The Buyer Opened A Folder With Two Different Factory Addresses

Lucius rose when Nora and I entered the conference room.

"Mrs. Bell. Arman. Coffee?"

He had put name cards around the table. Mine said TECHNICAL CONSULTANT.

I turned it over before sitting down.

Dana Voss sat opposite me beside Merrow's operations chief, Ellis Park. Both had flown into Piedmont Triad that morning. Neither looked pleased with the drive.

"Let's begin with ownership," Dana said.

Lucius spread his hands.

"An old arrangement. We intended to tidy it up."

Nora placed the signed license on the table.

"It remains in force. Please use its terms."

I showed Dana the prehire yarn receipts, the ownership schedule, and the employment exception. Then I showed her the royalty records.

"You paid seventy-two cents per yard?" she asked Lucius.

"An accounting habit."

"With a $96,000 annual minimum," Nora said. "Eight years is a long habit."

Dana opened her own folder.

There were two addresses on the first sheet. High Point appeared under public launch site. A factory outside San Pedro Sula appeared under sustained production site.

I set my folded blue swatch beside the page.

"Who signed this?" I asked.

"Alder and Merrow," Dana said. "Six weeks ago. A separate production agreement, effective on signing. The main supply purchase was due to close yesterday."

Lucius leaned forward.

"The foreign phase remained subject to technical readiness."

"Readiness affects timing," Dana said. "It does not make the agreement unsigned."

Ellis rubbed his forehead.

"We were told the High Point staff would move to other work."

"What other work?" I asked.

Lucius looked at the water pitcher.

The schedule gave High Point twelve weeks to make display stock. After that, four looms would ship overseas. The plant would keep six people to pack imported rolls.

Six.

There was a column for local training costs, too. It budgeted $41,000 to have our workers teach the overseas crew by video. The trainers would receive no written job promise after the handoff.

"Did anyone tell the workers they were training replacements?" I asked.

Ellis shook his head. "Our brief said they were building a second shift."

Dana drew a line beside that sentence in her notes. "We need to review who gave us that brief."

I thought of Keisha explaining the banner to the second shift.

"Who approved the public job numbers?" Nora asked.

"That concerns local development," Lucius said. "We should stay within our purpose."

"Our purpose is understanding what we were asked to buy," Dana said.

She pushed another sheet across the table. Merrow had agreed to place a $2.4 million deposit in escrow. Release depended on valid production rights and the listed test reports.

The money had not been released.

Lucius had spoken about that deposit at a staff meeting as if it were already in our bank.

"You understand the problem," he told me. "A smaller company cannot carry American labor costs forever."

"Then you could have asked to change the license."

"You would have said no."

"You didn't ask."

For a moment, I could hear a forklift reversing below us.

Nora handed over a written notice. It named the signed transfer agreement, cited section fourteen, and started the ten-business-day cure period.

"The license permits no production at that site," she said. "If the transfer agreement remains after the cure period, Alder's license ends."

"And if I hire another engineer?" Lucius asked.

"You can develop another cloth," I said. "You cannot give this method a new owner by changing the name on my door."

Ellis studied the test reports.

"How long to qualify another source?"

"I can't price a process I haven't seen," I said. "But a new site needs its own documented work. These reports don't cover every loom anywhere."

Dana shut her folder.

"The main closing stays on hold. No equipment moves while we review the rights."

Lucius began to speak. She lifted one finger.

"That is Merrow's condition for staying in these talks."

Outside, Nora and I stood beneath the wide roof by the loading bay. Rain tapped the metal above us.

My hands had started shaking.

"You did well," she said.

"I said less than I wanted."

"That's often useful."

Keisha waited beside her truck. I had asked her to meet us after her shift, away from the lab.

"Tell me straight," she said.

"The plan left six jobs here."

She looked at the wet pavement for a long time.

"I need to correct what I told people."

"Nora can help you stick to the records."

"Good. They deserve facts they can stand on."

She handed Nora an envelope.

"This came with the crate request. They asked me to sign it this morning. I didn't."

Inside lay a workforce form for the city's equipment grant. It listed eighty-four permanent High Point jobs.

At the bottom, Lucius had already signed a declaration that no overseas transfer was planned.