Chapter 4

4: 4

4

Even through the phone I could hear how worked up he was.

"That's wonderful, Ms. Cobb. On behalf of the whole village, thank you!"

I pay top price for grain, and I don't cause trouble, so plenty of people beg to come work with me.

But there's only so much of me to go around, and I always figured I'd put my own village first.

Never thought I'd been raising a pack of ingrates.

Once we'd locked in leaving for the neighboring village the next day, a message came in from Lucas.

"Case officially filed. Attorney's letter goes out by courier tomorrow afternoon. Hearing is nine thirty Saturday morning."

Early the next morning, I'd packed up my gear and was about to head for the neighboring county.

That's when the mayor showed up.

He saw the equipment in my hands, his mouth stretched into a grin, and he came straight to the point.

"Little Leo, don't you think this year's rice price is about due for a bump?"

He stood there blocking my way, waiting for me to answer.

"How much are you thinking?"

"Three dollars a pound."

He held up three skinny fingers, his eyes frighteningly bright.

"The villagers had a meeting last night to discuss it. This is what everyone wants."

"You've made a fortune. Time to let the rest of us make a little something too, wouldn't you say?"

I stared at those three fingers, so close to laughing out of pure anger.

"Three dollars a pound? Wet rice tops out at a dollar a pound on the market, dried rice at a dollar fifty."

"You open your mouth and ask for three a pound. Doesn't quite add up, does it?"

Because I don't want the villagers stuck with the hassle of drying their grain, every year I take the wet rice straight off them, sixty or seventy cents above market. The drying equipment's depreciation, the fuel for the transport fleet, the storage rent, I cover all of it out of my own pocket.

Three dollars a pound for wet rice.

Did they take me for an easy mark, or did they think my money blew in on the wind?

I looked at him. "And if I don't buy?"

He seemed to have expected that, and he answered without a flicker of worry.

"We've bought up all the rice around here overnight. You don't buy ours, you've got no rice to buy at all."

"I know you're going live today. You don't buy, and your millions of followers get to watch you crash and burn. Think you can afford that kind of embarrassment?"

I looked at the bruising under his eyes.

Going by how they usually operate, if they wanted to raise the price they'd have done it last night. Turns out they were out sneaking around buying up the grain instead.

They thought they had me by the throat. Pity for them. They'd only picked up a rock to drop on their own feet.

I didn't answer. I raised a hand toward the vehicle parked not far off.

A pickup rolled in and came to a clean stop right at my courtyard gate. The door opened, and out climbed Mayor Finch.

He didn't know the mayor, took him for one of my relatives, and greeted him the way you'd address an elder before turning to me, all excitement.

"After your call last night I was too worked up to sleep. Drove through the night to come get you."

"I brought the contract ahead of time. All three village mayors have signed it. The site's ready, we're just waiting on you to come over."

I opened the contract and looked at the numbers.

Wet rice, a dollar a pound. Dried rice, a dollar thirty a pound.

A fair, honest price with real good faith behind it.

I turned to look at the mayor, whose face had already gone white, and I smiled.

"You can keep that rice for yourself."

The mayor was just about to blow up when someone came running over in a panic, clutching a courier package.

Uncle Brendan's voice was frantic.

"We're in trouble, Mayor. We're being sued!"