Grantville Gazette 46 gg-46

by Paula Goodlett

  "Not all that much," Master David said when confronted. "She seems to be one of the ones who had real problems out of the Ring of Fire. Her husband and son were left up-time and she didn't get help with that grief. She just buckled down and did her job. But, by a few months ago, she was a burnout case at the power plant and quit to go to work in the school cafeteria, but the little kids at the elementary school were too much like her little boy. So she switched over to the high school. She had some pull to get the job, I think. There were dozens of down-timers who were actually better qualified to work in a large kitchen."

  "Darlene likes to cook, she said," Johan pointed out.

  "Sure, and apparently she does a decent job. But someone who was the chief cook for a down-time school or mine or whatever, where they had to feed lots of people had more of the sort of experience needed for working on a school lunch line. Even if they would need lessons on the up-time equipment. Besides, she does know about electrical instruments." David shook his head. "Never mind. It's not that big a deal. It just seems to me that she is wasting her talents and training."

  Johan wasn't sure that he didn't agree with that, but it was Darlene's choice, not Master David's.

  While David, Herr Wendel, Prince Lichtenstein and the rest were talking with the high and the mighty, Johan Kipper talked with the craftsmen of Amsterdam. "What is this project you have in mind for my shop, Herr Kipper?"

  "Spinning thread."

  "We already spin thread, Herr Kipper. Are you going to show us how to spin it into gold?" the man asked, grinning. "Normally, I would be thrilled with such an endeavor But just at the moment I would like to see a way of spinning thread into ham hocks or sides of beef."

  "Granted, and I wish I could teach you that. No, actually I'm here for what I want you to figure out and teach us. We need more thread-wool, hemp, cotton, even silk. With the sewing machines, it takes much less time to make clothing so more people are buying clothes and the price of fabric goes up. But the weavers can't make more fabric without more thread to weave. We have two shops working on the problem back in Grantville and one in Magdeburg, and those aren't the only ones. The first people to figure a way to spin more thread faster are going to get rich. So we have several projects, trading information back and forth. All with an agreement to share information with each other."

  "What does this have to do with me and my ladies, my spinsters?" Herr Kikkert asked. "We already make a lot of thread. Not that we have anyone with the money to buy it right now. The weavers have warehouses full of cloth and no money to buy thread to make more."

  Johan knew that Kikkert was exaggerating. The bouncy little man hopped about the room like the frog he was named for. But the siege hadn't been in place all that long. There hadn't been time for the weavers still in Amsterdam to fill up their warehouses or even run out of money. Though they would run out of money sooner than they would fill up the warehouses. But Johan had a cure for that. "You need something to work on, something that will provide employment for you and your spinsters. And who knows more about spinning than spinsters?"

  Johan pulled up his briefcase, a down-time made one which Johan thought was better quality than the few real up-time ones that had come back in the Ring of Fire. It was also much less expensive than the real up-time made ones, but it very much looked like an up-time made briefcase, especially with the little combination lock built in. He moved the numbers to the appropriate postings and snapped the briefcase latch open. All theater, there wasn't really anything all that secret in the case. He pulled out a file. "Up-time they had great factories that made hundreds of miles of thread in a few hours, operated by only a few workers."

  While Johan had been opening his case, the spinsters had gathered around. Now one spoke up. "That would put us out of work. Now I know why the Spaniard let you through. It was to destroy our spirits by killing our futures. I'm going to report you to the Committees of Correspondence."

  Johan smiled at the woman with his even, white, false teeth and said, "Say hello to Gretchen for me, but don't worry about your jobs. There will be better ones coming. Working in a garment factory with a sewing machine is probably a step up from spinning. And there are other up-timer jobs, assembly line jobs. There is work in Thuringia now, more work than there are people to do it." Johan didn't think he was exaggerating too much, but he knew that if the spinning machines were produced, some of these women would be left out in the cold by the new machines. But Johan had, in forty years as a soldier, killed people for causes much less worthwhile.

  They gathered around and went over the drawings and the tricks that had been discovered. Great improvements in carding had already been managed, but spinning was still running into problems. Johan wished Brent or Trent was here to explain the problems or, better yet, Rob Jones, an Englishman who had gone to work for them on the spinning project.

  "How was your day?" David asked him, tiredly, that evening.

  "It went fairly well. The spinning shop will take on the project and several of the women there seemed to have some interesting ideas. It will be worth a try, and even if we get it first in Grantville or Magdeburg, it will still give us a place in Amsterdam to put the new spinning machines when they are worked out."

  David nodded. "We'll need that, whoever gets a working model."

  "Besides, it will give them employment." Johan added. "That has to be the hardest part of a siege for the townsfolk. Well, aside from the starving and the dying in the end, that is."

  David snorted.

  Johan's next letter to Darlene was mostly about the excursions into Amsterdam. The spinning project was only one of the problems being worked on. And OPM had all those Dutch guilders to spend. He added: I understand your being upset about Master David's actions, but I must admit that if the situations were reversed I would have done the same thing. In fact, I have. In so doing, I have discovered both venality and nobility. People who saw David as a meal ticket, and people who had only the noblest of motives. The only way to learn was to look. So I hope you will forgive him and me for the actions that our situation demands.

  Then he went back to telling her about the people of Amsterdam and the siege. I have seen sieges from both sides as besieger and besieged, but in both cases I was in the army and had my duty. Mostly the civilians were just sort of there in the background. But this is different. I think it's because of Gretchen Richter and her CoCs. But the people are involved here. Morale is high on both sides. It is interesting to talk to a Spanish sergeant in the morning and a Dutch CoC guarding the walls in the afternoon. Boredom is a sap on morale, but the CoCs have everyone working on maintenance or repairs. And the Spaniards are sure of their commander and eventual victory.

  Johan went on to tell Darlene about several of the people he had met, and about their lives and hopes.

  Darlene laid down the letter and considered. She was working in the cafeteria still, but starting to feel a bit guilty about it. There were people under siege in Amsterdam and the New US-or, rather the State of Thuringia-Franconia as part of the USE-was caught in a war and she was, as Brent Partow insisted on calling it, slopping the teens. But the truth was, she didn't like fiddling with little bits of wire and she did like cooking. And, oddly enough, she found cooking for large numbers easier than cooking for one or a few. She wouldn't mind consulting a bit about electric parts now and then, but she didn't want to spend her time hand assembling poor copies of up-time gauges. Still. . maybe she ought to start looking around for something she could do that used a little more of the knowledge she had as an up-timer.

  A few hours later, a discussion with Trent Partow added weight to something she had gotten from Johan before he had left, and even a little bit from the down-timers she had trained at the power plant.

  "It's not the stuff that we know we know, mostly," Trent said. "It's the stuff we know that we don't even realize matters. Imagine having to build an airplane-or a crock pot, for that matter-just from books. Even good books. Not knowing why any of the pa
rts were needed, not knowing what could be left out or what just looked unimportant." He shook his head. "I've tried to turn it around a couple of times. Imagine trying to shoe a horse from directions in a book. A book will tell you how many nails to use, but it probably won't tell you what is going to piss the brute off and have him kick you through the stall door. A lot of the time a down-timer, even-well, especially-a very smart down-timer, will come to me with something that doesn't work when she is sure it should work, and it's because she knows how water flows but not how water in a channel is different from electricity in a circuit. Or something like that."

  They talked about the problems that Trent was having with mass producing electrical components. Basic stuff, like switches and dials. "So," Trent said, a few minutes later, "do you want a job?"

  "What?"

  "Do you want a job helping us develop cheap, efficient ways of mass producing electrical components?"

  "No. I want a job cooking," Darlene said. "I wouldn't mind consulting on components now and then as needed, but I want to cook, not fiddle with tiny little parts."

  Trent nodded. "I'll see what I can come up with."

  Trent considered the middle-aged woman. TwinloPark had its own power, produced by its own generators, and had natural gas from the well in Grantville in a tank on the premises, but people, if they ate at midday, either brought their lunch or went off to an inn in Badenburg, Bechstedt or one of the other little villages for lunch. It wasn't that far even to Badenburg, and they had some transport. But now that he thought about it, it might be a very good idea to have a cafeteria or restaurant or something out at the park. Besides, she knew her stuff, even if she wasn't all that good at doing wiring, according to her old boss at the power plant. Which didn't matter, really. TwinloPark had craftsmen who could make anything out of copper wire. Anything at all. An up-timer kitchen manager with knowledge of electronics to look at the stuff they made and give opinions. . that might be really valuable. Besides, Johan Kipper was sort of part of the family, anyway.

  "Like I said, let me look into it," he finally said to Ms. Myers.

  "How about a restaurant?" Trent asked Herr Kunze. Josef Kunze was a cousin of Franz Kunze, the chairman of the board of OPM. Josef had been planted on them by Franz Kunze and their mother, to make sure they didn't do anything dangerous. As nannies went, Josef was all right. He was smart enough to know what he didn't know, and was willing to learn from kids. He kept the books for TwinloPark and charged for their time when they got called in to consult. He paid the salaries of the staff and generally ran the place.

  "What about a restaurant? Are you asking about a power plant for a restaurant?"

  "No. I mean, what about putting a restaurant here at the park."

  Kunze was shaking his head. "There are only twenty employees. That's not enough people to make it profitable."

  "No, I mean we could provide meals for the employees."

  "Why should we? You know we have dozens of applicants. We don't need to offer perks like that."

  Kunze, Trent noted, was quite fond of up-time slang. "I disagree. Part of this place, a big part of it, is the culture. We take care of our people here. That's policy, and you know it."

  "And we do. We provide medical and injury insurance. We help our employees find lodging and more. Why have you suddenly decided that we need to feed them lunch too? It is only lunch, you're talking about? Or are you planning on feeding them breakfast and dinner as well?"

  "I hadn't thought about it, but yes, breakfast and dinner as well, if they want it. If they are here for breakfast before work, you know they are going to start talking about their projects while they eat."

  Herr Kunze stopped to consider, and Trent waited for him to finish.

  "That would be a benefit. And if we were to provide a restaurant on the premises, breakfast and dinner might partially pay for themselves in extra work while they are eating. It's how this group works. But that doesn't explain why you have developed this sudden interest in having a restaurant in the park."

  Trent grinned. "I need it to tempt in an expert on dials and switches. Johan Kipper's up-timer lady friend."

  Johan Kipper was a name to conjure with, Trent knew. As David's man, he sat on the boards of OPM and HSMC, plus at least a dozen other companies in which OPM had a controlling interest. He was very high up in the hierarchy of the Ring of Fire industrial community, at least the down-time side of it. Josef Kunze had gotten this job because he was Franz Kunze's cousin. He was competent and, in fact, good at it, but he never would have gotten it without connections. That was how the down-time world worked, and by now Trent was pretty sure that it was how the up-time world had worked too. Josef wasn't going to balk at giving a job to a friend of Johan Kipper.

  "I would be happy to provide any friend of Herr Kipper with employment. However, inventing not just a job, but a whole new department-probably with at least a couple of employees-just to give her a job? Even if she is an up-timer?"

  "Remember, she is an expert on dials and switches," Trent reminded him.

  "So why not hire her as that?"

  "Because she doesn't want that job," Trent said. "She likes to cook."

  Josef checked out the woman on his own, then approved the plan. He had several reasons. One was the fact that Johan Kipper was not, in any sense, someone he wanted to get on the wrong side of. Kipper could end your career and, if necessary, your life. He was, to many down-timers, the iron fist in David Bartley's silk glove. But another reason was also because they really did need someone with an up-timer's understanding of electronics. As well, a little research had suggested that providing free meals to the employees would make them more productive. Twinlo Park wasn't quite like an up-time research and development facility. As often as not, families were hired as a unit. Husband and wife both came to the shop and worked together. Sometimes it was men and women who were not yet financially secure enough to marry after all the disruptions of the war. They had three couples, masters at their trades and their wives, who had lost their homes and hopes in the war, and now worked at Twinlo Park as a unit. A restaurant on the premises would be of really great benefit, and not nearly that expensive.

  "What exactly do you want?" Darlene asked. "Do you want a down-time style tavern, a cafeteria or a real restaurant?"

  "I'm not certain, Frau Myers. I have eaten in the Plaza Room in the Higgins and at Marcantonio's Pizza place, as well as some of the other restaurants of Grantville, but, honestly, I don't understand the difference between a tavern and a restaurant all that well."

  Darlene remembered eating at a Golden Corral in Morgantown before the Ring of Fire. It was sort of a cross between a cafeteria and a restaurant that called itself a buffet restaurant. And as Darlene thought about it, she figured that would probably be the way to go, especially if she could get a good handle on what the people at Twinlo Park liked. She could have most of the meals pre-made and ready and just put them out. Salads, soups, bread, and a couple of entrees, then if someone wanted something special, they could order it. Yes, that would work. And while she was thinking all this, she realized that she had taken the job. At least in her own mind. Darlene, like most up-timers, was not a good negotiator. She hadn't grown up in a world where all, or even most, prices were negotiable. It left her and most of the up-timers at a real disadvantage in dealing with down-timers who had probably negotiated the price of the first thing they had ever bought and most of the rest of their purchases. On the other hand, she was anything but stupid and she could figure out why she was getting this job. It wasn't because she was an up-timer. It was because she was thought to be Johan Kipper's girlfriend. Darlene let a smile slip out. "I think that a buffet restaurant would be the best plan. I will leave my compensation to you and talk it over with Johan in my next letter."

  Josef Kunze swallowed and Darlene felt her smile grow a little bit. Johan was such a nice man. She really didn't understand why he scared people like Josef Kunze so much.

  Johan Kipper lau
ghed out loud when he read the part of Darlene's letter describing her negotiating with Herr Kunze. Whom Johan privately thought of as "the little Kunze," even though he was actually larger than Franz. He would show the letter to Franz at the next opportunity. Young Master David, as it happened, was reading of the same general events, but in a letter from Trent Partow, who was discussing the construction the new buffet restaurant, called the TwinloPalace. "It turns out that Darlene can make a mean fried rice and she went with this sort of German oriental style. But the food is from all over. There are baked potatoes and. ." The list of foods was surprisingly varied, and apparently Darlene had hired two support chefs, a baker and someone named Gretel. . Was there any woman in Germany not named Gretel, David wondered. . who made the most delicious soups. And best of all, Trent's letter burbled, someone had finally found pepperoni that almost tasted like real pepperoni, and the color was almost right, so the pepperoni rolls they were making were almost as good as the ones back up-time.

  "Your Darlene seems to be fitting right in, Johan," David said with a grin. By now the splitting of the Wisselbank was agreed on and the party was getting ready to head to Antwerp to see to the installation of the radios that would connect the two branches of the bank.

  "Trent can't stop talking about the food and patting himself on the back for hiring her."

  "I imagine Josef Kunze is still complaining about the expense." Johan smiled back. "Apparently, Darlene threatened him with me."

  There was a snort from across the room. "You have taken horrible advantage of my cousin," Franz Kunze said. "But the cost will be coming out of the profits of Twinlo. How much of Twinlo do you own, Johan?"

  Johan considered. He had helped the twins set up the park, along with Franz and OPM. OPM owned forty percent, the twins owned forty percent, Johan had gotten three percent for his help, and the rest was spread out among the twin's family. "Not that much, Franz, but I wouldn't be worried about the cost of the. ." Johan looked back at the letter.". . buffet restaurant. It will pay for itself, I think. Especially since Darlene is complaining about not having time to cook because of all the electrical doodads that they make her look at."