Chapter 10 #2
Andrew snorted. “To hear him tell it, it’s a miracle that the town and the mine are still in one functioning piece. He makes it seem that we’re incompetent on so many levels that we can hardly manage to tie our bootlaces without help.”
“It isn’t quite that bad,” Michael said, which earned him a glare from Andrew.
“We’ve been working so hard here, trying to make a society that is fair, open, honest and in which everyone who shares the vision is welcome …
I thought we were doing really well. There’s money in the bank account …
We’ve had a few issues, what with El Aguila and his lot attacking us.
But I thought things here were better than that blasted report makes them out to be. ”
“What does the report say?” Robert asked carefully.
Michael shook his head. “The basic version is that the mine and the town need a more structured command.”
Robert looked blankly at him. Command? What on earth did that mean?
“He means that we need to have more people involved in the decision-making process and more people who can run both the town and the mine, in case either one of us becomes incapacitated,” Andrew said.
“Oh, so like a deputy,” Robert said, nodding.
“Exactly, but on a bigger scale,” Michael said. “He’s talking about having committees, and neither of us like that idea. Do you know how long it takes committees to do anything? It takes months. We can’t wait that long for decisions.”
“On that, we agree,” Andrew said with a decisive nod.
“So, what were you fighting about?” Robert asked, looking from one of his friends to the other.
Michael offered an ironic smile. “Well, you won’t believe this, but we were fighting about the solution to that problem. See, we know that having one of us making all the decisions for the town and one for the mine makes their structures unstable. It’s easy to topple them.”
“All El Aguila would have to do was kill one or both of us,” Andrew agreed.
“What we can’t agree on is how to fix it,” Michael said flatly. “The answer is to let more people in.”
“But not just so they’re on useless committees,” Andrew added.
Robert rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “This is a tough one. Are you sure that Mr. Rossie is right? Couldn’t this just be something …
” He didn’t know how to put it. It seemed to him that all that this was doing was sowing discord.
“Look, you both run the town and mine well, and you don’t do it alone.
You’re always calling in Ethan, Troy, Warren …
I mean, there are folks here who could step into your shoes if, God forbid, anything happened.
So, I don’t think this is worth an afternoon of your time. Do you?”
His words hung in the air like frozen silver raindrops. Both men seemed to weigh them for a while.
Andrew was the first to break into a smile. “And now we know who to call to settle a disagreement. Well done, Robert. You make an excellent point.”
Michael nodded. “How did we get to thinking that we were making all these decisions and getting everything done all alone?”
Andrew shrugged. “I’m not sure. I think when I saw the words in that report, I got so angry that I couldn’t think straight. I don’t know why.”
“It was the implication that we didn’t know what we were doing,” Michael admitted. “That upset me. As though we could have built all of this without any brains.”
“That’s the spirit,” Robert said. “Mr. Rossi most likely means well, but he’s been here all of five minutes in the general scheme of things.
He has no idea what we are capable of as a business and as a town.
He’s never seen Unity pull together to face a crisis, but we all have, repeatedly.
We know the people in this town, and we know how they will react when push comes to shove. ”
“By pulling together,” Andrew said, nodding. He chuckled. “Gosh, we could have done with your help an hour ago. Where were you?”
“Actually, I was digging Lucy out from under a ton of fabric.”
He told them what had happened at the general store. Andrew and Michael were instantly concerned.
“Is she all right?” Andrew asked.
“She’s fine,” Robert said. “But that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Something is going on around here. Have you noticed? The mood in town has changed, or something else has.”
Michael looked blank. “I haven’t noticed.”
“I have. I keep having citizens come up to me and complain about the gunmen or about other minor things,” Robert said. “They’re becoming so petty. I’m not sure what’s gotten into everyone.”
“They just need to understand the value of the men you hired,” Andrew said. “When a shipment of copper makes it to market without being intercepted and without one of our citizens being injured, they’ll understand why we did it.”
“Yes, I think we just have to give them time,” Michael said.
Robert nodded. “Well, I thought you should know. Is the next shipment ready to go out tomorrow? I think the sooner we can show the folks here that those men weren’t hired to sit around teaching Critter tricks or to sketch their houses, the better.”
“The shipment is ready,” Andrew confirmed with a nod. “Ethan has it set up and ready. First thing in the morning, those men will start earning their wages.”
Robert nodded. “Good.”
A day without Christopher hanging around her would make Lucy very happy.
Of that Robert was certain. And if he was being honest, it would make him very happy too to have the man at a good distance from Unity.
He was starting to really regret hiring him.
Ironically, Alistair had turned out to be far less trouble even though Robert had initially worried about him.