Like iron filings to a magnet, all eyes in the room eventually converged on Ron Smith, seated at one side of the long table.
The Mayor of Erie City was the senior member of the Alliance and the veteran Politician who had been one of Leo's earliest supporters.
He was currently staring at the ten-billion-dollar figure on the screen, a sense of frailty washing over him as his reason took a violent blow.
Ten billion US Dollars.
For these Mayors, who were used to going to Harrisburg and begging on their hands and knees for just a few million, or even tens of millions, of US Dollars, this figure was beyond the limits of their imagination.
That was enough money to buy half of Pennsylvania.
Ron knew that at a time like this, someone had to step up and break the suffocating silence.
He pushed aside the cup of coffee in front of him, half of which had already spilled. The coffee stain spread across the snow-white tablecloth like an ugly rust spot.
"Leo."
Ron began to speak slowly.
