Apocalypse Queen: My Space, My Rules Chapter 212: Buying Gemstones

His colleagues had finally cracked under the pressure. They were putting out feelers everywhere, desperately hunting for gemstone buyers, willing to take a loss just to clear their inventory.

But who in their right mind was spending money or supplies on gemstones right now? They couldn't be eaten and they couldn't be used.

Beyond grain and fuel, the most desperately sought-after commodities were watercraft, and everyone was scrambling to stockpile them by any means necessary.

"I'll take everything they have, but we're renegotiating the price. It won't be the same as last time." Mariella understood perfectly well how sharply gemstones had devalued. Paying the old rate would make her the biggest fool in the region.

Denton struck his chest with resounding certainty. "Leave the negotiating to me! I won't let you get shortchanged!"

...

Once Denton and his crew had gone, Mariella returned to the warehouse and pulled every piece of heavy machinery into the storage space.

She sorted through the supplemental supplies as well, including the fish feed she'd added to the order at the last minute.

Sourcing fish feed in any real quantity had turned out to be difficult, so Denton had found her a batch of pig feed and chicken feed instead.

She stored all the feed in the storage space, then drew out another set of supplies from inside it. The bulk of it was grain, cooking oil, vegetables, meat, eggs, dairy, and seasonings, the everyday nutritional essentials.

There were also cases of cold-weather clothing, snow camouflage gear in various sizes, snow boots, sleds, and snowmobiles.

Since Denton's tractor had been covered with a tarp, nobody had seen what was actually underneath it.

She let it stand that all of it, the food supplies, the cold-weather clothing, the snow vehicles, had come in with Denton's delivery, and she had Matthew log everything into the inventory. Nobody was going to question it.

With that handled, she called Number Six aside separately.

"Pretty much every tool you needed came in. You can get started whenever you're ready." Mariella gestured to the spread of equipment laid out before him.

Number Six's eyes lit up. He went through each item one by one, his delight as unguarded as a kid on Christmas morning.

Drum machines, dryers, leather embossing presses, leather corner rounders, leather stitching machines, leather engraving tools, leather strip cutters...

Every piece of equipment involved in leather production was accounted for.

On top of that, there were leather knives, scrapers, mallets, nails, hammers, thread in every color, needles in every gauge, and wooden boards. Every last thing was there.

The alcohol and dyes needed for leather finishing were fully stocked as well.

It was enough to run a small-scale leather workshop.

"This is everything!" He was practically vibrating with excitement. "With the drum machine and the dryer, the drying stage of the tanning process gets cut down massively. That saves time, effort, and energy!"

Mariella gave him his instructions. "All of this is in your care. When we move, hand it back to me."

Number Six blinked. "We're moving?"

Mariella smiled. "The situation's uncertain and things shift fast. There might come a day when staying here isn't viable anymore. But I think that day is still a long way off, so there's no need to worry about it now."

Number Six nodded. "Prepare early. Prevent problems before they happen."

Mariella called Number Eight over to help him move everything, and she threw in a grin along with it. "You're our official leather craftsman from here on out. Repairs, finishing, all of it lands with you."

As resources grew scarcer, Number Six's leather tanning skills and ability to handcraft leather goods from scratch made him genuinely invaluable to the team.

If a teammate couldn't find boots in their size, Number Six could make a pair from scratch.

If a leather jacket or pair of leather trousers needed patching up, he could handle that too.

He'd already cured over two hundred alligator hides, and Mariella had handed him a substantial bundle of pigskin, cowhide, and sheepskin on top of that. Once all of it was processed, he'd have an impressive stock of quality leather to work with.

After Number 7's departure, Number 6 had a room to himself, which gave him a dedicated space to set up all his equipment.

From here on, outside of missions and training drills, he had a trade to practice in his free time.

Before Mariella had even made it out of the warehouse, Chandler stepped in.

"Take me into the storage space. I need to grab something." He came straight to the point.

She didn't bother asking what it was. She just took his hand and pulled them both inside.

Most of what was in the storage space had been accumulated by the two of them together, and a third of it was rightfully his. Whatever he wanted to take, she had no objections. He could have one of the helicopters if he felt like it.

Chandler stepped into the storage space and made directly for the open farmland.

Mariella stared after him, caught off guard, and the words came out before she could think. "You're that eager to get out there and plant seedlings?"

They'd finished setting up the wheat fields the night before but hadn't gotten to planting yet, planning to finish it that evening.

She hadn't expected him to be in this much of a rush to get started.

What kind of employee was this enthusiastic about putting in extra hours?

Wait. What kind of boyfriend was this enthusiastic about putting in extra hours?

Though honestly, the lines had blurred considerably at this point. Chandler was her employee, her teammate, and as of very recently, her actual boyfriend, all wrapped into one.