"Texas Wildfire" - Chapter 6

Texas Wildfire

Chapter 6

By Dwayne MacInnes

T.J. sat in the private boardroom of the Texas Hold 'Em gentlemen's club. He was surprised to get a call from Mr. Vargas the day before asking to meet privately. Mr. Vargas wanted to discuss an important business deal between the two of them. T.J. of course, recommended his favorite establishment.

The room was large with wood paneled walls. One wall had a giant rack of horns from a Texas Longhorn mounted on it. In the center was a long boardroom table and plenty of privacy. The best assets however, were the well stocked bar and the six hostesses wearing nothing save white cowboy hats, matching boots, gloves, and gun belts that doubled as a place to stash any tips.

One of the women stood behind the bar and acted as the bartender. The other five stationed themselves around the room. They would wait as discretely as a naked woman can, waiting for one of the clients to make a demand. The demands could take any shape. However anything that required more than just serving drinks or a simple lap dance, would cost significantly more.

T.J. had already helped himself to a scotch before Mr. Vargas entered the room. The small Hispanic man strolled over to the table without even looking towards the women.

"Damn," thought T.J. "the man must be gay."

Vargas took a chair across from T.J. and placed a briefcase upon the table. Vargas then looked over towards one of the hostesses and ordered a tequila. As the woman walked towards the bar Vargas asked, "Can we trust that nothing that is said here gets out?"

"Absolutely," T.J. smiled. "I practically run the place. Many a business deal has gone down here without any leaks. Hell, it would be bad for business."

"Bueno," Vargas noticeably relaxed. "What I have to talk about is of utmost importance and therefore secrecy."

The hostess soon returned with a shot glass full of tequila for Mr. Vargas. The Latino took the shot glass and downed the drink in one fast go.

"So what business do you wish to talk about?" T.J. asked.

Vargas now relaxed smiled at T.J. "It looks like Texas may secede after all, no?"

T.J. studied the smaller man closely. He did not know how to answer. The governor was talking about secession, and many people were in favor of it. Even T.J. would rather live in the Republic of Texas than a United States of America run by Ramirez.

"Please, Mr. Murdock," Vargas said. "I know more about you than you think. I also know the risks to your company if Texas remains in the United States."

Even though there were a half-dozen beautiful naked women in the room T.J. only noticed Vargas. It was quite evident that Vargas was more than a fellow oilman. However, T.J. still could not guess his game.

"I'm afraid you are losing me Mr. Vargas."

"I hope not. But please hear me out first," Vargas continued. "Texicorp oil is only one of many oil companies in Texas, no?"

T.J. nodded his head in affirmation.

"Now if Texas were to secede from the United States what do you think will happen?"

"Governor Tucker doesn't think that Ramirez has the cojones to attack us if we secede."

Vargas motioned to a hostess for another drink before smiling at T.J. "But what do you think will happen."

"We'll be invaded and will more than likely lose."

"Why do you think that, Mr. Murdock?"

T.J. was so engrossed in Mr. Vargas's conversation that he had not corrected Vargas about calling him Mr. Murdock twice now. "We don't have the weapons the U.S. army has. Even if we call up our National Guard units, they only have some old M-1 Abrams tanks. They would not last long against those new M-3 Schwarzkopfs with the gauss guns."

Vargas smiled to the lovely woman who brought him his tequila. He slipped the woman a fifty-dollar bill. He then turned towards T.J. and opened his briefcase. "What if we could level the playing field?"

T.J. looked at Vargas in disbelief, "Let's say I was interested, how would you do that?"

"Your company deals in billions of dollars every year. So it would not be hard for you to purchase some top-grade weaponry," Vargas said as he slid some papers over to T.J.

T.J. studied the pages in front of him. If Vargas was playing him straight, he could get his hands on some top of the line weapons. Certainly, there were not any Schwarzkoprfs but there were some very nice antitank and infantry weapons laid out before him. Finally, T.J. slid the pages back to Vargas.

"Three questions, Mr. Vargas if you will," T.J. finally said.

Vargas smiled and nodded his head before downing his shot glass.

"First, what makes you think I would be interested in your proposal?"

"As I said before, there are many oil companies out there. If Texas wins its independence and Texicorp was the main backer., who do you think will get those rich oil fields that used to belong to U.S. companies? I think that would be worth the risk, no?"

T.J. nodded his head, "Okay, that one makes sense. Second question: how do I know your claims about getting these weapons are legit?"

"Easy. The first order you place will be on credit. After you receive and test your shipment you can pay us and then proceed to make further orders."

T.J. leaned closer to Vargas across the table and lowered his voice. "Thirdly, why are the Mexicans interested in arming Texas?"

Vargas smiled before he broke into a big laugh; he then motioned for one of the hostesses to prepare him another shot of tequila. "Easy. I do not represent Mexico. I am from Venezuela."