"So you made sure to get the law on your side."

"Right. Once we understood what this whole thing was about, we went to talk to Brian - that"s the sheriff, Brian Madison. And he in turn went to talk to the mayor. Then the mayor a.s.sembled the whole town and we voted to keep everything from the cube, and set up a colony in the New World."

"The whole town? You"re kidding!"

"Easy. Our total population is like a hundred and fifty people. Used to be in the thousands, a long time ago. There isn"t a year when someone doesn"t move to greener pastures, so to speak. So we got the mayor and the sheriff onside, and they"re the local authorities, so everything"s nice and legal."

"It"s not nice and legal if you"re already running a colony," said Amanda.

"Yeah, well it made sense to set something up quickly because of the money situation. You know, this new currency thing. It was obvious we"d better get ourselves some precious metals. So the mayor authorized Brian and Jim and myself to scout out the area in the New World."

"I see. Any luck?"

Jeffrey grinned from ear to ear.

"We found a nice gold seam almost right away," he said. "And when we went looking for that stone they call tiger rock - you know, to build platforms and send stuff back here - we found more gold. And silver, and copper, and iron, and manganese, and about half a dozen other metals."

"But no tiger rock?"

"On the contrary. It took a while, but right now we"re sending thirty to forty kilos of ore a day. We"ve already registered the town mint, and set up a smelter. It became operational yesterday. We already got gold and silver worth at least a couple of thousand of the new dollars. We"re still working on the dies, but March first, right after midnight, we start making money. We calculate we can easily hit a thousand coins a day. Most in smaller denominations, but we"ll be making at least five hundred bucks a day, no problem. The whole town"s on the act."

Jeffrey paused and looked at both Amanda and Sharon in turn, examining their faces for the effect of his words. What he saw evidently pleased him, because he got up and got out the brandy, and put it on the table along with three shot gla.s.ses.

"So you see," he said, pouring, "We have a bright future here. We got no food problems. We got our own electricity, from wind turbines and panels. It"s enough to keep the town running. We got a stream of gold and silver coming in from the New World. Sure, it would be nice to set up a trade route. We"d be happy to give you some of that gold and silver in exchange for this wonderful salt of yours. But giving up our independence for coast access? I don"t know. We got almost everything we need right here, and I"m not sure we"re interested in colonizing islands in the Pacific."

"You can try and shut out the rest of the world, sure," Amanda said. "But you know something: sooner or later, the world is going to come knocking on your door."

"What"s that supposed to mean?"

"You know very well what it means. You won"t be able to survive in your little bubble. It"s going to get p.r.i.c.ked, and it will burst. All the more so because you"re sitting on all this gold."

"I don"t like the sound of that," Jeffrey said slowly. "It sounds like you"re trying to threaten me."

"It"s the facts that are threatening you, not me. I"m actually offering you a way out of danger."

"Yeah. Join the glorious Amazon empire so you don"t get rubbed out? By the aforementioned Amazon empire? You know, you got a bit of mouth on you, Amanda. I guess it comes natural, you being a rock star and all. And you"re used to other people doing what you say, right? But we got a whole new ballgame here. Old rules don"t apply. So take it easy, or you might just inspire us to organize a visit to your new colony. And it won"t be a friendly visit."

Amanda gave Jeffrey an amused smile, and finished eating her breakfast. The silence in the kitchen became very heavy by the time she wiped her mouth and turned to Jeffrey and said:

"You"re not getting something. Maybe it"s my fault, I didn"t make it clear. We"ve got several million people worldwide, over ten thousand in the Seattle area alone, waiting to become colonists after March the first. And you"ve got a hundred and fifty, counting infants and the old and infirm. Can you do the math?"

Jeffrey was silent for a while. Then he said:

"You know, I really got to get the sheriff and the mayor in on that. I"ll go and bring them over now, if you don"t mind."

"Can"t you call them? You"ve got a stationary phone."

"No, I"m due at Brian"s house in about half an hour anyway. I"ll just go over and tell him what"s up and then probably we"ll go and see Luke - the mayor. Likely he"ll want to come with us. So why don"t you girls rest up a little while I do all that. I reckon it"ll take a couple of hours. Okay?"

"Sure," Amanda said. She reached and picked up the gla.s.s of brandy Jeffrey had poured, and held it up and said:

"Cheers."

"Cheers."

"Cheers," Sharon said belatedly, sounding as if she were announcing a death.

Jeffrey left immediately. Amanda and Sharon cleared up after breakfast, and treated themselves to a couple more brandies. Then Amanda said:

"Let"s go outside for a cigarette, and maybe take a little stroll and a look around. It"s a beautiful day."

"Okay," said Sharon, with a sharp glance.

They got dressed and went outside and indeed, it was a wonderful day. The sun was strong enough to be felt as well as seen, and they didn"t even have to zip up. As soon as they lit up Sharon said:

"You don"t think Jeffrey has the place bugged? I mean Jesus, Amanda, I just don"t f.u.c.king know what"s going on in your head. Millions of members worldwide? Tens of thousands in Seattle?"

"Sharon, you"re a birdbrain," Amanda said calmly. "I told you we"re activating our fan club the moment March rolls around. At the last count, just before Christmas, it had eleven million members. Not everyone will join us, most won"t even qualify, but I"m sure we"ll get a million or two. And ten thousand in Seattle isn"t so far out when you consider we"ve got nearly a hundred thousand registered fans right there."

That shut Sharon up, and they strolled back and forth in silence for a while. Amanda was silent because she"d been struck by a new thought: what if Jeffrey was preparing to pull some sort of fast move? He would be trying to think of one, that was for sure, and so would be the sheriff and the mayor.

She was sure they"d try and stall for time, at the very least. But time was something she couldn"t afford. There were just a few days left before March came. It would take them a full day to get back to Seattle, and once she was there she would have to throw herself into a whirlwind of frenzied activity. Organizing a network of thousands of colonies all over the New World! Managing over a million colonists! Well, she would have to delegate. And delegating always meant someone, somewhere f.u.c.ked up.

Still, she was sure she was going to enjoy it. Running a worldwide empire was something that appealed to her. The fact that she could get even more wealthy in the process didn"t hurt, either.

"What did you and Jeffrey talk about, Sharon? While I was in the shower?" she asked suddenly.

Sharon became fl.u.s.tered. She puffed on her cigarette for a while before saying:

"I was just giving us and you in particular a little buildup. You know, to make him receptive."

"Did you mention anything in particular?"

"Well, yes, a few things." After a short pause, Sharon added:

"I told him you"d personally killed at least half a dozen people in combat."

"Good," said Amanda, pleasantly surprised. "You did good to tell him that."

"Thank you. You think this whole thing, with Jeffrey and the others - how is it going to turn out? You think it will go well?"

"You should have the better idea of what he"s like," said Amanda. "You"ve known him for a while. So why don"t you tell me, instead?"

"That"s the thing. I don"t know what he"s thinking."

"What does he do for a living? You mentioned he"s involved with some sort of an environmental agency."

"It"s not an agency. He"s set up his own environmental organization. Strictly local, so you wouldn"t have heard about it. And then he"s a sort of leader of this church."

"A church! What the h.e.l.l do you mean?"

"Well it"s officially called a church, but it isn"t really. It"s just like a bunch of people that share certain beliefs. There is no G.o.d or worship or prayers of any sort involved. They just kind of get together from time to time to talk about things."

"I see," said Amanda, and she did. Her respect for Jeffrey grew. She remembered that Sharon had told her Jeffrey"s second name was Bent, Jeffrey Bent. It was a name that fit, that was for sure. Good old Jeffrey ran an environmental organization, no doubt paying himself an appropriate salary while raking in government and private money in grants and donations. He also ran a church, a religious inst.i.tution that enjoyed many tax breaks.

In summary, Jeffrey seemed to be a h.e.l.l of an operator. It would be good to have someone like that on her side. He would have to be watched closely, though.

She turned to Sharon, and said:

"You know, Sharon, I have the feeling things are going to work out very well."

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