“So. You’re here, Lucas. At last.” Thea waved her hand. “Come into the parlour and tell us why you’ve come. I’ll wager it’s a serious matter to bring you out of your exile and home to Arcvale...and perhaps even more important than that, since it’s brought you here to your brother.”
“You wouldn’t be far off,” answered Lucas. “And yes, I’ll tell you what’s going on, for a variety of reasons. But mostly because the Forge itself may well be involved.”
That statement sobered them all. Within moments they settled around a small table, and Lucas found himself with three pairs of eyes fixed on his face.
He took a breath. “Let me start by going back in time a bit and saying that you’re going to hear some banking terms, some financial terms and one or two other things that probably don’t mean a lot to you at this particular moment. So I ask you to bear with me and I’ll try to keep it as understandable as I can.”
Silas nodded. “Talk.”
“It’s about money. All about money. As my brother probably remembers, I have an affinity for numbers. And yes, my PBIC financial system is currently in effect both here in Arcvale and also in Sectorvale.”
“What does PBIC stand for?” Thea asked.
“Um, I’ll tell you later. It’s not really relevant right now.” He straightened a little in his chair. “One of the most important features of the system is its ability to cross-check, double-check and triple check its own efficiency. Everything from thesmallest deposit—a child’s pocket money, for example—to the...” he sought for an example, “to the monthly income of the Forge, all these transactions are fully monitored. There are receipts, reports, copies in more than a few files, and so on.”
“All right. It sounds very impressive, and you are to be congratulated, but where are we going with all this?” Silas leaned forward, his arms on the table, his hands clasped.
“We’re going to unexpected places,” answered Lucas. “We’re going to the exact moment a transaction roundeddown, instead of up. The moment when an anticipated interest accrual was posted but was fractionally lower than projected. When a transaction slowed due to a holiday delay—but there was no holiday.”
He saw the realisation of the situation dawning on the three faces staring at him.
“These aren’t huge problems, from the sound of it, Lucas,” Thea observed. “Wouldn’t they be expected in the normal course of things?”
“In the normal course of things, yes. But my system isn’t the normal course of things.” He shook his head. “I know that sounds terribly dramatic and boastful, but it’s true. None of these things—and others too, stuff I won’t even bother to go into at this point—none of these things should be happening.”
“I’m not sure I see how this affects the Forge,” said Silas.
Lucas leaned forward. “Because the Forge doesn’t live on projections. It lives on delivery.” He tapped the table once. “If funds arrive a fraction short, you compensate. If they arrive later than scheduled, you delay. If they arrive markedpending, you hesitate.”
Silas frowned. “And hesitation costs us...”
“Time,” Lucas said. “Materials. Trust. Momentum.” He met his brother’s eyes across the table. “The Forge runs hot and fast.Even a slight financial drag will slow it first, before anything else shows the same signs. But the ripple effect will have begun...”
Silence fell for a minute or so, each person turning the situation over in their mind.
“So if funds are pending,” began Thea, “the Forge can’t commit until they arrive.”
“Contracts would have to be delayed or even re-negotiated...” Hiram frowned.
“Yes, all this...and more. Foremen would have to delay decisions, our suppliers would demand reassurance and possibly not deliver on time...Forge production would drop. Slowly but eventually it would shake our foundations and throw the Forge, and Arcvale itself, into chaos.”
Silas raised his chin. “The Forge would take the blame, wouldn’t it?”
Lucas didn’t hesitate. “The way it looks right now? Yes."
*~~*~~*
Verity’s morning didn’t start at her usual time.
She’d tossed and turned last night, her troubled mind seeking a solution and failing to find one. So she’d slept badly and awoken an hour earlier, finding the world still dark outside her window.
Pulling the covers up and around her cool shoulders, she snuggled into her pillow and let her mind roam, knowing that trying to sleep would be a futile effort.
The night before, her mind had offered up every single thing she could think of that would cause a deposit to be delayed, and not one of them had worked for her.
If only she could stop thinking about it for a while. Clear her mind of the debris remaining from a night of ineffective rambling, and think of something else entirely. Closing her eyes, she made a conscious effort to clear her thoughts, letting them drift like the clouds over the Holdings. High, fluffy, soft against the mountain backdrop, which was white with snow in the winter, but all different colours as the seasons changed.
She wanted to see it for herself one day, but up to now, her life had kept her in Arcvale. As had her marriage. Pushing those memories aside, she let herself drift...
