After saying goodbye to Roberta, Joseph opened his luggage case and then dropped the folding empty outer rental case into a chute in his closet. He opened his leather valise and put on some of his favorite comfortable and casual clothes. He ran a quick comb and brush through the hair he wore longer than ususal these days. He noticed the small but fresh burn mark just below his right ear. It joined more scars than he could count of various ages across his body.
Then he walked across the thick luxurious carpet of the suite to his computer workstation. To maximize the effectiveness of everything he would do he inserted the e-tab he had just won into the tablet port on the console. He linked to the Contest Committee and dowloaded all of the orientation package. He first took a virtual tour of the vast Neil Armstrong Super Cruiser. Then he took a virtual tour of Museum Port in the New Array where it was to be mothballed. He finished the coffee in his inroom coffee machine while he was making the virtual trip from the Moon to Mars a 10,000 times actual speed. He was hungry and his neck hurt him. Roberta had left at about 2:45 local time and it was now 7:30. He had hardly moved. He used his personal credit card to send Roberta flowers at work that night and sent all his link information to the Armstrong Agency. He then connected his console to the Dreamlearner set on his bed. He would leave it all set up to download some Dreamlearner programming from Armstrong while he went out.
A few minutes later he was in a hovercab setting out under the artificial stars of an artificial night. “Where to Sir?”
“The Church of the Holy Magi.”
“Rimville it is.”
The trip was uneventful, he did notice tiny lights moving between the heavy lanes of traffic in the mass of air. “Those little lights that fly all over but stay out of the main airlanes and are not the cablecars traveling the wires from the plug — are they the birders I saw during the day?”
“Sure are. Anyone can go birding during the day but you have to have a special license to go at night.”
“I hope to do that while I am here in Lunapolis. Go Birding I mean. I am a pilot but I may not get around to night flying.”
“Don’t miss birding man. I go once a week if I can. I bring the wife and kids at least once a month.”
“Pretty exciting I guess?”
“It is not just exciting. It is the fact that you own body is powering itself and maneuvering itself like a bird. It changes you somehow.”
“I will definitely have to try that.”
“Listen to get a cab out of Rimville you can take the hub bus to the great balcony or you can just text my license number to Lunapolis Taxi and I will pick you up at the church. As long as you are ready by 2:00 that is when I get off.”
“I should be ready well before that. I thought I would go to the Church and see it, maybe catch the late service and then I would get some food somewhere and visit the Military Grottoes. How long should that take?”
“I think I will hope to hear from you between 10:30 and midnight.”
“That sounds good then.”
The hovercab dove through the breach doorway on the great balcony at almost full speed and then slowed. It landed on one of the many streets that ranbetween the massive foundations, anchors and machines which were part of the infrastructure for maintaining the colony’s crater cap. There were lot of streets in Rimville lined with trees and big houses with lawns were set in the blocks that made up most of the spaces between the huge iron pilings, copper tubes and lead blocks. The hovercab had drawn all its wings in as close to the body of the car as they could be drawn and it was now moving along the streets on its six land wheels. A motor powered the wheels but the jets still provided rapid acceleration when needed. This jet boost blew up lots of loose leaves that had gotten near the streets. There was fairly heavy traffic. Joseph swiped his credit card and got out in front of the church. Stylized almost geometric statues of three wise men looking at a star of lucite and gold above the door stood in a small rock garden and near a pond. Parishoners had to navigate through this little tableau to get to the entry steps.
Joseph go to the steps and stopped at the top to read a sign. The sign was brass and the letters raised. It was lit by two arclights.
The sign read:
“The Church of the Holy Magi is the oldest full time and free-standing house of worship on the Moon. The long secret rite of Magitic Levantine Christians was recognized as an official Eastern Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in 2087. This was the third church dedicated under the first public Archmandrake sometimes called Paphnutius XXX and sometimes Paphnutius I. The other two Churches were on Earth. All three were paid for in large part by a donation from Chief Basil Zargos-Culkathadreil. Masses are offered for his soul and family twice every Saturday at this altar.”
Joseph did catch a late mass. He sat in the back and did not go to communion. But after services he met the priest and introduced himself. He gave the priest a personal calling card with his hotel address scribbled on the back. He asked about his cousin Daniel.
“Yes, he comes to church here sometimes — even often. But he is not here most weeks. I think he is working for one of the astronomy companies as a maintenance tech so he spend a lot of time on the surface.”
“Well, if you see him please give him my number and if you hear anything call me.”
“I certainly will. But you have been on television a great deal today. I am sure word will reach him soon enough.”
“Well, I am only in Lunapolis for two weeks.”
“Right, I will do what I can.”
Joseph took out his e-tab and activated the camera function. He had decided to take some video of the Church as he had of the fountain and some other views. He wanted to put together a documentary for friends and family of his first trip to the Moon and a possible keepsake album on video for himself and his possible new girlfriend. He shot the ceiling which in a Levantine and Magitic Church showed the traditional contellations of several cultures surrounding the divine eye in a Star of David which had one traingle made of fire interlocking with another made of ice. Then he shot the San Damiano style painted Crucifix and the altar of arrivals and the altar of departures as well as the High Altar but he did not take long over doing those things. Some things were typical of all churches of his write like the huge illustrated gold covered bibleand others were unique to this church. Then he came across something really unique. It was a plaque of tribute:
- We want to pay tribute to the several chaplains who served in meeting halls and dorms and open floor areas of various kinds before Lunapolis was founded. There names appear in the frame of this plaque.As the first regular house of worship on the Moon we recognize them. However, we more emphatically want to recognizr Dr. Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin who celebrated the Eucharisitc rites of his Protestant Christian Communion on the very first trip of humanity to the Moon’s surface. Although we have theological differences which are important his effort to honor the memory of Jesus Christ in that way is precious and sacred to us.
Joseph had forgotten that there was a Eucharistic service on the Apollo voyage made byArmstrong, Aldrin and Collins. Remebering that made him feel uncertain about having missed the chance to receive communion. But he was now in a hurry so he turned offf the camera function in his e-tab and hurried out of the church.
Joseph grabbed a shrimp salad and and a beer at a small cafe and the rented a glidecycle and saw the grottoes. In the Hall of Honor he used their Moon Map Simulator. He saw the Amalgamated Region of US Zones with Lunapolis as its capital and the several United Nations zones including the one that took in most of Mare Insularum and included the very uncapped Crater Copernicus with its many tunnel gates and towers and miles of solar collectors connected to it by armored conduits for this was where The Grand Central Spaceport was situated. He saw the zones assigned to each country on Earth and the corporate and royal microstates, some were pople he knew vaguely Prince Thurn und Taxis was a real Head of State here with a royal charter colony with a colony named simply Thurn und Taxis that was built in Gruithuisen Crater on the edge of Mare Imbrium near the end of the broken lands where the Promontorium Heraclides marked the end of the Montes Jura. He and the Prince had gotten drunk together once at a mutual friends bachelor party. Because his wristband was unreliable here he used a wall phone to send a message to Lunapolis Taxi and then took his glidecycle back toward the church to turn in for his deposit near the cafe. Just as he finished his cab arrived and in short order brought him back to the Valley View Hotel. One of the most interesting aspects of the Moon Map Simulator is that it showed video of the three crater cap outposts which came before the first crater that was classed as a colony. The first was fifty yards in diameter, the second a hundred yards and the third was three hundred yards.It was in these outposts that the basic skills of crater capping had been developed and made the development of the Moon as a whole.
It was about one when he got to his room. The Dreamliner was fully prepped. After he went to the bathroom to ready himself for the night he lay in bed and put on the mask, the socks and the half gloves. Then he peeled a fresh chestpad and stuck it to his chest. He fell quickly into a deep sleep.
Then he began his training to pilot the Armstrong while he slept.
Joseph woke at nine. He removed his Dreamlearner equipment and took a bath, soaking the strane lunar bubbles and waves of the familiar whirlpool. He got out of the tub and put on his athletic gear. He folded out the room’s exercycle near the computer station. Then he put on the televisor and picked up his e-tablet. He booked the first available birding lessons and flight sessions. He had a coupon for just this much birding that came with this suite. He scheduled the lessons while Roberta was working but the birding itself he shduked just in time for her to get there. He had just deposited his most recent severance payment from the Catapult company in the morning’s transactions. He used most of this money just for Roberta’s flight and suit rental. Then he firmed up dinner reservations at the hotel. He did all this while watching television quarter screen. There were several versions of his interview with Roberta on the air. He got her acceptance for the birding by text and a thanks for the flowers. Happily he redeemed his coupon for a walking tour leaving the Hotel and taking Insane Lane to the Birding Aerie and back. He simply would remain there and not come back with the tour. He and Roberta would come back in her car.
Joseph rushed down to the lobby and barely got to his tour group in time. Almost all were Americans in this group anyway. The couple next to him were from that part of Wyoming where some of his relatives had a ranch and he recognized the intonations and accents of the region right away. Two apparent brothers had on Red Sox hoodies he would have found warm and so he wondered how the Yankees could be enjoying them. A tall light-skinned black man with what he thought was the pronunciation patterning and manner of one of Louisiana’s Creoles of Color was asking the clearly Afro-Lunarian guide how long Insane Lane had been called by that name. The guide picked up a set of magnetic shoe meshes and answered the question.
” The settlers who built the Lane called it Insane Lane. The path is magnetized now and everyone on this tour must wear magnetized shoe meshes. there are also magnets catch points below the path. In addition birders at the aerie run a rescue service and will swoop down to rescue those falling from the path. Further every walker will be tied to two other walkers and a flybot except for the guides. On the way back some of you will stay to do some birding and if necessary guides will tie up to make up threesomes for the return trip. Now does everyone have the meshes Bob has been handing out?”
The guide was looking over his group and checking the faces of other guides. He nodded finally. ” We will be taking this shuttle bus outside to the Pond Piers over the falls. We will have a good look at the wall nests of a very large colony of parrots which have adapted to our cooler climate along with everything else they have to adapt to here. We have five days of freeze per year in Lunapolis and when we do the falls are heated to allow animals and birds who need warmth to avoid the cold. That is what these parrots do along with many others. They come near the falls. But right now they are just enjoying their normal roost.”
In the shuttle a very attractive redhaired Earth woman and her bronzed Earth husband sat in the two seats beside him. The woman had several rings on her fingers. She turned one in front of him so that he could see the small Culkathadreil Coat of arms etched on it. He felt unexpected speed as the shuttle left the hotel. He showed the woman the cooat of arms etched small on his wristwatch. She signed to him with her fingers in a code he knew well.
“Fire is Known.”
“I promised secrecy.” He signed back.
The woman gave the general sign of respect for a memeber of the House or Clan Culkathadreil who had a very much higher rank than oneself. The same sign could sometimes translate “Your Grace”,Your Highness” or any of a number of other honorifics. However, Joseph noted that it all very properly done. ” We know you had to kill the arsonists. One was an Assasin also.”
“I had to resign.”
“Armstong Agency has secrets. Check your route and be careful. We will leave special supplies in your room tonight.”
“What do you want?”
“Only to warn you. Armstrong Agency are not the pirates but they also study them and do not tell us anything. Those loyal to your family are also on the ship to Mars.”
The old signs were slow and laborious and he did have to see the parrots for cover. They were quite beautiful too. The trip was over and they were getting out once this information had been exchanged. When they got off the bus he and the woman were careful to take no interest in one another and to end up in separate threes. He thought he might have seen her however, perhaps at his Father the Grand Duke and Vice-Chieftain’s funeral. That would have been almost eleven years ago and her breasts had been a different apparent size, she had been single and her eyes had been one blue and one green not the two nearly violet globes he saw now but he knew she was the one who played the violin for the funeral mass and then come to his mother’s reception — they had talked. He had not seen her before and now would not, in all likelihood, see her again.
The path or lane was really terrifying for many. It was a foot wide and overlooked a drop of hundreds of meters in many places. But the views were spectacular and the whole tour made it to the birding aerie with no major incidents. Once there they could see that most had come by hovercar.
Saying goodbye to his tour Joseph went to the building with a large sign that read “Training”. He was greeted by enought different people to get confused and was fitted with a birding suit and then had most of it removed again. He and half a dozen other classmates had to identify the parts by repeating after the instructor. “Forewings” “forewings!”
The forewings had an unusual slope or camber that set up a rise in an odd shape to the front and then across the middle that allowed for varied angles of attack that still produced lift but were all the harder to predict for their unusual shape. They also had two lines of memory ports that acted as the feather assembly on a bird’s wing acts. When the wings pushed air down and back the ports locked and the wings created thrust as well as lift. But on the return strokes when the wings pulled forward the memory ports opened and the wings offered little resistance to the air but their unusual shape allowed them to catch a little redirected lift even on those strokes.
“Midwings…” “midwings!” He yelled out with the rest and noticed that these midwings were really hollow shaped airfoils of the type he knews best – “the smeared pyramid line” a buddy called it. There was none of the complexity of memory ports on these wings. They did not beat and only cut through the air like a hang glider. They had a much smaller area than an Earthly hang glider would need however to do this job.
“Aftwings…” “aftwings!” The aftwings were bifurcated air foils and with two they were quadrufurcated airfoils. The complexity was getting mind boggling. These had the battery chargers and a system of webbing that gathered every random pressure and tension into ennergy to power a helmet jet and instruments and they had a kind of automatic compensating beating device. They beat four times fro each stroke delivered by humn muscle to their master joint. They were almost entirely covered wtih memory ports that allowed them to push back and down and cut easily on the return. He could not really picture the whole function but he could see that they worked. He called out with the rest.
“Power tails” “Power tails” This assemblage connected to a kind of inflated body cast. A small standard air foil was held out beyond the main tail and had air driven across it. Another traditional airfoil wing was above it near the top and had small rudder like blades on it. However the tails themselves were covered with memory ports. pushing air back and down in a single wall they opened like a sieve on the return stroke. He repeated the name of the component with the other students.
At this point Roberta showed up to meet him. They touched hands and smiled and she joined in a sort of simultaneous refresher course where she was partly with him while he went through the first-timer’s course. She had been birding about twelve times and this helped to even out their skill sense he was a highly trained pilot and a really gifted athlete. The suits without wings were hooked up to wires, hooks, cables and sensors. The students were hoisted into the air in in a large room surrounded with screens and holoshow projectors. Even Joseph had one simulated crash. the other newcomers had more than a couple. The three refreshers had what might be called severe wobbles as they got reaquainted with the suits but did not crash. Roberta’s wobble was the least severe of the three who had birded before and she really looked at ease after that initial reminder. But all those in the class grasped the basics and within a half hour they were flying. Then the wings were put on and they were suspended from a leader cable-arm and a tether by arms running on a rail. Soon they all displayed some grace and control. The arms ran five times around an oval track and the lessons were finished. He walked out wearing his suit with diassembled wings just in time to see that Roberta’s refresher course had actually eneded much sooner and she was waiting for him having got them each an energy soda. He gave her a kiss on the cheek.
They were both helped into the real rental suits for flying out in the world (which had alalrm beacons, medikits and automatic traffic lights on the soles of the feet, the gloves and the tops of the shoulders. They had these suits quickly tested and then both had their wings properly installed and they took to the air. A rigid helium filled baloon ran as a tube from mid back between the waists and shoulder blades to a spot rigidly supported almost a meter behind and exactly two old fashioned American feet above the birder’s feet. There was a sort of tentlike structure of three large almost soft and yet rigid cloth panels covered with memory ports that went over this tube and connected with both feet there was a fine webbing that readjusted automatically to get the best angle of attack. One or the other side panel could beat alone or elese the whol three fold desin could beat like a wing as the microcomputer responded to pressure readings on the fabric and the machanical design responded to the birder. This was the powertail.
Another wing called the aftwing ran from the rib cage all along the outside of the legs and then portruded another two meters out and a few inches behind each foot. here a boot had gyroscopes and beater arms to synchronize three follow up beats for every muscled beat. The memory ports guaranteed thrust and brute lift while the angled shape added to the general lift like a second wing on a biplane. These were the aftwings.
Overlapping these about inch in back or above started the very flexible midwings which ended up secured to the outside of each wrist. It would seem that the arms would be used for flapping but the legs were more powerful and the wrists in their odd “loops of control” assemblies could bend the mid wings for all kinds of direction. The midwings had pull-out airfoils sections near each wrist which somehow merged back into the main perfectly every time but could allow cool effects and more hand freedom when needed. No memory ports confused this graceful Earthly design.
The last set of wings were the forewings with complex bumping arifoil shapes and limited memory ports in the portion pointing out sharply from the back and a few more clustered in the large graceful front section that went out like the tops of large angel wings above and behind the head. The fronts of the forewings were joined to eachother and both the birders hands with a very flexible and springy square of rods. Then each birder had a helmet with rudder and a small built-in jet. Working together the suits were amazingly varied and flexible in their capacities.
Rough sketch of a lunar colony birdsuit as envisaged in the 21st century
They flew near enough to caves for him to see the many kinds of wall homes. They flew above and below and around hovercar lanes. By flattening out after a dive at just abouperfect performance and after starting right against the sky plates they could match speeds with the lower portions of a cable car run and look passengers in the eye for several seconds. They played among flocks of birds and flew in among bats leaving caves for the evening. They work their way to the rail tower and back. Then they got out of their suits and into Roberta’s car and drove like lunatics to get to their dinner reservation.They ate quickly and made love in the shower. Then Joseph asked if she could forgive him wearing the Dreamlearner while they slept. She agreed to forgive him and they slept together just touching on their sides and with their toes.
As he drifted to sleep he dreamed of the fire. He heard his boss’s voice saying (as he had in real life) “You killed four kids Joseph!” He saw one of the four burning his friend Ed alive with a flamethrower as he Joseph could do nothing to help him but was running through rails and beams finally shooting the flamethrower and roasting the killer quickly alive and to death. Then the Dreamlearner took over and he was in the Armstrong performing simple tasks.
When he awoke early in the morning Roberta was already dressed. He ate with her wearing a robe and asked if should meet him for a quick supper the next day. She agreed. “Thanks for everything.” she said. They kissed and he watched her go. Then he went back into the room to change clothes.
Once he had changed his message light was on and so he called the front desk. He asked what the message was. “There is a crater cap engineers and designers convention in the hotel. The Summers Foundation has left an invitation for you to join them at their reception tonight alome or with a guest. No need to RSVP you simply pick up the invitation on your way across the lobby between seven and ten.”
“That is unusual but I am pleased. I have admired the Summers Foundation for years, my family knew the old ones you know.”
“I see sir, very well.”
“Listen, I will have to get back and forth to the Armstrong Agency everyday for a while and don’t want to rent a hovercar can you suggest anything?”
“Yes take the Fall Behind Elevators from the hotel gardens to the Floor their is a train station there and take the Floor train to Twin Towers Hill which is really the east side of the base of the Central Plug. Change trains at SunTzu Plaza and get off at Mouton’s Markets. The very large red dome towering over everything else is the Armstrong Agency’s main building.”
“Part of the floor’s 30 percent they must have stroke here…”
“They certainly do.”
While he was a the desk workstation in his suite he checked into the Summers Foundation online and downloaded his convention invitation to his own e-tab though he would not be likely to need it here in the Hotel. His e-tab cross-reference feature let him know that his neighbor on the shuttle would be there — Shan Da-Jiang was his name he was reminded.He also checked to see what the Foundation would be doing at the convention. He saw that a long with a few other things they would be sponsoring a historical holocube. He looked at one of the documents in the display as it was reproduced at the workstation it was called First Public Proposal. This was dated 2009:
- Frank Wynerth Summers III 1. Craters are extremely abundant on the far side of the moon and quite abundant on all of the moon, on Mars, on many reachable and theoretical objects in the solar system and elsewhere.2. Craters are avaliable on earth for habitat testing.3. To a large degree craters are able to hold vast pressure differentials because the planet itself is the wall and it cannot really collapse.4. Science can be done and planetology studied both from and in the crater colonies.5. Objectively building a single plane and gaining the value of vast excavations requiring megatons of tnt worth of energy is a much better investment.6. Water and resources will tend to stay in the crater.7.Air and water vapor will tend to seek escape through the cap in which all space technologies are concentrated.8. On Mars certainly and the moon possibly many chemiclas needed to manufacture the atmosphere could be found in the crater.9.An asset of almost limitless value is being created rather than maintaininga very costly resource that is always very marginal almost every way.10. One can project straight lines to having hundreds of farms and 100s of thousands of persons in mining, space industries and service industries permanently living on Mars and on the Moon
He decided that he would try to make it to the convention. He wanted to learn as much as he could about this technology — it seemed more urgent to him than he could have explained.
***** ****** ****** *****
Elsewhere in the Lunapolis Crater Cap Colony there was a building embedded in a cavern in a Communications Mall. Several of the top United Nations officials in the colony of Lunapolis were in the Casual Conversation Cube Cafe simulating a conversation with officials on the major UN orbital forts, the UN centers in New York and Geneva, the UN offices in the Grand Central Spaceport here on the Moon and a base on Mars. This was where these two officials attended the monthly meetings of a special committee called the Panel on Space Crises. The Casual Cnversation Cube provided real communication and also created an illusion of real time conversation, kept minutes, attached relevant documents to the transcript and sent out called for messages during the conversation. One of the UN officials was the UN Registrar of Intermember Trade and had a good sized office on the colony floor. The other was a man who did not really seem to live in Lunapolis but showed up for these monthly meetings here whenever he was not piloting a longterm route on a ship. Over the past seven years he had made about half the mmetings at this spot and another quarter from the ships he piloted. The last quarter he simply missed without providing any explanation or excuse. Nobody seemed to know exactly where Thor Swensen truly lived. He was the Special Lunar Commissioner for Nonmember Issues and Relations. Nobody on this panel could find any other Special Commissioners for Nonmember Issues and Relations. Everyone else on the panel knew one another’s salaries but Thor received only annual bonus pay and an expense account. He did not look like he could really work for the UN. They knew he had a different style of speech here than anywhere else but this was more than Intelligence Officer cover. He seemed to really live multiple mysterious lives. He was speaking now.
“We have to take the possibility that this is an event of great significance very seriously. If we do not respond well then it need not be the cataclysm the late Doctor Taylor’s report suggests to greatly impact the United Nations. Contact with aliens must be handled and handled very well by the UN or we will lose almost all real claim to legitimacy in the Space side of things. All of our members are very influenced by their Space establishment. I have proposed we doulble the original investment in the placement of technical equipment and experts on the Neil Armstrong”.
“Your request has been approved Commissioner Swensen”. The answer came from Subsecretary for Space Hillman Barclay in New York.
“Thank you. I do want to go on the record that my request was minimal and state that I am in favor of risking any expansion of resources the Panel may approve without my vote”.
“It is so noted. That is unlikely, however I have used your report to reschedule some military assets into a support role”.
“Good”.
After the meeting Thor called an old friend who was in his third home in the French Colony of Petit Bourdeaux. Jean Claude Landry answered the phone. “JC this is Thor”.
“How are you pal”?
“I am OK. Listen, there is a big event coming down the pipe involving the Armstong, UN and some mysterious science. I will not be able to talk to you about it again. I think you are likely to get a job offer somehow related to this. I urge you to take it we need the best on this team”.
“I hear you pal. It is on my tickler now. I will do what I can”.
Then Thor called into the Pilots Guild and “accidentally” dumped a partial scrambled file from his recent reconaissance flight with a wormhole detector into a public chat center in the guild. He did not know who would look into this but he figured somebody would do this”.
He then looked at the itinerary for the Neil Armstrong and saw that one of the prize winners was a solid pilot with a security background named Joseph Culkathadreil. He was able to decide that this guy would be a good cabinmate for the trip. He was known enough on the records not to be a spook or pirate and yet not part of the UN network people he was trying to avoid being absorbed by. He also had ties to many institutions of significance which were not seated meber nations. He left he building and began to change his voice, gait and mannerisms. Soon the events inside seemed a foggy and distant memory.
Under a peculiarity of Lunapolis law any portion of one’s name had most of the uses of of the legal and correct name. This was used by all sorts of people indifferent ways although a serious searxh of the record lines of someone not lying about their names would lead tothe full name and identification eventually. But Thor Patrick Swensen-O’Brien had a long standing identity as Patrick O’Brien who was a regular customer and ten percent owner of the corporation that owned The Boston Commons Bar. This was far more than a bar, it had five great rooms: an Irish Pub, an American New England lobster house witrh a bandstand, a large dance hall, a typical Lunarian Mining Engineers nightclub with pool tables and darts and scantily clad waitresses and a select market for premium garden produce. It was one of two of the most important social gathering, eating and drinkinking places in the colony. The other was the fiefdom of the Grazzini family which was a huge first class restaurant called The Roman Empire. Patrick O’Brien had a whole host of business dealings with Tomasino Grazzini who was one of the pricelings of the tribe of restauranteurs. Thor put in colored contact lenses sprayed on instant heir color for these meetings in person and only met him a few times each year even on a busy year.
He stood in the farmers market and accepted a purchase order for mushrooms, celery, endive, onions, and olives which met certain standards and which the Grazzini’s could not be sure of getting enough of from their own direct farmers. This done they transacted some legal marijuana cigarette import business because together they held a near monopoly an the legal wholesaling of this product. Then O’Brien asked the question he had been formulating. “Do you remember when we had the last names disclosed of the big bosses who won the legal marijuan production plant that supplies us and we found one big guy. Everyone in our business calls him Seigneur Daniel but do you remember his last name — I might have to look it up”
“Well, it is hell to pronounce when you read it but yes I do remember his name. It is Daniel Culkathadreil”.
“Thank you, I really appreciate that. I thought that was it”.
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