Warming The Cold One - 38. Issues of Land

As they walked into the office Lyla was still berating Duane. “I still cannot you thought a fast-food restaurant qualifies as breakfast.”

“Listen,” Duane tried to defend himself. “I got you pancakes, eggs, sausage and a biscuit for like five dollars. That is a breakfast value.” He saw Wanda sitting at her desk and pulled her into the argument. “Tell her! That is a value.”

Wanda put her hands up to deflect. “Oh no, don’t drag me down with you. I would have gone with the Mexican-style burrito with lots of hot sauce instead.”

Lyla glared at both of them. “Both of you have no taste!”

“I know of a great place for food, but I’m not allowed to go there,” Duane responded and then slapped his hand over his mouth.

Lyla saw red. “You have gone there, haven’t you?”

“No, I haven’t. Not because I don’t want to, but because I’d end up with sauce on my shirt and get yelled at.”

Wanda jumped up and got between them. “Not now, you two. Let’s focus and the task at hand.

“That is going to be a hard to do,” Clifford said after Tala told him what he thought needed to be done. “We have financial backers that have invested heavily in our programs.”

“I understand the gravity of the situation. It is going to be very difficult to get things right for your pack.” Tala paced back and forth between the kennels as he thought. “Do you know what kind of language were in those documents about cancelation?”

“I’m not totally sure,” Clifford walked over to the file cabinet along the wall and opened the drawer for the financials. “There are a lot of paperwork here. It might take me a little while to sort through this.”

Jay walked over next to Clifford. “What’s in this folder here?” Jay pointed at a small folder near the back.

“Hmm. It says it is an audit summery and valuation report from last month,” Clifford flipped though the report and look confused. “I don’t understand what all this is?”

Clifford was interrupted by Tony starting to growl and bark. Tala walked over to the cage and hushed him. “Calm down right now.” Tony barked again. “Oh, I see now,” Tala mused. “Let me see that report really quick.”

Clifford walked it over to him. “I hope you’ll understand it better than I did.”

Tala flipped through the first few pages until he got to the section that listed property. “Ah ha, here is what we are looking for. This shows all the loans against the pack lands and how much the bank could get at auction.” He looked over at Tony and frowned. “How did you think you were going to get out from under losing all the pack property to foreclosure?”

“What,” Clifford gasped. “How is that possible?”

Ruth started to whine and yip in her cage. She pawed at the cage door a few times before both Susan and Tony gave here a loud bark. “Stop it,” Jay scolded them.

Tala walked over to Ruth’s cage and got down to look at her. She backed away from the door until Tala asked her to stop. “Please, don’t be afraid of me.” Ruth came back up to the door and whined some more before putting her paw on the cage door. Tala caught what she was doing and ran his finger along the pad of her paw.

“She wants you to know the truth,” Jay asked.

“She does but it was partly something I already knew.” Tala stood up and turned. “Both Tony and Susan were trying to blackmail her. Each with a different threat but it put her in a no-win situation. Based on how upset those two are,” Tala pointed at Tony and Susan, “I think it best to see if Ruth can help us fully understand what is going on.”

Susan and Tony started going crazy in their cages again. Jay turned to them and yelled at them again. “Just shut up!”

Tala unlatched the cage and let Ruth come out. “When we have all turned away you may change back and get dressed.”

The three men turned and stared at the far wall and Ruth changed back and got dressed. When she was done, she cleared her throat and spoke quietly. “I’m done, Master Tala.”

They all turned back around, and Tala walked back over to her. “How do you feel?”

“I feel better than I have a long time physically. Mentally, I am still a little woozy,” Ruth said.

Tala nodded. “How about you fill in the missing pieces while your mind and wolf spirit recover.”

Ruth was about to speak when Susan and Tony growled again. She turned on them in anger. “Just stop! You know I told you this was going to bite us in the ass.” She turned back to face the others. “We have been playing a dangerous game and it has been getting harder and harder to keep up.”

“How bad is it really,” Jay asked.

“About as bad as it can get,” Ruth admitted. “The north half of the pack lands are already in the process of foreclosure.”

“How did I not know about this,” Clifford exclaimed.

Ruth sighed. “The last major renovation was funded by construction loans and was supposed to be paid for by the increased revenue during the contract periods. However, more and more dropouts affected how much we were able to collect. We started to farm out some of the tech support to some more unsavory clients trying to make up some of the shortfall.”

“Didn’t do enough,” Jay questioned.

“It was working until lately,” Ruth explained. “A few months ago, the jobs slowed down to almost nothing. We had to prioritize what parts of the lands we wanted to keep paid and what was less likely to cause issues. Then last month, we got a call that all the small work was over, and we had one job left and they would pay off all of our debt.”

It was Tala’s turn to ask a question. “Our teams were better than yours?”

Ruth hung her head. “Yes.”

Jay turned to Tala. “The teams here are responsible for the network break-ins?”

“Not all of them, but most,” Tala affirmed. “I suspect that there is another group assisting.” Tala turned to Tony and Susan. “They are not the masterminds behind that, but they are guilty of a lot more.”

“So, what now,” Clifford asked.

Tala pondered for a few moments. “The first thing is we are going to call Clay and give him an update on the network. It will help him narrow down what was being done from here and what wasn’t. The next thing is to keep up the ruse as long as possible to draw out the groups behind the money.”

“You mean,” Jay started.

Tala interrupted him. “Yes, but we will discuss it elsewhere, off pack lands. We also need to see if we can get the banks to stop long enough to refinance. The clan will hold the loan.”

“How would that even work,” Clifford asked.

“By going legit,” Ruth exclaimed. “We can cut the crap and just teach what we have already been teaching.” She looked over at Tony and Susan. “We can also stop wasting so much money on useless things and invest in a solid pack.”

“Would that work,” Clifford questioned.

“It should,” Tala replied. “There will be some adjustments that need to be made on amenities and some space that will need to be repurposed, but it should be very possible to make it work.”

Jay turned to Ruth. “Do you know what kind of language was in the contracts that we can use to get any monies owed and prevent having to pay anything back?”

“No,” Ruth frowned. “Tony took care of all of that. Not even my mother knows what is in them.”

It’s okay,” Tala said. “I’ll send digital copies of everything to the queen of mean. She’ll get everything going our way.”

Jay laughed. “Not if she heard you call her that, she wouldn’t.” He turned to Clifford and Ruth who both looked confused. “The wife of the American Clan circle member has single-handedly brokered all the deals for building up the area around our packs lands back in Washington.”

“Really,” Ruth sounded surprised.

“She got a guy demoted because he treated her like a secretary,” Jay replied.

Clifford nodded. “I think I trust her to handle a few banks.”

Taj looked up from his desk as his assistant came into the room. “I’m so sorry to bother you, but there is news about your nephew. He isn’t doing well, and he asked for you to come see him.”

Taj sighed and shook his head. “I cannot do that, and he knows it. I have worked hard to keep what he was doing from coming back on me.” Taj looked out the window and continued. “He has to be on his own and take responsibility for what he has done.”

The assistant nodded in agreement. “And what of the search for the pages?”

“What about it,” Taj asked.

“He said he cannot keep your search a secret anymore,” the assistant answered. “He might have already told the investigators how much of the book you have reconstructed.”

“I haven’t hidden a single page I have recovered,” Taj said proudly. “In fact, they are all on display as we speak for all to see.”

“I think he was talking about your search of who else has pages. Maybe ones that are not on display. Maybe ones that are translated already.” The assistant spoke carefully at this point. “The ones you wanted to get from the American clan.”

“He knows as well as I do that neither he nor I has anything to do with the attacks on the Americans,” Taj said firmly and a bit angrily.

“He is a bit angry right now,” the assistant explained. “I don’t think he cares if he falsely burns your world down. He blames you for being where he is.”

Taj paced for a minute before he turned back to his assistant. “Leave me. I need to make some calls.”

“This just can’t be right,” Karla exclaimed after seeing all the paperwork that Duane handed her. “Why are there no records of these packs anywhere?”

“There are packs that don’t believe in the laws of the council,” Duane said. “They come to areas where they can live without having to be watched.”

“Or, pay dues,” Wanda chimed in.

“This could really put a damper on the reintroduction plans we made,” Karla mused as she looked at the map she had drawn with Savannah.

“Should we ask Tala? I mean it is his decision on what we do,” Savannah said.

“No, he is ears deep in a mess down in Florida,” Karla replied. “I don’t want to interrupt that unless we absolutely have to.”

“What about the old clan,” Duane asked. “Do you think they would know what to do?”

“Maybe,” Savannah said. “I can try to see what they know of the rules and regulations.”

“Hello Savannah,” Toby said. “I wondered when I was going to hear from you. All done?”

“Not even close to done,” Savannah said with a sigh. “There have been a lot of developments and we need your advice.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Toby responded. “What is going on?”

An hour later and Toby hangs up his phone to call someone else. “Hello, my friend! What do I owe the phone call?”

“Hello Edwardo, it has been too long since we talked,” Toby started.

Edwardo heard the platitude in Toby’s voice and put a stop to it. “I know when I’m being, what do you call it, buttered up. Out with it, my friend.”

“You know me too well,” Toby admitted. “I’m calling because Tala’s mother is having some issues back on the old homestead. She took over for Savannah in managing the land trust and they found some unregistered packs.”

“That isn’t surprising in and of itself. How many are we dealing with,” Edwardo asked.

“Right now, there are signed leases for five unregistered or poorly registered sub-packs. The numbers total about six hundred heads if you count the children.” Toby tried to keep the frustration out of his voice. “Before you ask, no, the leases were not done through the trust properly. They all look to be side deals and the trust never got paid for the land usage.”

“I see,” Edwardo said flatly. “I have issues with that in the rough areas in my lands too.”

“I know,” Toby explained. “That is why I’m calling to see what kinds of options I can recommend to the land trust. It would be nice to not have to evict six hundred lycans from their homes.”

“I agree that would be unfortunate,” Edwardo affirmed. “I am happy to talk to her and give her advice to the best of my ability.”

“I’m sure she will be eager for all the words of wisdom you can provide,” Toby responded positively. “She doesn’t want to burden Tala with this if she can help it.”

“How’s my favorite get it done person,” Tala asked sweetly into the phone.

“What did you do that I have to fix,” Lisbeth asked.

“Me,” Tala asked with a bit more shock in his voice than necessary. “Why would you think I did something wrong?”

“You didn’t answer the main part of my question,” Lisbeth scolded. “What do I have to fix?”

“Well, I kind of need you to see if you can halt a foreclosure for part of the pack lands down here in Florida and refinance it so the clan holds the loan.” Tala took a breath. “Nothing that I know you can’t take care of for me.”

“I have to do what? Are you serious? No, are you out of your mind,” Lisbeth demanded. “We do not have the financial depth to take on something like that.”

Tala sighed, “I know we don’t, but I didn’t have anyone else to turn to. Is there anyway you can try to make some inquires on what we can do?”

Lisbeth blew out a breath. “I will try. Have you asked if there are any resources we can tap at the council? We have been signing on all kinds of packs; there has to be something the group can do.”

Tala smacked his forehead. “OMG! I do know of something. I gotta call Hawk. We’ll have all the paperwork scanned over to you as soon as possible.”

“What do I owe the pleasure of your call,” Hawk asked. ”I figured you’d be busy down in Florida.”

“Busy isn’t the word I would use,” Tala huffed. “I need some help. Long story! I need to save the pack lands here. Can you have Savannah call Lisbeth and see if the land trust can buy out the loans down here?”

Hawk gasped. “Is it really that bad?”

“No, worse,” Tala responded. “I had to pull a second takeover and half the lands is about to be foreclosed on.”

Hawk took a breath and cracked a joke. “Just another day in the office, then?”

Tala laughed. “Exactly! Must be nice having the easy job of running the pack offices.”

“If only,” Hawk mused. “We have our own issues.”

“Really,” Tala asked. “Anything I can help with?”

Hawk huffed. “Only if you can reverse wolf spirit damage.”

“What kind of damage,” Tala inquired.

“I doubt you’ve heard of a muzzle spell, but...,” Hawk began but was interrupted.

“I do know about that! It was in the book the red wolves had,” Tala exclaimed.

Hawk paused, “What? What are you talking about?”

“The book I took scans of. I told you I could read it. It talked about the spell and it’s reversal,” Tala explained.

Hawk was at a loss of words. “It said how to reverse it? You’re screwing with me, right?”

“No, I’m not.” Tala got a serious tone to his voice now. “I would never joke about that. I will go through the scans and reread how to fix it and what the side effects are. I cannot promise I can do it.”

“Wow,” Hawk said. “Okay, I’ll get Savannah, Karla and Lisbeth to talk and see if we can handle your land issues.”

“Thank you. I’ll see if I can fix the leadership issue here quickly and let you know what I find in my research. Please let me know if there is anything else you need,” Tala said as he wrapped up the call.

Tala turned to the group in the office as he put his phone away. “Well, now we see if I was able to keep the land out of foreclosure. The next thing to tackle is finding out how we can get some answers on who was funding this crusade against our clan.”

“How do we go about doing that,” asked Ruth.

Tala turned to Susan. “How about we ask your mother for a start?” His voice changed to add a bit of fake sweetness. “I’m sure she has a lot of things to say and I’m hoping some of it will be at least helpful.”