Page 111 of The Pacifist
“Well, fuck them.” Magni changed the subject. “Now, about the tournament; it will still take place and after discussing it with Khan most of last night, we’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not a bad idea to develop the tournaments into something more modern that doesn’t rely on one bride.”
“Good. I have a few ideas on how to maximize Khan’s exposure to his voters.”
“I’m sure he’d like to hear about it, but you should go eat some food first. The noise from your growling stomach is distracting!”
I stood up too and for a moment Magni and I just looked at each other.
“You’ve changed,” I said in a compliment.
With a shake of his head, Magni walked to the door.
Just before he opened it, I repeated, “You’ve grown a lot, Magni.”
I’m sure he knew what I meant, but in typical Magni style, he squared his shoulders, “Nope, I was always tall enough. Didn’t need them to give me extra height with the new legs.”
CHAPTER 24
Treasures
Mila
“I can’t believe you talked Hunter into giving out hugs at the tournament. He doesn’t seem like the type to do such a thing.” Christina had listened to Jonah explain about his plan to help Khan gain goodwill from the voters and pondered out loud, “I suppose living in the Motherlands for a few years had a greater effect on him than I would have anticipated.”
“Hunter isn’t giving out hugs,” Jonah said and looked to Anne but she had her head in a box. The three of us had joined Christina and Freya in the basement to sort through sixty years of unwanted items.
“He called it a meet and greet with his soccer fans.”
“It’s a great idea.” Christina turned a candlestick over and studied it closer before noting something on a pad and taking a picture of it.
“Do we have to take photos of everything?” I asked.
“Yes, it’s part of cataloging the treasures.”
“When you say treasures, you don’t mean this one, do you?” Anne had pulled her head out of the box and was holding a broken toy car in her hands. “One of the wheels is missing.”
“Place it in that corner over there. Toys go next to sports equipment. I’ll look at it later.”
“Wow, check out these old skis.” I picked them up and took them to the area Christina had pointed to.
“I found another painting.” Freya held it up and wrinkled her nose. “It’s not very pretty, but do you think it could be worth three hundred thousand?”
Christina smiled. “You ask that every time you find a painting. Just place it with the others and I’ll catalogue it and share it with my colleagues. They’ll help me estimate the worth of all these items.”
“But have you found anything that is worth a lot of dollars?” Freya’s arms were spread out wide as she carried the large painting. “I made big plans for how I’m going to use the money, so we’d better find some down here.”
“Well, the coins you found should be valuable and so is the trunk with private thoughts from Augustus that we uncovered. To have a sixty-year-old notebook from a historical figure like that is remarkable. It makes me think he was fascinated with the past like me. Why else would he write in a notebook and not use an electronic pad?”
“Maybe he was scared of being hacked. Pen and paper can’t be accessed unless you know where to search.”
“That’s a good point, Jonah.” I gave him a sweet smile and lost my train of thought for a second when my body remembered what had happened between us last night.
Jonah smiled back and for a long moment we just stood there with locked gazes and sparkling eyes.
“What do you plan to do with the money, Freya?” asked Anne.
Freya was about to crawl up on a book ladder, but she paused with one foot up on the first step. “I’m going to help my dad win the election of course.”
“And how do you plan to do that?”
