlife was abundant. White tail deer, turkey, javelina, a very peculiar looking wild pig with a poor disposition, and diamond back rattlesnakes were a few of the many creatures that made their home in the bush.
He had turned off of highway 77 many miles back and now following a map which showed him the route to follow to the new property. These back roads were narrow but good. He met little traffic. He made another turn and noted on his map that he was to drive eight more miles ‘till he reached the gate of the property. He was definitely out in the boonies.
The sun was going down with a brilliant display of red light reflecting from the clouds. “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight,” Paul said to himself.
Soon he reached the gate he was seeking. Steel letters perched on a steel arch over the gate read “El Rancho De La Rosa.“ It was a typical affair for these parts, made of welded steel pipe with a thick pipe housing covering the lock to prevent any tampering. He pulled to a
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stop well back from the gate and got out of the Blazer. He stepped
over the cattle guard, which is a ditch with a framework of pipes laid over it, and unlocked the gate and swung it open. He then drove through the gate, got back out of the truck and closed the gate, locking it.
Now he was on his new property. The place was vast. As he drove in over the rough dirt road, down here this road surface was called “caliche,” no man made structure, not even another fence, was in sight. The land was once largely pasture but it was beginning to be reclaimed by brush and mesquite.