Summoned Again?

I spent the evening with a satisfied Susan, a pleased Nat, and a very happy and paint covered Crystal. She was a budding natural artist, according to Nat. After they all went to bed, I went into my work room and started enchanting. The first spell I tried was Merge, that would let me join two complimentary things together. The ring would only have a small amount of power, so I couldn't use it for anything spectacular. It could be a handy spell to have, though.

The next spells I did were Quickfoot, Topography, and Flight. I knew they were going to be the very bottom of their respective power options, so the Quickfoot would probably only be Quickstep, Topography would only give me a very small area, like my Search and Detect spells, and Flight might only be Hover instead. Still, three minutes of hovering above the ground could also be very useful, especially combined with Quickstep.

The next spell I enchanted was Obscure, to combine with my Stealth spell. Even the powered down version should still hide me from sight. Enlarge was next, and I knew this one would have a very limited use. I couldn't pour mana into it to increase past the spell's normal unenhanced range. I would have to test it to see what scale it would make things with just the ring's enchanted mana reserve.

I did a few rings with Holy Purify as well, just in case I needed to clean and sterilize anything. I doubt I was going to find spoiled or rotten food to test it on for it's primary use, though. I also thought about making rings with the two 'bad' spells I had, Essence Rot and Life Drain.

I debated the merits and drawbacks of using those spells, especially on a ring, and decided against it. The touch requirement might have affected me as well, since I would be touching the ring when the spells were cast. I did several rings with Holy Cleansing Fire, just because it was cool to have rings that could shoot out white cleansing fire. They went well with the Holy Cleanse rings I had already made.

Morning arrived and I made breakfast for the four of us, and another day at home started for Crystal and myself. Susan left to spend the day with her mother, which she hadn't really had the chance to do in a while, and Nat went to her apartment to do some more painting.

Derek called me soon after and told me the details of what it was going to take to put my gold... my very ridiculous and unbelievable amount of gold... into the federal reserve. The amount they had on the premises was only about ten percent of what any given country or organization had access to and the rest was stored in three different locations, one of which was their main storage facility in Kentucky that housed the remainder of the gold the US owned.

He also told me it would be a week before I could get an appointment with them to arrange my deposit. I already had the cargo planes on the way, so they had to complete their initial flight plans before they could be diverted somewhere else.

Rather than have them sit where they were going to land and wait for a week, which would make them and their precious cargo vulnerable to certain agencies and their propensity for pilfering my property, I decided to fly to the small airfield in Washington D.C. to pick the cargo up.

I texted both Susan and Nat to tell them I was making a quick trip on the plane, then texted the pilots and Miss Carlyle. Thankfully, they were actually on the plane and doing their monthly equipment check with the maintenance crew to ensure the excessive wear and tear that my frequent flights have been putting on the plane wasn't detrimental to the plane's safe operation.

Crystal and Teddy were both quite happy to make a quick and unexpected trip, so we dressed up and made a day of it. I drove us to the small airport and we didn't have any bags or anything, so we went right through the security station, waved to the man behind the counter, and went to the waiting room and onto the plane.

“Thanks a lot for dropping everything to do this for me.” I said as we boarded the plane.

“It's part of our job to be on call.” Miss Carlyle said with a smile and knelt to greet Crystal. “Hello, little lady! It's been a while since we've seen you.”

“I've been busy with my friends.” Crystal said and made her laugh.

“I knew you'd be a socialite.” Miss Carlyle said and stood. “We have to wait for about twenty minutes or so for the plane to be all closed up, so let's hunt down some sweets for you and Teddy.”

“Kay!” Crystal said and took her hand to lead her to the galley.

I chuckled and walked by them and strapped Teddy into a chair and sat down myself. A short time later, the plane was ready and we all strapped in and took off.

“Weeeee!” Crystal put her hands into the air as the plane tipped back and accelerated up into the sky, almost like Bethany had during the international flight.

At least she's no longer scared during take-off. I thought with amusement.

The flight was over an hour later and I went to the terminal to ask about where the large cargo planes were coming in.

“Three are already here and parked over by hangar ten.” The man behind the desk said. “I must thank you for bringing so much extra business to our little airport.”

“I hope you're not going to run out of fuel or something.” I said and he chuckled.

“I've brought in several large tankers to refuel the planes arriving today, so don't worry.” The man said. “I've also brought in everyone that works for me to help with the extra plane loads today.”

I nodded and he handed me the plane schedule. “Nice going with the timing.”

The man smiled pleasantly. “It was only possible because we don't have to store and keep the planes for an extended period of time. Otherwise, we'd have to rotate them around and hope they offload their cargo in time.”

“What about the guards?” I asked.

“Twenty of them are available, with ten in the hangar and ten on patrol.” The man said. “I've never handled so much valuable cargo before.”

“I'm sure there's not many people that can say that.” I said and then smiled. “Officially, anyway.”

“That's a good point. Not a lot of people would admit that they've seen, or will soon see, over 37 billion dollars in smelted gold bars.”

“Probably because no one would believe them.” I said with a smirk. “I assume you've taken some pictures with some of it.”

The man looked a little surprised, then he laughed. “I had to check if the manifests and the cargoes matched.”

“I'll be doing it myself in a few minutes.” I said and picked Crystal up. “Which door...”

“Let me escort you.” The man said and waved to a woman in the office behind him. “I'm going over to hangar ten for a few minutes.”

“He's the client that owns all that gold?!?” The woman exclaimed as she shot to her feet to look at me. “Marry me! Please!”

Both the man and I laughed at her reaction.

“Right this way, please.” The man said and motioned to the door at the end of the counter. I followed his directions and we left the terminal and walked a good ways before I saw the hangar in question with lots of people around it dressed in suits. The looks on the men's faces screamed 'guards' and would have been intimidating if I didn't know they were working for me.

“I'm Damon Smith.” I said and nodded to the closest guard as he held a hand up to stop us from walking closer to the hangar.

“I hope you won't be insulted if I ask you for identification.” The guard said.

“I'd be insulted if you didn't.” I said and handed over my wallet.

He quickly checked it and nodded, then waved behind him. Another guard ran out of the building and over to us to escort us inside.

“Thank goodness you're finally here.” A kind of familiar voice said from behind the many pallets of gold bars. “As you can see, some of the ideas you approved of have been working well.” The scientist from the first mine I bought said as he walked around the pallets. “Thank you for instituting them with the other mines and for giving me the credit.”

I held a hand out to him for him to shake. “You had great ideas for increasing both the safety of the workers and the production of the mines, so I wasn't going to piss you off by ignoring you, Nicolai.”

Nicolai laughed and shook my hand. “You want me to keep trying to innovate!”

“Of course I do.” I said and waved at the pallets. “I never expected getting anywhere near this much so quickly.”

“The new equipment has been like mana from heaven!” Nicolai said with a laugh. “You don't know how much ore we've been storing up, just because the old equipment couldn't handle too much at once.”

“Oh, I know.” I said and told him about the time and effort it was taking with the ores and metals with the smelters.

“Ah, you are experiencing it first hand. Good, good. You know my old pains!” Nicolai laughed.

I nodded. “I've got some great people working with the old smelters to get more ore smelted down.”

“Have you had any problems?”

“No, it's been all sunshine and roses using old and run down equipment.” I said and he laughed.

“Yes, you know my pain well.” He grinned and looked at Crystal. “Who might this little lady be, I wonder?”

“This is Crystal, the most beautiful little girl I've ever met.” I said and Crystal held a hand out to the Russian scientist.

Nicolai's grin widened as he took her little hand and shook it gently. “It's very nice to meet the person that Damon was so desperate to get back to.”

Crystal looked at me and back at him. “Really?”

“You were all he talked about, saying that he had to rush to get back to you as quickly as possible.”

Crystal looked very happy and hugged my neck tightly. “I love you, Uncle Damon.”

Nicolai kept his smile as he saw her reaction. “I would want to get back to someone like you, too.”

I chuckled and motioned to the gold bars. “The next few planes will be arriving within the hour, with the last of them the hour after that.” I said and looked at the airport clerk. “Are the trucks on their way?”

“They have the same schedule, so they don't clutter up the hangar area.” The man said. “I think it's twenty more minutes for the first one and then the next is thirty minutes after that to allow the loading of the first.”

I nodded. “I'm glad I didn't have anything else to do today.”

“Will you be shipping it all out?” The clerk asked.

“Yes, except that I don't need either of you to stick around for any of that.” I said. “I know you're busy.” I nodded at the clerk and looked at Nicolai. “I also know you're already homesick after your long flight.”

Nicolai laughed. “You can read me so well. Yes, I have been away from home since last night and this foreign land is a bit too strange for me.”

I put my free hand on his shoulder. “Then as soon as your plane is finished loading up on fuel, go back home and make me more money.”

“I'll be sleeping for a week first! HA!” Nicolai barked the laugh. “I will do my best.”

I let his shoulder go and looked at the clerk. “Let me know when the first truck arrives.”

“Yes, sir.” The clerk said and the two men left Crystal and I alone in the hangar with a lot of shiny gold bars.

“Picture time?” Crystal asked with a huge smile.

I smiled at her and Teddy appeared on top of the closest stack of gold. “Picture time.” I said and then we had a blast while we waited for the truck to arrive.

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