The euphoria was short lived.

Ora came to him the very next day after the swearing in, about five days after the polls. He was hangover and sick as a dog, he almost begged off his job, for just one more day. But Ora was insistent, and she'd become bold in the months she'd needed to keep the drug business running without him. She very nearly pinched him into alertness.

Finally awake, she dragged him from the pub he'd spent the night in into the streets. His people were euphoric, he'd barely go five feet without someone shaking his hand, or shouting campaign slogans at him.

He stopped at a general store.

"Get me a Pep"

"Ok, Boss! For you I'll find one" , the man ducked out of the store, walking down the street to other shops. Nero was perplexed. The Pep was a common energy drink, everyone stocked it .

Ora perhaps saw the look of incredulity on his face as he watched the shopkeeper duck from store to store.

"Stocks of everything have gone really low.

"Bread, tomatoes, sodas, even bottled water."

She answered before he could ask. "Its the suppliers.

"You've been making waves. And you didn't go to them with the supply agreements the Greenbacks brought to you. So they say you're bad for business, causing all the trouble that came with the elections.

Nero sighed. He had options, he could make them promises, procurement contracts now that he'd put a man in the city council. He could threaten. But perhaps he had other approaches.

The shopkeeper came back, dropping a warm Pep in his hand and a bundle of small rolled up notes.

Nero smiled at the man, acknowledging his gift, his tribute, and tried to commit the man's face and shop to memory.

As He and Ora stepped back on the road, he finally had the presence of mind to ask what she needed.

She was being challenged. While the drug business was secure, the market was small, and her teams addition to mix had strained how the proceeds from the sales were distributed.

Ahan's people were chafing both at him and her, calling him a dog being led around by her leash. She'd punished as many and as harshly as she dared, but punishment fixed nothing. The situation was untenable, they needed to expand, she thought.

She was considering the new plazas that the Greenbacks money had bought. There were some small drug operations there. Her idea was to consolidate their ability to supply in the new areas, while giving some of Ahan's men an outlet for their energy, somewhere to oversee.

Her idea had merit, she had thought it through, and even gathered approvals from three or so plaza bosses to start. She'd have to speak to Muite, ask him to allow her product to pass through his territory. But that would be a formality, Nero's men were still shadowing him, and Muite had gotten comfortable enough to ask them to go around targeting people who'd spoken badly of him in the past, who doubted his authority.

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"So where are we going?" Nero asked.

"The elders want to speak to you, they're worried about the trouble in the other plazas"

Ora opened a nondescript metal door at the side of a general store and pharmacy. Inside, he was faced with the usual suspects, Sherry, Timbo, Hakim, the owner of the general store and pharmacy he was in. He recognized bosses of the various businesses around town, and for the very first time, the law, the police officer he'd met just a few weeks ago.

They greeted him in obvious joy before they got down to business. He guessed the elation over the election's outcome had spread even here. Considering the big swings he had to take to make it happen, he couldn't bear imagining what would have happened if he'd missed. There, seated on bags of flour and grain, they told him what had happened while he was distracted with the elections.

Basically, they were cash rich, but their customers would suffer. Their workshops had no leather, no wood. Their pubs had no beer, The general store itself was running out of staples, wheat flour, juices, even sweets and sodas. The pharmacies had been relegated to market rates on their medicines, instead of wholesale or friend rates. It would make it impossible to survive, market rates could be five times the cost a member of his community could be able to pay,

He had been insulated from it, but the businessmen supporting the RPC had started their counterattack long before. At first reducing their supplies to what they saw as a rebellious region of Northwestern town, then eventually as the campaigning picked up, stopping altogether.

Previously, his and surrounding plazas were a backwater, and bought all their goods wholesale from larger wholesale stores much closer to the city center. Now he'd brought trouble and embarrassment to those very people, and Nero's territory was blacklisted, unofficially.

The smugglers he'd inherited from Muite were picking up the slack, circumventing the original pipeline for food, medicine and small odds and ends, but they needed attention, and expansion, if they were expected to serve the whole community.

Nero listened and eventually turned to the officer, the man had barely spoken in the room, merely observing Nero and his reaction to the river of information being presented to him.

Sherry spoke first, "This is why young Hiro is here, with us, he used to be an army man, he says, he can get us to the border market, he knows customs people, and he can make an introduction."

Hiro smiled widely as the attention of the rest turned to him. They would need cash, but the elders were swimming in the Greenbacks money. They'd been the primary suppliers of the aid centers, so while they had no stock, all their stockpiles had been sunk into the campaign to great success. They had been compensated well.

All the same, Nero was grateful, their backing had been invaluable, a ready made supplier network that knew the area and the means to get the milks, breads, wheat flour and medicines to all the aid stations where it needed to go. Even with the the rabid election fever, supplies were replenished almost supernaturally fast, most times on credit from the Greenbacks.

The fundraising was immediate, led by Sherry in that particular way she took charge of everything. She handed him a bag of more money than he'd ever thought he'd hold in his life. They were going to do the equivalent of a months shopping for five wholesale stores, a mid size hotel that was even now running out of food and beer, a pharmacy, a large carpenters workshop, and a midsize motorcycle repairs shop. At the border town, he'd have to buy a 30 ton truck to ferry the goods back.

They set the trip for the next morning, leaving at four AM. They'd use Hiro's police cruiser, leaving them able to ignore speed limits and perhaps transport the sensitive high value materials on the way back. It would be a two day trip, one night on the road, and maybe four or five days back, as they dodged the police, customs, and military they could not talk to, or bribe.

Last minute, he asked Ora to accompany them. It wasn't a bad idea to diversify the sources of all his product. Perhaps he would get suppliers for the more illegal contraband on his trip.