The directors’ demand reached Cinder at the third hour of the morning, and Halvek published all of it.
Mara heard it first on the restored audio. The clerk’s recorder on Breda’s jacket, carrying the public band down the service line into the lowest chamber. The Board’s relay had copied the demand to every Board member’s console under the joint custody terms, and Eshel had forwarded it from the Cinder link to Mara’s slate. She read it standing at the manifold valve with her hand on the wheel.
It was addressed to the Directorate of Cinder. From Meridian’s senior directors.
The Directorate of Cinder is directed to withdraw its support from the unauthorized operations at the Meridian command well, including the presence of its engineer Mara Venn, the use of the maintenance rod in her custody, and the publication of the well’s record on the public band. If Cinder does not withdraw its support within twelve hours, Cinder’s food credits on Meridian’s agricultural exchange will be suspended until further notice.
Food credits. Cinder bought grain from Meridian’s outer ring. Half its bread. The orchard districts grew fruit; the Low Brace grew no wheat.
Pell’s shelter count had a line for flour. Mara had read it on the Tern, in the book of complaints, on a page he had copied from the guild hall’s kitchen book: flour, days remaining. A small number.
