The Book of Jhereg (77 page)

“Wait and see.”

He sighed. “All right. You want every business you own shut down by tomorrow morning. Fine. Everyone in hiding for a week. Fine. You say you can afford it, okay. But this other business, in South Adrilankha, I just can’t see it.”

“What’s to see? We’re just continuing what I started today.”

“But fires? Explosions? That’s no way to—”

“We have people who can do that sort of thing properly, Kragar. We were trained by Laris, remember?”

“Sure, but the Empire—”

“Exactly.”

“I don’t get it.”

“You don’t have to. Just handle the details.”

“Okay, Vlad. It’s your show. What about our own places? Like this one, for instance.”

“Yeah. Get hold of the Bitch Patrol and protect them. Full sorcerous protection, including teleport blocks, and increase what we have here. I can—”

“—Afford it. Yeah, I know. I still think you’re crazy.”

“So will Herth. But he’s going to have to deal with it anyway.”

“He’ll come after you, if that’s what you want.”

“Yep.”

He sighed, shook his head and left. I leaned back in my chair, feet up on my desk, and made sure I hadn’t missed anything.

* * *

Cawti was home when I got there. We said hello and how was your day and like that. We settled down in the living room, next to each other on the couch so we could feel nothing had changed, but a foot or so apart so we didn’t have to take chances. I got up first, stretching, and announcing that I was going to go to sleep. She hoped I’d sleep well. I suggested that she probably needed some sleep herself, and she allowed that she did and would be in soon. I retired. Loiosh and Rocza were a bit subdued. I can’t imagine why. I feel asleep quickly, as I always do when I have a plan working. It’s one of the things that keeps me sane.

* * *

I teleported to the office early the next morning and waited for reports. Herth was about as quick on the uptake as I’d thought he’d be. I heard that attempts had been made to penetrate the spells around my office building and one or two other places.

“Glad you suggested we protect them, Kragar,” I said.

He mumbled.

“Something bothering you, Kragar?”

He said, “Heh. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

I started to say, “I always know what I’m doing,” but that would have rung a bit hollow, so I said, “I think so.” That seemed to satisfy him.

“Okay, then, what’s next?”

I mentioned someone important in the organization, and what my next step was. Kragar looked startled, then nodded. “Sure,” he said, “He owes you one, doesn’t he?”

“Or two or three. Set it up for today if possible.”

“Right.”

He was back in an hour. “The Blue Flame,” he said. We shared a smile of common memories. “The eighth hour. He said he’d take care of all protection, which means he knows something of what’s going on.”

I nodded. “He would.”

“Do you trust him?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll have to trust him eventually, so I might as well trust him for this.”

Kragar nodded.

Later in the day I received word that we’d torched a couple of buildings in
South Adrilankha. By now Herth must be biting his nails, wishing he could get his hands on me. I chuckled.
Soon
, I told him,
soon
.

I felt a funny sort of mental itch, and knew what it meant.

“
Who is it?
”

“
Chimov. I’m near Kelly’s headquarters
.”

“
What’s up?
”

“
They’re moving out of the place
.”

“
Ah ha. Find out where they’re going
.”

“
Will do. They have a whole crowd. It looks like they expect trouble. They’re also posting handbills, and passing out leaflets all over the place
.”

“
Have you read one?
”

“
Yeah. It’s about a mass meeting for tomorrow afternoon in Naymat Park. The big print at the top says ‘A Call To Arms
.’”

“
Well
,” I said. “
Excellent. Stay with it, and keep out of trouble
.”

“
Right, boss
.”

“Kragar!”

“Yeah?”

“Oh. Get someone over to Kelly’s headquarters. Make it four or five. As soon as it’s empty, go in and trash the place. Break up any furniture that’s left, smash up walls, wreck the kitchen, that kind of thing.”

“Okay.”

I spent the rest of the day like that. Messages would come in, about this or that work of destruction completed, or some attack by Herth foiled, and I’d sit there and snap out the response to it. I was operating efficiently again, and it felt so good I kept going far into the evening, tightening this or that piece of surveillance, adding this or that nudge to Kelly or Herth. Of course, the office was just about the safest place for me to be just then, which was another good reason for working late.

As evening wore on, I exchanged messages with an Organization contact inside the Imperial Palace, and learned that, yes, the powers-that-be had noted what was going on in South Adrilankha. Herth’s name had come up, but so far mine had not. Perfect.

When it got near to the eighth hour after noon I collected Sticks, Glowbug, Smiley, and Chimov and we made our way to the Blue Flame. I left them near the door, because my guest had already arrived and he had promised to handle protection. And, in fact, I noticed a pair of customers and three waiters who looked like enforcers. I bowed as I approached the table.

He said, “Good evening, Vlad.”

I said, “Good evening, Demon. Thanks for coming.” He nodded and I sat. The Demon, for those of you who don’t know, was a big man on the Jhereg council—the group that makes decisions affecting the whole business end of House Jhereg. He was generally considered the number-two man in the Organization; not someone to mess around with. However, as Kragar had mentioned, he owed me a favor for some “work” I’d done for him recently.

We exchanged amenities for a while, then, as the food showed up, he said, “So, you’ve gotten yourself into trouble, I hear.”

“A bit,” I said. “Nothing I can’t handle, though.”

“Indeed? Well, that’s nice to hear.” He gave me a kind of puzzled look. “Then why did you want to meet with me?”

“I’d like to arrange for nothing to happen.”

He blinked. “Go on,” he said.

“The Empire may start to take notice of the game that Herth and I are playing, and when the Empire notices, the Council notices.”

“I see. And you want us not to interfere.”

“Right. Can you give me a week to settle things?”

“Can you keep the trouble confined to South Adrilankha?”

“Pretty much,” I said. “I won’t be touching him anywhere else, and I’ve shut down and protected everything I own, so it will be hard for him to hit me. There may be one or two bodies turning up, but nothing to cause great excitement.”

“The Empire isn’t too keen on bodies turning up, Vlad.”

“There shouldn’t be too many. None, in fact, if my people are careful. And, as I say, it ought to be settled in a week.”

He studied me. “You have something going, don’t you?”

I said, “Yeah.”

He smiled and shook his head. “No one can say you aren’t resourceful, Vlad. All right, you have a week. I’ll take care of it.”

I said, “Thanks.”

He offered to pay for the meal, but I insisted. It was my pleasure.

I
GOT THE FULL
escort home from my bodyguards. They left me just outside the door, and as I stepped past the threshold I felt the draining of a tension that I hadn’t known had been building up. You see, while my office is very well protected, one’s home is strictly inviolate by Jhereg custom. Why? I don’t know. Perhaps for the same reason temples are; just a matter of you ought to be safe somewhere no matter what, and everyone is too open to attacks this way. Maybe there’s another reason for it. I’m not sure. But I’ve never heard of this custom being violated.

Of course, I’d never heard of anyone stealing from the Jhereg before it happened, either, but you have to depend on something.

Don’t you?

Anyway, I was home and safe and Cawti was in the living room, reading her tabloid. My heart skipped, but I recovered and smiled. “Home early,” I remarked.

She didn’t smile when she looked up at me. “You bastard,” she said, and there was real feeling behind the words. I felt my face flushing, and a sick feeling started in the pit of my stomach and spread out to all salient points. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t known she’d find out what I was doing, or hadn’t known what her reaction was going to be, so why should it come as such a shock when she did just what I’d expected her to?

I swallowed and said, “Cawti—”

“Didn’t you think I’d find out what you were up to, beating up Herth’s people and blaming it on us?”

“No, I knew you would.”

“Well?”

“I’m working a plan.”

“A plan,” she said, her voice dripping contempt.

“I’m doing what I have to.”

She managed an expression that was half-sneer and half-scowl. “What you have to,” she said, as if she were discussing the mating habits of teckla.

“Yeah,” I said.

“You have to do everything you can to destroy the only people who—”

“The only people who are going to cost you your life? Yes. And for what?”

“A better life for—”

“Oh, stop it. Those people are so full of great ideals that they can’t manage to understand that there are
people
in the world, people who shouldn’t get tromped over without reason.
Individuals
. Starting with you and me. Here we are, on the verge of—I don’t know what—on account of these great saviors of humanity, and all you can see is what’s happening to
them
. You’re blind to what’s happening to us. Or else you don’t care anymore. And this doesn’t tell you that there’s something wrong with them?”

She laughed, and it was a hateful laugh. “Something wrong with
them
? That’s your conclusion? Something wrong with the movement?”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s my conclusion.”

Her mouth twisted, she said, “Do you expect me to buy that?”

I said, “What do you mean, buy?”

“I mean, you can’t sell that product.”

“What am I supposed to be selling?”

“You can sell anything you want, as far as I’m concerned.”

“Cawti, you aren’t making sense. What—”

“Just shut up,” she said. “Bastard.”

She’d never called me names before. It’s still funny, how that stung.

For the first time in quite a while I felt anger toward her. I stood there looking at her, feeling my feet seem to attach to the floor and my face harden, and I welcomed the cold rush of it, at first. She stood there, glaring at me (I hadn’t even noticed her standing up) and that just fed into it. There was a ringing in my ears, and it came to me, as from a distance, that I was out of control again.

I took a step toward her, and her eyes grew wide and she backed up half a step. I don’t know what would have happened if she hadn’t, but that was sufficient to give me enough control to turn and leave the house.

“
Boss, no! Not outside!
”

I didn’t answer him. In fact, his words didn’t even penetrate until the cool evening breeze hit my face. Then I understood that I was in some sort of danger. I thought of teleporting to Castle Black, but I also knew that I was in no state of mind to teleport. On the other hand, if I were attacked, that would suit my mood perfectly.

I started walking, keeping as tight a control on myself as I could, which wasn’t very. Then I remembered the last time I’d gone charging around the city with no regard for who saw me, and that sent chills through me, which cooled me down a bit and I became more careful.

A little more careful.

But I have to think that Verra, my Demon Goddess, watched over me that night. Herth had to have had Quaysh and everyone else looking for me, yet I wasn’t attacked. I stormed through my area, looking at all the closed shops, at my office with yet a few lights burning, at the dead fountain in Malak Circle, and I wasn’t even threatened. While I was in Malak Circle I stopped for a while, sitting at the edge of the crumbling fountain. Loiosh looked around
anxiously, anticipating an attack, yet it felt as if what he was doing had nothing to do with me.

As I sat there, faces began to appear before me. Cawti looked at me with pity on her face, as if I had caught the plague and wouldn’t recover. My grandfather looked stern but loving. An old friend named Nielar stared at me, calmly. And Franz appeared, oddly enough. He gave me a look of accusation. That was funny. Why should I care about
him
of all people? I mean, I hadn’t known him at all while he was alive, and the little bit I’d known of him after his death told me that we had nothing in common. Except for the unique circumstances of our meeting, he would have had nothing whatever to do with me.

Why did my subconscious decide to bring him up?

I knew plenty of Dragaerans who seemed to feel that the Teckla were Teckla because that was how things were, and whatever happened to them was fine, and if they wanted to better themselves, let them. These were the lords of the land, and they enjoyed being what they were, and they deserved it and no one else did, and that was that. Okay. I could understand that attitude. It had nothing to do with the way things really were for the Teckla, but it made a lot of sense for the way things were for the Dragons.

I knew a few Dragaerans who cried aloud over the plight of the Teckla, and the Easterners for that matter, and gave money to charities for the poor and the homeless. Most of them were fairly well-off, and sometimes I wondered at my own contempt for them. But I always had the feeling that they secretly despised those they helped, and were so guilt-ridden that they blinded themselves to the way things were in order to convince themselves that they were doing some good, that they actually made a difference.

And then there were Kelly and his people; so wrapped up in how they would save a world that they didn’t care about anyone or anything except the little ideas they had floating around their little heads. Completely, utterly ruthless, all in the name of humanity.