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Cooper Wyse brushed away some straw from the floor of the stable and then leaned down and pulled a barely noticeable rope that was colored to match the look of straw.  Instantly a panel just large enough for a man to walk through opened up in the back wall.
     
    Mac turned to Bear, Reese, and Dublin, a wide smile breaking across his weathered face and extended his right hand toward the panel space.
     
    “And there you have it boys and girls.  Now, Coop, you care to tell them what you’re all about?  Seems to be a bit more than just raising some horses and hanging out with that dog.”
     
    Cooper Wyse stood back up and folded his arms across his chest as Brando took a position to Cooper’s right.
     
    “Sure thing, Mac…I’m among friends.  Right?”
     
    Mac shrugged.
     
    “I’d like to think so, Coop.”
     
    Cooper removed his cowboy hat and held it in both hands in front of him as he gathered his thoughts.
     
    “This here ranch of mine has been an access point for the black market between Alaska and the provinces for…hell, been almost ten years now.  Don’t do it for profit, do it to help people out.  Get them supplies, medicines…things like that.  Got a few paths in the hills behind here, take a horse and cross the border into Canada and then back again.  Done it hundreds of times.  Know the drone patterns, their surveillance cycles.  Store it up in here and then bring it into the city where they get sent off to wherever.  Guessing some of the stuff made its way to Dominatus from time to time.  Yoti, your Eskimo friend, he made a few requests for things over the years.”
     
    Bear stepped forward, causing Brando to issue yet another low warning growl.
     
    “So, you’re a smuggler.  Is that it?”
     
    Cooper placed his hat back atop his head, pulling the brim down so it rested just above his eyes.
     
    “Suppose that’s one way of putting it.  Don’t much care what you call me.  I know I’m helping people get things they need, or want, and that’s fine by me.  Kept me occupied since my wife and kids, since they…since they were gone.”
     
    Mac tipped his head in the direction of the panel.
     
    “Can we see what you have in there?  What we can take with us for the trip?”
     
    Cooper Wyse made his way to the panel and then disappeared into it, his voice following behind him.
     
    “C’mon then.  Let me show you what we got.”
     
    The other four followed Cooper through the opening and then stood in complete darkness.  The air was slightly cooler inside the dark space, and cleaner smelling than the musty hay and horse odors of the main barn area.
     
    Bear’s low voice grumbled for some light.
     
    “Can’t see a damn thing in front of me, Cooper.”
     
    Two loud hand claps followed Bear’s complaint, followed by three large lights instantly turning on above their heads.
     
    Mac gave Cooper Wyse a quizzical look, then glanced upward again at the now illuminated lights. 
     
    “What the hell was that, Coop?”
     
    Cooper gave two more claps and room was again dark.  Two more claps and the light returned.
     
    “Clap on.  Clap off.  My mom was crazy about this thing.  Kept it in her room inside the house.  She’d be in there laughing and clapping every night before bed.  I wired it up for the lighting out here when I was completing the room.”
     
    The four Dominatus residents began to note all of the various supplies and materials that were neatly organized in the room.  It was nearly twenty feet long and almost as wide, with a ceiling that appeared to be nearly ten feet high.  The walls were painted a light silver color, and in the far right corner was a small air circulation unit.
     
    Cooper’s pride in his construction was noticeable as he began to tell them the history of the hidden room.
     
    “I made this place myself.  The walls are fully insulated, got a temperature control unit over there that keeps the room sixty five degrees 24/7.