Genius--The Con by Leopoldo Gout

Author:Leopoldo Gout
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

“There is no way you can build your way out of this!”

“But you are wrong. I can. Please, just listen to me.”

Kwento turned and looked at the miners around him and then gazed out at the soldiers. They still gripped their weapons tightly, ready for an assault. Kwento turned back to me. I could see the anger was subsiding.

“Tell me this plan,” he said.

“I am here to build a machine,” I began. “A machine that will process the ore you are digging up. I can make this machine so that it will do the work of one hundred men. You will not have to mine this same way anymore. You will no longer be pushed around.”

“How? How could that work?”

I motioned for Kwento to step closer to me. He did.

“Because I am going to ensure the general never bothers our people again,” I said quietly. “The machine will be his undoing.”

“I do not understand. The machine will also do this?”

“Yes,” I said. “I cannot explain it to you in more detail, but I do need for you to trust me. Give me a week. I will have the machine working and at the end of the week, when the general is in his most celebratory mood, I will have him removed. If I do not come through on this promise, you can overthrow him with force. I will even stand alongside you.”

Kwento thought it over, and as he did, he studied my eyes to see if I was hiding anything from him or straight-out lying to his face. He could see that I was not and he nodded.

“Okay,” Kwento said, “I agree. But a week is too long. You have four days.”

13.1

Rex and I walked back to the village with a renewed sense of urgency.

“I can’t believe you did that,” Rex said as he climbed over the ridge. “That was crazy. You really think you can build it in four days?”

“I do not have a choice,” I said. “Though I still have to figure out how it will work. And I will not be able to accomplish that until we have had a decent rest. Rex, you do realize we have not properly slept since we arrived in Nairaland?”

The very mention of sleep made my limbs feel that much heavier. I did not understand just how desperately my body was in need of sleep. When we got back to my house, both Rex and I collapsed on the floor of my room. My friends, I was too exhausted to even climb up into my bed!

We slept four long hours. I did not dream or toss. When I woke, I felt as though my batteries had finally been properly recharged. I emerged from my bedroom to find Rex sitting at the table with my parents, sharing a pot of black tea.

“Feel better?” Rex asked me as I poured myself a cup.

“A million times better,” I said.

We sat and discussed the coming build. Rex hoped aloud that Painted Wolf would recover quickly. I was confident that she was strong and that she would.

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