by Chloe Garner
“Pete,” she said.
“You mean your runner boy, not my brother,” Jimmy said. She nodded.
“He got buried in a cave-in,” she said.
“That’s too bad,” he answered.
“It was,” she replied. “His ma would be devastated to find out anything else.”
“She won’t,” Jimmy said. “I already told you that.”
“No, Jimmy,” she said. “This is real. Pete was the one person I could count on while you were gone. He ain’t a chip in your stack. You mess with his memory, you make an enemy out of me you won’t ever get back.”
“You’re willing to die over it?” he asked.
“You gotta have lines,” she said. “He was a fool and a dreamer, but I ain’t got kin. I gotta have someone I’m loyal to, and he was always loyal to me.”
“Even if he’s dead,” Jimmy said, sounding more bemused than concerned.
“‘Specially if he’s dead,” Sarah said. “Your brothers might do somethin’ dumb enough some day that you end ‘em yourself. Loyalty only stretches so far with the livin’. The dead can’t do nothing so stupid as to break it.”
Jimmy nodded.
“I see. Life got hard, here.” He paused, crossing his ankle across his knee and rubbing his chin just for a moment. “I knew it had. I could see it myself when we got here, and I’ve seen and heard enough stories from the towns that absenta left behind to know what to expect, but you actually lived it. I’m not sure I was entirely prepared for that.”
“You’ll never know,” she said. “You went fancy-footin’ around the coast, playin’ your games and havin’ your good time.”
“You had your turn at that,” Jimmy said. She shrugged.
“Weren’t no one here who needed me.”
“I missed you,” he offered. She shrugged.
“But weren’t no one who needed me.”
“No,” he finally said. “No, I didn’t then and I don’t now. You’re right. And you don’t need me any more than you need my contacts. Once you get them, we’re on even footing. And I think we can do this. We’re rational enough people to not let the emotions get in the way of a good business.”
She nodded.
“That’s how I was thinkin’ it, too.”
“You want to write it all down and sign it, or you just want to shake on it?”
“I know what I said and you know what you said,” she said. “Ain’t either of us gonna take it back, now.”
“I agree to this, I make you the richest person in Lawrence.”
“Assumin’ I find absenta.”
“Assuming you’re successful in predicting deposits,” he agreed. “As far as town goes, that’s going to have to be an ongoing conversation. I can’t promise things aren’t going to happen without you agreeing to them.”
“I know that,” she said, “but as long as I got your money and your word, we can find an agreement.”
“We need to grow this place,” he said. “Fast. We need to find industries that will draw people in to work, stuff that isn’t related to mining at all. The next time the absenta runs out, Lawrence isn’t going to die.”
“That’s your goal?” she asked. He stood.
“Believe it or not, Sarah, I didn’t like starting over. I didn’t like leaving.”
“But you did it,” she said, also getting to her feet.
“My terms,” he said. “In brief. You add me to the lock on your door. I need to be able to let myself in to get information, when you’re out. You can keep all of the money and the more sensitive stuff in your floor safe, but I need to be able to look up claims and who’s paid and the like.”
She considered it. Her pa was still on the door, as was her ma. No one else.
But that was sentimental and foolish. What he was asking wasn’t that big a leap. If he wanted to break in, the rest of the house was easy enough to get in through. Might as well let him in through the door.
“Okay,” she said. He nodded.
“And you have to come to dinner at least once every week to meet with me afterwards to discuss business.”
“Can’t I just come after dinner?” she asked. “I told you I want nothin’ to do with those women.”
“Those are my terms. I think they’re very fair.”
“All right,” she said after a long pause to consider. “All right. Those will do.”
She put her hand out and they shook. He nodded firmly.
“Now. Find me a boatload of absenta.”
––—
Sarah had her hair pulled back tight, up high on the back of her head, and she wore the classic, sleek black that had been en vogue for business attire a little over ten years ago. She walked out of her room at the hotel and went down to the lobby to find Jimmy. He was sitting at a computer terminal, tapping at the screen intently as he waited.
She remembered what it had been like, to see all this for the first time. Computers and instantaneous communication and food and water everywhere she went, often with people offering it to her just in case she might want it. He had come with her to register for classes, as much as an excuse to satisfy his curiosity of what a city might look like as it was to make sure she was settled well, but it had been a hard enough goodbye that she had never doubted that he’d wanted to be there for her.
She settled into the chair next to his and he glanced at her.
“I’ll be done in a minute,” he said.
“Funny,” she answered. The corner of his mouth twitched.
“I’m not even allowed to pretend to be shocked at how you look?” he asked. “You’re supposed to pretend to be flattered.”
“Is that how the game works?” she asked. “No wonder I’ve failed so completely.”
“You got more than your fair share of attention, while I was gone,” he said. “You didn’t fail at the game, you quit.”
“You can’t quit a game you never agreed to play,” she said.
“Didn’t you?” he asked, and she wondered which part of her statement he was challenging. He stood. “The car should be waiting for us by now. I like to make them wait for two to four minutes, no more.”
“Should I be taking notes?” she asked.
“I was hoping you’d left the attitude in Lawrence,” he said. “Back with the accent.”
“I’m still Sarah Todd,” she said. “Hat or no hat.”
He smiled, reaching over to tuck her hand under his arm.
“What impression is it you’re trying to give?” she asked, not jerking her hand away.
“A unified front,” he said. “You may be my business manager, but we are very cordial. Friendly enough to make people wonder. Means that we’re both less likely to get away with betraying each other.”
She could see that. If everyone assumed they were sleeping together, no one would assume that anything they said was actually in confidence from the other. It wasn’t impossible to get around, but it was cheap insurance for what it was.
“You expect any more acting from me than this?” she asked. “Because if you surprise me, I can’t promise what kind of reaction you’re going to get.”
“Are you warning me not to kiss you, Sarah?” he asked.
“Among other things,” she said dryly. He smiled again, opening the front door for her. A man in a uniform opened a car door and she got into a clean-smelling car, helping herself to the drinks there. Jimmy got in after her and they pulled away a moment after that.
“Who else are we meeting with today?” she asked, patting her hair in the rearview. The driver glanced at her and back at the road. Jimmy listed three names she already had memorized.
“Have you figured out our dinner plans?” she asked, feigning bored.
“Of course,” he said. She sat back in her seat and looked out the window.
“Maxim is one of my oldest friends,” Jimmy said. “We met shortly after we left Lawrence. I think you’ll like each other.”
Sarah raised her eyebrows to look at him.
“I see. Does he find you as taxing as I do?”
Jimmy gave her a faked smile.
“More.”
A secretary came to meet them at the doors and take them up to see the man. Sarah and Jimmy spent a couple of minutes in a well-furnished reception area where the secretary got them new bottles of water and offered Sarah a refreshment from a tray of dainties.
“No thank you,” Sarah said. The woman stood, listening to something only she could hear, then nodded.
“Maxim is ready for you now,” she said. Sarah ran a smoothing hand down her snug-fitting skirt and followed the woman into the next room where Maxim sat behind a glass desk.
The glass was a specialized one that was luminescent, and most everything in the room was made from it, including the chairs. So long as you kept a supply of chemicals in the chamber for each piece, it would glow a faint yellow light that was enough to preclude the need for overhead lighting, even at night. It was expensive.
“Jimmy Lawson,” Maxim said, getting up and coming around the desk to shake Jimmy’s hand. “And who is this?”
“This is Sarah Todd, my associate and business partner, the real brains of the operation,” Jimmy said.
“Where were you hiding her last time, then?” Maxim asked, taking a quick evaluation of Sarah before he shook her hand as well and returned to his desk.
“She doesn’t leave Lawrence much,” Jimmy said. Maxim raised an eyebrow at her, taking another, longer look.
“If this is what the women in Lawrence look like, I’m going to have to get out there in person,” Maxim said. Sarah hadn’t allowed an emotion onto her face yet, and she didn’t at this, either. Her stony coldness seemed to be attracting him, much as her guns did in Lawrence.
“You might find it a bit surprising,” Jimmy said. “But you do need to make the journey. Soon.”
“You’re talking business already,” Maxim said.
“I’m not very patient for much else,” Sarah said coolly. Maxim grinned at her in a predatory sort of way. She might have been mostly unarmed, but she still had her two thin daggers between her shoulderblades, and just looking at him, she had more of a stomach for violence than this slicked man, though she saw danger in his eyes.
“I see,” he said. “Well, let’s talk business, then. What service can I be to the Lawson family?”
“We’re looking for investors of a kind,” Jimmy said. Maxim steepled his fingers, and Sarah took out the electronic screen she’d prepped that morning.
“More than that,” she said. “We know there are rumors going around that Lawrence is on the verge of a new renaissance.”
“I’d heard it, but it hardly concerns me,” Maxim said, looking at her hands. She gave him a cold smile.
“It may,” she said.
“We’re talking about money that no one has seen out of a mining town in a generation,” Jimmy said. Maxim shrugged.
“I’m not a digger.”
“No,” Jimmy said, “but you know the value of the right investment at the right time. And this is the time.”
Maxim was still watching Sarah’s hands.
“Explain to me why you think I’m going to be concerned with a couple of mining finds in a wilderness town. One you came screeching out of less than a decade ago because the place was going broke.”
Sarah put the screen on the desk in front of him.
“Because this much money needs serious money to escort it,” she said. He finally looked away from her hands to take in the report. It was from Pete’s claim.
“I don’t know what I’m looking at,” he said.
“You’re a poor liar, Maxim,” Sarah said. He looked at her.
“Explain it to me anyway.”
“That mine is producing a quality of absenta ore that is going to generate considerable wealth. You can see the purity rating, and I’m sure you know the spot price of absenta as of this morning. If not, I can reference it for you.”
Eyes like sharks’.
“I know what it’s worth,” he said. “How do I know it isn’t a fluke?”
“Because I’m here,” Jimmy said. “If I thought that this wasn’t going to keep paying out, I’d still be in Intec. This is going to push a tidal wave of money into Lawrence, and I’m going to be there to catch my share. I need to be sure that my friends are going to get as much of it as possible, after that, because...”
“Because strangers moving in and taking that much cash puts you in a bad spot,” Maxim said. “I’m still not a digger.”
“You do all of your own business?” Sarah asked, looking around the room. “I would imagine that the kind of empire you’re running here, you mostly just sit and watch the money turn up. You took your big risks, they paid off well, and now you just need to keep your people in line.”
“Can’t do that in Lawrence, from here,” Maxim said.
“What do you think the Lawsons are there for?” Jimmy asked.
“You’re going to look over my business interests for me?” Maxim asked.
“If necessary, for the right price,” Jimmy said.
“And who watches you?” Maxim asked.
“You do,” Jimmy said. “You find yourself the people you want running your mine and you send us in if you ever suspect something is off. You’re perfectly capable of scenting out things that aren’t right.”
“And why can’t you just do this yourself?” Maxim asked.
“We aren’t prospectors,” Jimmy said. “We’re enforcement.”
“Sounds like you’re missing out on the bigger business opportunity,” Maxim said. Jimmy shook his head.
“No, we take the guaranteed profits. You take the risk. I’m quite happy with that.”
“And in exchange for a constant stream of cash out of my account, you sit on my people and if they get out of line...”
“We do what’s necessary,” Jimmy said. Maxim looked at Sarah.
“You approve of this?”
She blinked once, slowly, then leaned forward to take her screen from his desk again.
“I ran Lawrence while the Lawsons were gone,” she said. “I am not the one who is going to object to necessary actions.”
“What are you implying?” Maxim said.
“Things get rough out there,” Jimmy said. “You should have a couple of men you trust, but know that bullets are more common than just about anything else.”
“Bleeding edge of civilization, as it were,” Maxim said.
“As it were,” Jimmy said.
“And what made you think of me?” Maxim asked.
“Always start with the dumb money,” Jimmy said. Maxim grinned at this.
“I’ve heard the rumors,” he said, tapping his fingers on the desk. “And I can’t say that I’m not intrigued. But I have a lot of research I need to finish before I could possibly commit resources to something like this.”
“We aren’t asking for commitments,” Jimmy said. “Actually aren’t taking any. We’re here handing out invitations.”
Maxim’s eyes widened slightly, and Sarah handed him a smaller digital card with nothing but a date on it.
“There’s a train arriving in Lawrence the night before,” Jimmy said. “Anyone who is interested in any of the claims we’re auctioning will be on it, and the auction will be held at dawn, that day.”
“What about that one?” Maxim asked, motioning to the screen in Sarah’s hands. “You’ll be auctioning that one.”
“Of course,” Jimmy said. “It’s going to be the final auction of the day.”
Maxim nodded. He’d tipped his hand. The report had leaked just as far as Jimmy had predicted, and Maxim knew the value of it.
“What assurances do I have that the land is going to produce?” he asked.
“None,” Jimmy said. “Sarah has a predictive method of selecting the properties that are most likely, but we aren’t offering any guarantees. We won’t be doing any test digs or samples, either.”
“You want me
to come in to your forsaken little town and drop a wad of cash in your lap for a piece of a mountain that may or may not have absenta in it.”
“Exactly,” Jimmy said. “Either Sarah can find the stuff or she can’t, but you can look me in the eye and know that I believe it’s there. I wouldn’t have moved my family back if I didn’t think there was a massive, long-term prosperity coming to Lawrence that I was going to need to get in front of, if I wanted to be the man piping it in and out.”
“Then why not sample?” Maxim asked.
“Because I don’t do risk,” Jimmy said. “That’s all on you.”
“I see,” Maxim said. He looked at the card again. “How do I contact you?”
Jimmy shook his head.
“Once I’m gone, I’m gone. There’s no method of communicating with Lawrence.”
“Really?” Maxim asked.
“We don’t have the infrastructure,” Sarah said.
“You should look into it,” Maxim said.
“We’ll think about it,” Sarah said.
“You like being completely isolated?” he asked.
“It makes certain things simpler,” Jimmy said.
“Like not allowing me to communicate directly with my own people,” Maxim said.
“Neither can anyone else,” Jimmy said. Sarah watched the repercussions of that go through Maxim’s mind.
“Are you sure there’s no way?” he asked. “Satellites and high-tech beams are changing things every day.”
“Not in Lawrence,” Sarah said. “I burn kerosene for light at night, and wood in the stove to make my tea.”
“You,” he said, taking a very long, slow look at her now.
“Lawrence is another world,” she said. “For now. It will change, of course, as it must, but you’ll find that business there is different from anywhere else you’ve ever been.”
“And that’s a good thing?” he asked.
“It’s an opportunity that not a lot of people are going to get,” Jimmy said. “This auction is by invitation only. There will be a limited number of claims available, and you know...” he paused for effect, leaning over the desk. “You know that the Lawsons don’t take well to people making money on our land.”
Maxim looked at Jimmy for a moment, then grinned.
“And you just so happen to have claimed the entire region, have you?”