Free Beast Machine by Brad McKinniss

in Bella
Vista.
    Gora dropped her knife and
began to struggle to control her breathing.

Chapter 8
    Teach a Man to
Fish
    Standing still in an open
field, Chairman Obelis looked through binoculars, with those
binoculars’ straps draped across his chest. To the north laid a
thicket, to the east nothing but open, rugged land for miles, to
the south an abandoned mining facility and to the west the sun on
the horizon – once the sun set, one could see the beginnings of a
dense forest to the west. Beyond that dense forest, a scrappy,
smelly trailer park full of workers lived. “This would be the
perfect spot,” thought Chairman Obelis. “The perfect spot to
continue my ultimate plan.”
    “ Send for the construction
materials, architects and refurbishers, Jeffrey,” said Chairman
Obelis to his assistant. “Make sure someone has knowledge on modern
architecture. I want it to look keen.”
    “ Yes, sir. As you wish,”
nodded Jeffrey as he walked slowly back to the black SUV parked at
what used to be the parking lot for the miners that could afford
cars. It was mostly gravel and dirt with no parking lines. Once
inside the SUV, he grabbed a handheld radio.
    “ Time to strike. Send in
the construction crew immediately. Bring the assigned equipment for
the refurbishers too,” ordered Jeffrey. “Also, make sure one of
those architects knows about modern architecture – it’s a must. Not
post-modern either – just simply modern, got it?” The handheld
radio buzzed back and Jeffrey seemed pleased. He tossed it back
into the SUV.
    Jeffrey watched his boss,
Chairman Obelis, from the SUV. Chairman Obelis, a tall, slender but
sturdy man, was slowly twirling around pointing robotically:
pointing at the thicket to the north, pointing at the nothingness
to the east, pointing to the factory to the south and pointing to
the sun slowly fading in the west. Chairman Obelis’ actions were
bizarrely cute to Jeffrey, since they were rare actions.
    Chairman Obelis had always
been quite exuberant with his passions, albeit his exuberance was
rarely shown. He normally wore a look of boredom, never cracking a
smile during business deals. His bored look often gave off the
feeling that he could go elsewhere to make a deal, so this scared
potential business partners of trying to lowball or con Chairman
Obelis.
    Often times when dealing
with overzealous persons, he drove a hard bargain to make sure
the little people didn’t get trampled on, which normally led to him losing most
of his own share. It was what he felt was necessary when dealing
with hardheaded and selfish persons. Regardless, he still wore that
look of boredom.
    He was one of the few
businessmen in the world that legitimately gave to charities –
instead of creating a faux charity to use as a tax deduction – and
helped try to turn
peoples’ lives around, though he rarely put himself in the
spotlight. Fame was not a goal of his, nor was he about granting a
journalist access into his life to paint him in an incorrect
light.
    Chairman Obelis avoided the
press at all costs because he wanted to live a “stress-free” life
at home. He avoided the press so often that he created devices that
would render a journalist’s recorder useless, devices that would
melt the memory cards of photographer’s cameras, and devices that
caused would-be intruders to receive painful headaches, among other
devices that Chairman Obelis had in his arsenal against the press.
He wanted to do his good deeds, not rake in the glory. Jeffrey was
his liaison to the world.
    Jeffrey never questioned
his boss’ tactics because Jeffrey knew his boss was an intelligent
man that knew how to run businesses properly. “Why question what
works?” Jeffrey would often think.
    But now, becoming quite
bored with the business world, Chairman Obelis wanted to get into
the political racket. He wanted to go beyond just helping people;
he wanted to guide people so that he could make the right decisions for them. He