The International Businessman

by Daniel Lawlis

  Chapter 5

  When Righty got to the junkyard, he was in shock to see the extreme change in the manner of dress of his once raggedy compatriots. He saw that most were dressed with fine suits or other expensive clothing, and he noticed that quite a few had handsome horses tied up nearby.

  He greeted them and after congratulating them on their recent acquisitions, he inquired why the upgrades had come about so suddenly. They explained that after they had seen Tats riding into the junkyard that morning with a fine tailored suit and a beautiful stallion a virtual stampede not to be outdone ensued and resulted in the present spectacle.

  Chalky then humbly gave the credit to Tats, saying that when he had seen Tats go thundering through the junkyard on a fine horse at around 8:30 a.m. today he had been inspired to acquire a similarly exquisite specimen. Righty felt relief that Tats had found the means of making his journey to Sodorf and hoped he was doing well. He then cursed himself for not having requested that some of the konulans follow him in order to offer what help they could in case he was approaching danger.

  “Mr. Brass?”

  Righty snapped to attention. Chalky was looking at him.

  Righty went ahead and pulled out the twenty pounds of Smokeless Green he had brought with him. “Will we be doing consignment tonight?”

  Chalky responded with $200,000 in tightly wadded thousand-falon bills, which more than sufficiently answered the question.

  Righty handed him the merchandise.

  “Got any more?”

  “Kasani, you’re moving this stuff fast!” Righty said with glee before realizing a split-second later that this wasn’t necessarily good news. Demand was now exceeding his supply, which could make him look weak.

  Chalky was looking at him intently with respect but not entirely able to conceal his dissatisfaction.

  “I’ve got one buyer alone who can take care of that, Mr. Brass,” Chalky said. His voice sounded careful, suggesting that whatever his true feelings were at the moment he didn’t want them shown.

  “Well, that’s a dandy change,” Righty said. Whereas Chalky was trying to hide his true feelings on the matter, Righty was trying to find his. Only a few short nights ago, the whole lot of them had to hustle and bustle for the better part of the night to move twenty pounds. Now it would be a short errand for Chalky.

  Righty decided it was time for him to show his affirmative side.

  “Well, I may have missed a thing or two the last couple of nights, but let me guess. In the aftermath of Sam’s demise, his empire has disintegrated into factions. Likely, not all the heads of each know who Sam’s source was. Or they did know, but he doesn’t want to have anything to do with them. So, now one of those heads comes to you. Either that, or the richest businessman in Sivingdel has got one hell of a party coming up. I’ll stick with my first theory. Congrats! You’ve now got a wholesaler working for you.”

  “You’ve summed it up pretty well, Mr. Brass. The problem is I’ve got other wholesalers coming to me. The word amongst the higher-end players is that a few of Sam’s top guys knew who his connection was and are able to continue doing business through him. This leaves about seven major wholesalers in the city without a hook-up. They can go through the few guys getting it from Sam’s source, but that means getting pushed down the totem pole.

  “The word is some of them are okay with that. But some of them felt they were equals and don’t like the idea of getting pushed down, so they’re considering all-out war in order to force the source’s hand. They figure he has to sell to someone, so if they kill the few he is supplying now he’ll have to supply to them. But some of them don’t want war or to be pushed down the hierarchy, so they’re looking into branching out to a new source altogether.

  “Our group got a considerable amount of prestige because of what you did to Sam, and so several of these wholesalers have approached us. Twenty pounds a night isn’t going to cut it. Even the guy I’m selling this to was mad I couldn’t bring thirty. The others are pissed as hell that I can’t bring them anything, so they’ll have to either go to war with the wholesalers that have the connection or buy from them. But in either case, that means we lose them.”

  Righty noticed Chalky’s speech had started with the first person singular to describe his situation and had then subtly shifted towards “we” and “us.” Nonetheless, Righty knew Chalky had a very legitimate concern.

  “Chalky, I agree with you a hundred percent that this sounds like a great opportunity. And I also agree with you unequivocally that there is a lot to lose in the short-term by not being able to fill this need. If I had the product, believe me, you’d get it. Twenty pounds is the most I can provide you on a daily basis right now without exhausting my supply completely.”

  Righty saw the immense displeasure in Chalky’s face, in spite of his efforts to suppress it.

  “But I want you to know this. It’s temporary. I’m in the process of some changes right now, which will soon enable me to supply this whole city and then some. I calculate it will take about six to eight weeks. If you have another source you want to use until then, I won’t consider it an act of betrayal. But I wouldn’t consider it the most loyal decision either.

  “While six to eight weeks might seem like a long time to you now, keep in mind it’s still $200,000 per day divided amongst the lot of you. Judging by the fine suits and stallions I’m seeing, I would dare say it looks like that’s been accumulating pretty nicely, and I don’t doubt most of you will be moving into some fine houses in the near future.

  “There can be some advantages to a slow and steady approach. The police are probably feeling pressure to make some arrests for the Sivingdel Massacre. It wouldn’t surprise me if Sam had most of them in his pocket, but now that his empire is in pieces they’re going to be deciding which dealer to go after. Maybe it will depend in part on who pays the most, but it also might depend on who’s drawing the most attention to themselves.

  “If you start supplying all the rogue wholesalers with product right now, you’re going to earn enemies amongst the few wholesalers with access to Sam’s source—the top dogs. Those top dogs are gonna look at you and think, If this bastard weren’t supplying these men, they’d be buying from us. That’s going to mean you’re going to make some powerful enemies overnight. And since you won’t be getting all of that product from me, that means you won’t have my full protection. Any enemies you make or any other problems you encounter while selling product you get from another source are going to have to be resolved without my help.”

  Righty saw this last part sank in at least twenty times more powerfully than anything else he had said so far. He watched Chalky’s insatiable ambition turn to something approaching contentment in the blink of an eye.

  “But, unless you have access to Sam’s old source, or to that of some other major kingpin, then really all of this is moot. The only other way you would be able to get the product to supply these rogue wholesalers is by purchasing from the top dogs directly. By the time you turn around and sell the top dogs’ product to the rogue wholesalers they would be paying more for it than they would by purchasing it directly from the top dogs, something they apparently don’t want to do, because of resentment. Do you think they’d stomach buying it from you after you buy it from the top dogs, if they’re too proud to buy it directly from the top dogs? It wouldn’t make any sense financially or according to their egos.”

  “But we’re not going to have enough left over after hooking up this one wholesaler to even go take care of our retailers,” Chalky said, with genuine concern. “Then who takes care of them? They’ll go to the other wholesalers right away. They’re not going to sit with their arms crossed just because we’ve ran out of product. I could go to another wholesaler—even if he is not one of ‘the top dogs’—and get the product cheap enough to be able to supply our retailers while using your product to supply our new wholesaler customer.”

  �
��But by the time you buy it from a wholesaler and turn around and sell it to the retailers, it will be more expensive than if they went directly to the wholesalers themselves, something they’re likely to know how to do, I would expect.”

  “But the retailers would be each approaching the wholesalers individually and buying much smaller amounts than what I could buy, which means I should be able to buy in bulk and get a good-enough discount to be able to sell it to the retailers for about what they would pay one of the wholesalers for that quantity. Even if it is just slightly more expensive for them that way, it would be preferable to going outside their territory and dealing with a stranger. I’ve got good rapport with the retailers. They know they can trust me.”

  “It sounds brilliant. Go for it. I wish you the best of luck.”

  Righty could see Chalky was a bit apprehensive.

  “There will be a ten percent tax.”

  Chalky looked dumbstruck. He dared not speak. He dared not move a muscle. But anyone with two eyes could see he was seething.

  “Let me break this down for you, Chalky. Have you ever taken even one minute out of your busy day to think about why all these great opportunities are unfolding for you?”

  Chalky dared not answer, but his silence was answer sufficient enough to his lack of thought on the matter.

  “Do you think any of this would be happening if Sam were still around? He aimed to squash you like a bug or relegate you to the lowest rungs of his organization, where you would be making little more than you would earn as a clerk at a hardware store. I got rid of him. Now, there are free agents moving about with serious cash and massive clientele looking for a new source. This gang has prestige because it stood up to Sam. But this gang is ME!!” Righty said, his voice thundering.

  Righty scanned the eyes of everyone there, and to his pleasure he saw nothing but submission and agreement to his truthful observations. Many of them were looking scornfully at Chalky, as if a word from Mr. Brass was all that was needed for them to set upon him like hyenas.

  “You’ve got it, Mr. Brass. I-I-I’m sorry. This is all kind of new to all of us. You’ve got it. Ten percent tax on every falon made from a separate connection.”

  “I’m glad you’ve seen reason,” Righty said with an edge in his voice and steel in his eyes. “And I owe all of you an apology for not being able to provide to you. I realize that as leader of this gang, that means I have failed you. But it is temporary, and I’ll soon be able to provide this product to you at a quality and price where you can line up all the wholesalers you want underneath you, and you won’t have to worry about pesky things like taxes on sidelines of business.

  “And I want to say this before all present. Chalky has the right mindset. You should be thinking boldly and expansively. And I wish him the best with this temporary sideline of business. Soon enough that wholesaler will be a client of mine—remember my words.”

  But while Righty closed with these kind words on Chalky’s behalf, he gave Chalky a severe glance to let him know it would be a fatal mistake to think failure to pay the ten percent tax would be anything other than a capital offense.

  With that, he bade the men adieu one by one with a solid handshake and set off on foot towards the countryside.

  With a lot on his mind.