“Tell me who you told.”

Chester pulled on a lever next to his shoulder. There was a thunderous whoosh accompanying a storm of corn kernels. Instantly, dust filled the compartment, blocking out much of the light and sucking up nearly all the air. Lou managed a small breath and then held it. The dust thickened as corn continuing pouring down. Lou had rafted the powerful New and Gauley rivers in southern West Virginia. The roar of the corn was like riding down a Class V rapid. The kernels struck like BBs.

All at once the rush of corn seed stopped. Lou and the others were gagging and coughing. For a few moments, it seemed as if George had stopped breathing altogether. Lou’s eyes were afire. Dust continued billowing, filling the steel coffin, which now seemed oppressively small. Some of the dust, but not nearly enough, swirled upward and flowed through the open portal. Like an emphysemic, Lou put his hands on his knees to assist his breathing. Dust covered his face and hair. The back of his throat felt raw and dry. In what seemed no time, the level of corn had already reached his ankles.

“Cap,” he wheezed, “we’ve got to get George.”

The two men stumbled and slipped as they worked over to where George lay in half a foot of kernels. On three, they hoisted him to his feet. George cried out in pain.

“Who did you tell?” Chester called down again.

The three prisoners were standing on the hatch—George, unable to lift his head; Lou and Cap, peering up at Chester’s silhouette. The swirling dust made the man appear to be hovering within a cloud.

“The president,” Lou said. “President Mallory knows, but I don’t think he believes me. You have my word. Let us go and I’ll tell him I was wrong.”

Chester jeered. “Of course the president knows,” he said. “This is his corn as much as it is mine.”

Lou and Cap exchanged bewildered looks.

“Chester,” Lou called up, trying another tack. “You don’t want to do this. This isn’t what Edwin would have wanted.”

“You have no right even speaking my son’s name,” Chester said, spitting in disgust.

“I told you, I didn’t kill him. Stone did.”

“Bullshit! You know what? I really don’t care who you told. You killed my son. That’s enough.”

“Your son was trying to stop you from sending this shipment. He was trying to get Russell Evans reinstated and have him make you test this poison more carefully.”

The seed baron’s silence brought Lou a jet of hope.

Then, without warning, Chester pulled the lever again.