The Greyfang contract lasted four days.
It also became the highest-paying job the Maclagan Company had completed since its founding.
For the first time in months, nobody was calculating how many days remained before they couldn't afford another meal.
Instead...
They were discussing the future.
The client was a Union grain factor whose warehouses near Calderport had become the target of an independent debt collector.
Officially, the dispute sat in an awkward legal gray area.
The collector claimed repayment.
The factor denied the debt.
Neither side possessed the proper contracts required under Federation law.
Normally, disputes like that would fall under the Tally-Master's authority.
In practice...
Roswen's office didn't have nearly enough personnel to investigate every questionable debt claim that appeared around Calderport.
So the grain factor had done the practical thing.
He hired mercenaries.
The larger companies refused the contract almost immediately.
