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.”“Can you imagine?” Betty asked.“We could blow up our own power system.I think we all need to think carefully before we make any decisions about solar.”The muscles in Slaid’s shoulders tightened, and his jaw ached.No way could he compete with the kind of money Renewable Reliance was throwing at this today.He couldn’t imagine how much it had cost to get this all done at the last minute.And how much time it would cost him to combat all the misinformation that would be out there by the end of the day.Betty and Jed said goodbye and went off to find a spot to eat their free breakfast.Slaid stood silently, feeling like an idiot with his simple flyer in his hands, staring at the band and figuring out what to do next.A hand clapped him on the shoulder, startling him.It was Jack, who moved to stand beside him.“Well, we knew Tess was great at what she did.But I think we might have underestimated her,” he said, a sheepish grin on his face.“How did she get this into the festival?” Slaid asked.“Who approved it?”“Samantha let her have the booths.She swears she had no idea Tess was bringing a band.Or that the whole thing would be so elaborate.”The lead guitarist—Slaid figured he must be Danny Click himself—was saying something to the audience.Suddenly he got them cheering.“Do we want clean energy?” he asked.A roar of “Hell yeah!” rose from the crowd in response.Slaid pulled one of his amateur flyers out of his back pocket and handed it to Jack.“I made a flyer,” he said.Jack let out a bark of derisive laughter.“Oh, man, we suck at this.”“Don’t I know it.” Slaid gestured around him helplessly.“I’m a cattle rancher.I know cows and a little bit about being mayor.I don’t know how to put together something like this.”“Maybe today we need to just sit back and observe Tess—learn at the feet of the master.Then we can figure out our next steps.”“Can Samantha help us?” Slaid asked.“She’s a public relations person, as well.”“I’ll ask her.But I think whatever she does, she’d prefer to do it behind the scenes.She doesn’t want to lose her friendship with Tess.”“And Tess doesn’t want to lose her friendship with Samantha.” The low voice had them both turning and Slaid gaped.Tess had on jeans that accentuated her long, slim legs, and a retro, blue-checked shirt tied at the waist.She wore minimal makeup and looked as fresh and pretty as a 1950s housewife.“Can I interest you gentlemen in some literature explaining the benefits of wind energy?” She smiled engagingly and waggled a colorful flyer at him, holding it right at cleavage level.“No, thanks, I’m good,” Slaid answered shortly.“I’m gonna go look for Samantha,” Jack said, backing away at Slaid’s sharp tone.“Nice work here today, Tess.”Slaid continued staring at the band, and Tess turned to walk away.“Wait,” he called, and she stopped, turning to face him, one eyebrow raised in inquiry.“You said you wouldn’t bend the truth.”She took a step closer and brought her voice lower.“Are you accusing me of lying?”“Solar is going to crash the grid? C’mon, Tess, you know that’s just a rumor made up by power companies that want to keep the status quo.”Tess shook her head.“It’s not.The fact is, no one knows how many distributed generation assets the grid can handle.”“How many what?”“Slaid,” she said with mock patience.“If you’re going to push solar on this town, you’d better learn something about it.The term for solar panels on residences and businesses is distributed generation assets.You see, a wind farm provides one source of energy that feeds the grid.It’s basically like a clean-energy power plant.That’s what our power system, our grid, was designed for.Input from a few big power sources.”“I am aware of that,” Slaid said grimly.He didn’t appreciate feeling like a schoolboy around her, and he was getting schooled.“The grid wasn’t designed to receive energy from all over,” Tess went on, “which is what will happen if you have solar panels all over town.The grid wasn’t built to be bidirectional.No one knows if, at some point, the power from all the solar panels on peoples’ homes will crash the grid by sending so much energy back out into it.”He didn’t know what to say.She was right.He hadn’t done his homework, and evidently she had.He watched bemusedly as she turned away to hand out a few slick packets of information and encourage people to visit the various booths and exhibits.She’d kicked his butt today, and he didn’t know if he should be humiliated or awestruck.He felt a little of both.“You know this band is illegal.You have no permits.And I’m pretty sure they have their amps turned way past the decibel level allowed by city noise ordinances.”“Are you going to shut it down, Mr
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