've already got a mortgage, a car loan, and two open credit lines. Now you're asking for a third secured loan against you

l," Leo

hat, e

of clean water befo

instead. "Food and bottled

lank. In his previous life, he would have started sweating, smiling nervously and over-explaini

cer finally looked down, shuffle

e is perfect. I'l

od up. "I'll need

od

y anything. H

r picked u

-

a balance in his banking app that would

when he pushes all his chips into the center of the

ys. The banks will be underwater. S

of storage yards and loading docks that smelled like diesel and da

d man in his fifties with a gray crewcut and the squint o

he shoulder. "Kid, I've been meaning to call yo

pay me ba

at the cold tone. "S

the warehouse. "Canned food. Instant noodles. Rice. Anything with a shelf

it? Kid, I've got six hundred pallets of water alo

ed and looked at Mar

like that

but he stopped when he re

said. "Let me ge

-

took nine

her contacts: a canned goods importer, a rice distributor, and a guy who sold steel by the ton. By the time he walked o

rified water bottles (500ml), wrapped in clear pla

didn't take the whole pallet yet. He ju

or

llet v

bottles floated in the stillness: one hundred bottles that Le

ked the

cooldown:

he diesel engine rattle along the

i

i

o

curled again

. Two

,000x Multipl

select a

mered once, har

the hundr

fied Water (500ml)

nfi

nf

nd, nothin

space in his

the void from the center out, stacking and tumbling into perfect lines. Row after row, wa

e. Purified Water (500m

e capacity:

cooldown res

ened h

pressed it flat against h

ttles. Half a

ng ring for half a bottle of water. A woman had offered something even more desperate.

ters. From just o

rted la

t wrong-like a lock turning in the wrong key. The delivery dri

Leo wiped his ey

currently 1,000 cubic meters. Additio

e half-filled s

dy. And I've on

in the space yet. He would need to stage the bulk goods in a separate location-

ere the original stack is. It

was alrea

ge it. Touch it. M

. Then food

hone

villa has a private infinity pool, you're going to LOVE it!

essage once. H

ned the notepad

osit by Fri

t the "investme

d the second

d, perfectly peaceful. The delivery driver hummed along with

ild until he vanis

-four

aster,"

ooked at him

ed in on a cluster of abandoned industria

of empty space," he sa