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of messed up land all the time, and five thousand’s pocket change for WalWa.”
    “No, wait,” said Bloombeck. “I always get that wrong. Isn’t a K supposed to be a million?”
    I looked at him. “Bloomie,” I said, “did WalWa pay off your neighbor with five million yuan?”
    He nodded, giving me a blue-gummed smile.
    “Even the biggest cane plantations aren’t worth a quarter mil,” I said. “Five million for a lousy quarter hectare?”
    “Ain’t it all crazy?” said Bloombeck.
    “Insane,” I said.
    “Brittona, she takes the money, of course,” said Bloombeck, “and that’s what got me thinking: we ought to get in on the same deal.”
    “And what deal is that?” I said.
    “Getting bought out!” said Bloombeck, his piggy eyes wide. “That’s why I want to give you this information about the Breaches: it’s collateral.”
    “Bloomie, where do you keep getting all these big words?” I said. “You’re starting to scare me.”
    “Like I said, I know how to work an angle,” said Bloombeck. “If I tell you about the Breaches, then you owe me. And then you can pay me back by helping me buy a little cane farm that’ll get stuff dropped on it so I can file a complaint and get bought out. Hell, we can even get some of that Union infrastructure money to make improvements, and that’ll mean we can get even more cash out of WalWa.”
    I looked at the rum behind the bar. It was past six o’clock, but getting drunk was beginning to look like a good idea. “I’m still not clear where I come in.”
    “I got an eye on one of these parcels off Saticoy.”
    “What parcels?”
    “The ones that are next to the Old Windswept Distillery.”
    “And what do you propose I do about that?” I said.
    Bloombeck shrugged. “Well, I hear you’re trying to buy the place...”
    “‘Trying’ is not the same thing as ‘owning,’” I said. “And I’m sure as hell not going to jinx the deal by bringing you into the mix.”
    “I ain’t gonna ask for much,” he said. “Like, half a hectare.”
    “That’s more than I’d be willing to part with, if it were my call,” I said. “Which it’s not.”
    “But it will be!” said Bloombeck. “And once WalWa dumps stuff on it, I’ll give you a cut of the settlement!”
    “Even if this information were accurate,” I said, “which I very much doubt, considering how much weed Jimney Potts smokes, it’s not worth making a deal with you.”
    “It could be.”
    “Saticoy is upwind from Thronehill,” I said. “Did you think about that?”
    He shrugged. “The wind could always change.”
    “Oh, God,” I muttered, then nodded. “Fine. I’ll do what I can, if I can.”
    Bloombeck straightened up, a neat trick for a pile of crap like him. “Plus three hundred thousand yuan.”
    One of the things I learned in business school was how to deal with a ludicrous offer: you nodded like you were considering it, then you came back with an equally ludicrous counteroffer. I gave Bloomie the nod, then said, “Make it one fifty.”
    “Hey, I’ll go for tha–”
    “One hundred fifty,” I said. “Then a decimal point, then two zeroes.”
    A weak cry fluttered from Bloombeck’s belly. “Who do you think I am, Padma? You think I’ll stand for that kind of insult?”
    “Yep,” I said, rising from my chair.
    “OK, OK, OK!” he said, reaching toward me. “I’ll take it!”
    I smacked his hand away. “What do I get in return?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You think I’m going to haul my ass all the way to Thronehill and track down Jimney just on your say-so? You’re gonna have to do better than that.”
    Bloombeck nodded, then flashed his ruined teeth. “Only if you make the deal. One of us’s gotta blink it in.”
    I sighed. One hundred fifty yuan wasn’t pocket change for me, but I could spend it without feeling too guilty. “Fine,” I said, blinking up with the forms and filling in my data. I shot it over to Bloombeck, who took his sweet time