L'Gem

by Sharon L Reddy

  Chapter Six

  The doors to both side and back patios were open and the yard was 'perfect,' so the party spread. Most of the guests they'd invited had accepted the invitation to "bring a bunch." Since the back patio had become the dance floor, it was rather loud when a police car pulled up in the drive. People yelped and it got quiet fast. The middle-age man who got out of the car wasn't in uniform.

  "You weren't disturbing anyone! They're working on my daughter's place and she wouldn't tell me how much it's costing her! My mother-in-law has my car or I wouldn't be in this one! Get on with the party!"

  "Hello, Chief Dennon. I'm Blade."

  "Sorry about the car."

  "Angie warned me. I should have realized you might come by this evening and warned them. My partner, Knight, and roommate, Nev."

  "Nice to meet you. Blade, I did some checking. I think you boys hit center target on what's going on up there. I'd like to know how."

  "We're mathematicians. When there's a problem we hunt for what will solve the equation. Nev knows ski resorts. He looked at the mountain, said, 'ski lift beside clubhouse.' One of the numbers in the equation is how many people wouldn't like it. With that one, you solve for how they'd do it fast enough the gov wouldn't have to pretend they were listening to the opinion of the local people. She looked at us with those big hazel eyes and said, 'How can we stop it?' and Knight started thinking fast. I was still looking in eyes when he hit a possible solution."

  "I'm sure she noticed. The chief up at Veil Lake called and told me you'd found a couple boys to keep an eye on things up there tonight, and brought them in to meet them."

  "That was Knight's idea."

  "We've got the carpet from the worst unit draped over the carports and the dehumidifiers work better with airflow, so doors and windows are open to give the best flow to dry what's wet. The police needed to know we had someone watching and who, because they're watching. I'm sure they realized we think it was another act of too-effective vandalism, but reporting it is the property owner's right and responsibility. We wouldn't have known there was something odd going on if we hadn't hunted for why 'insurance' bothered her."

  "We're much more familiar with 'vandalism' then people in this area, which is part of why we went from 'pleasant place for a while' to 'my home town' in a span of hours."

  "You really plan to stay here."

  "You know how different it is here. The response of these people to the car was 'oops,' not fear and a fast collection of money. Of course, 'out there,' part of party planning is figuring out who you have to bribe how much before you have it."

  "I was actually shocked when Angie said police here don't usually wear weapons."

  "They don't?!"

  "No, Nev, we don't. How did you know some prisoners were left behind, Blade?"

  "I didn't hear it here, Chief Dennon. Here, I wouldn't worry if I knew the name of the person who told me. Other places, people with strong survival instincts only tell strangers things like that, but they look for strangers to tell."

  "Do you know rebels escaped?"

  "I'm sure they were rebels when they escaped. I doubt it was from prison. I suspect most people from the southwest continent recognize a large green trap when they see it, though I carefully didn't ask anyone. It probably really worries the gov to have those real smart people out there learning things again. Chief, don't leave Shangri-La. Don't go out there to look around. If you need to know things, send us. The magic spell that protects the valley is centered in your heart. You protect all the people. We know it. Why are you surprised we want to protect you?"

  "I'm surprised you think I need to be protected, Blade."

  "Chief Dennon, we're acutely aware you and your colleagues stand firmly in the way of business-as-usual in this area. I talked to the two who came to Veil Lake today. They're not vacationers. They chose the area partially because of the probability of finding work quickly at this time of year, but they don't plan to leave at the end of the season. There will be more like them coming. All over the world, people are seeking the sanctuary of small towns, where the police defend the people, and the local government is of the people. We actually weren't, but we didn't consider going to a city to find something to do to tide us over until universities begin looking for professors next term. Vairdslea Technical has a lot of math classes, and is a good possibility for both full and adjunct professor positions. Now, I don't plan to send a resume. I like teaching. It's very fulfilling, but so is what we're doing for Angie. Our plans for the future weren't firm, but they still changed a great deal."

  "My plan was leaving where I was. I was sure I'd find popcorn fungi on far more menus here. I did not expect to be making sure people know I'm a resident and stating I'm a local with pride within two days, or at all."

  "The cost of repairs to Angie's building are going to be quite low. Materials are under two hundred twenty-five credits, no carpets or furniture have to be replaced and we'll finish tomorrow, so labor won't be high."

  "She told me what you're using for the ceiling, Knight. I told her gorshell is why homebuilders have filter masks on their tool belts. Tatton Tellerlock said it's an 'elegant solution' and he'd had no doubt you'd come up with one. He's not easy to impress. Don't undercharge for your labor or knowledge. Tatton said try to get you to charge five hundred credits plus materials. He said that's about a third of what it would cost them to do it, but doubted you'd consider the speed at which you work part of the market value of your labor and charge the eight hundred twenty-five-plus he thought you actually should. Seven hundred twenty-five total isn't pleasant, when expecting none, but it won't hurt Angie at all and she'll be quite happy to pay it. Carpet for just one of those units would have been more than twice that and insurance went up more than that already. They're not inexpensive summer homes. Your rent for this house is much less. Next business question. Gessee Darletta asked me to find out if you'd be interested in some space in the warehouse across the street. I told her you'd probably be more interested in having it gone, but I'd ask."

  "How much space is available?"

  "It's empty, Nev. Kelsever-Lombart consolidated office, packing plant and warehouse into one recently completed building, on the northeast side of the belt road. Gessee's hoping for some help paying taxes on that block-long eyesore she got when she bought Brimkatt Harvest. Currently, she doesn't need it and neither does anyone else, but no one's interested in the land under it to build on this side of town."

  "I might be if it was a real bargain."

  "Nev, are you thinking of removing it so you have a nice view?"

  "Not yet, Knight, but I'm thinking of buying a boat and Case and Stats already have a garage shortage. A more appropriate use for that property might be boat storage units, with a much lower roof. However, I wouldn't consider making that type of investment yet, because I don't know if there are a lot of people tromping through snow to a cold car because the boat's in the garage yet."

  "More cover the boats and put the cars in, but every storage facility gets full before the first snow, and lots of summer people lease one year round, to assure they have one when they leave. I won't tell Gessee your idea, but I'll tell her you're interested in some space and might consider taking it off her hands, if she can price it low enough you think about it every time you see just the top of Tarpeline Peak when you look out a window. Speaking of mountains, I talked to Ponce Caelton. He said there's enough up there to cover cost of harvesting plus a piece, but it would be about four years before it was good. He's got some of the best farmers of what's up there at his place tonight figuring out what they can pay, and how much less to offer the gov so that's what they end up paying. They're going to make two offers, one for wild harvest and one for 'parkland cultivation.' Ponce is pretty sure they can make it look more attractive than total lease and licensing for ski resort."

  "If the gov turns them down there, why bother to ask about lea
ses elsewhere?"

  "That's the idea, Knight. He thinks they can put together an offer that will have the gov totaling square K of parkland around here and drooling. The wild harvest proposal will prominently feature proximity the lake road. The cultivation offer will just include it as 'good existing access.' Now you know why I didn't get here until the party was at full volume."

  "You worked fast and talked to a lot of people."

  "That's a big part of the job. Nev, since you're the one who's used to checking on who's watching you, I'm going to ask you if you think my officers need to wear their weapons."

  "Before I came here, before the prison break, a woman I knew well enough she didn't fear talking to me said Horgen Fields was full of heroes, each of whom had seen evil and chosen not to turn away. I looked at some news archives. The number of brutal university students, mothers, fathers and fifteen-year employees of companies, who attacked and killed outstanding, loved members of the community for the change in their pockets, or IS officers with glowing records of service to the people, is just amazing. I think the heroes locked the beasts in cages before they walked out the door."

  "Well, they didn't use a door, but they locked some before they left. Someone broke them out. IS is really looking for the tech they used."

  "I wouldn't put 'prison break' on the intended-use line of a tech permit app."

  "I think it's more than that, Nev. It's something new."

  "If it is, I sincerely hope they don't find it. New is valuable, in one way or another. Thinking of their frustration at not being able to get something valuable is quite pleasant."

  "I'd agree if I didn't expect to be a problem."

  "How?"

  "Searches, identification checks, line people up and run them through truth scan. They're looking for an excuse to declare martial law. That's what the invocation warns."

  "I don't think they'll use it, Chief. It may actually slow it down. Someone has a secret. They want the secret, not just tech. If they didn't, you'd know what to watch for."

  "I hope you're right, Blade. 'New' is profitable and I'd have said they do anything to assure they were the only ones to get that profit, but the two IS officers who came here were different, not dumb brutes with a hand out for a bribe. Ice cold and disdainful. After they left, I reminded myself IS couldn't have many like that."

  "Zealots. Take over, end the corruption and run the world 'efficiently.' Control with fear and force of arms. There is an organization plotting to overthrow the government, IS. It's the only rebel organization that could exist."

  "Knight, you just scared the hell out of me."

  "As you said, there can't be many. The gov, the culture and the visible face of IS are all factors reducing the probable development, but someone has figured out how to find the 'disdainful' and recruit them or there would be none. Someone chose IS as the tool and path to power, and it isn't Warkerdoll. Who's behind him? Who is whispering the words and controlling the strings of the puppet?"

  "There's a dictator in the shadows, preparing to take over. That's the one thing that never occurred to me. Now I can see how it all fits. Warkerdoll set it up for profit, following established bureaucratic methods, but he hasn't been in control for nine years."

  "Why nine?"

  "That's when they stopped trying to bribe police and recruit informers in small towns and began to send summer 'help,' who don't lay a hand on people here. They bully with their presence, but they don't touch anyone. Warkerdoll doesn't have the discretion for that. He kept offering more money for 'investigative assistance,' like us tapping comms. He really did think we'd do it for them with enough money as incentive. Someone else figured out how to get the money and set up the full monitoring system. He didn't."

  "They never picked up someone to question about 'rebel activities' here?"

  "One, Knight. They kept him one hundred fourteen days, then tried to move him to another continent because of 'stigma.' He got on a flyer and came home. We blocked off five blocks of Center and had a welcome-back party. They didn't try it again."

  "We added numbers and figured out there were a lot picked up, held and moved, but not anything else. It was a budget increase ploy, and to make people think there were lots of rebels, so they had an excuse for full comm monitoring and now I think maybe to make rebels for an excuse for martial law. 'Rebels' were a way to put away people who learned something about the gov. Now that's Warkerdoll. Find a way to get more money, but don't have to spend it on feeding and guarding a bunch."

  "Standard bureaucratic department budget increase method, Blade. Find something that's threatening the income of the bureaucrats, or make it look like there is, then pad in every way possible, maintaining the appearance of high costs as an excuse to raise taxes. Got an estimate on actual people convicted?"

  "How many secrets does the gov know they have?"

  "I think there are only about three hundred."

  "Where did that come from, Knight?"

  "The standard pad, Blade. Most people think there are about twelve hundred. Simple division by four."

  "You know, I don't think of doing simple arithmetic."

  "It takes about a year."

  That night, people did 'hunt quiet.' Beds in the spare rooms had people in them before two. By three, only five 'invitees' were still there, quietly talking on the side patio, but all eight new residents were with them. The five were Chal, Donce and Barrett and two 'other neighbors' they'd brought, the 'guy across the street,' who hadn't been home when they needed tools, Tarn, and his special lady, Bellin.

  Tarn owned his house. He'd bought it from his great-grandparents. His opinion on the neighborhood was interesting. He thought it was going to "revert" to primarily resident-owners and young families.

  "Why, Tarn?"

  "Condos don't have yards, Nev. Houses on the east side are expensive. Most of these houses were paid off a long time ago, even the investment properties. The rental properties are getting more expensive to insure and maintain. Taxes are getting higher on business property, and becoming so complex most people need an accountant, not an accounting program, to do them. The income is nice, but people are beginning to wonder if it's worth the headaches. Madden would sell you this place quick, at a low price and finance it, even as rent-to-own. I think that's going to become more common. Lake properties are different. We like, welcome and make the summer people feel good about Teal Valley, but we call it 'summer place,' not 'summer home.' I think we've already started reducing the economic impact, and dependency on those summer residents. One hundred twenty-day leases are getting less common. We're encouraging the summer people to move up to the lakes without really being aware of it. Harvest crews are different. Most are area residents, for whom it makes more sense to 'bunkhouse' than commute. My feeling is it may be who comes with the summer people."

  "IS."

  "Not just them, Blade, the opportunists and salespeople, the souvenir vendors selling things with Teal Valley all over them, who give 'guided tours' following maps and reading local history off datpads. The summer people have money enough to come here for the season and pay for two places to live during that time. Since that's obvious, we get a flood of people who want to sell them investments, entertainment channel subscriptions, handy things for the boat, car, home and everything else. Local merchants don't actually make a lot because they're crowded out by the summer sellers. The lake and ski towns don't have the problem because they're primarily tourist areas. We're not. This is the home of the forest harvest industry. That's what built this town. Up at the lakes and over in the ski towns, they don't get the salespeople. The places are too spread out, or too access controlled. They also aren't in town limits in most cases. Here, vendors can walk in, apply for a vending license and set up on a corner a hundred or more pass a day. We can limit street vendors and where they set up, but we can't stop twenty comp-initiated calls a day with a 'wonderful service,'
by people who don't care if the comp hits two hundred residents before they find one summer visitor who may be interested in what they're selling, and they're gov licensed. We can't even control them."

  "Don't they call lake properties?"

  "No, Ronnie, the cost is too high. They have to license for each call zone and there aren't enough people in each to make profit probable. Here, one zone license covers everyone who comes. So, we encourage small lake community development, like the one where Knight and Blade are working, cottage clusters, like where Case and Stats are, and vacation communities, where people spend thirty days and go home. We have resort areas on the big lakes, but we don't want them on the small ones. There, we want 'summer place' living and thirty to one hundred twenty-day leases."

  "I see it now, Tarn. Multi-dwelling zoning is not being expanded. Investment companies that want to build more apts and condos can't get re-zone on anything in the town, and that means anywhere with good vehicle access in the valley. There is no zoning around Veil Lake, but all the land is privately owned or parkland."

  "We noticed the feeling, Chal. As seasonal renters, we were very politely welcome. As new residents, we're delightedly welcome. A business license got us happy hellos on the street and waves from clerks through store windows."

  "I'm not sure a probable reduction in rental properties makes me happy, Stats."

  "Not reduced, Case, moved. More at the lakes to balance fewer here. The problem is it's cheaper to live here. That's why a lot of people choose here instead of the lakes."

  "It won't be long, Stats. Two-thirds of a year empty down here is going to raise rent on places because the gov and insurers are making that more expensive all the time. The economic health of this valley isn't going to be damaged at all. There are eight of you who chose here as home. We've got summer people who are buying houses. We've got others who are signing year leases, or buying their condos. Your business licenses don't limit you to working on rentals. They allow you to do rental maintenance, and cost more than a license to do home maintenance."

  "We were told we could do work for homeowners, Tarn."

  "I've been thinking about buying our house."

  "You never mentioned it, Chal."

  "I've been deciding if it's the right house, Donce. I'm still not sure it is."

  "Why?"

  "Frankly, because most of the block is rental. It's also zoned residential-commercial and that big box across the street makes me nervous."

  "I'm considering turning that box into a much more attractive boat storage facility, with a lower roof."

  "That would be good there, Nev. It could be used for that this winter as it is, but individual units would be better because they'd attract owners of higher-priced boats. They want their own key codes and no one else 'exploring' them."

  "That could be assured inside the warehouse quite inexpensively, Barrett, but I still prefer something more attractive with a lower roof."

  "You'd raise the value of this house and the lot next door if you do that."

  "Who owns that lot?"

  "Your landlord. It's actually part of this one, but separating it makes that vacant-lot not rental-property taxed."

  "MPM said they didn't expect a tax increase."

  "There just was one, Danny. The place you live was thirty credits per thirty cheaper last year. We're being taxed higher here than other areas and I think it's because there are so many rentals. It's odd to say I don't think the gov wants us economically healthy."

  "No, Tarn, I think we're being taxed to pay for IS personnel, who have to be paid more to keep them from sticking their hands out for money, and to keep them from using them on people. They'd have to pay bonuses for it."

  "Blade's right, Tarn. The chief said they don't touch people here. We've never even heard of that before. Because you don't have licensing fees, like marinas and ski slopes, they have to get it in another way. They won't require licenses on rental property ownership, because too many own condo and apt complexes. So, taxes, which they can raise on the basis of gov-owned land use in the area. All those renters are, of course, using public parkland."

  "Public boat launches, beaches and picnic areas?"

  "Are primarily private property, Case. Some community group makes arrangements to create and maintain them. The property owner gets a nearby boat launch. The organizations have lower tax and insurance costs, and the owner gets a tax credit for contribution on local taxes. Often, the community group gets a small amount from several other property owners, who also benefit from having a boat launch, beach and picnic area nearby. They don't make money on them, but they don't cost them much, and the benefit can't be calculated, so can't be taxed. The people who use them a lot make contributions in money or labor to maintain them."

  "I like it here more all the time."

  "So do I, Dawn."

  "It's unanimous, Stats."

  "We're going home. You guys have work to do tomorrow. Chief Dennon wouldn't have been trying to find out if Angie's going to be hit hard if it wasn't bad."

  "We relieved his worry, Tarn. It was more mess than damage and the cost of materials and labor a lot less than she expected. The carpets and furniture just needed to be dried. We had to drain walls but not replace them. We'll be done tomorrow."

  "Tarn, we couldn't do it that fast, and we're faster than most. Don't let people think they'll pay regular hourly labor for them. They're not going to be a lot cheaper because they're faster, unless every hour costs you somewhere else, like it would have Fem Dennon. I'm an engineer. We won't charge engineer wages, but we have more knowledge and skills that make us faster. It's still the same amount of work, but we already did a lot of it. It's in our heads and hands. You can look at them and see how much more already-done they bring to the job."

  "Got it, Case. If they want hourly laborers, call the job lists. If they want it done by skilled service people for about the same price, call you guys."

  "We're going to roust the nappers."

  "They can stay here, Donce."

  "I know, Nev, but most have work some time tomorrow. It will be easier to go home now, then get up and get ready, than get up, go home and get ready."

  "Rina doesn't, but he much prefers her sleeping at our place."

  "Especially around seven, Chal. She's a morning person."

  "I noticed she blinked her way to a flat place about one."

  "We meet for breakfast at five fairly often, Danny. She works at the bakery where I pick up sweet rolls for a couple workplace snack shops. Her day started early."

  "Is it on Ore Ave at Nineteenth?"

  "That's the one, Blade, best in town."

  "You found the right one."

  "Our noses told us that, Nev."

  "That exhaust fan is the best advertisement in town."

  Everyone said goodnight. Nev knew they hadn't all left, but Knight and Blade didn't, until Nev said he'd finish loading the cycler and sent them to bed. Danny and Ronnie hadn't gone home with Dawn.

  Knight didn't quite know what to do. Danny told him Nev had asked her if she planned to keep him waiting five years, too, and reminded her Knight would never be "a possessive problem." Since Nev actually wasn't, she needed Knight's help to show him his worry it would affect any of their friendships was unnecessary. Knight told her he appreciated help getting across the room. She smiled, grabbed his hand and pulled him to his bed.

  Blade hadn't needed any additional encouragement, and wasn't really surprised Ronnie knew she was the first woman. She'd understood who he'd had to be too well.

  At four eighteen, a tossed pebble woke Rorke and he moved fast, to take a leisurely stroll around the building. When a car started about one hundred meters up the lake road, Kent walked around the corner and Benla turned off her shield. The 'informer' had been there, with a jar of something in his hand. She and Lilse had seen the car go by. Lilse had watched for who, while Benla woke the men.

>   Since dawn was not far off, and the 'visitor' had come and gone Kent and Rorke sent the watchers, who'd stayed awake all night, 'home.' They watched for a wake behind the boat, and smiled. There wasn't one. They opened the tea therm, sat on the dock and watched the sun rise over the eastern hills and reflect off windows of their new hometown, four K up the lake road.

  Knight and Blade drove into the Estates at eight oh six, with Nev and Case and Stats behind them. Case and Stats took Kent and Rorke to the town of Veil Lake for breakfast. The server at the café told them to state they were looking for a home, not a summer place, and they'd get a much different rent quote, then he gave them a list of comm codes, including two possible employers. When Case and Stats took them to Teal Valley to used-car shop at ten forty-three, they had a home address and employers.

  Neither job was full-time, but they weren't seasonal and would cover living expenses, so they were both car shopping. When Rorke chose one, Case and Stats went to the mine and delivered more people to new hometowns. By the time they got the boat and went home, Knight and Blade had finished at Angie's and a third of the people had moved out of the mines. It was fifteen twenty-eight when they parked the boat and walked over to "the big house." Nev was dancing around the kitchen and Knight and Blade were laughing.

  "What happened?"

  "He bought half the neighborhood!"

  "I only bought five houses and a warehouse, Knight, but I got great deals on them all! I'm your new landlord, but your arrangement hasn't changed. I told her I plan to find financeable buyers, starting with you two, so rearranging your arrangement did not make long-term sense. I also told her I don't plan on one hundred twenty day-leases, after current expire, if any. She wished me luck."

  "All four on the block?"

  "At a great block price. The warehouse was please-take-it cheap. Semiannual tax bills are coming out in a few days and they all want to register the properties as sold first. I bought them all as purchase for upgrade and resale. They do need work."

  "The carpet in ours is rental-not-quite-worn-out."

  "Get me measurements, Stats."

  "We told Madden to apply our rent to purchase, so we're paid-up roomies for a while."

  "Actually, you're buying this house with that and labor on others, Knight."

  "No."

  "No?"

  "No, but we'll add you to our business license and share ownership with you. We have a… bond nothing can break or really penetrate, Nev, but you're our best friend. You've always… been a little outside. It's not left out in any fashion, but it's been you with those two, you with the bunch and so on. It's right for you. And it's right for us. Am I wrong, Stats?"

  "Perfect analysis, Knight. Danny, Ronnie and Dawn aren't the same. They're happy sharing a place, but they're not the same kind of tight friends as Case and I are. We're not 'bonded' like you two. The only single person he could share forever with is Danny and I wonder if some of that is wish for someone always there. He loves her and she loves him, but they were best friends in a different way. They're matched, but they're not paired. He hasn't yet seen, if she was going one way and you were going another, he'd be following you. Danny goes alone. She doesn't mind, really enjoys, company, but it doesn't bother her to be alone at all. He gets lonely. Ronnie and Dawn will both end up married. Danny won't. Case and I won't. You three won't. We'll watch Ronnie and Dawn fall in love and happily make room for two more in the bunch. Case and I will have companions we bring along who'll be comfortable, and maybe become part of the bunch, but that's they fit, not they fit with us and the bunch, like with Ronnie and Dawn."

  "I'm stuck with you?"

  "You've known that since we were freshmen."

  "True, but I ignored it well. I like sharing a three-bedroom house much better than a dorm room, or even two-bedroom apt. When are we going to start using my car?"

  "Today. I'm about to need a fuel cell."

  "Get one soon."

  "I'll pick one up and put it in the reserve cradle, Nev. I knew it didn't have one, but didn't realize I'd be driving this much."

  "We need an LH for the business."

  "At least we now know we have a place we can park additional. Heating that thing is going to cost a fortune."

  "I'm going to do something about that fast."

  "Nev, why don't we just lower the roof, bondcoat it green and put tall evergreen hedges around it?"

  "Lower the roof?"

  "It's vilsine panel. We can cut it. The roof basically sits on it. And it's sections. We wouldn't even need a crane, but we would need a building permit. However, since it's personal project, we can do the work. Our business licenses don't apply."

  "Blade, you have great ideas. Nev, there's nothing wrong with the warehouse except it's tall and dried mustard yellow."

  "I find both so offensive it hadn't occurred to me there wasn't anything else, Knight. We could block off this end for us, make the other end door the access with keycode, then put in fencing as partitions and key-coded gates."

  "Why fencing?"

  "People like other people to drool over their boats, Blade. They just don't want them to drool on them. It also makes security and heating simpler. Let's go boat shopping, and let all those enthusiastic people tell us just how popular different sizes are with whom. They'll all be open late this evening, in Ambertown."

  "Why there?"

  "Used cars here, boats there, Knight."

  "You guys need to spend some time in the hill."

  "We know, Case, but we need to look around Ambertown. We also need to look over Willaville at some point."

  "We've been to Willaville, but we just delivered. It's about a quarter the size of Teal Valley, real agra, a lot of vineyards, orchards and tree farms, not field crops or grain. Tembin and Lirell fell in love with it, as soon as they saw it. It's pretty. Every little town around here is pretty, but I like a little bigger, like Teal Valley."

  "How many vehicles are we taking?"

  "Two, Case, if you're going. We're going in the T and it only holds three when one is Knight. I haven't driven it at all."

  "What about the girls?"

  "We may be taking three cars, but I'm not sure they'll want to go."

  "Do you want to go, Case?"

  "What you have in mind, Stats?"

  "Lida said they'll be at Waindain."

  "Have fun, guys."

  "I added two shortcuts to the comm list. They're 'guys.' Comm connect girls. Hi, Ronnie. We're headed to Ambertown to learn sizes and popularity of boats, with storage rental in mind. Case and Stats have Waindain meeting plans. Ambertown won't be boring, but it will be boats."

  "We're going to be house slobs tonight, Nev. Even Danny is reserving a plop place. We studied forest farming on comp and took a long hike through the Caelton facility today."

  "I wondered where you were when I called earlier. Don't get too comfortable there. I have a house I plan to add a workshop and third garage to in mind for you when your lease ends. It will have nice new carpet and already has three baths, and I know you like the next-door neighbors, Case and Stats."

  "The blue house?"

  "The blue one, unless you'd prefer the gray or tan."

  "What did you do, Nev?"

  "Bought five and a warehouse. Comm out. Answer comm."

  "Nev!"

  "All four on that block, Danny, to be upgraded for sale, and the warehouse is getting shorter, changing colors and being hidden with bushes. This yard is getting bigger. The vacant lot was once, and will be again, part of it."

  "We'll take three houses."

  "What?!"

  "Dawn wants a workshop. Ronnie wants a garden. I want a swimming pool, and an office. We can all afford one. Caelton already plans referrals and we'll have contract offers from everyone from farmers to ski resorts. Other plans are not changed. We don't have to work overtime to make good money. This area needs us. Our assorted skills are
as perfect as yours."

  "Are you sure you…"

  "If you're going to upgrade, we can have what we each want done. In general, those houses are already what we want, more character than this and more yard. They might get roommates. I want more work area, so I have room for three just to work. I'll share my covered pool, or spa, and you can share yours. Comm out."

  "Now that's fast house sales."

  "She knows they're going to end up married too, Blade."

  "I thought I was making places for more people, Stats."

  "You are, Nev. They have a one hundred twenty-day lease. You have current tenants and firm buyers. Do you have a cash flow problem?"

  "It barely dented it. I wonder if the houses behind them are for sale."

  "Yes."

  "Yes?"

  "Plipton Investment owns all of them and they want in on a new high-price summer community at Roundin Lake."

  "Comm Plipton Investment. Hello, I'm interested in the possible purchase of houses you own on the far west side. I'm going to upgrade for resale, so I do want a good price on all four on Thirty-sixth."

  "I think we can give you one. Two still have tenants. Two are on the prep list."

  "How long will tenants be in the other two?"

  "Six and eleven days, neither renewed. We had to raise rent."

  "Obviously, the tax bill is going to be a thump. Give me a bargain and I'll do this fast enough you don't have to pay it. Cash."

  "Cash?"

  "Straight debit."

  "Let me get you a price, a good price."

  "That's what will make a sale."

  Nev got a very good price and had four more houses before they went to Ambertown. He loudly sang, "I love my neighborhood, so I just bought it," with a number of verses, on the way. Knight and Blade helped make rhymes and laughed. They knew the real reason Nev was so happy. They'd given him a place beside them and told him it would always be his.