parentshiftbook Chapter 347 Negotiations that I'm not privy to
Chapter 347 Negotiations that I'm not privy to
Hearing the exchange, I could already imagine the transaction going through.
Why would Makary bother to hold on to anything on the other side of the gate when this world was full of opportunities to earn more wealth than it was ever possible back home?
And yet...
"So you want me to give up all the control I still have over parts of the city in exchange for... supplies?" Makary raised his right eyebrow while locking his arms over his chest. "Quite the convenient solution for you, isn't it?" he asked, leaning his head to the back and raising his chin so far up, when looking at Leo he did so along the bridge of his nose.
"And let me guess, it's all going to be a one-off transaction, so if we need anything in the future, you will have the monopoly of procuring it for us?"
'Oh shit.' I gulped down my saliva.
The deal that I took as an easy and pretty much obvious solution... wasn't as easy nor as obvious as I believed it to be.
'And what's with Makary and keeping control over parts of the city?' I suddenly caught myself thinking as I analyzed Makary's words. 'And didn't he mention how he liquidated what he could by now?'
I squinted my eyes as I moved them from one man to the other and back.
'And what about the fact that I can change the location of the permanent gate pretty much at will?'
I took a deep breath.
'Well, having him keep silent about that part is reasonable. There's no point in bringing it up if we can use Leon's obliviousness to the reality... But damn!'
I rolled my eyes over my own naivete.
'To think that this simple deal was actually so much deeper than I thought!'
Still, as annoyed with myself as I was, I could hardly find any fault in myself. It wasn't my mistake to be born in circumstances that barred me from ever learning about stuff like that.
'On the other hand, though...'
As much as I wanted to shy away from the responsibility for my own lack of deep thought, I wasn't going to lie to myself.
'It's my fault and my fault alone that I didn't investigate Makary any deeper than just the surface of who he and his group are.'
"Well, you can't blame a man for trying, can you?" Leon grinned, seemingly unbothered by Makary calling out his scheme. "But what else can you suggest? Splitting the power and benefits here, in this world? But are you ready to give up on parts of your authority?"
"Well, call me when you are done, then," I requested before finally managing to get away from the two men and directing my steps towards the very center of the current camp, where Fay and all the other high-ranking officers of the camp tirelessly toiled away to keep up with the extensive paperwork produced by this enterprise.
Thankfully, at least for now, the camp wasn't all that big.
It looked like that given all the empty space separating the areas designated for each respective project, but in reality, it was the size of a middling town or a mere district of a bigger city.
'Thinking about it, just the slums of the academy town are several times bigger than this,' I thought, turning my eyes from the line of the trees on one side to the crest of a small rise that hid the part of the camp lying beyond its edge.
In the end, the relatively small size of the camp disallowed me from sinking too deeply into my thoughts, given how quickly I'd arrived at the edge of the temporary headquarters.
And by now, even though we still had some sunlight for the day left, this place was a mess much greater than I remembered it to be just a few hours prior.
Most of the communication equipment was either gone, packed up, dismantled, or outright abandoned, with the glorious exception of four spots where communication officers worked tirelessly to keep the whole camp connected and managed.
When it came to the others, though, they were all busy packing up the bigger and multi-channel radios and moving them quite some distance down the beaten-down path, most likely moving them into the new headquarters.
The communication side of the old headquarters was in shambles... but the decision-making table remained the exact same way I remembered it from my last visit.
Even Fay and the officers who worked there to sort the papers and make the decisions up to the limit of their authority didn't seem to be bothered by the general commotion, all too focused on their respective tasks to pay any attention to other people doing whatever the heck they wanted.
And even though as annoying as it could be for someone to tear them out of their focused state... I wasn't going to let Fay stay in the open with only a thin layer of clothing above her head to protect her from the elements.
"Fay," I whispered while approaching the girl from behind and fully opening up our bond, just to make my presence known when I reached out and laid my hand down on the girl's shoulder.
"A moment please," Fay answered with an absentminded voice, too busy writing something down in some sort of a form to spare me even a single glance. Yet, when I shook her shoulder again, I felt her consciousness slipping through our bond, leading to the young man finally awakening from her bureaucratic daze.
Still, she raised her eyes and gave me a sharp look before barking, "What?!"
Fay's startled and slightly annoyed expression quickly mellowed down when she laid her eyes on my face and noticed the sparks of excitement flashing in my eyes.
"Why?" she asked again, this time in a much kinder, calmer voice.
"I've got the news our lodging is finished, but we need to figure out how to furnish it," I explained the reason for my presence. "So, could I count on your help with that?"
As far as I knew, hardly any woman would turn such a request down... But this wasn't the earth the standards of which I pretty much knew by heart by now. And as such, I dared not to impose my own line of thinking on others.
"Wait, are you for real?" Fay's eyebrows moved up as her eyes widened to her limit, right before her lips curved out and up, forming one of the most lovely smiles that Fay ever graced me with. "Sure thing! Let's go!"