Richard J. Ronayne

Novella

Phenix Publishing Ltd

Nation-X Project

Dozens of my stories are currently being illustrated for release by Phenix Publishing Ltd for their Nation-X project, a multi-year project for 4-8000 word educational novellas.

This series was designed for young adults and high schoolers across Chinese and American schools, harnessing anthropomorphism to help digest mature, dark or joyful topics, whilst reflecting life, and exploring real social issues in an exciting and educational way.

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Fracking
By Richard Joseph Ronayne

CHAPTER 1: Dark Meeting
Fred Elley parked his car in the dark of night and waited for the signal. A black car opposite flashed its headlights twice. “That must be them then. Ok, Drax, stay in the car and make sure nobody sees you. Hopefully, I won’t be long,” Fred said to the pile of coats in the back that was hiding his son Drax.
“Ok, Dad, but be careful,” he whispered, unmoving.
Fred got out slowly, there was no movement from the opposite car. He supposed that perhaps they wanted him to walk over to them. When he got close, the passenger door window rolled down slightly.
Arriving at the window, he swallowed his fear and approached. He could not see through the black tinted windows, and it was too dark in the vehicle to see who was in there, but a deep voice spoke, “Fred Elley?”
“Umm, yes. Are you the contact?” Fred asked, feeling more uneasy by the minute.
“Behind you,” the voice said through the window.
Fred slowly turned to look back; he saw another black car with tinted windows pull up beside his parked vehicle and immediately feared for his son.
“We know you didn’t come alone as we asked you to. If you fail to cooperate any further, I’m sure you can imagine how you will pay. Do you understand?” the voice commanded.
Fred knew there was nothing he could do now; he nodded in agreement. Then the door opened, and the voice demanded, “Get in.”
Fred still couldn’t see inside, powerless to resist this worsening by the moment meeting. He climbed into the vehicle, looking up for a moment to see a gun in his face, held by a large jaguar who spoke once more, “Close it.”
He slowly closed the car door. There was still no light in the vehicle, so he couldn’t make out who was sitting in the front, but a tiny flame was brought into existence to light a cigar.
Fred could not make out the shape or size of the individual as they took a few puffs on the cigar before speaking in a low growling voice, “Mr. Elley. It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person. I know you’ve done some side work for the Trimestar Gang before, but now I have chosen you for a much bigger job. One that will pay extremely well for everybody involved.”
Fred gulped hard. He was terrified. He had had some dodgy dealings with the gang before, but they usually approached him as customers who paid him extra to keep the materials they bought from his company off the books, so there would be no way to trace them.
Finally, he bravely asked, “That sounds very intriguing, Mr. Ryker, I presume? What do you have in mind?”
“Ah. Just a moment, Mr. Elley. There is one more person to join us. He’s a good lad, that son Drax of yours.” Brad Ryker threatened.
Fred’s eyes went wide in fear. “No, please, leave him out of this! He doesn’t need to be involved!”
“But you involved him, Mr. Elley. You brought him to our meeting, so he must participate fully now.” Brad instructed as the other passenger door opened, and Drax was shoved into the car on the opposite side of the jaguar, who had pulled out another pistol, sticking one into each of their backs.
“I’m sorry, Dad. They knew I was there somehow. Are you ok? What’s going on?” Drax asked, trying not to show aggression.
“Welcome, young Master Elley, I am Brad Ryker, boss of the Trimestar Gang. I have worked with your father before, but this is our first time of meeting in person. I would like to make clear that we can make you and your loved ones disappear without a trace with incredible ease, if you try to tell anybody about this meeting, or if you simply disappoint me. Do you understand?”
Drax looked into his father’s eyes and nodded darkly in reluctant agreement.
“Good,” Brad continued, “then this is the start of a beautiful partnership. We are going to make a lot of money together, gentlemen. Let us begin. The biggest supply of natural gas in the world has never been tapped before. Everybody knows where it is, but the government has always refused to drill it.”
“Why is that Mr. Ryker?” Fred asked submissively.
“Good question, Mr. Elley. It is because it is directly three miles below the center of Hope City. Luckily for us, we have been given special permission to build a drill to harvest the resources through a technique called fracking. Which is where you come in. I need your company to do what it usually does for us, as you supply us with the following list of materials we require. But this project is so very close to my heart, I will require you to take one further step for us,” Brad said ominously.
“You can count on us, Mr. Ryker,” Drax said to Fred’s surprise.
“I knew you were a good lad, Drax my boy. In fact, you have a very interesting family, don’t you? The Elleys have done very well for themselves, especially your uncle Grant. He has a very respected construction company; I want you to convince him to build the rig for us,” Brad announced.
Fred and Drax looked at each other in dismay, Grant was a straight cut businessman. He would never work with criminals. How were they going to persuade him to help?
“And, if you fail to persuade him, your family will soon be made very uninteresting. If you get my meaning.” Brad snarled intimidatingly.

 
CHAPTER 2: Corruption City
“Do you think they will comply?” The vice-hierarch asked through the voice filtered phone.
“You doubt me? I will handle my side of the agreement. You just make sure that you get the Minister of Construction’s signature where it needs to be, then you and your cult will be one step closer to your special Dreamland.” Brad bit back.
“Very well. I will confirm to the Hierarch that stage one has been completed. Proceed with stage two,” The V replied, ignoring the mob boss’ insult, before ending the call.
“These Dreamlandists, I don’t trust them, but there’s money to be made and power to be gained,” Brad said, more to himself than anybody in the car, who knew better than to respond.
Fred and Drax composed themselves back in their car. That was the most terrifying event either of them had been through. Fred didn’t know what to do. He started the car and began driving away in shock. 
Fred was panicking internally, how was he going to persuade his brother to help them. He couldn’t tell him about the Trimestar Gang’s involvement, but they would all be killed if he refused.
After driving around for hours in silence, Drax finally spoke, passing forward the folder of documents that the gangsters had provided them, “Hey, Dad, I think you need to see this.” 
Fred parked the car at the side of the road, then took the documents. Drax had left it open on a page that showed the financial incentives for their successful participation:10, 000, 000NXD!
Drax watched his father closely and was surprised when Fred started laughing. “Dad? Are you ok?”
“Of course, I am! Ten million NXD! We’re going to be rich!” Fred cheered, having found sufficient justification to willingly continue, “Listen, this is just another job, Drax. We’re not going to fail; we’re going to make more money than we’ve ever dreamt of!”
Drax’s initial worries passed at his father’s remembered ambition; it was an ambition that they both shared. This one job was all they needed to live the kind of lives they wanted to. They both hungered with desperate greed for evermore money.
“Yeh, that’s the Dad I know and love. It’s the last job we’ll ever have to take. Where shall we start?” Drax smiled.
Fred turned to the beginning of the documents, which included a detailed bio for every single member of the Elley family. A terrifying reminder for the danger of failure, Fred only paused for a moment, though, before he answered Drax, “My old friend Frank Todd. We’ll organize a meeting first thing tomorrow. For now, let’s go home and sleep to make sure we have our heads on right.”
“Can’t you see I’m busy! Oh, Fred, can I help you?” Frank said, mid-swing of his office golf set as Fred and Drax entered his office.
“Hello Frank, this is my son Drax. We have something I believe you will want to see.” Fred offered, placing a copy of the gangster’s documents on the table. He had amended the documents to remove any suspicious pages, so it appeared as a professional and legitimate business proposal.
Frank went through them meticulously, in silence, before finally closing the documents and smiling widely at Frank, “This is genius, Fred. I will approve it immediately. I noticed it says your company will provide the materials, and your brother’s company, Elley Construction, will provide the construction. Isn’t your brother a little high and mighty for this kind of dirty work?”
“Nothing gets past you, Frank. That’s why you’re the governor. I have resolved all the other issues, but this one, for which I need your help to persuade him to accept the job. My brother doesn’t care about money, so he will say no to anything that doesn’t project positive public image, which is why I need your help to convince him that this is what the public want.” Fred returned.
“Alright, pulling the wool over people’s eyes is my specialty after all, with his inclusion, we won’t need to include the troublesome Mayor of Hope City, you’ve got a deal,” Frank said as he shook hands with the pair. Then he pressed the intercom on to speak to his secretary, “Bring me Grant Elley. Immediately!”


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