Chapter 2
When Martin told him it was a ten minute walk, Gareth wondered why he had an office off his estate. While they walked, Gareth took the time to think about his part of this plan. Tobias wanted him to appear corruptible enough that the opposition would approach him. In order to do that, he needed to appear like a spoiled rich youth who had already gone through his inheritance. Someone used to money but unwilling to work for it.
He mentally reviewed all his acquaintances trying to remember someone who could serve as a role model. He finally remembered one of the actors he had worked with several years ago. The man came from a wealthy family but had managed to alienate his family so badly that he had been disowned.
He had been lazy, obnoxious and arrogant. If there was an opportunity to get out of work, he took it. He seemed to resent everyone else for expecting him to do his share of the work. No one missed him when he decided to join another acting troupe. Gareth couldn’t remember much else about his former acquaintance but he seemed to be what the role required.
A close proximity the docks and the constant foot traffic to and from the docks made it obvious why Martin had an office. There was no way a person headed to the docks could avoid seeing Martin’s shop. Although it was nestled between two other shops, there was a big sign out front saying, “Stop losing your money on lost cargo. Inquire inside.”
Once inside, it looked remarkably like Martin’s office at home, the same haphazard piles of books and a big utilitarian desk in a corner. It had a few pictures of ships being capsized by weather, burning in port and one showing a ship being captured by pirates. Martin probably had to say very little about the hazards faced by cargo, the pictures made it very clear.
Martin had said there were two clerks but there was only one clerk in the office now. As they entered she said “Tom had to go by the printer to get more of that rubbish he calls poetry printed. I don’t know why he bothers.”
The girl was slightly shorter than Gareth with medium length brown hair. She could have been cute but seemed more aggravated than anything else right now. Gareth almost introduced himself and then realized that this was where he had to start his new character. “That will change when I start running this shop, I won’t tolerate laziness,” Gareth said. “While we’re discussing changes, in the future I’ll expect you to dress more appropriately for this office.”
There was nothing wrong with the way she was dressed but Gareth had already learned that criticizing the way a woman dressed was a sure way to irritate her. He was right, she turned from aggravated to angry before the words had cleared his throat.
Martin looked at Gareth in astonishment but took it like an old veteran of Tobias’ plots. “Nephew,” he said, “nothing was said about you running my shop. I agreed to train you and if, if, mind you, you do well, I might give a position.”
Gareth responded in a more subservient tone, “I know but it just makes me angry to see them loafing when you’re paying them top money. You’d think they would appreciate all you do for them but it’s the same as stealing coins right out of your pocket when they aren’t working or not dressed properly.” Gareth finished this with a hard stare at the girl just in case she had some doubt who he was talking about.
Fortunately for just about everyone involved, the other clerk came through the door. He took one look at everyone and headed directly to his desk. Martin stopped him with a hand motion and said “This is my nephew, Gareth. He will be here for the next few months learning the business. If he does well, I’ll make him my office manager.”
The girl’s face got even harder as she stared at Gareth. Apparently she thought she was slated for that position. One more reason to for her to hate him. Gareth smiled back as if this were his due.
Martin turned to address Gareth. “Nephew, the clerk who just joined us is Tom. I doubt he will be late again this week, not if he wants to stay employed. The woman you’ve already met is Rachael. When a prospective customer comes in, either of them will talk to the person and educate them on the risks of shipping and the services I sell. Both of them are very competent at this. Once the person is convinced, they bring him to me for the final negotiations.
“It’s not that I don’t trust them. They’ve both been with me for years and I would trust them with my life but they don’t understand the formulas I use to derive my fees.”
Further explanation was made unnecessary when a prospective customer walked in the door. The man was around thirty years old and dressed in new and very expensive clothing. As he entered he announced that Captain Armusen had sent him to their shop to protect his investment. Rachael quickly moved to greet the man and asked him how they could help. Meanwhile Tom went over to a board listing a number of names, Captain Armusen’s name among them, and put a check by the Captain’s name.
The man was new to investing in cargo but had just received a good sized inheritance and wanted to keep it that way. When Rachael asked him how much he was investing, Gareth was stunned, the man was investing fifty gold, far more than Gareth would earn in several years.
Rachael seemed unimpressed by the amount and carefully explained all the hazards his cargo might face, making sure to show him the pictures on the wall. Just in case that wasn’t enough, she told him about a young man that had invested all his family fortune only to find out that pirates had taken the entire cargo. If it weren’t for his transaction with Martin just a few hours before the ship set sail, every bit of the family fortune would’ve been lost. As it was he was able to afford a second voyage and made a significant amount of money on it.
The prospective customer seemed impressed and asked how much was this going to cost him. Just like the professional she was, Rachel turned to Martin and asked him to join them in discussing the cost. Martin sat down with them and rather than discussing cost, he proceeded to explain how for a fraction of his original investment, the man could protect his investment.
Sensing that the time was right, Martin picked up a notepad and started asking questions. For each answer he put a small mark on his notepad. When the man told him the name of the ship, Martin stopped and said, “I thought you said Captain Armusen sent you. That’s not one of his ships.”
“Captain Armusen suggested I see you but I found another captain willing to take my cargo for less.”
Martin nodded and then went over to his desk, opened up a few books, scribbled down several numbers, finally announcing that based on the man’s answers it would cost him twelve gold to insure his cargo.
The man looked incredulous. How could Martin even think this was reasonable? Without getting upset Martin picked up a few books and walked over to where the man sat. He opened one of the books to the ship the man had mentioned. Martin pointed out that in the last ten voyages only eight of them had been successful. Then Martin opened another book to a page on the cargo and pointed out that in the last twenty attempts to ship that cargo it had arrived damaged five times.
Martin said that if the man would reconsider which ship he was going to use and change the cargo that he was investing in, Martin could give a much better rate. Fifteen minutes later they had agreed on six gold if the man would change captains and invest in a less risky cargo.
Gareth couldn’t help but notice that the new captain was one of the names listed on the board. Martin didn’t seem to mind sending business to the captains that sent business his way.
Variations on the same scene played out several more times before the day was done. Only one prospective customer had left without investing. They had taken in slightly over thirty-five gold. Gareth was seriously impressed.
As they walked back to Martin’s house, Gareth asked him if every day was like this. Martin explained that the days the ships came in were often bad because he had to pay for the damage or missing cargo and it was very bad when a ship did not come back. Martin’s biggest problem was knowing when to pay out if a ship was late.
True to form, Tobias had already made himself comfortable with one of the stacked books from the library. Jerome was lying at his feet and seemed very content. “I was beginning to think I would have to send Jerome after you if I wanted to eat.”
Gareth knew that was an empty threat. He had spent hours trying to train Jerome to track without success. If Jerome were told to fetch someone or something he could see, it would happen. Out of sight though and Jerome was almost useless.
Martin just smiled and said “You should enjoy that book. It’s the chronicles of our old company. I changed a few of the names and locations but it still makes for good reading.”
“Good fiction you mean,” Tobias replied. “On our best days we were never this good and this sounds like we were all doing it out of patriotism rather than the truth. We did it for loot and excitement and there were a few times the loot was optional. “
Gareth took a quick glance at the title, he wasn’t going to leave this house without reading that book.
Martin pulled a cord near the fireplace and told the servant that appeared that they would take supper in the dining room. Martin then said, “That will give us half an hour to change and clean up. You too, Tobias.
“If Gareth is to play the part of my nephew, he will need to know how civilized people eat and dress. You know better than anyone the importance of always staying in character. After supper we can move back to the library and continue our discussions.”
There were only the three of them in the dining room. Well, three of them and what seemed like at least ten servants. There were actually only five servants but way they kept coming and going made it seem like more.
Gareth made it a point to memorize the physical characteristics of each servant. The butler was easy. He had a mole on his right hand, was left handed and he walked with a very slight limp. The younger of the two serving girls had a faded scar on her forearm, a few freckles up and down her arms. Her dark hair was put up but seemed to be medium length. The older serving girl had a number of scars around the thumb and forefinger, suggesting she helped the cook at times. And so it went.
There was no risk of having to do dishes tonight but Gareth was not going to lose the memory game to Tobias if he could help it.
The meal consisted of several courses. Despite the unfamiliar spices, Gareth had no problem recognizing the beef dish. The other courses were unfamiliar to him, although not recognizing the dessert did not lessen his enjoyment of it.
Conversation was limited to what Gareth had seen in the shop followed by a dissertation from Tobias on the local herbs, their healing properties and how they would improve the flavor of the food. It took Gareth a few minutes to understand why Martin was watching him so intently at the start of the meal and then realized that Martin wasn’t sure Tobias had schooled him properly on the use of formal dining utensils.
Gareth considered using his dagger on the beef just to see Martin’s reaction but he already knew what Tobias’ reaction would be. He was playing a role and deliberately flubbing the role for his amusement would quickly relegate him back to apprentice status.
Once dinner was complete, Martin told the staff that they would have coffee in the library. When they moved back to the library, Jerome followed them. Jerome had been fed earlier by Tobias and was trained not to beg for food but a dog could hope. Keeping him out of sight was asking for trouble so he had stayed with Tobias in the dining room. Gareth noticed that the staff stayed well away from Jerome.
Back in the library, Martin waited for the servant to leave after serving coffee before he spoke up. “The walls of this library are thick and sound does not carry well out of here. We can speak freely. I’ll admit I was amazed that Gareth did as well as he did today. I think he might actually be able to pull off the role of my nephew. He certainly convinced my staff and there were a few moments where I almost thought he was trying to take over the business.”
Tobias smiled and said, “Don’t forget, I trained him. Back to business though, I spent a lot of time talking to your servants after you left. Only two of them actually understand what you do. If I were trying to get information, I’d be relying on one of them. The others might be willing to betray you but their lack of knowledge would make their help impossible.
“You said you had two people at your office, does anyone else have access to your shop, a landlord or maybe cleaners, night watchman?”
Martin thought a moment and said “I have a landlord but he doesn’t have keys to my office. My staff and I do the light cleaning. Once a month we bring in someone to do the major cleaning but they only come during the day while we’re there. The night watch works for the city and fortunately they don’t have keys.”
Tobias frowned as if in thought. “Describe exactly what information is being taken. Is it the name of your customers, the cargo they are investing in, the shipping schedule or your risk tables?” Tobias smiled slightly at the last and added “Yes, Martin, I read a few of your other books before you got back.”
“It started a few months ago. I noticed that my losses were increasing dramatically. When I did the calculations I realized that the other losses were average for the season but mine were almost doubled. I’ve been charting this for two years and knew my percentages. It seemed like my customers were being singled out, cargo getting spoiled during the voyage, going missing after arriving, being taken by some very picky pirates. Individually there was nothing suspicious but looking at it in the aggregate, it defied all probability.”
Gareth couldn’t help himself, “What do you mean by that?” he asked.
Martin became slightly calmer as he took up the role of a teacher. “Think of it this way,” he said, “if you’re an average shot with a bow, you might get one of ten arrows in the bullseye. You’ve done this all your life. Any arrow you fire has a one in ten chance of landing in the bullseye. You’re not surprised if you hit the bullseye. You’re not even surprised if two or three arrows hit but if all ten of your arrows hit the bullseye, you’re either very, very lucky or something changed, like a new bow or different arrows.
“Something’s changed for me and it hasn’t changed for anyone else. My customers and their cargo are being targeted. I did a statistical analysis to determine if it was a single source but the distributions are even enough to suggest that someone has access to all my information. Until the day I did all my calculations, I had complete trust in all my servants and my office staff. Now, I can’t trust anyone.”
Tobias has obviously been thinking about the problem. “You have two servants that I believe understand your business well enough to do this. You also have your two clerks. Is there anyone else, a bookkeeper, an apprentice, a frequent visitor such as a close friend of either clerk? Do you have any idea where the information is going?”
Not wanting to be left out, Gareth said, “Having only four suspects makes this easy. We can feed different information to each one and see which shipment is damaged.”
Martin responded in his instructor’s voice, “That would normally work, but I don’t lose every shipment. It might take a few times before our enemy struck and the cycle times on some of these voyages can exceed six months. Tobias is welcome to stay as long as he wants but after today’s performance with my staff, Gareth, your life expectancy is probably less than six months.”
Tobias looked at Gareth and quizzically raised one eyebrow.
“I may have overplayed my part slightly but I had to make them think I was serious,” Gareth said defensively.
Just then there was a low growl from Jerome and everyone got quiet. Five seconds later there was a knock on the door. It was the butler announcing that the staff was going to bed. Did they expect to need anything else?
Tobias glanced at Martin and motioned with his head at Gareth. Martin taking the cue said “Please see master Gareth to his room. The peddler and I might be up late, I just learned he was in a few of the same battles I was. It’s good to be able to talk to someone that’s been there. After you show my nephew to his room, bring the whisky. It might be a long night.”
Seeing Tobias’ signal, Gareth know he had no choice but to go to bed. Staying in character he said, “Don’t worry, uncle, I can handle the shop tomorrow if you’re unable to,” and turned to follow the butler. It might have been his imagination but he thought he heard a snort from Tobias.
The bed in his room was huge. In fact, the whole room was huge. It even had its own fireplace. Fortunately it wasn’t needed tonight but it was impressive.
Finally a real bed, it seemed like months since he had last slept in a bed. He hated to admit it but he was going to miss Jerome’s snoring. The dog almost always stayed with him but in their current role he belonged to Tobias and he saw no way to justify having Jerome with him.
The brief knock at the door was followed almost instantly by the door opening and Jerome padding it. As Gareth was wondering how Jerome had knocked when he heard Martin’s voice loud enough for anybody listening to hear, “I hope you don’t mind keeping him tonight, nephew. The staff is terrified of him and the peddler said you and he got along well on the trip. I don’t want him running loose and the peddler was worried about how much damage he would cause in an empty room.”
Gareth responded in the same loud voice, “The beast is well behaved. I won’t mind sharing my room with him.” Before the door was closed, Jerome had already laid down by the bed and was snoring. Gareth’s final thought before falling asleep was that maybe he hadn’t missed Jerome’s snoring that much.
PREVIOUS CHAPTER INDEX NEXT CHAPTER
