Chapter 17 - The Villain's Son Was Tired
Grant did not run.
He sat on a pallet of frozen peas and looked exhausted.
"My father founded NourishNow," he said.
"We know."
"No. You know he is chairman. You don't know why he built it."
Grant's father, Victor Vale, had been a Nine Banquet prodigy. Thirty years earlier he survived the failed San Francisco distributed Hearth experiment.
His younger sister did not.
"He concluded voluntary systems fail under panic," Grant said. "People cooperate until they are hungry enough. Then civilization becomes teeth."
So Victor built controlled appetite infrastructure.
NourishNow.
Clinic meals.
School contracts.
HearthLife logistics.
A system designed to regulate hunger before hunger could become chaos.
"And steal lifespan," Eli said.
"Small amounts."
Jian's black eye flared.
Grant corrected himself quickly.
"Unacceptable amounts."
Madam Sato asked, "Why work with Ash Pavilion?"
Grant laughed without humor.
"He doesn't think they're enemies. He thinks they're proof."
Victor allowed Starvation cultivators to create controlled crises, then used the crises to justify stronger centralized control.
Eli felt sick.
"He sets fires so he can sell extinguishers."
"Essentially."
Owen's face hardened.
"Luis died in one of those fires."
Grant looked at him.
"I know."
Owen punched him.
Nobody stopped it.
After Grant got up, blood at his lip, he continued.
"I started leaving clues when Dad ordered the school rollout."
Eli remembered the photograph. The address. Grant warning them about the stolen seal.
"You could've just told me."
"And you would trust the executive from cursed soup corporation?"
"Fair."
Grant gave them Victor's plan.
The school-meal event was no longer the main target.
That was bait.
While everyone focused on the formation, Victor intended to activate the city's Hearth emergency protocol.
The protocol would absorb every active food covenant into one central authority.
"What does that mean in English?" Reggie asked.
Grant looked at Eli.
"He becomes the legal owner of Seattle's appetite."
The system erupted in red.
[Detected potential Sovereign Hunger Domain.]
[If completed, all nourishment within municipal boundary may generate tithe.]
Eli stared.
"Every restaurant?"
"Yes."
"Every grocery store?"
"Yes."
"My mom's instant ramen?"
"Technically yes."
That offended Eli on a spiritual level.
Victor did not want to wake the Maw.
He wanted to use fear of the Maw to crown himself over the city's food supply.
Then Grant added the worst part.
"The emergency vote is tonight."
Madam Sato checked the time.
Three hours.
"Where?"
Grant looked toward downtown.
"At Jade Table."
The most exclusive restaurant in Seattle.
A place with a six-month waitlist, no public menu, and a tasting price of eight hundred dollars.
Reggie looked at Eli's stained hoodie.
"We are not dressed for this heist."
---
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