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On a Dark Horse	By : TarnishedArmour Category: G through L > Jericho Views: 1536 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Jericho is wholly owned by CBS and those affiliated with & responsible for the production and creation of the show. I make no profit from the use of said fandom, except warm-fuzzies from reviews.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
Timestamp: Bombs + 9
A/N: Fiction is nice…it means I get to make some things up as I go. :-) This includes that Jonah's business is on the north side of Jericho.
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Jonah got a message to Johnston that he needed to meet with him about some of the things stashed at the transport office. When Johnston arrived, it was close to lunchtime, and Jonah was concerned about the man's health. Johnston had had Jake drop him off on the way to the airfield.
"We'll make this quick," Jonah said, "but you're probably going to be irritated about some of this."
"Oh, hell, Jonah. What have you done now?" Johnston asked, sitting down across from Jonah in the jumbled office. Jonah ignored the gripe.
"Here's the inventory list for what we've got here. I've put certain things off limits to the guys, for good reason." He handed the record book to the mayor and waited.
"Uh-huh…okay…that's fine--what the…" Johnston's head snapped up and he stared at Jonah.
"Keep reading," was all Jonah said, knowing that he hadn't gotten to the really good stuff yet. Johnston looked back down at the list and kept reading. At the end of the list he looked up at Jonah, eyes wide. "Do you realize what you have here?"
"I know. And I'm probably breaking about seventy federal laws by simply possessing some of it." Jonah poured two glasses of his favourite bourbon and handed one to Johnston. "But either it's here, under the control of a city government--by which I mean you--and a group of former military who are still patriots at heart, or it's out there, being used by whatever jackass thinks the biggest gun and the biggest boom make him the man in control." He took a drink of his bourbon and waited for the burn to start settling his nerves. "As it is, only three people know the weapons list--four, with you added in--and no one but me and Noah know about the shipment from the Mint. Aylah and I know about the precious metals, since they were in the same car with the smith's tools."
Johnston took a drink and thought about it. "The…Mint's shipment. Has to go to the bank. We'll add it under Rescued Funds or some such and keep every penny accounted for." He took another drink. "And we don't say a damned thing to that IRS lady who's badgering Stanley."
"Heard she was a fox, if you're into snippy little bureaucrats," Jonah said, nodding.
"Snippy is putting it nicely. I've been listening to Bonnie since the woman went out to the farm. Be a miracle if the woman doesn't go crazy in another week." Johnston paused. "Can we make it a late delivery?"
Jonah nodded. "I think so. Ask the bank manager how he keeps the backup records. If we use a paper delivery to go along with it, no one will blink."
"Good point." Johnston shook his head, choked back a cough. "Okay, that's settled. What about the gold, silver, and platinum?"
"It's not stamped for the Fed, so I looked over the manifests. It was headed to a jeweller's in Chicago." Johnston looked pained. "My thoughts exactly. So that can be considered fair game. I say we use it for tradegoods, the blacksmith has some jewelrymaking behind him. Besides, there's a silversmith in town, makes the turquoise jewelry Sylvie liked so much…" Jonah paused. Why did that still hurt? The woman had kicked him out when Em was only four.
"Good point. But all the gold so on to one person?" Johnston sounded skeptical. "Somethin' I oughta remember about that gold, though." He looked over at Jonah.
"Conducts electricity," Jonah said, after a minute. "Used in tiny amounts in electronic circuitboards. Not good for regular wiring because it melts too easily, but we've got plenty of copper for right now. Can also be used for fillings, along with the silver. Other than that, it's really shiny."
Johnston chuckled. "Yep, that's it. Gold is shiny. How did I forget that?"
"Old age?" Jonah grinned at him.
"You're only a year after me, and I can still kick your ass." Johnston mock-glared at his old friend.
"Never happened," Jonah replied. "And I'm not only younger, I'm better looking, too."
Johnston snorted. "You mean compared to the north end of a southbound mule."
"Like I said, I'm better looking than you," Jonah replied, smirking. Johnston gave him a dirty look, started to say something, and dissolved into a coughing fit. Jonah's smirk faded as he watched Jonah's coughing continue. "You been to the doc, John?" he asked.
"Yeah. Gail's trying to get me to take the second course of antibiotics, but the first course didn't do any good," the mayor replied.
"So you're resisting." After a moment, Jonah asked, "You ever go to Doc Hallowell?"
"Not for years. Not since he retired. Why?"
"I still go see him when I need medical attention. Well, that or go to the Rogue." Jonah explained. "Not exactly a warm atmosphere in the clinic."
"Well, I think you'll find the clinic's changed since the bombs." He sighed. "Might just go see Doc if he'll let me in. He was pretty pissed after I told him his collection of exotic art wasn't appropriate for his front yard."
"Hell, John, the man's near eighty! Naughty statues are about all he's got left, given his health. You remember his office." Johnston and Jonah chuckled, remembering the huge nude painting of the 1964 Playmate of the Year that had hung in the old man's office. No one, not even the preacher's wife and her catty comments, could convince the old man that the subject matter was inappropriate for his office. After a while, everyone, even Johnston's father, had stopped trying. "Seriously, though, if you're going to drop by Doc's, let me drive you. If he gives you a shot, you'll be out of it before you make it home."
"All right. Just try to get me back before Gail gets home." With that, the two men headed out to Doc Hallowell's rather large estate on the south edge of town. It was a forty-minute drive, and Johnston was glad he didn't have to make it.
During the drive, they discussed how to distribute the weapons Jonah had acquired from the ammunitions car. They agreed that no one should handle the carbines and machineguns if they hadn't had some sort of military training. Only those with prior military service would be permitted the other, more interesting military gear--like the C-4 and the grenades. When and why to distribute it would be a matter they would need to take up at another time. They needed the security force trained first.
*****
At Doc's, Johnston got a quick but thorough exam and a knowing nod.
"Yep. You're pretty damned sick, Green. You said antibiotics didn't take care of it?" At Johnston's confirmation, the old man grunted. "Got just the thing. Wait here for a minute."
Doc left, and Johnston looked over at Jonah. "I'd forgotten the man has the bedside manner of a grizzly bear."
"You should see him when you're actually wounded, not just sick," Jonah commented, flipping through one of Doc's more exotic reading choices. Nothing like what he'd kept as a younger man. That was artistic. This was just…sad. He tossed the magazine to the side and looked over at his friend. "What?"
"What kind of wounds, Jo? Or do I want to know?" Johnston's voice was quiet.
"Nothing as bad as you're thinking. Just a few scrapes and slices now and then. Broken ribs." Jonah thought back over the last several years. "One knife wound, but that wasn't intentional."
"What, you fell on your knife while running on thin ice?" Jonah had forgotten Johnston's smart-aleck streak.
"More like a guy jumped me and I didn't appreciate it much. Doc was closer than the clinic, so I saw Doc." Jonah shrugged. It was simple, really.
"Can't imagine the other guy needed medical attention," Johnston sighed, remembering the reasons why he and Jonah had quarrelled so many years ago.
"If he got it, I never found out about it. His buddy dragged him out of here and back to Omaha." Jonah looked at Johnston. "Trust me when I say you did not want those elements here in Jericho. Hell, I didn't want them here, if that's any indication of what they were like."
Johnston thought for a minute, then nodded. "Good enough," he said, letting the topic drop. Just then, Doc came back into the room with a wicked-looking syringe.
"Holy-moley, what is that?" Johnston hadn't seen one of those since his time in the Army. That syringe looked at least thirty years old.
"G.I. cocktail," Doc replied. "It'll burn like a bitch going in. You've got twenty minutes after I give it to you before you're flat on your ass, and you'll sleep for about twenty-four hours. Upside is that you'll wake up fresh as a daisy and, with a little bit of taking it easy and a touch of medicinal brandy, you'll be good as new in 72 hours."
Johnston took a deep breath, weighed his options, and held out his arm. "Go for it, Doc."
"Heh. Stand and drop 'em." Doc looked over his bifocals at the man. "Arm's not enough for this one."
Jonah stood and walked out to start the car as Johnston muttered under his breath and fumbled with his belt buckle. Yep, twenty minutes from now, he'd have to get help getting Johnston inside and into bed. He'd also be the one explaining to two irate redheads exactly what had happened to the mayor. Jake and Eric he didn't worry about. But redheads worried him. His late aunt had been a redhead, and she was positively hell on wheels when she got irritated.
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- 10
- 11
- 12
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On a Dark Horse