Bird of the Gods

Chapter Two

White-hot sparks shot up out of the trench and bounced erratically, followed by a cloud of grey dust as the cutting disk worked its way through the concrete slab. Jim, a skinny contractor, rushed to hose water into the cut and stem the issue. Only half the factory was being revamped, with a morning shift still operating the other half of the factory. Grit was the enemy of working machinery, and the production manager would be none too happy to have a thin layer of concrete dust over everything.

Conrad watched out the office window. He was supposed to be here helping with machine installation and setup, but the old floor was only just coming out and the new slab wasn't even poured yet. The machine itself was weeks away, held up in shipping. Even so the company was paying him to be on-site overnight, reworking parts and servicing the remaining machines. Mostly though he suspected it was just to retain his services. After all, he had a reputation for being a worthwhile investment.

Getting up slowly and putting down his book, Conrad walked out onto the factory floor and hailed Jim with a wave.

"Take a break, mate." He gestured to the lunch room. "I'll take over for a bit."

Jim looked to Darren behind the cutter and, upon getting the nod from his companion, held out the hose.

"You sure?"

"Sure!" Conrad smiled, taking the hose. "I'm not doing much else anyway."

For the last week, Conrad had spent most of his time cleaning up the workshop and maintaining tools. He had learned a long time ago that everything worked better with the right lubrication; that included people. Rocking up to a worksite with three days worth of growth on your face and a somewhat worn-in work jacket was the go. Helping out at the right time and simple recognition of someone's hard work was often enough to get that person onside without having to grease a palm. Of course, a bribe was never out of the realm of possibilities either, as long as you were getting something for your money.

When he wasn't making himself look good on site, Conrad had been doing a bit of his own digging. The subcontractors weren't the usual type Conrad would have expected. At first, he had figured it was a manager giving a kickback to some friend, but the whole job was not typical. The rearrangement and the new floor - the whole thing seemed barely necessary. He was used to seeing companies make mistakes and do things without the proper forethought, but this had almost too much thought put in. Darren had carefully measured out the floor space and placed a small X as a marker at a seemingly random spot. Now they had cut around it as if there was power or something under that portion that they didn't want to hit.

So Conrad dug a little, first through publicity available building records. Like much of the area it wasn't that old. This extension was tacked onto the original structure and was less than fifteen years old from as much as he could tell. He avoided asking questions outright when Tim the manager arrived at six am, but he did manage to find out that Darren and Jim were also the ones doing the concreting. It was unusual that the guys laying the concrete would be the same ones pulling the old slab out. Normally, you would use specialists at each stage. The machinery had to be hired, and it was as if this wasn't their normal job. There was something under there, and whatever it was it wasn't meant to be dug up easily or quickly.

Conrad had been hired by Tim in the hopes he would help make the installation smoother and as quick as possible. Of course Conrad had jumped at easy work: anything to keep the bills paid. He hated dipping into his savings between jobs. Not to say he wasn't working all the time, it just wasn't always through usual channels. Work kept him moving around, which suited him fine. Even out here in southern Australia there were plenty of things to keep his interest for at least a while. He never understood how people stayed in one spot, built a life and lived and died without traveling. His father had been like that, and Conrad suspected that was why he got itchy feet and had left home young, finding work around the world.