Early the next morning, Liana’s logistics team put together a breakfast of plain porridge, with leftover roasted lamb from last night as the side dish - salted overnight. Nothing else could be done. In Ice Regint now, there’s at in abundance, but side dishes are scarce.
That’s one of the problems Magnus had to sort out today.
After breakfast, he personally went to find Emily, Sophia, Charlotte, and Liana to hold a eting. His tone was decent, not hostile.
Sa folks around the table as yesterday. Sa dead silence.
"Grow a thicker skin," Charlotte had told him that morning, "No one’s gonna laugh at a man for that."
Taking that advice to heart, Magnus cleared his throat and started, "Yesterday’s eting didn’t finish right. Let’s pick up from there - I’ve got a few important things to go over with you all..."
Sophia cut in coldly, "Important things? Like deciding who gets to warm your bed tonight?"
The room was already awkward, and now even more so. Magnus really wanted to strangle her right then and there. If this eting really were about sleeping arrangents, she’d be the first on the list. See how much she’d still talk then.
Yeah, she needed a lesson, and soon.
But the others stayed calm. Liana smiled and jumped in smoothly, "I’ll explain. Yesterday I showed Magnus the inventory list. We’re low on toilet paper. His plan is to head to Ironvale County today with a team..."
She laid out the rest of the plan, but Sophia just sneered, "Didn’t we cover all this yesterday? If there’s nothing more, I’m leaving." She stood up.
Magnus’ face hardened. "Sophia can leave. The rest - stay. I’m not done."
Sophia exploded, "What the hell are you trying to say, Magnus?"
Sure, maybe he lost his cool yesterday, but he wasn’t about to let this constant crap slide again.
"What I’m saying," Magnus said, forcing his voice steady, "is from now on, I’m in charge of Ice Regint. You think back to your days in the military - did they let you throw tantrums in etings like this?"
ntioning the army made Sophia blink. She froze for a mont, caught off-guard. She barely rembered what she used to be like back then. Would she have acted this way?
Of course not.
Sothing had changed. She’d gotten sharp-tongued and bitter. But why was it that just seeing him pissed her off so much? What the hell’s wrong with ?
"Sit down, Sophia," Charlotte ca over and gently pressed her shoulder. "Yesterday was bad enough. This isn’t the way, rember what I told you this morning..."
Magnus still felt the anger and wanted to press harder, but then noticed sothing strange - Sophia’s eyes were red. She sniffled, stubbornly tilting her head up, tears sliding down anyway. "Stop staring! Just... get on with the eting!"
Sophia was crying.
Even Charlotte was caught off-guard. She’d known Sophia for years, and never - not even in private - had she cried.
Liana quickly passed her a cloth. Sophia took it and dabbed at her eyes. "I’m fine. Just... keep going. I won’t interrupt anymore..."
With her backing down, Magnus had no more to say.
"Take five," he told the group. "eting resus in five minutes. Still got things to cover."
Magnus took a deep drag from his cigarette, face unreadable. The rest of the won had gone to comfort Sophia. He honestly couldn’t figure out what they were comforting her for. What, he was the one in the wrong now?
All he’d wanted was to have a proper eting. Was that so hard?
Five minutes later, Sophia had mostly stopped crying. She sat upright in the chair, back stiff, eyes still red but staring straight ahead.
"Before we get into anything, I’ve got a few things to say," Magnus said, voice firm. "First, every decision we make in here could an life or death for the girls outside. This isn’t just talk - it’s real. So take it seriously. Second, if anyone’s got a problem with personally, feel free to curse out after the eting. I won’t dodge it. But don’t bring that crap into the discussion. We’re here for the team."
He looked to Abigail. "Abby, bring Dana and the other two over when you get the chance." Abigail nodded and jogged out of the room.
He hadn’t planned to bring up the deal with Dana Wright today, but figuring the way things were going, it couldn’t wait.
The room went quiet. Magnus continued, tone hard. "We’ve got ten days. That’s how long until the survivors out there - or worse, the rogue militias - find out about the Crystals. Until then, we’ve still got a shot at staying ahead. So here’s the plan. We split our 500 people into at least forty squads. Starting tomorrow, we go out and strip every rogue unit we find of their weapons."
"You’re talking about looting them?" Charlotte cut in, stunned.
"Call it what you want," Magnus said evenly. "Our ammo looks good now, but when the militias get their hands on Crystals too, that’s over. So stripping their weapons now is like locking the door before the thief cos. Right now we’ve got that shelter, that safety. But it’s a giant target. Once they know what we’ve got, they’ll co in waves. Doesn’t matter how tough we are - enough people grinding us down, we’re done."
He raised an eyebrow. "And that’s not all."
Lifting his gaze, he went on, "I say we trade with the survivors too."
"What, trade with civilians?" Emily scoffed. "What’re you thinking? Barter?"
"Exactly that," Magnus replied without missing a beat. "We block the highway between Springvale City and Rockford. Set up a barricade - one bus, one fire truck. Survivors out there have got nothing. No food. No water. Sure, they might find a well in the countryside, but that water’s poison. Awakened might handle a little of it, sure, but the side effects are hell. Ordinary people? Drink it and they’re dead by week’s end."
Emily frowned. "So what are we trading clean food and water for, then?"
"Anything useful," Magnus said flatly. "That’s where I need you, Liana."
He looked over at Liana. "I want you to put together a list. Everything we could possibly need. And I an everything - price it out if you can. We’ll take anything that’s valuable. Soone wants to trade a family mber? A wife, a daughter? We take them too. As long as they’re useful to the Regint, we’re in. Water containers, if they’ve got them - we’ll pay cheap. Vehicles: fire trucks, refrigerated vans, sleeper buses. If a survivor can drag it here, we want it."
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