Tricked

now. ‹
    What? Where’d you score two?
    › I was right about the sausage, and Coyote won’t call you Reilly either. ‹
    Okay, but I was also right about the sausage, so it’s 3–1 .
    Coyote opened the bag and withdrew the sausages, placing them on the seat next to him where Oberon could easily get to them. The waitress arrived at that point to take our orders, and the three of us tried to keep talking constantly to disguise the smacking, chop-licking noises that Oberon was making. She picked up on it anyway and regarded us uncertainly, trying to figure out who was making the juicy sounds and whether or not she should be concerned or even offended.
    Coyote ordered four sides each of bacon, sausage, and ham, plus coffee.
    » Do you want any eggs or toast? « the waitress asked.
    » Hell, no, keep that shit away from me, « Coyote said, then remembered who he was talking to and added, » I mean, no, thank you. ’Scuse my language. «
    Granuaile asked for a gorgeous stack of pancakes, and I ordered a fluffy omelet with cheese, bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms, with skillet potatoes and dry wheat toast on the side. I also ordered three sides of bonus bacon for Oberon.
    The waitress did her best to keep her expression neutral, but I could tell she thought we were the weirdest people she’d ever served—and perhaps perverted too, considering that one of us kept making licking noises. That discomfited me; I wanted to blend in and be forgettable, and we were doing a terrible job of it. What if, in the course of their investigation, the FBI came around here asking about unusual people? As far as I knew, the killing site hadn’t been discovered yet, but it couldn’t be much longer before it was. What if they published some picture of me in the local paper and the waitress recognized it? I voiced these doubts to Coyote after the waitress left, and he scoffed.
    » Ain’t nobody ’round here ever gonna talk to the feds, « Coyote said. » The way it works is, if the feds want something, we don’t wanna give it to ’em, unless they want directions off the rez. We give those out nice and easy. «
    » All right, if you say so. I imagine you’d know better than anyone. «
    » Yep. « Coyote grabbed a couple of napkins and courteously wiped down the seat, now that Oberon was finished with his chicken-apple sausages.
    » So you held up your part of the trade very well yesterday, « I said. » The deal was, I’m supposed to move some earth for you in return, so long as it doesn’t hurt anybody physically, emotionally, or economically. «
    » That’s right, Mr. Druid. You ready to hear the details? «
    » Shoot. «
    » All right, then. Look at this town—or, hell, anywhere on the rez—and what do you see? «
    » Lots of red rock and shepherds. You see groups of houses here and there, but you can’t figure out what everybody’s doing for a living. «
    » That’s right. There aren’t any jobs here. We can open casinos or we can open up mines. That’s where the jobs are. But, you know, those mines are all big companies beholden to shareholders. They don’t care about our tribe. They don’t care about anything but their bottom line. And once they’ve stripped our land clean, they’ll move on and strip somebody else. There’s no vision for a sustainable future. So I came up with one. «
    The waitress came back with Coyote’s coffee and he thanked her and took a sip before continuing. » The American Southwest could be the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy, you know that? We have enough solar and wind potential on the rez alone to power most of the state, if not all of it. Problem is, nobody’s going hard after it. Everybody’s makin’ too much money off oil and coal and buyin’ congressmen with it to make sure it stays that way. Besides, you need a ton of capital to start a new energy industry. So that’s going to be your job, Mr. Druid. You get us the capital to get going, providing a few mining jobs in the short term, and then we’re going to invest all that money into renewable energy and infrastructure, creating plenty of jobs in the long term. And it’ll all be owned and operated by my people, the Diné, « he said, using the term that the Navajo called themselves.
    » I see. And how am I going to provide capital, exactly? «
    » Gold. You know the price o’ gold has tripled since 2000 or so? «
    » You want me to create a gold vein on the rez so you can mine it? «
    » That’s right. «
    I