“We might, however, achieve some savings through attrition,” the Chancellor continued.
“Attrition?” I said. I had decided that, if I was going to be any help at all in this effort, it was time I admitted my ignorance and started learning some of the basic vocabulary.
“In this case, Lord Skeeve,” Grimble explained with surprising patience, “the term refers to cutting manpower by not rehiring as people terminate at the normal rate … or, for the army, that we stop adding new recruits to replace those whose term of enlistment is up. It will still cut the size of the army, but at a slower rate more easily absorbed by the civilian work force.”
“Can we afford to do it slowly?” Aahz said, seemingly unfazed by his earlier rebuke. “I was under the impression the kingdom was in dire straits financially.”
“I believe I had heard some rumor that we might be raising our tax rate?” The Chancellor made the statement a question as he looked at me pointedly.
“I’m not sure that will do any good,” Bunny said from where she was reviewing the figures Grimble had passed her.
“Excuse me?” the Chancellor frowned.
“Well, from what I’m seeing here, the big problem isn’t income, it’s collections,” she said, tapping one of the sheets she was holding.
Grimble sighed, seeming to deflate slightly.
“I’ll admit that’s one of our weak suits,” he said, “But …”
“Whoa! Time out!” I interrupted. “Could someone provide a translation?”
“What I’m saying is that the kingdom actually has a fair amount of money,” Bunny said, “but it’s all on paper. That is, people owe us a lot on back taxes, but it isn’t being collected. If we could make some inroads into converting these receivables . . . that’s debts owed to us . . . into cash which we can spend, the kingdom would be in pretty good shape. Not stellar, mind you, but enough to ease the current crisis.”