Ozark Retreat Read Online Free PDF Page B

contents to put them into the shelter space through one of the roof hatches each trip. He carefully covered the hatch up each time and camouflaged it before he left.
    So far, the civilization had not ended and Brady had spent a small fortune already to prepare for it. That didn’t deter Brady. All the things he was seeing happening here in the good ol’ USA, as well as events around the world, had him convinced that it was only a matter of when, not if, he would need to use his major preparations. He’d already used the minor ones. He’d been stuck on the highway twice, for hours each time. St. Louis had another flood, and this winter was shaping up to be a record breaker. Nothing that made him want to leave the city. Yet. He took comfort in the knowledge that he could, now.
    All through the process over the years that had passed, beside learning and acquiring things, and building, Brady had been cultivating people. Very carefully. Many of those he was feeling out were his employees, but by no means were they the majority.
    Barbara was a given. She had a place for her family reserved at Brady’s. And since the apartment where he lived wasn’t really prep friendly, she reciprocated with offering her house for local bug-in situations for him.
    He’d found out the hard way, despite Barbara’s admonishment to be careful, that selling the idea of preps was a hard job and needed just the right touch. And then it didn’t always work. He lost one of his few friends when he began insisting that he and his family become more prepared.
    Brady was much more careful after that. And since he didn’t really consider himself as expert at preparedness, since he’d only been preparing such a short time, he began trying to get people to visit some of the websites where he’d learned so much. That was in addition to the FEMA sponsored sites, which seemed to elicit a better response.
    But as things worsened in the world, some of the people were becoming more open to the idea of preparing. He began to get the makings of a mutual aid group, or MAG. Barbara was a big help in that. She’d been working toward it for years. Just hadn’t found the right people. But Brady was good with people for the most part.
    Barbara, Harry, and three other employees finally committed to building on Brady’s property, and contributing, to one degree or another, to some of the projects Brady wanted to do. He really wanted three more major investors, though two would allow him to complete the project the way he had come to envision it.
    Both Jonesy and Lieutenant Sandra Harrison bought in as minor investors.
    Even a couple of the major news networks were hinting at the possibility of one of the regional wars expanding to a new World War. Global warming was a fact, and its effects were beginning to affect the world’s weather and coastlines.
    Finally, Brady’s doctor saw the handwriting on the wall. Dr. Amos was one of the people Brady had been gently working on, to bring him into the fold. Dr. Amos, one dentist, and one other doctor in his practice agreed to join the MAG. All three would build at the compound and invest in the communal projects.
    About the time that Harry took three rounds of .380 ACP in a shootout with gang members he was tracking, Brady got the surprise of his life. A national security firm wanted to buy his operation. It had a very good reputation and was still growing. They wanted in on that growth.
    Brady negotiated with the company’s representatives for a month and got the price up considerably more than their first offer, and most importantly, got an immediate buy out, rather than the term buyout the company wanted. Brady was able to stay on as a very well paid consultant and contract operative.
    It turned him loose to get started on the rest of the building he would be supervising. Harry agreed to move to the compound with his family and keep an eye on the place during the construction of his own place, as well as Brady’s