Jose Arcadio Buendia's Arc

Chapter 2 of 6

By nightfall Jose could not sleep. Dr. Marsh had offered to starve the cloning operation with him. Cut the food, break the herd. But she built those tanks. She fed them for years. He had only her word that she would turn against her own work. One wrong step and she could hand him to the buyers, who would take his farm and grow a copy of him to work it. He needed proof she was real. He could not get proof from her lab. He rode to the auction house at dawn. The weathered wooden building sold everything the buyers wanted, and one man there sold to them all. Cornelius Slick ran a stall near the front porch, a fat man in a purple suit, hawking syrups and charms. Jose knew him by reputation. Slick moved goods no one else would touch and never asked where they came from. If anyone knew who bought the clones, it was him. Slick was talking a woman into a jar of pine tar syrup when Jose stepped up. He waited until she left. "You buy from the gray building," Jose said. "The one with no windows." Slick set down the jar. He did not pretend. "I move their overflow. Bodies, mostly. The buyers don't like waste." He looked at Jose's weaved hat, his dirt-packed nails. "You're the corn man. They've been asking about you." Jose's stomach dropped. "Asking what." "Where you went for an hour." Slick shrugged. "I told them nothing. I don't know your business. But a woman came here two nights back. Lab coat. Glasses. She bought a shipping manifest off me. Paid triple." He wiped his hands on a rag. "She wanted the delivery routes. Every truck. Every dock." Jose stood still. Marsh had come here in secret. Not to trap him. To gather what they needed to cut the food off. She had spent her own money on the routes while he doubted her. "Why tell me this," Jose said. "Guild inspectors come tomorrow." Slick's voice stayed flat. "I want my stock gone before they ask questions. That includes what I know." He leaned closer. "The buyers pay me to watch. If you're planning something with that woman, plan it fast. They already suspect her." Jose gripped the porch rail. He had his proof. Marsh was working, not waiting to sell him. But the same visit that proved her loyalty had marked her. Slick sold silence to whoever paid most, and the buyers paid well. "How much," Jose said, "to keep her name out of your mouth." Slick named a price. Jose did not have it. He climbed back on his cart with a new weight pressing down. He trusted Marsh now. That was settled. But the buyers were closing on her, and a man who sold secrets stood between them and the truth. If he wanted the alliance to hold, he had to buy Slick's silence before the buyers bought his.