There was a pause in the conversation, a terrible lull that made Ted think he had made a grave mistake by offering this information freely.
Then the Diamond King laughed.
"You have figured out something, no?"
Ted decided to put all of his cards onto the table.
"I know there are natural resources somewhere on the Fin or near it," he said, leaning forward and sipping his wine, oozing that iron confidence he was known for. "Eventually, mankind…or whoever gets to them first…will be able to utilize them. Extract them from the ocean floor….dig them up from the ground, whatever."
He had paused so many times with a poignant expression of a sage that he thought his companions had already grown tired of him, but this was not the case. Zed the Diamond King abandoned his wine altogether.
"Really. You are a marvelous man, Ted. Pity my daughter's already set to be married."
"I have my options," Ted said and glanced towards Eknie.
It was true. It didn't mean he had to consider it.
Zed coughed and covered his mouth. "I would like to offer more than just gold, but I don't know if I will be able to do so. A lot of resources are spent on simply keeping the kingdom floating."
"I have heard that the kingdom has hit a rough patch. Social waves are already displaying themselves as far as in Neul."
"Neul. That is the town of drunkards. Am I wrong?" The king raised an eyebrow.
"I need to move," Ted said, holding his head while Madorn laughed.
"I would recommend it for the sake of your sanity as someone without an alcohol problem to another," the scientist said.
"It has been on my mind as well," Eknie said with a slight smile.
"Right. We need to get rid of the manor," Ted said, allowing himself to chuckle and relax. "Boy, do I hate having assets like that. Anyway. Why can't you help us, Zed?"
The Diamond King scratched his beard. There was a tiny drop of wine in the coarse-looking beard, and it disturbed Ted to no end. His warm feelings towards the king temporarily diminished.
"I can't tell you, Ted. I would have to kill you. And I really, really, really don't want to."
"All right." Ted shrugged, pretending that this was nothing but a small bump in the road. "You don't have to, but I would have loved to cooperate with you. Shame."
"Doesn't mean I can't drown you in gold, though." Zed gestured towards a servant. "Just tell me which bank you use…not like I can't find that out anyway…the rebuilding process can wait. I want what the Fin has. You want it for whatever reasons, I'll find out sooner or later."
Ted could not resist the entire eastern power pushing money into his pockets. They had a fun night talking and playing cards with one of the mightiest men in the whole wide world, and then they were free to go – except that Ted still wanted to find out what was happening with the airship models.
"It's dangerous and we could get killed." Madorn did not sound like he was even remotely afraid. "We have to have a plan. But first…we need to find out where they turn the old ships into scrap."
That piece of information was surprisingly hard to find. They could not exactly ask around, but by chance or due to some insanely good luck, Eknie spotted a girl playing with what Mad claimed to be a piece of the steering wheel of an airship.
"Hello," Eknie said to the girl. "Where did you get that? Did someone buy it for you?"
"I found it!" The grinning girl spun the airship part on the ground. "They have these in the wastelands. My family drives there every other weekend. There's a beach there."
"You ever sunbathed, Eknie?" Ted asked his companion. "I think I need to take a day off."
A day off meant driving further east. That was where the great lakes were, warming up in the scorching sunlight. On the other side of the lake, a beach was teeming with people spending their holidays and bathing in the lukewarm water of the lake.
This was not a forbidden place. The shore where the airship parts came from had to be further east, enclosed in such difficult terrain that no car could pass to the other side – not from the west, at least.
They did not have much chances going unnoticed by the guards the other way , on a car. They had to spy on foot.
Ted had never seen so many spikes on plants. There were branches everywhere. One caused him a nasty wound inside his nostril. He thought he would have liked just about any other place.
Almost halfway through the bushes and the little hills, he decided to put on some goggles and encourage his companions to do the same.
Crawling on their bellies amidst the plants that were trying really hard to kill them, the trio had to be quite a sight. They were now enclosed in protective driving and flying gear from head to toe – they had to be. A snake had almost managed to bite Eknie and she had insisted that they guard their vital organs, and toes, fingers and noses as well. Ted did not want gangrene in his nostrils. A simple stabbing wound from the spike of a mutated wild rose had been more than enough for him. He did not need the deadly kiss of venom to go with that.
"Man, you people are dramatic," Mad said, but he fastened his helmet as Eknie stared at him so intensely that the motherly wrath was apparent from behind two pairs of goggles.
"Have you ever been bitten by a viper?" Ted asked. "They don't mess around."
"There are biologists in my social circles," Mad replied, as though that had been an explanation. "I have been bitten. I tell you, the bleeding is not fun but you'll survive. Just a regular Eastern Blackmouth won't do much damage – wait. Stay quiet, don't get up."
A sound of an extremely loud car came from the distance.