Chapter 9
Gareth had done his part by encrypting more poetry, saying the Catherine would be coming back from a short voyage chartered by Martin to close some of his remote operations. This was expected to yield a significant amount of gold that Martin needed to pay for recent losses.
That’s what the encrypted message said anyway. Martin had lost a lot of money recently but he wasn’t close to the point of giving up. The mention of gold had been bait to tempt the pirate into intercepting the Catherine. She would have a minimal crew of real sailors supplemented by “Bookkeepers” acting as sailors.
Martin and Gareth had stayed in town. Martin, to continue running his business as if everything were normal. Gareth, to continue writing bad poetry encrypted with messages. They had decided this was necessary to keep up the facade of business as usual but all of the new poetry messages only said how tight the security had become.
Three days before the Catherine was supposed to arrive at Bream, Martin closed his shop and headed to meet with the Bookkeepers. He told everyone that he was going to a bookkeeping meeting to brush up on some new techniques. Gareth was busy spreading rumors that Martin was closing because he couldn’t afford anymore payouts until the gold arrived.
Gareth had one more duty to perform before he could join the main party. There had been several discussions about involving Crow. Tobias still did not know who Crow was working for and not knowing your associates motivations was always risky. Tobias finally decided the man’s fighting skills outweighed the risk, although he decided they would also wait until the last few days before bringing Crow into their plans. It was Gareth’s task to inform Crow and this wasn’t going to be as easy as it sounded. Crow seemed to like Gareth but he was fast to lose his temper.
Over the last two weeks Gareth had become a regular at the Mermaid. It probably made no difference now but he was still trying to stay in character by spending most of his free time drinking and complaining about the way Martin treated him. Crow frequently joined him but it wasn’t a given that Crow would be there.
On this night, it was early for the regulars. The tavern was almost deserted and Crow was nowhere to be seen. The bartender greeted Gareth with a mug of ale as he sat down at a table near the door. As usual the ale was warm and much weaker than what the other patrons were served. A few days after he started coming in on a regular basis, Gareth went to the bartender with a story about a weak stomach and asked him to serve a watered down ale to Gareth. They had agreed on double the normal price, business was business after all, and the bartender poured him a mug from a cask kept below the bar.
The new ale was just right. A slight flavor but probably nine tenths water. As realization dawned, Gareth asked the bartender, “Why do you have a keg of very weak ale behind the bar?”
The bartender only smiled when he replied, “It’s amazing how many customers I get with weak stomachs. “ Before Gareth could ask his next question, the bartender waved him off and added, “No, I won’t tell you who they are. Most of them are willing to pay a little more so the stories about their weak stomachs don’t get out.
That was when Gareth agreed to pay double the going price of ale for a mug of watered down ale. No wonder the bartender loved seeing him come in.
Crow came in and sat down at the table. He seemed upset about something, even his motions were abrupt as he ordered his own mug of what Gareth had always suspected was also watered down ale.
“What’s going on? Why did Martin close up shop and leave abruptly? Is he really broke?” asked Crow with vehemence.
Raising his hand to stop Crow and then with downward movements to get Crow to lower his voice, Gareth started answering. “Martin is not broke. Recent losses have been expensive and he’s having to transfer gold from some of his agents to remain solvent. He’s taken a trip to attend a gathering of bookkeepers. They have some new techniques for reducing losses and he’s hoping to learn a few of them.”
All of this was said in much louder voice as if using volume to get through to Crow. This was partly true but he also wanted to make sure everyone that had heard Crow also heard Gareth’s responses. Damage control done, Gareth leaned forward in a conspiratorial manner and motioned Crow in.
“We’ve broken the code used to communicate with the pirate. Martin and Tobias are setting up a decoy using a rumor of gold cargo to draw the pirate captain in.”
Crow’s eyes got hard. “I thought we were working together,” he hissed.
“We were, we still are,” Gareth said hurriedly. “Tobias and Martin needed some time to put this together. Even now we don’t know that Tom hasn’t betrayed us. All of us knew how you would handle the risk, Tom would be found dead with a cut throat. Don’t forget, Tobias worked with you before. He knows how you would handle this.”
Crow managed to smile and simultaneously look hurt that someone would mistrust him. “That was a long time ago. I’m surprised Tobias still remembers. Is this my invitation to the party?”
Gareth relaxed, the worst was over. Tonight wasn’t his night to die. “Can you ride?” he asked.
“How far? I’ve never enjoyed riding, probably why I became a sailor.”
“Two days due North. You’ve probably been there before, Bream. The stable master on Martin’s estate has been instructed to give you a horse with three days supplies. All you have to do is follow..”
“I know where Bream is,” said Crow, cutting off Gareth. “Why am I going alone? Aren’t you going to be part of this?”
“I won’t miss it. I have a few last minute things I have to do at Martin’s shop. I probably travel faster on horseback than you do. Like as not I’ll pass you on the road.” It wasn’t a complete lie. Gareth didn’t have to lock up Martin[s office, he had already done that and given Rachael the next few days off. Gareth was sure he could make better time than Crow. He wasn’t worried about Crow slowing him down. No, it was simply that Gareth wanted one more night in a real bed.
“How do I know this isn’t a ruse to get me out of town?” asked Crow.
“For starters, I don’t pronounce my name Crow or Tobias.” Crow managed a sheepish grin. Gareth continued, “You’re right about one thing though. Tobias wanted me to give you as little time to decide as possible. He still doesn’t know who you’re working for and he doesn’t want to go into a fight with anyone you might bring along.. There’s only one horse and the stable master has been instructed to give it to you. If you bring someone else with you they’ll probably end up dead.”
“Tempting as that prospect might be, Tobias understands me. I hold a commission to capture the pirate and it’s far easier to work with Tobias than against him. Is the horse ready now?”
Gareth nodded.
Crow took a drink of his ale and said, “This may be the last drink I have for several days.” Grimacing as it went down, he continued, “I wish it tasted better. See you on the road.” With that, Crow got up and left the tavern.
Gareth gave a sigh of relief. This evening could have gone very bad. He had imagined twenty different ways for the conversation with Crow to end, each worse than the previous. Tonight had been almost anticlimactic.
His part done, he took a final swig of his drink and headed out for one more night in Martin’s estate. Things were going so well that he barely took notice of the sailor that followed him out of the Mermaid. Nor did he notice when the man pulled out a lead weighted sap. He did notice when the man hit him in the back of the head with the sap but that realization only lasted a few seconds.
Things weren’t going much better for Tobias and Martin. As expected, Frost showed up late but when Martin asked to see the token, Frost only gave him a blank stare. “Token? He never gave me a token.”
Frost was able to give a good description of Tom but Martin was still concerned. He called Tobias over and explained the situation. “The description sounds like Tom but Frost insists he never got the coin.”
Frost spoke up, “I said he never gave me a token. He gave me a gold coin though. Good thing too, because I had to spend it on supplies. Times have been lean recently. Meant to thank you for that. It had your initials so I assumed it was from you.
Tobias shook his head, turning to go back to his problem.
They had never expected all the bookmakers to show up. The lives they led were not conducive to retirement. They had also expected that one or two might bring their sons. The fathers knew the hazards of this life and they trusted the capabilities of their sons. It had been decided to trust the father’s judgement.
That decision was the root of their current problem, one of the “sons” was a daughter. It wasn’t that she couldn’t fight. Her father had been the training instructor for the company and it wasn’t that Tobias didn’t want women involved, some of the most proficient agents he knew were women. No, it wasn’t any of that.
The real problem was that she was small and cute. Just looking at her made you want protect her from all the evil of the world. Never mind that she was faster with a knife than most of the men. It was instinct that made you want to protect her, not reason.
With more time, Tobias would have made her a trainer in order to disabuse anyone from thinking she needed protection but time was not on his side. There was no way he could make her wait this out without insulting both her and her father. There was also the problem of numbers. Now that Frost had showed up, they had nine people. Crow and Gareth should be there soon, to bring the total to eleven.
Captain Clark was not a fighter and he would be sailing with a minimal crew. These men were brawlers not practiced fighters, Tobias wanted them to stay out of the fight. Eleven men, no make that ten men and one woman, against a well-practiced pirate crew. Where were Crow and Gareth anyway?
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