Chapter 16: One Thumbs-Up

"I came for the book," Katja said.

"Okay," said Harvey.

He did not add anything, and the quiet filled the storeroom.

She stood up out of the crumpled boxes and brushed flour off her sleeves.

The room was thirty feet long and lined to the ceiling with Lyle's supplies.

There were crates of gold, silver and blue lanyards, sorted by tier.

There was a pallet of white mugs that said I SURVIVED REDFORK, with a picture of a raft.

On the bottom shelf sat a laminating machine, still warm, with a stack of cards beside it.

"He has a laminator," Katja said.

She felt something close to grief.

"I know," said Harvey. "I've been trying not to think about it."

He lifted a green binder off the crate beside him and held it out.

TIER LEDGER was printed on the spine.

"I've read it," he said. "Don't read it yet. You'll want to do that in front of people."

She put it in her pack without opening it.

It would have been a very good moment to leave.

She sat on a mug pallet instead, with a lanyard crate between them, and looked at the clicker.

It read twenty.

"I have one conversation left this week," she said. "I borrowed it. I had a plan for what to buy with it."

"What was the plan?"

"Not this."

Harvey nodded slowly.

"I'll take whatever it is," he said. "But you don't have to spend it on me."

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