The Twins Paradox by Alan Gasparutti (best contemporary novels txt) 📖

take the other.”
“But where abouts do you draw the area,” asked Arthur. “There’s nothing here but weeds, cacti, and a few dry stream beds.”
Rico looked at the plan, and measured his way across the dry, barren soil, until he had found the edge of the area.
“If you start from this point, level the soil all the way back to those rocks, and then across towards me,” Rico instructed. “I’ll measure the length the other way, and do the same from my side.”
“And we can meet in the middle?” queried Arthur.
“Precisely,” replied Rico. “When we’ve sorted the full area out, and leveled it, we can then sort out the foundations for the wall.”
As Arthur and Rico leveled the soil, they diverted the spoil towards the rocky outcrop at the back of the site, after which they replicated the surface with tar. They then went back to the car, where they had a drink and a bite to eat, while the tar cooled. This didn’t take long, as it was now dark and there were no clouds in the sky to maintain the earlier heat of the day. Arthur and Rico then went to create the foundations for the surrounding wall, before leaving after midnight.
They came back again at the same time the following evening.
“What are we doing tonight?” Arthur asked.
“That ledge of rocks at the back of this site,” Rico said to him. “We intend to construct the offices in there.”
“What? Within the rocks?” queried Arthur.
“Yes,” replied Rico. “It will be no different to the Interstellar Pilgrim – a whole spaceship constructed within an enormous rock.”
“I suppose so,” Arthur said thinking to himself. “So, where do you want me to start?”
Rico walked over to a spot about ten metres from where the wall would be.
“Can you create a door here,” said Rico. “When you’ve got the basic shape of the door, you can then hollow into the rock for another twelve metres. When you’ve done that, you should hollow the area to your left for another ten metres.”
“Where will you be?” Arthur asked.
“I’ll be about another ten metres away, hollowing out the whole area to your right,” Rico pointed out. “Can you send all the spoil into a pile in the yard. We can then use this to construct the warehouse tomorrow.”
By the time they had hollowed out the area of the office, which would be at the back of the warehouse, they decided to call it a day.
“I’ve been thinking,” Arthur said to Rico on their way home. “Why don’t we construct the surrounding walls to the premises tomorrow night?”
“Don’t you think it would more appropriate to construct the warehouse first?” said Rico.
“I’d prefer to construct the outlying walls and gates first of all,” replied Arthur. “It would make the premises seem more secure, don’t you think?”
Rico thought to himself as Arthur drove the car.
“I suppose it would make sense,” admitted Rico. “I don’t think anyone would come and sabotage the warehouse, however, even if it wasn’t surrounded by walls and gates.”
“I take your point, but shall we do the walls first?” insisted Arthur.
“Okay,” said Rico.
The following evening, Gaspar went along, too, as there was heavy work to be carried out.They decided to use the spoil to construct the surrounding walls. After a break, they constructed a pair of heavy gates, and when they finished it, they attached a strong lock in the gates, and duly locked the premises before going home.
On Thursday evening, Arthur and Gaspar hollowed out an upper floor to the office, and with the spoil, constructed the warehouse on Friday night. During the weekend, they took Robinson and Frickas to the site. They would continue the work the following week, so Rico showed them the plan and gave instructions of what was left.

Though the new premises were now taking shape, there was still a lot to be done. First of all, they hollowed out another large area within the rocks, which was to be the first floor of a house. The spoil was used on Tuesday night to construct the walls and doorways. On Wednesday they hollowed out an upper floor to the house, and similarly, used the spoil to construct the bedrooms, bathroom and lavatory the following night. There was still some spoil left in the yard, which was used to construct stairways in the house and in the office, plus a reception and lavatory in the warehouse.
Then, the following weekend, by which time everyone thought the whole project was going smoothly, along came an unexpected visitor.
“Henry!” Arthur said with surprise as he opened the front door to his house. “What brings you here?”
“Oh, I thought it was about time I came to see you,” Henry confessed. ”We haven’t seen each other for some time, and I thought I could do with a little of your advice.”
“Oh, well, you know me, glad to help anytime,” mumbled Arthur. “How long do you intend on staying, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Oh not too long, really,” said Henry.
“Well, the problem is that there isn’t a lot of spare room in my house at the moment,” Arthur told him.
“I thought the lads were going to build a house with their new premises?” Henry queried.
“Yes, they have,” said Arthur. ”Unfortunately, they’ve had a few more orders than anticipated and couldn’t take much time away. I even took time off work to help them myself.”
“Well perhaps I can help them,” suggested Henry. “Anyway, aren’t you going to let me in?”
“Oh, sorry,” apologised Arthur, as he moved to one side. “You can go through to the front room. Gaspar and Frickas are in there.”
“Would you mind if I have something to drink first?” asked Henry.
“No not at all,” replied Arthur. “What would you like?”
“I’ll have a cup of tea, please, if you have any,” said Henry, as he walked to the front room. A couple of minutes later, though, he went to see Arthur in the kitchen.
“You don’t mind doing the others something similar to drink?” he asked Arthur.
“I suppose not,” Arthur tutted to himself. “Tell me Henry, you only came here to find out about the business, didn’t you?”
“Well, that was one of the things I wanted to discuss,” admitted Henry. “Really, I should have come here earlier, but I’ve had so much on recently. I even went to California a couple of weeks ago.”
“Yes, you were telling me,” Arthur replied. “It sounds like business is booming over there.”
“I wouldn’t get that carried away, just yet,” said Henry. “Lucas and I took delivery of twenty-four vehicles there, and we visited the new car manufacturing plant.”
“Is it ready yet?” asked Arthur.
“Not yet,” Henry told him. “It just needs the lighting, heating and plumbing to be sorted, and then they can install the machinery.”
“So when do they think it will be ready?” asked Arthur.
“June, probably,” said Arthur. “Steve told me they had hoped it would be finished by April.”
“Steve? You mean the chap who had one leg blown away in a terrorist attack?” queried Arthur.
“Evidently, yes,” said Henry. “Apparently, his leg wasn’t blown off completely. One of his legs was damaged, and he still walks with a bit of a limp, but other than that, he’s okay.”
“How interesting,” said Arthur. “Isn’t it amazing what doctors can do these days? Anyway, didn’t you say you wanted to find out a little more about the business over here?”
Henry simply nodded his head, hearing footsteps outside the kitchen.
“You can ask Gaspar and Frickas about the business,” Arthur emphasised
“Well, I didn’t really want to ask them,” mumbled Henry discreetly.
“You want me to do the dirty work for you, is that it?” queried Arthur. “You may as well ask them, as I’m only going to get my information from the same sources. They should be in a better position to help you about that than I can.”
Henry went quiet for a few seconds.
“Look, why don’t we both have a meeting with Rico when he comes back tonight?” Arthur suggested.
“Where is Rico, by the way?” asked Henry.
“He’s gone out for the day with a lady friend,” Arthur told him.
“A lady friend, eh?” said Henry. “I hope he doesn’t tell her about where we came from.”
“Oh no, Rico wouldn’t do anything like that,” said Arthur.
“I hope not,” Henry moaned. “We’ve already had one member of the ‘Pilgrim blab about that, haven’t we?”
“Yes, but that was just due to a misunderstanding,” replied Arthur. “Besides, I thought that was all sorted now?”
“Well apparently, it isn’t,” Henry told him. “Steve told me when I was in California that he’d heard you was from outer space.“
“Steve? The chap with the bad leg?” queried Arthur.
“He said he’d heard it from some friend of his, Clint,” said Henry. “He was the bloke who was away when we went to meet Frank in Colorado, wasn’t he?”
“Yes, I think he was away at the time,” acknowledged Arthur. “In actual fact, I think he’d gone to Texas at the time.”
“Probably to see Steve,” said Henry.
“Hhmmm,” muttered Arthur. “I didn’t think Clint was the sort of chap who’d tell someone about that. I did tell him, as well as Frank and Dermot, not to tell anyone else about me.”
“Well it just goes to show that you can’t trust anyone,” Henry told him.
“Surely, Steve would have queried this with Frank?” suggested Arthur.
“From what he told me, he did,” said Henry. “Apparently, Frank didn’t say much about the matter, so I told Steve it was probably some sort of joke, and to forget about it.”
“Okay, okay, I take your point,” said Arthur, as he handed a cup of tea to Henry. “I don’t think I’ll ever be allowed to forget that.”
“No, no, probably not,” replied Henry. “As long as it serves as a reminder to all the rest of us not to tell anyone our true identities.”
It wasn’t until almost 6pm that Rico arrived home. He seemed a little smug, that he had a successful date with a local lady. As he walked into the lounge, he recognised Henry, and greeted him, saying he was pleased to see him. Arthur asked the others if they wanted to go out for a meal that night, upon which Rico said he was a bit tired and didn’t fancy the idea. The others weren’t fussed, so it was decided to eat-in. Arthur ordered six pizzas, which after they had eaten, they drank with a bottle of the local Sangria.
When they began to disperse from the table, Henry asked Rico if he could have a look at the books for the business, and that he wanted to see the orders.
Rico then suggested discreetly to Henry to go with him, as he went to get his laptop. Arthur duly followed them.
Henry was impressed when he saw the figures. Evidently, there had been more money coming in than had been anticipated. Rico half-expected Henry to ask where all the money had gone, as he knew not all of it had been paid back to Henry’s holding company. Instead, Henry said he was pleased with the figures, to which Arthur added that he felt Rico and the lads were worth the extra profits, which they had saved in their business.
Henry was in fact, being coy about the matter. He wanted to see the whole picture for himself, before commenting. Instead, he asked to see the site where the premises were being constructed. Though Arthur and Rico weren’t too keen on going to the site on a Saturday evening, they agreed to take Henry along.