L'Gem

  Chapter Five

  Stats finally bought a car from a beside-the-dealership lot. It was a five-year-old all-terrain luxury transport, set up for towing a boat and lake fun. After he paid for the 'mobile condo,' he told Case he was buying most of the furniture. Case asked if they were going boat shopping first. Stats told him no, because he'd already chosen the boat. After they got the gorgeous lake skimmer that seated six and needed power plant work, they went to "the big house." Nev took them to get beds. That evening, they finished the T, fixed the boat and installed two shields. The transport had been simple and the T was prepared. That night, Case and Stats towed the boat up to the mine, put a shield in it, then took tools and the invisible car down and put a shield in a light hauler that would tow a car transport. When they finished, Brand, Lowder and Wakeem followed them up to the mine. They were headed back down with a car transport before Case and Stats got home, to the house with two beds in it.

  Case and Stats went to work on lake cottages the next morning. That afternoon, they furniture shopped in two towns, neither Teal Valley. Knight and Blade took the LH to pick up their purchases. Nev and Dawn prepared her car for shield installation by putting in a sound system and solar panel, like they had in the T. It took them longer. The T had been set up to make many accessories easy to install. Danny and Ronnie went to the place Nev and Dawn had gotten their systems and told the young woman clerk they wanted two of what their roommate bought.

  "Sound system to go in a car, and she probably gave specifications, then remembered it had a brand name."

  "I know who."

  "We've helped arrange furniture, checked how things sound, substituted as hosts and opened and closed doors, while she played in the garage with gorgeous men. We plan to demonstrate we can use tools well enough to be garage playmates too."

  "With the intent of getting them out of it, eventually."

  "And we'll enjoy the sound systems."

  "We want what she got, without asking her. She'll help get us in, but it will be easier if she can say, 'I didn't have to tell them.' Car models first?"

  "Yes, and I may suggest better for your specific cars. Five gorgeous?"

  "You've seen one, Nevin Curran."

  "Yum, and he was putting it in a T."

  They told the clerk about Nev's sudden car purchase, while she helped them find the most perfect systems to put in their cars. Then they conspired to convince one more gorgeous man to buy a system for his car, with a description of the knowledgeable woman. She got his car model so she could glance out and name the system. Three hours later, Case walked into the store. When he left, eighteen minutes later, he had a date to help put it in the next day.

  The clerk called her best friend right after he left and told her all about it. She complained she had to work the next day and they conspired to get her to the garage with gorgeous men, too. At sixteen forty the next day, she drove up in front of the house, got out and waved a sheaf of printouts at Renda, working with Case on his car in the drive.

  "I found a bunch! Who do I give them to?"

  "Nev. Tell him happy garage-warming from me too."

  "What's she got? Who is she?"

  "My girlfriend, Lida. She works at Tellerlock Construction. They do a lot of home remodeling. I told her to hit their catalogs for who'd have the type of things to go in the LH. It was an excuse to get her here to meet you all, too."

  "It's a great one. Nev will love it. Stats will find some way to get into the conversation."

  After the two women left, with invitations for a party in two days, the eight did the other part of the installations. Case told them what he'd learned as newcomer during the time he'd worked with the woman he planned to see often. She'd confirmed the local opinion the Demfen mines had been a cheap operation.

  The people of the area were partially right about tunnel collapses. Many sides shafts had collapsed, and most were blocked by rockfalls, but the twelve main tunnels and central cavern had been constructed to handle the noise and vibration of the huge ore carts that moved through them. The soundings done eight decades previously didn't reflect collapsed tunnels, but closed doors. Any knowledgeable materials engineer would have known the main tunnels were intact, until Danny had changed the record of method and materials used in their construction, a quarter-year before, but none had been consulted.

  Case had also gotten a job recommendation for the time after the season, and one for Knight and Blade, "keep doing the same thing." After the summer season, people began getting places ready for ski season. Though that was primarily the other side of the mountains, the two passes from Teal Valley were low and short.

  Case had asked about competition in rental prep and "access clearing." He'd been told "lots, but more work than they can do." She'd explained most of the forest harvest crews that came to Teal Valley went home to jobs in the ski towns in winter.

  In the morning, Danny called Gen Millert at MPM and told him what they'd heard and that she'd hoped he might know of people who were "looking for two guys, who can do anything, with a vehicle that can get anywhere." He said yes and asked if the other two would be done with Fem Britterdale's cottages soon.

  A few minutes later, the office manager at Caelton was guiding two sets of young men through the business licensing process to become rental maintenance contractors. The man at the local licensing bureau was very helpful, too. His neighbor had rental property and needed help. He warned the four their licenses didn't cover work on power receivers and told them people would try to get them to ignore it, and that anything but maintenance, sheds, decks or docks required a construction permit.

  Stats called Lida. She got them a very detailed list of types of permits and what they covered, and Knight and Blade their first job. Her boss contracted them to "rip out a cabin kitchen." A homeowner had added to a job and he was behind schedule. Midmorning the next day, Knight and Blade drove into the construction yard with what they'd taken out of the kitchen, as requested. Tatton Tellerlock walked over to where they were unloading the LH.

  "I'm not just surprised to see you."

  "It wasn't difficult. A Colber blade to remove the cabinets and floor cover, a Limbert vibra-sander to smooth surfaces."

  "Those are tools for working on cars."

  "We had to pay attention to keep from making holes or dents, but we're highly physically trained and very practiced with those tools."

  "We put caps on the water and power conduits, but didn't remove them."

  "We started right after we talked to you and we don't have families waiting for us to come home for dinner. We also don't do it all the time. If you do, you have to develop a steady pace you can maintain day after day."

  "Yes, you do. I imagine getting your bank accounts in somewhat better shape was incentive too."

  "We did discuss a first job paycheck as a method of keeping our roommate from paying for our dates' dinners."

  "He's terrific, but he can get an account code in ahead of anybody else, fastest you ever saw."

  "I'm tempted to arrange a match with my father-in-law. Come on in the office. I'll give you that first paycheck."

  "Don't you want to look it over?"

  "I looked at the backs of the cabinets and flooring you pulled out, Knight. As clean as I've seen, but I'm not going to recommend the method to my crew."

  When they got home, they told Nev they obviously needed to do some research. When he saw what they were checking, he started laughing. He was rolling on Knight's bed, holding his sides, when Case and Stats followed the sound to Knight's room.

  "What happened?"

  "We underestimated how long a job should take, Case."

  "By four-and-a-half to eight days!"

  "He said take out the kitchen. So Knight held cabinets, I sliced them off, then we did the floor cover and smoothed the cuts."

  "We multiplied by three. Blade thought fast and made it sound like we'd worked late, when he sai
d he was 'more than surprised' to see us."

  "Sliced off and smoothed?"

  "The Colbert and vibra-sander, Case. It took them ninety-seven minutes, because they had to go get conduit caps!"

  When the girls came in from the garage, there were three laying on the bed, laughing. Knight said it was time for lunch and Blade followed him out of the bedroom, fast. When the three women howled with laughter, Blade winced.

  "It made sense to use the Colbert, Blade. It's made to use a guide surface to cut to a specified depth. Walls, ceilings and floors are surfaces. We knew you were fast with it. We didn't subtract the time to get the caps when we multiplied."

  "Now we know why Case and Stats just work a little while."

  "You covered us well. We do things 'a little faster' than others and no one will realize we have time to be other places."

  "The boat was genius. If we put a couple scooters in it… You don't know what a scooter is."

  "No."

  "You know what a wheel is?"

  "A scooter has a wheel?"

  "Four and a board to stand on and a handlebar. You propel it with your foot. You can make one that floats, but if you're going to use power, you might as well propel it with it and sit down and ride, a glide. The better the wheels on the scooter, the better your timing and stronger your legs, the faster you can go. Our personal shields would cover them. They're not good cross-country, but we could cover a couple K on a road fast."

  "Because they're not powered."

  "With good wheels, they're silent, and you can make it two bars and a board under a bush and nobody sees it. It's short distance transport that can get us from the boat, four K up the road and back a lot faster than we can do it walking. We can just take them apart and leave them in the boat. They don't have to be hidden. Even if someone put all the pieces together, they'd think they were toys, because they wouldn't know what they can do with muscle and timing. A bicycle, they would. Glides would have to be shielded, if parked."

  "Brakes?"

  "Drag your foot, or jump off and hang onto it. I think they've been around as long as wheels."

  "Wheel size?"

  "Fifteen to twenty cens. Bigger would be curious. That size could be just off something, which is usually what they are. My first one had wheels off a cycler bin caddy. My mom worked not to laugh and just carried the bins out. That was eight days before they were murdered."

  "Let's have lunch on the side patio."

  "Nev! If you don't want to eat your lunch off the ground, you'd better get furniture on the patio quick!"

  Nev sprang up, vaulted Case and Stats, on the bed, and the girls on the floor and was through the door the next step. The five in the room relapsed. They were still laughing three minutes later when the comm chimed. Knight answered. He didn't recognize the woman in her thirties.

  "Hello, may I help you?"

  "Tellerlock Construction gave me your comm code. I've got a disaster."

  "What happened?"

  "I've got a four-unit building. Somehow, a water line connection in one of the top units came apart, days ago. I've got a ceiling coming down and tenants for that unit coming in two days. I've got three units with saturated walls and carpets, furniture and who knows what else, and tenants for two more are coming in four and five days. I may be able to switch the one in four, but the other tenants are coming in six. The two on the bottom come every year."

  "Where?"

  "Veil Lake Summer Estates, nine oh three Lavender Drive."

  "I wouldn't have any idea what to tell you on price, if I saw it. Hourly doesn't make sense, because we'll be working as fast as we can and will yell for friends to help, if that's not going to be fast enough. Is there a place we can get everything out of them to get it dry, while we work on the structure?"

  "I can get the banquet room on the top floor of the clubhouse. I'm sure nothing's scheduled for at least six days. It's very close."

  "That will help. Is it big enough to lay out a carpet?"

  "They'd scream, and I don't think so anyway. I'll just order new."

  "Don't do that. Not yet. Let us see if we can save it. Introductions are in order. I'm Silverin Bladesly, Blade. My partner, Knighton Pyramid, Knight."

  "Angerel Dennon, Angie. I don't know what to pay you either."

  "We'll tell our friendly construction company owner what we did and ask him to help us figure out how much less we should charge than he'd have to. It takes a lot more just for him to be in business. Make arrangements with the clubhouse for us to move furniture this afternoon. Get us who to contact and hours. If you can't, we'll figure something out."

  "We'll also figure out why a connection came apart. Make sure you get a very precise description of what was found by the person who discovered it, for your insurance claim."

  "I… doubt they'll accept it as a valid claim, Blade. Negligence isn't covered. It wasn't a broken conduit."

  "Angie, how soon can you meet us there with the key codes? We'll have a better idea of what we're going to need in materials, and possibly labor, after we see it."

  "Not until about fourteen, Knight."

  "We'll see you there then."

  "Don't worry. We'll take care of it."

  "Comm out. Danny!"

  "I'm working on it! Knight, I hit slime!"

  The Summer Estates were only open from late spring until early autumn. They'd been open four days. There were four two-unit and six four-unit buildings around a clubhouse with dock. All buildings were owned by individuals. The clubhouse was owned by the woman who'd planned the small summer community in a pretty cove. She'd had streets, clubhouse and two buildings built, then gotten others to invest in building the other eight. They paid a quite reasonable lease for the clubhouse, and it was partially supported by fees for use of the banquet room. The walk from parking for it didn't go through the small community and the access didn't intrude on the lower floor. It was well-designed and someone wanted it.

  Insurance rates had risen after claims over the winter and had become more limited "due to the nonsecure nature of single-season occupancy." If the water connection in Angie's unit had been vandalism, rates would go up again. The insurers weren't doing it, but someone was using them to push out the small investors. Danny found out who and walked out to where the others were getting the patio ready for lunch.

  "LBBR Development wants Summer Estates' clubhouse, docks and buildings and the land behind it. They want to develop it, adding twenty eight-unit buildings and more docks. The clubhouse banquet room has a lovely view and already has everything required for restaurant. They want to start there with money coming in as they 'improve' the area and develop the southwest side of the south lobe as a resort area, including skiing, so it's year-round profitable. All they have to do is buy out eight building owners, but they don't want to spend much. Four vandalism claims are raising costs and lowering profit rapidly. The gov quite agrees a ski resort would be a nice addition to the area. It would get lease payments for the mountainside. The whole scheme is a fast, cheap plan to make four bureaucrats a lot of money, and it's all based around that little clubhouse and a very nice road to it. No one local would want it. It would pull people from the other ski areas and damage locally-owned ski resorts, but the gov doesn't get lease payments from those, and doesn't care that ski slopes would damage the ecology of the mountainside. It's parkland no one is paying them to use. They want to open this winter, and could do it with that clubhouse as restaurant and ski shop. A lift could go beside it. Ski trails can be made with a gravway grader and lift supports put in with a geo-anchor driver. They wouldn't have difficulty getting permits to use them."

  "A geo-anchor driver could cause landslides all over the area, especially on the other side of the mountain. People could be killed."

  "After it's graded, they wouldn't cause one there, Knight, and destruction on the other side of the mountain would just reduce compe
tition. They're not worried about lawsuits. Deaths would just be a little aid in population reduction."

  "LBBR?"

  "Laver Kandonmeer, Bomirk Dosleitner, Deveta Appenki and Rasser Gammergill. Taking their money wouldn't do a thing to stop it. They plan to use other people's. 'Invest or else' is planned, but they'd prefer to keep the payments to less than the restaurant will make. There currently isn't one on the south lobe and they've selected the or-else lessor already, Terrell Delant. Delant's is the only restaurant in the area for which one always needs a dinner reservation. Tellerlock is on the list of possible or-else builders, with four other local construction companies."

  "Nobody stomps on people in our home town."

  "Someone else would just take over the plan, Blade. We have to stop that, then we'll kill them."

  "I don't have any ideas on the plan, Knight."

  "The insurers?"

  "Not involved, but they can't operate unless they cooperate with the gov."

  "Who did the vandalism?"

  "I'm not sure, Blade, but it may have been the IS informer. His bank account received a gov deposit that doesn't coincide with an IS investigation."

  "Who owns the land behind Summer Estates?"

  "The woman who owns the clubhouse and two units, from the lake circuit road in. The gov owns behind it Jerici Mondalo is one hundred two. She has no problems handling her own business investments, but increased insurance costs are hurting her, too. The clubhouse is managed and staffed by the annual tenants in her two-unit building. It was the first vandalized, furniture destroyed with a vibra-blade. The next two were colorbond thrown through windows holed with a compression hammer. The fourth was 'graffiti' written with nitric acid across the front of a building. The Veil Lake police really did try to find out who did it and watched over it well enough there weren't more this spring, until this one, after it opened, but it could have been almost-done last winter and come apart when the water system was charged."

  "Let's eat and get up there."

  "I'm going with you."

  "We knew that, Nev. We'd like some of you to stay close to here, prep for party as excuse. We'll comm and ask you to find someone to watch over the place, because we want to leave it open to dry out, but don't want to hit Angie's budget hard. Find a couple people who think Veil Lake sounds attractive, and won't be terrified to be introduced to police, and arrange to find them somewhere. Tell them we just need someone to spend the night. They offer for dinner, breakfast and transportation tomorrow morning, but want dry beds. Pick up another pad and grab more blankets to go with what's in our car. We'll get permission for outside. I want two in the invisible boat in front and two in an invisible car behind. We're going to be at a party and the 'vandal' probably knows it. This is hurting Angie and she may be considered best candidate for first sale. Make 'altars' appear many places. Lay a branch from something with nasty thorns that grows there on them. If there's a rock with a bowl-like dent around, put it there. Don't search for one. None is preferable to many. Inspiration is welcome, but no obvious weapons. One goes on that mountainside, the rest not in this area. The nature preserves will be watched, so parkland, undeveloped land and such, preferably gov-owned, but just preferably. Not all in forests. No one does that unshielded and speed of construction is more important than aesthetics. They don't all need to be done 'overnight,' but we want about a dozen by gov business open in two days."

  "I'll go up, Knight. I'm home working. Case and Stats, do yard work until they comm around sixteen thirty. I'll put two on the transport from Mountain City that gets into Veil Lake a few minutes before seventeen thirty. You find them with loads of luggage looking at hotel listings in the station. It occurs to you because it's what you did, and you'd have taken it."

  "We'll be there, Danny. The boat?"

  "Take it up with you, Stats. Launch and dock by the cottages for fun tomorrow. Time enough?"

  "Yes, Knight. We can put it in right there. When we see your mess, we'll probably cancel the fun idea, but there's no need to go back for it tonight."

  "I did plan to do the yardwork myself."

  "We know, Nev, but you described it well enough, while we were getting the furniture set up, that we can do it, and they may need you to get things for them."

  "An excuse I'll take, Case."

  "Nev, you don't need an excuse. We want you."

  "Your LH and incredible speed with an account code may also be assets. Let's eat."

  "What's for lunch, Blade?"

  "Sandwiches you can't get your mouth around, Nev, on bread from a bakery we found following the aroma of it baking."

  They got to the Summer Estates at thirteen forty. The clubhouse 'attendant' was the great-grandson of the owner. He was in his early twenties and had seen "wet" on a threshold. He told them he'd commed for key codes and "a swimming pool ran out," when he'd opened doors. If there hadn't been a hairline crack in the threshold, it wouldn't have been discovered until the tenants had "water flowing around their ankles."

  "How bad is this going to hurt Angie, Darren?"

  "How much is it going to cost, Blade? Granmama said no charge for the banquet room and I can tell you guys will probably 'forget' some labor, but what's it going to take to fix it? She can afford reasonable, but if she has to replace a half-dozen walls, two ceilings, some furniture and carpets in three units, I doubt the season rental will cover it."

  "This place is under attack. Nowhere else was vandalized and it was done by a pro. Graffiti is done in bondcoat, not acid. Someone is driving up insurance costs to reduce profitability, making it less expensive to buy when owners, like Angie, have to get out."

  "They'd have to pay the insurance too, Knight."

  "Not if they planned year-round use, more rental units and more profit from this clubhouse, like a marina and restaurant. There isn't one on this end of the lake."

  "There's nothing here in winter, Knight."

  "What could they put here?"

  "How much snow does it get?"

  "There's not enough business to support another winter resort, Nev."

  "If our speculations are accurate, I doubt they'd consider the impact on other businesses as relevant."

  "It's all public park behind us."

  "Is the gov making money on it?"

  "No. It suddenly makes too much sense."

  "So far, it's just to check on why Angie dodged a reminder to get details for insurance with 'negligence,' a list of vandalisms with insurance claims and speculation."

  "Knight, I agree with that, but I can see that mountain is suitable for ski slopes and a lift could go right over there. If the gov sees money in it, permits to do anything they want would be exceedingly simple to get. A ski area is even 'appropriate use' of public parkland. They don't care about the ecology of this area, or the economic health of private-land resorts, if they'd get more for lease and taxes here than just taxes there."

  "Nev…"

  "He's right. You've got to be careful even noticing the gov is interested in money, even here. There's a man looking for anything that would get a pay deposit from IS, who prowls the whole area."

  "He was prowling in our yard. I called the police."

  "They loved it. They may still be laughing."

  Since Darren had key codes, the four of them had the units empty before Angie got there. Nev almost ran into her in the doorway. He explained he was roommate-errand-runner and on the way to get a short list of tools and equipment, as he led her in to where Knight and Blade were tapping walls.

  "Hi, not a great way to meet."

  "No, Blade, but I'm very glad you're here. What a mess."

  "Yes, but it's surface mess. We are going to take this carpet out, but we're going to suck as much water as possible out of it first. There's water in some walls, but the walls aren't in danger of collapse. This ceiling was a water bag. When it broke, it drained the water out of the top and prevented damage t
o ceilings in the rest of the unit, and the lighting system. The comps are all operable and power matrixes are fine. The floor above here isn't badly damaged, but it got so heavy it broke the seal with the wall right above here. I'm sure three wet units doesn't seem good, but that broken seal is what kept the floor from coming down. It was clean water, so we don't expect staining. It's a disaster, but not a devastation."

  "The first thing we've got to do is get it dry. I'm going to make some holes to get the water out of walls. They won't be tiny. A bigger plug is easier to reseal and blend. Since these walls are versa-structure matrix, not vertical studs, I only have to cut a plug each side of the matrix support, not slice the seam between every pair of studs. That would be much more expensive because the sealant is expensive."

  "The exterior walls are studded brill amfill. That's not needed for interior walls and the matrix has vibration-damping qualities that reduce the cost of sound-damping greatly. This whole community is very well-planned."

  "It was a good investment of a small inheritance from my great-great-great-grandparents. My father still brags I asked him to help me do this and not buy a car. I was seventeen. It's been paid off four years."

  "And now a series of too-effective vandalisms is raising insurance rates to the point you're about to have to price the places out of the market, or sell them to someone who has a year-round use for them. We looked for why 'insurance' was an unpleasant subject."

  "No one's made anyone an offer, Knight."

  "Why would they offer before they finished assuring they were a bargain? I told you they would be big. Now the water pressure will push it out and I don't have to gouge it to pull it. Just like that."

  "That's a lot of water."

  "Yes, the bill's going to be horrible, but ours won't be, and we're going to be able to save the carpets, even this one."

  "I actually didn't believe Tellerlock when he told me you'd be better for the job than they would."

  "They build. We repair. If the floor had come down, he'd have told you to try to find a place for your tenants until they rebuilt. We'll still call and ask for help on the price. We didn't know our fix-anything skills were needed. We were surprised there weren't more than enough people doing it around here."

  "I really didn't think of not having enough money to replace things as good job training. I worked very hard to get to the point I could. Now I've got a masters degree that doesn't earn me anything and fixing things is going to keep me comfortable."

  "Masters degree?"

  "Math. He's got a doctorate. He can teach college. I have to have more college to even teach secondary. I'd need education credits. If I do more, it'll be math."

  "If?"

  "I like math, Knight. I like doing it, but I did it when I figured the hydrostatic head in the wall and I'm enjoying this, helping nice people out, doing different every day. If I decide to take a day off because it's gorgeous at the lake, I can. I could forward calls to somebody else and take ten."

  "True, and we wouldn't have to leave Teal Valley."

  "You too?"

  "Yes, and I think Nev and the other five new residents we met feel the same."

  "Angie, is there a magic spell or is it instant addiction?"

  "You haven't been here in winter, Blade. It's not what you'd call pleasant, but I wouldn't leave for longer than a warm vacation. Very few do. A lot commute to Mountain City. You can usually find a carpool from where you are to where you're going, but you come home. I might move up here, Talon Peak or one of the other smaller towns, but not 'away.' The people on the other side of the mountains feel the same way about that area. More move to the other side than out."

  "The mountains are 'narrow' through here. The geology of this southeast spur is interesting, which is why the mountains are somewhat hollow."

  "Yes, Knight, but they're still there. If that ore hadn't been so rich they went after it first, they wouldn't be. The colonial charter 'expired' a half-century ago."

  "You've heard it too. The government is not of the people."

  "It committed great offense against the life of this world. I looked. It's true."

  "I was a little nervous about looking."

  "Around here, lots do, then go out in the forest and look for scrumptious. That mountainside will be a picnic just waiting for a cloth in thirty days. No one farms it because it's parkland. What did I say?"

  "Nev said… insurance rates wouldn't be high for year-round use and a ski lift could go right beside the clubhouse."

  "First him and now you. The speculation… is only dangerous if it's true."

  "How can we stop it, Knight? We're in the way."

  "Calm down. It's not the gov doing it. If it's being done."

  "Blade's right. The gov will happily go along with something profitable, but… they'd choose something else, if it was more profitable. It's 'a picnic.' Could it be professionally harvested without really being farmed? I don't know enough about forest farming. I read about it because I thought we might be doing it, but I don't know what it means to the forest."

  "It has to be ecologically harmonious or it doesn't work. The ecology includes the animals, but they can be gently discouraged from crop areas until they're harvested and not suffer for lack of the tasty things we want, especially if we're 'encouraging' them. There are always areas just left alone where small animals can hide and feast. Harvest drives the larger predators back, but they aren't kept back, and have plenty of time to reduce smaller animal populations and get fat before deep winter. It actually maintains the balance a little better. Fewer young are bite-size snacks at a lower altitude and the after-harvest hunting pushes many young adults higher, so that area isn't depleted. For animals with narrow ranges, the relief from predators during harvest allows more to get big enough to get away. Whikies were overhunted, then bluefang starved, then whikies overpopulated, bluefangs overpopulated, whikies were overhunted… It was a natural cycle, but the periods of famine weren't serving any purpose except keeping the bluefangs from eating all the young of everything else. We do that tromping through the forest and don't find bluefang frozen in the snow, because they didn't have enough fat to den."

  "Has anyone ever asked the gov to lease parkland for forest farming, or just to harvest?"

  "It's a park, Knight. People… love walking through it and feasting on the bounty, which won't be there if it's a ski slope."

  "More likely five or six, probably made with a gravway grader because it's fast and cheap. Maybe a geo-anchor driver for the skilift supports."

  "That could cause landslides!"

  "Not where they're at. If they're paying leases and license fees, do you think they're worried about lawsuits? The government is not of the people."

  "It's time to talk to Daddy."

  When she almost ran into Nev at the door again, both burst into laughter. She said it had been a very short list. He told her he'd gotten everything on it, but did expect picking it up to take longer. She asked him how much she'd spent.

  "So far, two buckets of burdeline, six kentine panels, a liter of Calse construction seal and a bottle of Vemerton's Allglow furniture polish, two hundred twenty-three-point eight six credits, of which the seal was almost a third. There shouldn't be more. Knight, the rental equipment company owner's mother is three hundred meters up the lake road, with a fuel tap failure. If you pull it while I get one, we can get her back on the road in time to pick up his daughter at the Mountain City flyer port. Which is why you're not paying equipment rental, and we'd have done it anyway."

  "Let's go."

  "We'll be back in about twenty, Blade."

  "I'll prep for the seal upstairs. Angie?"

  "Kentine and burdeline?"

  "Gorshell stinks for six days. Kentine panels with a coat of burdeline will give you a soft white sealed ceiling you can wash or colorbond and it won't stink. Gorshell is the best. It took a lot of water to break a half-cen-
thick ceiling, but nauseous tenants aren't happy tenants. Go talk to your daddy."

  "If a police car comes, don't worry. Daddy's the chief."

  "Oh, shit."

  "Don't worry. He's the one who told me the government is not of the people. Teal Valley police have weapons, but they don't wear them. Usually. There was a prison break a few days ago."

  "I heard. Don't you wonder why they left some locked in? The government is not of the people."

  "Are you saying they weren't murderers?"

  "No, I'm sure most were remorseless killers, but I suspect the police carefully neglected to mention a few things about the people they killed. Don't leave Teal Valley. It's Shangri-La. Your daddy knows. He works hard to keep the magic spell in place. Go warn him someone plans to rip a hole in it, and give him the shield the knight devised, in hopes of stopping it."

  Nev brought Knight back, then went to pick up purchases and rental equipment. When he got back, he had three 'extra' extractors. He told them only one was theirs.

  "You're making a delivery?"

  "No, Knight. I'm making repairs. I called the rental company. He didn't have any heavy duty, but said the carpet cleaner might have a used one they'd sell. I called them. The owner said no, but let her know if I found someone who did because 'another' had just broken down. I questioned 'another' and one of these is yours for repair of three. The poor woman is desperate. She's got two people doing upholstery and drapes while she hunts extractors and they're about to finish all those jobs. When I called the rental company back for the dehumidifiers, his mother had just called."

  "Knight, you should check his hair, not mine."

  "No fairy dust, but a piece of ceiling. It's down. Let's get these fixed. Parts?"

  "I brought gasket material and a circuit repair kit. If we have to cannibalize three to get one working, at least I'll know what to get in parts for the others. If I get one back to her by eighteen this evening, she won't lose jobs."

  "Let's get them apart. Blade, take one of the dehumidifiers up to the banquet room, please."

  "I'll check how much work were going to have to do to get watermarks out while I'm there."

  "Well, we've got the right piece of equipment now. Attachments?"

  "For one."

  "Did she specify?"

  "No, she knows you're working to save the season for a property owner and you get first fixed. Working is important. Age irrelevant."

  "How did she end up with four not working?"

  "No one knows how to fix them, at least on this half of the continent."

  "The manufacturer?"

  "Is on a different one. It would cost almost as much as a new one, with shipping, and take up to one hundred days."

  "I'm not sure I'd buy from them."

  "They're in use all day and many nights, and all over three years old."

  "I'd buy from them."

  "I would have, but the nearest place to get one is Carborun. Twelve hundred K each way would have definitely slowed down the job."

  "What's wrong with this one?"

  "It doesn't work."

  "Let's get them to a power supply and add a few details to the repair order."

  Twenty-seven minutes later, Nev finished repairing a circuit and took an extractor back to the carpet cleaner, then bought parts for the two they'd cannibalized. He got back just in time to help them drape carpet over the carports for the building. He used their extractor in the other two units, started the dehumidifiers in them and 'quick-cleaned' the furniture with the extractor, before he began the repair of the other two.

  By the time he finished the repairs, Case and Stats had arrived and 'introduced' Kent and Rorke. They took the two repaired extractors with them, when they took them to Veil Lake for dinner, and to meet the police. When they returned, they set up a canopy and made them beds on the side of the building, where they could keep an eye on both front and back. Knight and Blade had five kentine panels up and the sixth ready to install, after the dehumidifier had run overnight, when they went home to get ready for their party, at nineteen twenty-seven.