"You want forty percent outside the base."
"I want twenty percent outside the base and twenty percent outside everyone's immediate reach. You have just demonstrated why those are different things." Councilor Ren pressed her lips together, perhaps to contain a reaction.
Colonel He leaned over the map. "Seventy, twenty, ten."
"Sixty, twenty, twenty."
"Qingyuan has two thousand people."
"Qingyuan also has existing warehouses, farms, and whatever Director Song has decided to sit on. The south has people who will not be allowed through your gate, whether because they distrust you or because your citizens distrust them."
"Sixty-five, twenty, fifteen."
Tang Li Yue considered it.
She could have continued bargaining simply to make him suffer. It was an attractive idea. It was also wasteful, and the afternoon reports were growing worse.
"Agreed, provided the southern share is not treated as a future debt."
Colonel He nodded. "Agreed."
