“Now,” declared Grant, “the fun begins.”
“Oh, man, does it ever,” Kane said in a monotone.
Chapter Eleven
Guana Teague held the weekly auction in the deepest part of the Pits, in a warehouse that backed into the foot of the ville wall. Not only was it hidden from casual Mag glances, but theoretically lay very close to the Outlands. At least, that was the way Teague had it figured, even if technically the nearest Outland border was thirty miles away.
In his middle fifties, Guana Teague was an enormous man with the physique of a very plush, fleshy grizzly bear. His massive belly bulged out and down in folds. His hair was still black, as was the small goatee embracing his triple chins. A greenish cast to his pale skin made it look as if it were faintly scaled, though it wasn’t. It was an odd epidermal pattern, similar to freckles, but coupled with heavy brows jutting over dark-rimmed eyes, it lent him a reptilian appearanceand the derivation of his nickname from the lizard iguana.
Teague knew a lot of Pitters suspected he was a scalie, a mutie, but he didn’t give a damn about their suspicions.
He was the Pit boss, and anyone who thought he was a scalie didn’t dare voice that opinion within his range of hearing.
Being a Pit boss didn’t mean much to the high-towers or the Mags or the admins, but to Teague it meant carrying on a family tradition. His great-grandfather had been the half-legendary Jordan Teague, once the preeminent power in the Deathlands, or at least in the part he had claimed as his own. He hadn’t been a part of the baronial hierarchy, though he referred to himself as one, and he had intended his town of Mocsin to become the center of an empire.
Unfortunately he had been chilled before those intentions had borne any fruit, and his descendants hadn’t inherited anything much beyond lives as roamers and outlanders. Guana Teague had a mind to change all of that. Early in his life, he discovered he possessed a gift for ingratiating himself with others, particularly those in positions of authority. Despite his appearance, or maybe because of it, Teague rapidly climbed the short success ladder of the Cobaltville Pit. He’d been pit boss longer than anyone else, primarily because he provided unique items and services both to those above and below him. One of those services was the weekly auction.
The items he sold to the highestand sometimes the lowestbidder were salvaged from trash hatches or smuggled in from the Outlands. Everything from scrap metal to machine parts to farm implements filled packing crates on the crude podium on which he stood. Most of the stuff was utterly worthless to the high-towersotherwise they wouldn’t have discarded itbut a few Pit dwellers had the facility to jury-rig some useful tech. They in turn sold their creations to others or used them to make their bleak lives a little easier to endure.
Though most of the Pits had electrical power, it was limited to fourteen hours a day out of twenty-four. Only a few places had running water, and folks had to queue up with buckets and containers in order to receive their daily requirement. Therefore, leak-proof containers were always at a premium and the most popular pieces at the auctions.
Teague was careful to never start the bidding at exorbitant prices for necessities. Though the presence of his strong-arms, Uno and Dos, kept his customers from objecting too strenuously to his prices, he had come close to sparking more than one miniriot.
Very few Pit dwellers possessed hard jack to pay for the items, except those who worked in the towers as custodians or cooks. Almost everything was taken out in trade, either with other pieces or terms of service. The service could be anything from a week’s worth of slagwork, or in the instance of fairly young, fairly attractive females, sex slavery.
Holding up a corroded circuit board, he announced, “Open bidding, folks. Place ’em.”
“On what?” demanded a man in the crowd. “It’s just another piece of shit.”
Teague did his best to smile. “A gifted somebody could build themselves a right nice data-infeed circuit with this. Tap into the comp bank.”