Since We Fell

by Dennis Lehane

Which by that point, we’d salted.” “What’s salting?” “You sprinkle a mine with gold in places that are easier to access—but not too easy—than others. The idea is one of extrapolation—if x percentage of gold is found here, then one can assume the totality of the mine is sitting on y percentage. That’s what our independent consultants—” “Borgeau Engineering.” He tipped an imaginary cap to her. “That’s what they ascertained—that we were sitting on resources worth up to four hundred million troy ounces of gold as opposed to four million.” “Which would drive your stock up.” “If we had stock, but we didn’t. No, what it would do was make us a potential threat to any competitors in the region.” “Vitterman.” “You have been doing your research.”