"Whale Folk?"
"They're the drifters who came from the south." Hesta looked at Simoya's slightly puzzled face. "You didn't know?"
"I knew there were drifter settlements around many northern cities." Simoya sounded somewhat irritated; she did not like the latter half of Hesta's question. "But why are they called 'Whale Folk'?"
This time, it was Hesta who was surprised.
Trion led Hesta and the others around the plantation for over two hours. They walked for the first half hour, then switched to a small sightseeing train at a parking stop and slowly circled along the mountain paths.
Trion kept reminding them to look at the crops nearby. He was immensely proud that his plantation grew nothing but coffee. At first, Hesta did not catch the implication in his words. It was only when Madam Fatima stepped in to explain that Hesta understood: Trion was emphasizing that he had never grown tobacco or other, more addictive crops—and at present, more than seventy percent of ordinary plantations in District 12 were secretly doing precisely that.
From a high point, Hesta looked into the distance and spotted what seemed to be a small town at the foot of the mountain. When she asked, she learned that this was already the edge of the plantation, and the town happened to sit where three plantations met. Some farmers and craftsmen lived there year-round, making a living by taking odd jobs from the plantations.
The coffee fields also came to an abrupt end near the town. Simoya pointed toward the forests farther away and told Hesta that there was another military base in that direction, belonging to the District 3 Army. Its secrecy level was low; it was only used to train recruits.
"I've lost track of how many this makes," Hesta said. "Why are