Page 30 of Crooked Kingdom (Dregs 2)
Inej wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly. “Your father?”
“Yup. Family reunion in Ketterdam,” said Jesper. “Everyone’s invited.”
Inej wasn’t fooled by Jesper’s airy tone. “The loan?”
His hands returned to his revolvers. “Yeah. So I’d really like to know just how we intend to settle this score.”
Kaz shifted his weight on his cane. “Have any of you wondered what I did with all the cash Pekka Rollins gave us?”
Inej’s gut clenched. “You went to Pekka Rollins for a loan?”
“I would never go into debt with Rollins. I sold him my shares in Fifth Harbor and the Crow Club.”
No. Kaz had built those places from nothing. They were testaments to what he’d done for the Dregs. “Kaz—”
“Where do you think the money went?” he repeated.
“Guns?” asked Jesper.
“Ships?” queried Inej.
“Bombs?” suggested Wylan.
“Political bribes?” offered Nina. They all looked at Matthias. “This is where you tell us how awful we are,” she whispered.
He shrugged. “They all seem like practical choices.”
“Sugar,” said Kaz.
Jesper nudged the sugar bowl down the table to him.
Kaz rolled his eyes. “Not for my coffee, you podge. I used the money to buy up sugar shares and placed them in private accounts for all of us—under aliases, of course.”
“I don’t like speculation,” said Matthias.
“Of course you don’t. You like things you can see. Like piles of snow and benevolent tree gods.”
“Oh, there it is!” said Inej, resting her head on Nina’s shoulder and beaming at Matthias. “I missed his glower.”
“Besides,” Kaz said, “it’s hardly speculation if you know the outcome.”
“You know something about the sugar crop?” Jesper asked.
“I know something about the supply.”
Wylan sat up straighter. “The silos,” he said. “The silos at Sweet Reef.”
“Very good, merchling.”
Matthias shook his head. “What’s Sweet Reef?”
“It’s an area just south of Sixth Harbor,” said Inej. She remembered the view of the vast silos towering over the warehouse district. They were the size of small mountains. “It’s where they keep molasses, raw cane, and the processing plants to refine sugar. We were right near there today. That wasn’t a coincidence, was it?”
“No,” said Kaz. “I wanted you to get a look at the terrain. Most sugar cane comes from the Southern Colonies and Novyi Zem, but there won’t be another crop until three months from now. This season’s crop has already been harvested, processed, refined, and stored in the Sweet Reef silos.”
“There are thirty silos,” said Wylan. “My father owns ten of them.”
Jesper whistled. “Van Eck controls one-third of the world’s sugar supply?”
“He owns the silos,” said Kaz, “but only a fraction of the sugar inside them. He maintains the silos at his own expense, supplies guards for them, and pays the Squallers who monitor the humidity inside the silos to make sure the sugar stays dry and separated. The merchants who own the sugar pay him a small percentage of every one of their sales. It adds up quickly.”
“Such enormous wealth under one man’s protection,” Matthias considered. “If anything were to happen to those silos, the price of sugar—”
“Would go off like a cheap pair of six-shooters,” Jesper said, popping to his feet and starting to pace.
“The price would climb and keep climbing,” said Kaz. “And as of a few days ago, we own shares in the companies that don’t store sugar with Van Eck. Right now, they’re worth about what we paid for them. But once we destroy the sugar in Van Eck’s silos—”
Jesper was bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Our shares will be worth five—maybe ten—times what they are now.”
“Try twenty.”
Jesper hooted. “Don’t mind if I do.”
“We could sell at a huge profit,” said Wylan. “We’d be rich overnight.”
Inej thought of a sleek schooner, weighted with heavy cannon. It could be hers. “Thirty million kruge rich?” she asked. The reward Van Eck owed them for the Ice Court job. One he’d never intended to pay.
The barest smile ghosted over Kaz’s lips. “Give or take a million.”
Wylan was gnawing on his thumbnail. “My father can weather a loss. The other merchants, the ones who own the sugar in his silos, will be hit worse.”
“True,” said Matthias. “And if we destroy the silos, it will be clear Van Eck was targeted.”
“We could try to make it look like an accident,” suggested Nina.
“It will,” said Kaz. “Initially. Thanks to the weevil. Tell them, Wylan.”
Wylan sat forward like a schoolboy eager to prove he had the answers. He drew a vial from his pocket. “This version works.”
“It’s a weevil?” Inej asked, examining it.
“A chemical weevil,” said Jesper. “But Wylan still hasn’t named it. My vote is for the Wyvil.”
“That’s terrible,” said Wylan.
“It’s brilliant.” Jesper winked. “Just like you.”
Wylan blushed daylily pink.
“I helped as well,” added Kuwei, looking sulky.
“He did help,” Wylan said.
“We’ll make him a plaque,” said Kaz. “Tell them how it works.”
Wylan cleared his throat. “I got the idea from cane blight—just a little bit of bacteria can ruin a whole crop. Once the weevil is dropped into the silo, it will keep burrowing down, using the refined sugar as fuel until the sugar is nothing but useless mush.”
“It reacts to sugar?” asked Jesper.
“Yes, any kind of sugar. Even trace amounts if there’s enough moisture present, so keep it away from sweat, blood, saliva.”
“Do not lick Wyvil. Does someone want to write that down?”
“Those silos are huge,” said Inej. “How much will we need?”
“One vial for each silo,” Wylan said.
Inej blinked at the small glass tube. “Truly?”
“Tiny and ferocious,” Jesper said. He winked again. “Just like you.”
Nina burst out laughing, and Inej couldn’t help returning Jesper’s grin. Her body ached and she would have liked to sleep for two days straight, but she felt some part of herself uncoiling, releasing the terror and anger of the last week.
“The weevil will make the destruction of the sugar look like an accident,” said Wylan.
“It will,” said Kaz, “until the other merchants learn that Van Eck has been buying up sugar that isn’t stored in his silos.”
Wylan’s eyes widened. “What?”
“I used half of the money for our shares. I used the rest to purchase shares on behalf of Van Eck—well, on behalf of a holding company created under Alys’ name. Couldn’t make it too obvious. The shares were purchased in cash, untraceable. But the certificates authenticating their purchase will be found stamped and sealed at his attorney’s office.”
“Cornelis Smeet,” Matthias said, in surprise. “Deception upon deception. You weren’t just trying to figure out where Alys Van Eck was being kept when you broke into his office.”
“You don’t win by running one game,” said Kaz. “Van Eck’s reputation will take a hit when the sugar is lost. But when the people who paid him to keep it safe find out he profited from their loss, they’ll look more closely at those silos.”
“And find the remnants of the weevil,” finished Wylan.
“Destruction of property, tampering with the markets,” Inej murmured. “It will be the end of him.” She thought of Van Eck gesturing to his lackey to take up the mallet. I don’t want it to be a clean break. Shatter the bone. “Could he go to prison?”
“He’ll be charged with violating a contract and attempting to interfere with the market,” said Kaz. “There is no greater crime acc
ording to Kerch law. The sentences are the same as for murder. He could hang.”
“Will he?” Wylan said softly. He used his finger to draw a line across the map of Ketterdam, all the way from Sweet Reef to the Barrel, then on to the Geldstraat, where his father lived. Jan Van Eck had tried to kill Wylan. He’d cast him off like refuse. But Inej wondered if Wylan was ready to doom his father to execution.
“I doubt he’ll swing,” said Kaz. “My guess is they’ll saddle him with a lesser charge. None of the Merchant Council will want to put one of their own on the gallows. As for whether or not he’ll actually ever see the inside of a jail cell?” He shrugged. “Depends on how good his lawyer is.”
“But he’ll be barred from trade,” said Wylan, his voice almost dazed. “His holdings will be seized to make good on the lost sugar.”
“It will be the end of the Van Eck empire,” Kaz said.
“What about Alys?” asked Wylan.
