[Gift, Unusual]
The biggest blackest man I’d ever seen, walked in. He had a huge grin plastered on his face. The black face only seemed to make the white teeth that much whiter. I remembered how much I liked the former navy seal when I interviewed him for a story.
“Hey Ryder Fontaine, what are you doing here?”
“Well you remember when you interviewed me for a possible story, well I kind of hung around. I didn’t want to go back to America, after that whole Paula Becker story where the president tried to become the dictator, and Paula became a fugitive. So I stayed here but I haven’t been able to find work, and Eldara said you need guards. I’m a guard. What do you think?”
“I think you are a perfect fit, you are hired, in fact you are not a guard you are the head of the guards. What’s a good salary for a guard?”
“Four gold a week is standard.”
“Okay we pay six, you're the boss so you get eighteen. We want nice competent guards, not brutal thugs. Absolutely no bullies. It would be great if they help out the people they are protecting and are nice to them. Tell them that’s what the extra two gold are for. Do you happen to know anyone who might fit into a profile like that?”
“As a matter of fact Rose, I do know a few.”
“Great, let's do signing bonuses, five gold if they start today, triple for yourself, one month provisional contracts, you make up a list of unacceptable behavior for which you will sack them on the spot. Make up a list of beyond the call of duty behavior for which reward with a bonus. Wait here one second please.”
I jumped to Juliet’s World and authored a bag of five hundred gold and a ledger, then jumped back to the store. I handed the bag of gold and ledger to Ryder.
“What’s this for?”
“That Ryder is your responsibility as head of the guards, you are in charge, you pay them, and just record everything in the ledger. If you need help feel free to ask me and I’ll show you how I’d do it. But you can also just do it anyway you like. It’s just a record for yourself to show that you paid your people, don’t hesitate to hire women, if they fit our requirements. If it takes two women to equal one burly man, we’ll hire two. Then we have an extra set of eyes and an extra brain. Let me know when you need more money, oh and because you have to do the payroll, hiring and firing. Let's give you twenty gold a week and a twenty gold bonus for signing up. So take your salary and your bonus, record your name, weekly salary and bonus in the ledger and then get out there and get me those guards you know and we’ll hope that Eldara sends more down as well.”
“Boss, you didn’t say what we are guarding you from.”
“Not me Ryder, and call me Rose. I need some to guard the merchants in town square and some to guard a piece of land that I hope to be buying today.”
“Shouldn’t the town guard be guarding the merchants?
“Yes and they do, but I’m the one who put the vendors at risk. So a little extra security is the least I can do for them. The cartel I’m pitted against has been hiring gang thugs from Veracity to intimidate and worse. We will spare no expense to make sure we are all safe. I don’t expect, nor want our guards to fight gang thugs. I want overwhelming odds on our side so that the thugs wouldn’t dare start something, but if they did, I want us to stop them without injury on our side, preferably on both sides. Still want the job?”
“Yes, boss.”
“Not boss, Rose.”
“You're the boss, Rose.”
“If we can’t find enough people here I could jump you to earth, if you had people in mind.”
“I don’t really, as a last resort, but from what I’m hearing from you, you want the least aggressive guards in the history of guarding. Which I concur with one hundred percent, while I’d die for my former seal unit friends. Not one of them would meet that requirement.”
“I understand. Wait, I want to give you this.” I handed him a portal wallet. “This is a portal wallet, it works just like the public portal network, you just touch the drawing and you portal to the location. But that wallet I gave you is just for you, it also adds in some private locations that the public network doesn’t have access to. Your guards aren’t expected to fight, rather they touch the client then the drawing of the guard house portal. Later after you hire some guards I’ll introduce you to Lu and Dogberry. I want your guards to answer to them just like they answer to you.”
“Thanks Rose, I’ll be back soon, with some guards.”
“Perfect, I’ll have portal wallets ready for them with just public locations.”
I jumped to Juliet’s world and authored thirty public portal wallets, and jumped back to the store. A little while after I returned a small black haired girl walked into the store. She spoke in barely a whisper.
“I’m here to see a Rose Ryding, please.”
“Hi, I’m Rose, are you here about the guard job?”
“No, I’m Sophie Evans, Mr Epstein said you could help me.”
“Well I’ll certainly try Sophie, did you want to sell your land?”
“Yes, I would, I never wanted it in the first place, my brother was meant to run the farm, but he died, and my mother, she said I either had to marry one of the other cartel members and let them run it or run the farm myself.”
“I’m sorry about your brother Sophie.”
“Thank you, I miss him, but I was never meant to be him. I’m not even sure if the farm is worth how much I owe.”
“Is Harvey going to join you?”
“No, he can’t help, he said it was a conflict of interest, I owe most of the money to the Harris’s.”
“What about hiring another attorney?”
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“No, I can't afford that. I’m just hoping I can get out from under the debt, I need to find a job and somewhere to live right away.”
“Look I don’t know anything about this I was just going to hand the whole thing over to my attorney, let’s go see him together. He’s very honest and also the best attorney. Let’s take your paperwork and see what he has to say. Maybe it’s not as bad as you fear.”
“Oh, I hope you're right Miss Ryding.”
We portaled to the gnome colony, the lounging guards showed us into the meeting room and went to inform Alvyn he had visitors. In a little while Alvyn came in, he looked a little surprised to see I had company with me. I made the introductions and began.
“Alvyn, Sophie can’t afford an attorney and I don’t want to cheat her but I also don’t want to buy into a load of debt that I don’t understand. Would you please look this over, then explain what it means to both of us. Then if she and I can come to an agreement could you write up the contract or recommend another attorney I could hire for Sophie.”
“Let me look at what we have here.”
He spent about fifteen minutes looking over the paperwork. Muttered criminal a few times.
“I’m sorry ladies, but the debt far exceeds the value of the land. Who was your attorney that went over these contracts?”
“Oh, no, I knew it. I didn’t have an attorney, the Harrises said we didn’t need one and it would just wind up costing me more.”
“You should immediately file a lawsuit. Fraud and predatory lending, I’m certain you’d cut this debt by ninety percent then the land would be worth selling.”
“I can’t afford to do that Mr Glimerdus.”
“If I buy her land can we sue on her behalf, Alvyn?”
“No, I’m afraid not Rose, if you agree to buy the land now you also agree that the debt is legal and you’d be liable to pay the debt.”
“If I pay your fees, how long until you win?”
“First, it’s not guaranteed that I’d win and it’d probably take a year.”
“How can we sue, but I still get control of the land starting today?”
“You could buy a fifty one percent share of the land, that means you agree to fifty one percent of the debt. But we can file the lawsuit on both your behalf, today and you also have sole control of the land.”
I told them both my plan, then I jumped to Juliet’s World and authored two bags of five hundred gold coins. I handed one to Sophie and one to Alvyn. Then Sophie and I portaled back to the book store. A group of armed men surrounded us. I was about to jump us to Juliet’s World when I saw Ryder.
“Men, this is the boss Miss Ryding.”
“Hello everyone thank you for coming, please all of you call me Rose. I’ll have some equipment for you all in just a few minutes. I just need to borrow Ryder for a minute.”
I jumped him to Juliet’s World where I authored adjustable body armor for thirty. Then we jumped back to the bookstore. Ryder handed out the body armor and stored the extra in the bookstore’s back room.
Two of the bodyguards escorted Sophia back to her home to move her possessions. I used a portal muffin and asked the demon to remain open for two hours. Sophia was going to be using the apartment above the bookstore where Lu and I had lived when we first moved to Wyldwood, while the legal case went on.
Next I portaled to the bakery. The kitchen was empty and Paula was waiting on a customer. But the person I was here for was in the teahouse and after handing her apron to Salome, Ruby portaled back to the bookstore with me. Ryder, carrying one of the cases of Cabernet Sauvignon, followed Ruby and I to the wine merchant.
“That looks exactly like Harris's Cabernet Sauvignon.”
“Yes it is. I’d like to gift you a bottle, if you’d be willing to answer just a few questions.”
“Ask away.”
“So you pay upfront for expensive bottles of wine or sell on consignment?”
“Consignment, I couldn’t afford to stock it otherwise.”
“How much do you have in stock?”
“One case.”
“You can return it to Harris's if it doesn’t sell?”
“Yes but they don’t put a time frame on when it must be sold by, so I’ve never had to return any. It might take a year to sell a full case, I just pay quarterly for what I’ve sold.”
“Who sets the price do you or they do?”
“Well I have to pay four hundred and fifty so I charge five hundred, so I make a profit.”
“Have you ever tasted the wine?”
“Yes, years ago, when they first offered to sell on consignment, they opened a bottle and gave me a glass. It is devine, the best wine I’ve ever had.”
“If I gave you a glass right now could you say if this is better than what you remember.”
We opened another bottle from the case. Then he observed all the wine etiquette. I usually open the bottle, pour a glass and enjoy. But when he finally got around to drinking.
“This is it, perfection. I only wish I could afford to drink this wine everyday.”
“Funny you should say that. If you agree to send back whatever wine the Harris’s have in your store. We will replace it with this wine, for a dollar a bottle.”
“Wait, you are saying that if I send back his ten dollar red you, replace my stock with Cabernet Sauvignon. Why would you do that?”
“Because last night the Harris’s tried to murder me and I decided to use my sizable fortune to destroy them. And if you return all their wine today, I’ll throw in an extra ten cases, one hundred and twenty bottles for free.”
