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Jessica and Alex did some shopping before going home. They had time for a leisurely dinner and a little work before bed, and Jessica sat to watch Alex work for a while. "What are you doing?" she asked as he navigated around a screen full of what looked like gibberish. The text was in various colors and he used the keyboard almost exclusively, seldom touching the mouse. "Some coding," Alex replied, tapping a few keys and leaning back. "There. I've been trying to remember how to do that. "I'm making some tools to build a website. I have an idea." "What about?" "Frank said he was working with several other victims." Alex said. "I'm going to set up a website they can use to communicate, exchange information. We can get work together." "Sounds like a good idea. How will it work?" "First I'm going to set up a basic site, call it 'victimsofacch.org' or something like that. I'll put a contact page, we can keep a database of our contacts. Maybe attract attention from lawyers and law enforcement. We can do more together that working individually." "How long will that take?" "Not long. I'm using code modules I built and have worked with for years. It's taken a while to remember all of it, but I should have something working in a couple of days. How does the name sound?" "Victimsofacch? Sounds good. Can you do that?" "I'm going to. I registered the domain name. Rented a private server got email service. So as soon as I get it finished we'll see what happens." "I wonder what the hospital will do." "Probably get the lawyers after me real fast." "Why do I suspect that's exactly what you want?" "Because it is." "That could get interesting. I wonder if they have any idea there's trouble brewing out here." "Probably not. I haven't known may crooked people, but I never met a smart one. Most of them are about average, but they learn the tricks that work for whatever they want, and just do it for as long as it works." "We would be in trouble," Jessica said, "if there were very many smart criminals." "Very likely." Alex switched to another screen. "Let me show you something." "What's that?" Jessica asked, looking at the diagram on the screen. "Something I found. It looks like a map of the farm. See the buildings, the road." He pointed to the image. "There's the fence." "Yeah, it looks like it. What am I looking for?" "See how some of the fence-posts have stars by them? No regular pattern." "Yeah." "Let's go out there tomorrow. And take the metal detector." "You think that's where..." "Only thing I can think of right off."
"I hope there's a shovel around here somewhere." Alex said. "And that we need it." "There's probably one in one of the shops." said Jessica. "You have quite a collection of tools." "Let's see," he said, "looking south, it looks like they're on both sides of the gate." He held the map he had printed so it was oriented to their position. "So we can count posts from either end, or the gate." Jessica said. She turned the metal detector on, checked the settings. "Since were at the gate, we might as well start here. Where's the first marked post from here?" "Let's see," Alex said, "the first one is the third from the gate post. Let's do it." Jessica moved the metal detector around the base of each post, beginning with the first. On the third one the detector buzzed loudly. She turned a dial, moved the coil in an arc around the base of the post. She smiled. "Looks like you're right. There's something big down there. Do you remember how you buried it? How deep?" "Beats me. I guess I would have put it at the bottom of the hole, under the post." "How deep is that?" "I would guess two to three feet. That's gonna be some fun. Let's check a few more, see if they match the map." Almost an hour later they had completed their survey, and all the posts indicated on the map registered a hit. They returned to the house to rest. Jessica made some coffee and they went out on the small back porch to drink. Sunset was still a couple of hours away. "Twenty-seven caches." Jessica said. "I wonder how much you put in each one?" "Hard to say. I don't know how much I had. The records I've looked at so far, it looks like I was buying them ten at a time. Probably so I could store them in tubes, like the silver ones. I guess when we dig one up we'll see." "At least we know where they are," Jessica said, "and you have control of the property again. So they should be safe. It's a little late today to dig one up." "Yeah, we'll have to come out early one day. And be discreet. Make sure no one is around close. Shouldn't be a problem out here, but we need to be careful." |
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