Fractured Earth: Chapter 13

“I owe you how much money?” Mayor DuBlanc massaged her temples as she sat across from Dan in her office. “That’s literally twice my annual discretionary budget.”

She paused squinting at Dan before sighing. “I suppose you’re going to want that in goods that are more durable than dollars, too. I don’t know where the hell you expect me to find that much gold, but it sure ain’t happening anytime soon.

“Just out of curiosity, Thrush,” she leaned back in her chair, shaking her head slightly. “What in the hell happened to drive the bill up that high? I just got your invoice from General Richard with the words ‘don’t argue, pay it’ written on it. I’ve seen that man haggle down the price on a bulk delivery of napkins. If I’m going to shell out this much, at a minimum, I’m entitled to know what I’m paying for.”

Dan chuckled, scratching at the stubble of the beard beginning to grow in. He hadn’t gotten a chance to do more than a quick rinse-off since returning from the bayou, and that meant he hadn’t shaved. Getting the new hires settled and calming down the recruits once the mana high wore off and they realized that they’d suffered 30% casualties took priority. In the past three days, he’d only managed to sleep five hours a night, and every waking moment had been filled with constant, nagging problems.

“We more or less single-handedly made the operation a success,” Dan replied with a chuckle. “Some asshole on Richard’s staff let us get out of position, and we ended up ‘clearing the way’ for the entire front to advance. We lost three men while the rest of the army left us hanging out to dry.”

DuBlanc winced.

“Yeah, we weren’t happy about it either,” Dan chuckled mirthlessly. “We stopped fighting until someone could give us an explanation, and the main attack stalled out. They got bogged down in island to island fighting with the Orakh, and they were pretty steadily getting overwhelmed and running out of ammunition. General Richard agreed to pay us what we asked. We sidestepped the entire fight and went directly to the enemy headquarters.

“Not to get all ‘Conan the Barbarian,’” Dan said with a shrug, “but I ended up fighting their leader in hand-to-hand combat and killing him. There was also some sort of breeding chamber that I burned down. After that, the fighting dropped in intensity. We don’t know enough about how the Orakh work, but it sounds like killing their leader released them from some sort of drive or control. Before that, I don’t think we’ve heard anything about Orakh retreating, but almost immediately there was a pretty massive wave of desertion. From what I’ve heard, there are still a good number of Orakh in the bayou, but it doesn’t look like there’s any sort of organization.”

“General Richard said something about Colonel Bowmen?” DuBlanc asked, shaking her head as she prodded Dan into continuing.

“One of his main lieutenants is literally an alien agent, and she tried to kill me,” Dan replied. “As I warned earlier, he isn’t to be trusted. From what I’ve heard from the defectors, things are really bad in Florida right now. I wouldn’t be surprised if we are next on his list now that the Orakh are gone, and as far as I can tell, you really don’t want that to happen.”

“A bit fond of crucifying dissenters, isn’t he?” The mayor nodded unhappily. “I can’t say I disagree with your reasoning, Thrush. I just don’t know how I’m going to be able to pay your bill. If you’ve got any ideas, I’m all ears.”

Dan smiled. He hadn’t been able to bring William with him, but the wiley old man and him had talked for a while before he met with the mayor. The goal wasn’t to soak her so hard that their company was kicked out of New Orleans, but at the same time, they wanted the resources to pay their soldiers and expand.

“We do have a proposal for you.” He slid a piece of paper across the table to DuBlanc. “We can work out the nitty gritty later, but the highlights are food, medicine, silver, gold, tungsten, ammunition, five Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, and priority pick of certain enumerated military hardware.”

“Jesus,” she replied flatly, looking over the offer. “You’re actually serious about five Bradleys? I can’t say I’ll be happy to part with them. Especially after that debacle, our guard unit doesn’t have a whole lot of extra material to spare.”

“Well,” he shrugged, feigning concern. “As you said, you aren’t terribly liquid right now. It makes sense to pay us in valuable goods that we can make use of, rather than just demanding all of your gold and a cut of your tax revenue for the next couple years.”

“Ugh.” DuBlanc sighed. “I get it. You aren’t pushing as hard as you could, and I thank you for that. Only about half of this is up front, with the rest being these ‘priority picks’ of military hardware you have listed. I suppose I should be grateful that you aren’t holding my feet to the fire right now, but I really just feel like I need a drink.”

The mayor pulled open a desk drawer and removed a brown bottle. Dan couldn’t quite make out the label, but when DuBlanc uncorked, it the smell of alcohol quickly filled the room. She took a swig from the bottle and wrinkled her face before recapping it.

“You’ve got a deal.” She eyed the bottle longingly. “We’ll work out the exact details about how we’ll make all of this happen in the coming weeks, but in principle, what you’re asking for is fair. I’ll have my staff get in touch with yours, but for now, I think I’m going to hit that bottle again to celebrate our victory and try to forget whatever Faustian bargain I just agreed to.”

“I’ll leave you to it then, Madame Mayor.” Dan chuckled as he stood up and saw himself out.

As he exited the room, Jennifer peeled herself from the wall where she’d been lounging and fell into step beside him. They left city hall in relative silence.

“So,” she asked as they stepped out into the quiet afternoon bustle. “How’d it go?”

“She took it pretty well,” he responded. “I think your Dad had the right of it: push but don’t push too hard. It sounds like she plans on paying, but I think ‘deferring’ half of our payment until we can receive it in the form of heavier equipment and airplanes was a good idea. I’m sick of fighting without air support, and if I’ve learned anything in the last couple of months, it’s that the only way to assure air support is to supply it yourself.”

“Can’t disagree with that,” she chuckled. “So, what’s next? You get us a new mission?”

“No.” Dan shook his head. “And I’m glad of it, too. We’ve been thrown from one fight to another so often that we haven’t had a chance to catch a breath. I need new spells, the defectors need new runes, and the new recruits need basic training.

“Also,” he cocked his head and let out a soft laugh. “I think we need to hire some people who can drive an armored personnel carrier. Do you think craigslist still works? Should we put an ad up?”

“I’m not doing interviews,” she replied smoothly. “Back when I was gaming, I put up an ad for an assistant on craigslist. At least three people asked me for pictures of my feet. If one of us is going to end up sacrificing feet pics for the cause, it’s you.”

“In all seriousness.” Dan smiled back at her. “It sounds like we should put Abe in charge of it. I don’t know the first thing about looking for or vetting trustworthy ex-military employees. Considering that’s more or less what he’s already doing, it seems like a logical extension to me.”

“Can I be there when you tell him he’s in charge of HR now?” Jennifer said, a hint of a smile on her face. “Seriously, make sure not to sugarcoat this or give him a fancy title. None of this ‘director of personnel management’ stuff, I want to see the look on his face when you appoint him head of human resources.”

Abe took the ‘promotion’ with about as much grace as Jennifer implied, swearing up a good-natured blue streak. Dan could tell Abe was secretly happy with the new job. The man liked fighting, but he had a natural knack for organizing people, and he seemed to like it.

Frankly, Dan was relieved. One more task off his already-full plate. Well, at the moment, he really only had two tasks: develop a new single-target spell and finish runescripting the rest of the new soldiers once Abe vouched for them. It’d take a couple days for DuBlanc to get all the necessary materials to their encampment. Hopefully, in that time, Abe would be able to give him a better idea of what kind of runes would best complement each soldier.

He called up his status to assess his gains from the last couple weeks.

Modest everywhere but spirit. That was the problem with getting his spells to a high level; early levels were easy, but everything afterward slowed to a crawl. Still, slaughtering Orakh en masse along with killing their leader was fairly lucrative for his mana pool. Even now, he was edging closer and closer to rank 10, generally considered by elves to be the border between normal mages and archmages.

He stretched his back and went to the Viceroy’s training room. He had a pretty good idea as to what the new spell would be, but first he’d need to level up his metal affinity. After all, the attunement stone had lain dormant in his arm for years now. It was about time he made it earn its keep.