Thief: Kingdom of Maidenhead Book One, page 22
The barges finally get into position about twenty minutes later. The barge crew pulls up the railings and starts levering boulders into the river. I look over at Shawna and see that her eyes are shiny.
“Happy?” I ask.
Shawna nods and smiles without taking her eyes off of the barge. The barge’s deck is only five feet above the water, so I wonder how we are going to get the boulders at least three feet above the barge’s deck. I expect I should go ahead and have someone figure out how to put a steam crane on a barge. We watch for a full hour and see the spur dike start to take shape.
“I requested that Artemis meet us for a late working dinner. We should leave now so we can get changed. Shawna, Anna, We should be able to find something that will fit you that will be suitable for where we are going. That’s if you’d care to join us,” I say.
“I am getting quite hungry,” Anna says.
“I want to watch more,” Shawna all but whines.
“My teams will be at it twenty-four/seven for weeks,” I say. “At least they will when there are any loaded barges in the city. My penthouse is likely closer than your residences. You are welcome to stay in my guest rooms as much as you’d like for the length of the project. The dinner we are going to will be about the project, at least in part. I would like you to be there to answer any questions that we have.”
“Okay, I’ll go with you,” she resignedly says.
We load up into the buggy and head home. When we get there, I ask Danys to help Shawna and Anna find some clothes for dinner. Yenjy helps me get dressed as Betsy. I help her dress for dinner as well. When we leave our bedroom, our two guests are impatiently waiting.
“Hi, I’m Betsy James,” I introduce myself. I apologize that it took me so long to get ready. It takes a lot of effort to transform from a boy to a young woman. Even if I have the best help ever available,” I say, cuddling up to Yenjy. “We should be able to leave now if you’d like.”
“Bit?” Anna questions.
“Not anymore. I’m Betsy now. I haven’t spent enough time with Yenjy lately, and she would much rather I be Betsy than Bit. She’d probably prefer that I be Bethany or even Elizabeth, but Artemis might be bringing a guest. I’d rather he or she get used to the fact that I’m often not the same person from day to day. Sometimes not even from hour to hour. But with the amount of time it takes to create me, we are a little pressed for time, so we should get to our carriage.”
“You’re Bit?” Shawna says, amazed.
“Not anymore. Now I’m Betsy. I fully take on the personality of the persona I’m trying to appear as at that moment. Do either of you recall seeing a ragamuffin-looking boy scamper down the steps past you in front of the Harbor Commission’s building? The one who then sprinted across the street.”
“I do,” Anna says as Shawna nods.
I start walking toward the elevator as we continue our conversation. I pick up a pack that I had left by the door earlier.
“I saw a man in the audience that I recognized. He is the man I observed giving Mr. Saulk an envelope that likely contained banknotes. I followed the man after he made the drop, and he went to the Etru embassy. I changed my disguise in the bathroom so I could follow him. He didn’t go right back to the embassy but to a large house instead. It is just like a house I dealt with weeks ago that turned out to be part of an espionage ring. Now there are three active houses that I know of, plus one more suspected.
“The two of you, plus the Bit you saw earlier, are likely targets for them. We thwarted part of their plans, so they aren’t going to like it, or us. When you are with Charlie and me, you are safe. We will be finding some security personnel for both of you. Please listen to them when we find someone for you.”
“Wait, Betsy James? Didn’t I hear something about you recently?” Anna asks.
“Some stories grow in the telling.” That may be the shortest speech I’ve ever made as Betsy. Charlie, of course, chooses now to be verbose. He starts speaking before I can stop him.
“There were only twelve of them. Betsy killed six of them and wounded two others. She did almost die from blood loss after the battle, though. Yenjy saved her life, and Betsy has never let go of her since,” Charlie says.
“You killed six people?” Shawna says.
“Bit has killed many more people than that. He is an enforcer for the thief masters council. When thieves or other criminals do things that can bring undue attention to the criminal elements in our city, Bit is sent to take care of the issue. That or punish the wrongdoers,” Charlie volunteers. Where’s a muzzle when I need one?
“Why would the thieves’ council go to Bit?”
“Because I’m a thief. Probably the best thief in the city. If it assuages your conscience at all, I only steal from wealthy people who are the worst people in our city. I’ve never stolen from anyone who treated others with a modicum of respect. I also steal from people who betray or work against the wellbeing of our kingdom,” I answer her.
Shawna doesn’t look too sure about me now. Anna looks at me with admiration. We get into the carriage this time since there are five of us, and we head off. The driver takes us to Tuscona. Artemis is waiting for us with another man in his mid-thirties. We all introduce each other. The other man is Ogunn Shanisea. He is the business agent from the North Docklands that Artemis wants to partner with. We chat for a while, and I like the choice.
“So, Ogunn, has Artemis told you much of what I have going on in the North Docklands?” I ask.
“He said you were working on buying up much of the port,” Ogunn replies. “I’ve been monitoring Master Thatch’s actions. He be a schemer. I’m still not sure why you are trying to buy up a port with a silted harbor.”
“Because I plan on unsilting it. Or, more appropriately, dredging it. Thanks to the good professor here, we know why it silted up in the first place. Today, we have started the first of three phases to prevent it from silting up again. In fact, Shawna is rather unhappy that we drug her away from the river where the first operations are happening.”
“Really, you are already taking action?”
“We are,” Shawna says. “Betsy doesn’t seem to believe in wasting time.”
“And this is your plan she is following?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Would you show it to me sometime?” Ogunn says with a smile.
Shawna returns his smile. “I’ll be staying at Betsy’s penthouse tonight. You can go to the worksite with me if you get there early in the morning.”
“I’ll be there.”
Now that Shawna has a date, it’s time to get some work done.
“So Artemis, I’ve committed you to negotiate with the Harbor Commission for me,” I say. I go on to relate what I proposed at the meeting this afternoon.
“How much land do you want on the shoreside?” he asks.
“As much as you can reasonably get for me. Speaking of, I have some negotiating tools for you. In this bag, I have what Mr. Saulk had in his safe. It appears he never spent any of the money the espionage agent paid him. If you could, send that word to the royal prosecutor. Just make sure she knows that the money is not available.”
“How much is in here?”
“Two hundred fifteen thousand golds. Actually, please give me back three of the smaller envelopes. I’m may have to hire dozens of watchers. I’m not sure if my guard team is ready for this yet.”
“Here you go, Bit.” He hands me three envelopes.
“Go ahead and split that as needed with Ogunn.”
“So why do you need watchers?”
“I saw someone I recognized at the Harbor Commission meeting this afternoon.” Once again, I go on to explain what happened.
“So you have one unknown and three known houses of espionage.”
“That is the size of it. I also need to get started on full-scale observation of the nobles who are critical to the second part of the plot. It won’t actually take place until next spring when some of the commodities reports that affect futures start to come out.”
“That sounds like it is likely to be some of the livestock reports then.”
“Could you find out if two or more of the reports come out together? The hints I got point to multiple reports being involved. I have some names in the ministry, but I would like to know if there are people who are involved with all the reports,” I request.
“I’ll look into that.”
“Another thing I need is every river barge and tugboat available. If you start to run low on funds, I’ll get some more.”
“Got it. Is there anything else you need?” Artemis asks.
“Yes, I need an appointment with the Transportation Commission about the river bridges I mentioned earlier. Before that, we should get some bridge engineers to look at Mr. Prane’s plan and model.”
“Okay, I’ll find some for you.”
“There is no significant rush on that. I don’t want to start work on them until the breakwaters are in since I will have so much water traffic going through. I do need the ownership of the riverside settled as soon as possible. Once that is done, let my tugboat captains know, so they will have options as to where to park the barges. Send the first two additional tugboats we get ahold of upriver to retrieve the dredges. I want to get them retrofitted to work as material removal dredges within the month.
“Ogunn, I need to get people back to work at the shipyards. Have them start making lists of tooling and equipment they need. Once we get ten barges working on the spur dikes, I want to retrofit the next four barges. I want them to have a waterproof tub in them that extends above the deck of the barge by three or four feet. That is where our dredges will dump the silt we take off the bottom. They will go into use as soon as Shawna finishes designing her steam-powered ejector vacuum pumps. Those dredge pumps should be able to suck the silt off of the bottom of the harbor.
“I also need steam-powered floating cranes, at least two of them. I need the two of you to work together to find designers, engineers, and whatever facilities and materials we need to build them. Their purpose will be to place boulders on the tops of the spur dikes and breakwaters when they get higher than the barge decks. The last thing I can think of off of the top of my head is I need pile drivers. We will be driving piles in both the water and in the silt we are going to pile up between the breakwaters.” My rapid-fire ideas finally come to an end.
“We’ll start looking into all of that. Is there anything else you want to cover tonight?” Artemis asks.
“Yes. How are we going with acquiring the rest of the port?” I ask.
“Ogunn, that ball is in your court now.”
“Master Thatch has made very good arrangements with all but one of the owners. The purchases have been made, and you own a massive amount of the businesses behind the port,” Ogunn says.
“What is the issue with the last of the owners?” I ask.
“He is a particular friend of Master Thatch’s. I expect they are cooking something up together to get you to overpay for his part of the port.”
“I see. I would like you to determine every single property he owns, with the exception of his primary residence. I need the square footage of all his non-pier properties. Determine how much I paid for the square footage of all the other properties except the widow Carmacle’s. How many piers does he own?”
“He only owns two. They are the shortest piers out of all of them. The problem is they are the center two in the port.”
“I see. Artemis, could you get the largest envelope out of the bag, then see if you can obtain a pencil?” I ask.
“I have a pencil. I also have some folded-up paper as well,” Artemis informs me.
“Even better.” He gives them to me, and I draw out the shape of the port, along with all the piers. “I’m guessing you are speaking of these two short piers here?” I ask.
“Yes, those two.”
The port is formed in a broad arc that has the piers on one end of the harbor pointing due east, and at the other end, they point due south. There is one part of the arc that is sharper than the rest. The two piers that are placed there are only two-thirds the length of the rest. If they were full length, the ends of the piers would be too close together to be of use.
“Shawna, if I were to stop dredging in a line from the end of the piers to each side of these two short ones, would there be any negative effects?” I ask.
“I don’t believe so. That would render the two short piers unusable, as well as the sides of the long piers closest to them. But other than that, it shouldn’t affect the rest of the port. It would be even better if you dredged in a mild crescent shape, bowed toward the shoreline,” Shawna answers me.
“Excellent. Ogunn, please get the list of properties for me as soon as possible. Also, tell me how much, on average, I paid for the piers. As soon as I have that information, I will want to know the moment that Master Thatch meets with the remaining owner. If you can find out when and where they will meet beforehand, even better.”
“Easy enough. I should have the list for you by mid-afternoon tomorrow,” Ogunn answers.
“Great, I’ll stop by your office before dinner, or maybe you and Artemis can have dinner at my penthouse and bring the list with you. The two of you can update me on progress made and anything I need to personally do to make all my requests happen. Bring any paperwork with you that any of the mes need to sign.
“I just realized that we need to set up some businesses. We need a barge and shipping company that will own all my current and future vessels. The company will also own the breakwaters. A shipbuilding company for the shipyards, and if needed fitting out piers. We need a railroad, which will include the building of all associated bridges. I need a trading company that will own all the piers and warehouses. A hospitality company to own all the inns, guesthouses, and pubs. Lastly, for now, a fishing company for the fishing vessels and processing plants.
“If there are any other types of businesses, try to group them together. All of the business should be under an umbrella partnership company that is owned by Elizabeth, Bethany, and me.”
“We’ll get all those set up for you, Betsy,” Artemis says.
“Ogunn, I’ll need some business managers for all the off-port businesses and a trading agent for when we do start to get the piers open for business.”
“I’ll start getting a list of candidates together.”
“Thank you, Ogunn. Make sure they are people that you can work with.” He nods at me.
“And the very last thing, Artemis. Please work with Charlie to get together a security detail for Shawna and Anna. There may be a target on her back since an espionage agent was in the meeting audience today when Shawna thwarted part of their plans. Anna is obviously important to her, so she may be targeted too. My security company is still in training. Otherwise, I’d use them.”
“I’m on it, Betsy.”
“Some of the company is ready for security details,” Charlie says.
“I know they are, but most of those who are ready are the ones training those who aren’t. Go ahead and double-check with Gunter. Ask him if there are any of the mixed five-person squads that are ready as a detached security detail. I guess we can use them if they aren’t integral to the training currently in progress.”
That seems to cover all the business for the dinner, so the rest is social. I try not to giggle at the way Ogunn and Shawna try to not look at each other. Yenjy keeps smirking at me. She knows just why I invited Ogunn over for dinner tomorrow.
Chapter twenty-five
Acquisitions
The next morning Charlie and I head out in the buggy, with me crammed in the back seat between Anna and Shawna. We let Ogunn sit next to Charlie in the front as he is the second biggest of us. I’ve no doubt that he and Shawna would be happy with her sitting in his lap. But I don’t want a sudden lurch of the buggy to catapult her out into the street.
I’m now dressed as Bit, as I will be leaving them sometime after Charlie and I ensure it is safe for the two women. I need to start gathering watchers to cover the houses of espionage. I really need to find that fourth house while I’m at it.
The first of the spur dikes is in place and looks like it rises about six feet above the high water mark. There is a reflector post at the end of it as a temporary navigation marker. Looking at it, I realize the spur dikes and breakwaters may be vulnerable to sabotage. I will have to send a message to the leader of the nine. At some point, I will likely need to have some personal interaction with them, maybe even join them. But I will put that off as long as I can. Hopefully forever.
We see the tugs downriver working on the second set of spur dikes. After Shawna is satisfied with the progress, we move down to where the work is going on. They already have about half of it up to the surface of the river, but the tide is not far off of low right now. I look at Shawna’s map and see that this sticks out into the river thirty feet, and the outer end is twelve feet under low tide level.
“How many more of these spur dikes are there going to be?” Ogunn asks.
“There will be one more pair of thirty-footers, then two forty-footers and two fifty-footers,” Shawna says.
“There is something I forgot to tell you, Shawna. I intend to put timber cribbing around the bridge supports on both sides of both channels for all five bridges. The center support will be in line with the river from before the upstream piling to past the downstream pilings. It will be over three hundred feet long and a little over thirty feet wide at the center. The two supports on either side will be about sixty feet long and up to twenty feet wide,” I say.
“That shouldn’t be an issue. It should actually help with the river flow. Are you going to put rip-rap in?”
I’m somewhat surprised that she knows what that is.
“I will. I’ll put it upstream of the cribbing and the rest of the supports and pilings. I also intend to put rip-rap style boulders inside the cribbing.”
“That should all work just fine.”
I wait here for a couple of hours. I figure that Artemis will send a messenger to the tugboat captains at some point. Soon, I see a younger girl coming down the path along the river from the upstream. When she gets close, a see a winsome girl of about nine with limped grey pools in place of her eyes. At least, it seems like that. Her eyes are so large they look like one could get lost in them. Paired with nearly white hair, she is going to be a stunner someday. This girl is going to be in a lot of trouble in a few years if she stays on the streets.
“Happy?” I ask.
Shawna nods and smiles without taking her eyes off of the barge. The barge’s deck is only five feet above the water, so I wonder how we are going to get the boulders at least three feet above the barge’s deck. I expect I should go ahead and have someone figure out how to put a steam crane on a barge. We watch for a full hour and see the spur dike start to take shape.
“I requested that Artemis meet us for a late working dinner. We should leave now so we can get changed. Shawna, Anna, We should be able to find something that will fit you that will be suitable for where we are going. That’s if you’d care to join us,” I say.
“I am getting quite hungry,” Anna says.
“I want to watch more,” Shawna all but whines.
“My teams will be at it twenty-four/seven for weeks,” I say. “At least they will when there are any loaded barges in the city. My penthouse is likely closer than your residences. You are welcome to stay in my guest rooms as much as you’d like for the length of the project. The dinner we are going to will be about the project, at least in part. I would like you to be there to answer any questions that we have.”
“Okay, I’ll go with you,” she resignedly says.
We load up into the buggy and head home. When we get there, I ask Danys to help Shawna and Anna find some clothes for dinner. Yenjy helps me get dressed as Betsy. I help her dress for dinner as well. When we leave our bedroom, our two guests are impatiently waiting.
“Hi, I’m Betsy James,” I introduce myself. I apologize that it took me so long to get ready. It takes a lot of effort to transform from a boy to a young woman. Even if I have the best help ever available,” I say, cuddling up to Yenjy. “We should be able to leave now if you’d like.”
“Bit?” Anna questions.
“Not anymore. I’m Betsy now. I haven’t spent enough time with Yenjy lately, and she would much rather I be Betsy than Bit. She’d probably prefer that I be Bethany or even Elizabeth, but Artemis might be bringing a guest. I’d rather he or she get used to the fact that I’m often not the same person from day to day. Sometimes not even from hour to hour. But with the amount of time it takes to create me, we are a little pressed for time, so we should get to our carriage.”
“You’re Bit?” Shawna says, amazed.
“Not anymore. Now I’m Betsy. I fully take on the personality of the persona I’m trying to appear as at that moment. Do either of you recall seeing a ragamuffin-looking boy scamper down the steps past you in front of the Harbor Commission’s building? The one who then sprinted across the street.”
“I do,” Anna says as Shawna nods.
I start walking toward the elevator as we continue our conversation. I pick up a pack that I had left by the door earlier.
“I saw a man in the audience that I recognized. He is the man I observed giving Mr. Saulk an envelope that likely contained banknotes. I followed the man after he made the drop, and he went to the Etru embassy. I changed my disguise in the bathroom so I could follow him. He didn’t go right back to the embassy but to a large house instead. It is just like a house I dealt with weeks ago that turned out to be part of an espionage ring. Now there are three active houses that I know of, plus one more suspected.
“The two of you, plus the Bit you saw earlier, are likely targets for them. We thwarted part of their plans, so they aren’t going to like it, or us. When you are with Charlie and me, you are safe. We will be finding some security personnel for both of you. Please listen to them when we find someone for you.”
“Wait, Betsy James? Didn’t I hear something about you recently?” Anna asks.
“Some stories grow in the telling.” That may be the shortest speech I’ve ever made as Betsy. Charlie, of course, chooses now to be verbose. He starts speaking before I can stop him.
“There were only twelve of them. Betsy killed six of them and wounded two others. She did almost die from blood loss after the battle, though. Yenjy saved her life, and Betsy has never let go of her since,” Charlie says.
“You killed six people?” Shawna says.
“Bit has killed many more people than that. He is an enforcer for the thief masters council. When thieves or other criminals do things that can bring undue attention to the criminal elements in our city, Bit is sent to take care of the issue. That or punish the wrongdoers,” Charlie volunteers. Where’s a muzzle when I need one?
“Why would the thieves’ council go to Bit?”
“Because I’m a thief. Probably the best thief in the city. If it assuages your conscience at all, I only steal from wealthy people who are the worst people in our city. I’ve never stolen from anyone who treated others with a modicum of respect. I also steal from people who betray or work against the wellbeing of our kingdom,” I answer her.
Shawna doesn’t look too sure about me now. Anna looks at me with admiration. We get into the carriage this time since there are five of us, and we head off. The driver takes us to Tuscona. Artemis is waiting for us with another man in his mid-thirties. We all introduce each other. The other man is Ogunn Shanisea. He is the business agent from the North Docklands that Artemis wants to partner with. We chat for a while, and I like the choice.
“So, Ogunn, has Artemis told you much of what I have going on in the North Docklands?” I ask.
“He said you were working on buying up much of the port,” Ogunn replies. “I’ve been monitoring Master Thatch’s actions. He be a schemer. I’m still not sure why you are trying to buy up a port with a silted harbor.”
“Because I plan on unsilting it. Or, more appropriately, dredging it. Thanks to the good professor here, we know why it silted up in the first place. Today, we have started the first of three phases to prevent it from silting up again. In fact, Shawna is rather unhappy that we drug her away from the river where the first operations are happening.”
“Really, you are already taking action?”
“We are,” Shawna says. “Betsy doesn’t seem to believe in wasting time.”
“And this is your plan she is following?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Would you show it to me sometime?” Ogunn says with a smile.
Shawna returns his smile. “I’ll be staying at Betsy’s penthouse tonight. You can go to the worksite with me if you get there early in the morning.”
“I’ll be there.”
Now that Shawna has a date, it’s time to get some work done.
“So Artemis, I’ve committed you to negotiate with the Harbor Commission for me,” I say. I go on to relate what I proposed at the meeting this afternoon.
“How much land do you want on the shoreside?” he asks.
“As much as you can reasonably get for me. Speaking of, I have some negotiating tools for you. In this bag, I have what Mr. Saulk had in his safe. It appears he never spent any of the money the espionage agent paid him. If you could, send that word to the royal prosecutor. Just make sure she knows that the money is not available.”
“How much is in here?”
“Two hundred fifteen thousand golds. Actually, please give me back three of the smaller envelopes. I’m may have to hire dozens of watchers. I’m not sure if my guard team is ready for this yet.”
“Here you go, Bit.” He hands me three envelopes.
“Go ahead and split that as needed with Ogunn.”
“So why do you need watchers?”
“I saw someone I recognized at the Harbor Commission meeting this afternoon.” Once again, I go on to explain what happened.
“So you have one unknown and three known houses of espionage.”
“That is the size of it. I also need to get started on full-scale observation of the nobles who are critical to the second part of the plot. It won’t actually take place until next spring when some of the commodities reports that affect futures start to come out.”
“That sounds like it is likely to be some of the livestock reports then.”
“Could you find out if two or more of the reports come out together? The hints I got point to multiple reports being involved. I have some names in the ministry, but I would like to know if there are people who are involved with all the reports,” I request.
“I’ll look into that.”
“Another thing I need is every river barge and tugboat available. If you start to run low on funds, I’ll get some more.”
“Got it. Is there anything else you need?” Artemis asks.
“Yes, I need an appointment with the Transportation Commission about the river bridges I mentioned earlier. Before that, we should get some bridge engineers to look at Mr. Prane’s plan and model.”
“Okay, I’ll find some for you.”
“There is no significant rush on that. I don’t want to start work on them until the breakwaters are in since I will have so much water traffic going through. I do need the ownership of the riverside settled as soon as possible. Once that is done, let my tugboat captains know, so they will have options as to where to park the barges. Send the first two additional tugboats we get ahold of upriver to retrieve the dredges. I want to get them retrofitted to work as material removal dredges within the month.
“Ogunn, I need to get people back to work at the shipyards. Have them start making lists of tooling and equipment they need. Once we get ten barges working on the spur dikes, I want to retrofit the next four barges. I want them to have a waterproof tub in them that extends above the deck of the barge by three or four feet. That is where our dredges will dump the silt we take off the bottom. They will go into use as soon as Shawna finishes designing her steam-powered ejector vacuum pumps. Those dredge pumps should be able to suck the silt off of the bottom of the harbor.
“I also need steam-powered floating cranes, at least two of them. I need the two of you to work together to find designers, engineers, and whatever facilities and materials we need to build them. Their purpose will be to place boulders on the tops of the spur dikes and breakwaters when they get higher than the barge decks. The last thing I can think of off of the top of my head is I need pile drivers. We will be driving piles in both the water and in the silt we are going to pile up between the breakwaters.” My rapid-fire ideas finally come to an end.
“We’ll start looking into all of that. Is there anything else you want to cover tonight?” Artemis asks.
“Yes. How are we going with acquiring the rest of the port?” I ask.
“Ogunn, that ball is in your court now.”
“Master Thatch has made very good arrangements with all but one of the owners. The purchases have been made, and you own a massive amount of the businesses behind the port,” Ogunn says.
“What is the issue with the last of the owners?” I ask.
“He is a particular friend of Master Thatch’s. I expect they are cooking something up together to get you to overpay for his part of the port.”
“I see. I would like you to determine every single property he owns, with the exception of his primary residence. I need the square footage of all his non-pier properties. Determine how much I paid for the square footage of all the other properties except the widow Carmacle’s. How many piers does he own?”
“He only owns two. They are the shortest piers out of all of them. The problem is they are the center two in the port.”
“I see. Artemis, could you get the largest envelope out of the bag, then see if you can obtain a pencil?” I ask.
“I have a pencil. I also have some folded-up paper as well,” Artemis informs me.
“Even better.” He gives them to me, and I draw out the shape of the port, along with all the piers. “I’m guessing you are speaking of these two short piers here?” I ask.
“Yes, those two.”
The port is formed in a broad arc that has the piers on one end of the harbor pointing due east, and at the other end, they point due south. There is one part of the arc that is sharper than the rest. The two piers that are placed there are only two-thirds the length of the rest. If they were full length, the ends of the piers would be too close together to be of use.
“Shawna, if I were to stop dredging in a line from the end of the piers to each side of these two short ones, would there be any negative effects?” I ask.
“I don’t believe so. That would render the two short piers unusable, as well as the sides of the long piers closest to them. But other than that, it shouldn’t affect the rest of the port. It would be even better if you dredged in a mild crescent shape, bowed toward the shoreline,” Shawna answers me.
“Excellent. Ogunn, please get the list of properties for me as soon as possible. Also, tell me how much, on average, I paid for the piers. As soon as I have that information, I will want to know the moment that Master Thatch meets with the remaining owner. If you can find out when and where they will meet beforehand, even better.”
“Easy enough. I should have the list for you by mid-afternoon tomorrow,” Ogunn answers.
“Great, I’ll stop by your office before dinner, or maybe you and Artemis can have dinner at my penthouse and bring the list with you. The two of you can update me on progress made and anything I need to personally do to make all my requests happen. Bring any paperwork with you that any of the mes need to sign.
“I just realized that we need to set up some businesses. We need a barge and shipping company that will own all my current and future vessels. The company will also own the breakwaters. A shipbuilding company for the shipyards, and if needed fitting out piers. We need a railroad, which will include the building of all associated bridges. I need a trading company that will own all the piers and warehouses. A hospitality company to own all the inns, guesthouses, and pubs. Lastly, for now, a fishing company for the fishing vessels and processing plants.
“If there are any other types of businesses, try to group them together. All of the business should be under an umbrella partnership company that is owned by Elizabeth, Bethany, and me.”
“We’ll get all those set up for you, Betsy,” Artemis says.
“Ogunn, I’ll need some business managers for all the off-port businesses and a trading agent for when we do start to get the piers open for business.”
“I’ll start getting a list of candidates together.”
“Thank you, Ogunn. Make sure they are people that you can work with.” He nods at me.
“And the very last thing, Artemis. Please work with Charlie to get together a security detail for Shawna and Anna. There may be a target on her back since an espionage agent was in the meeting audience today when Shawna thwarted part of their plans. Anna is obviously important to her, so she may be targeted too. My security company is still in training. Otherwise, I’d use them.”
“I’m on it, Betsy.”
“Some of the company is ready for security details,” Charlie says.
“I know they are, but most of those who are ready are the ones training those who aren’t. Go ahead and double-check with Gunter. Ask him if there are any of the mixed five-person squads that are ready as a detached security detail. I guess we can use them if they aren’t integral to the training currently in progress.”
That seems to cover all the business for the dinner, so the rest is social. I try not to giggle at the way Ogunn and Shawna try to not look at each other. Yenjy keeps smirking at me. She knows just why I invited Ogunn over for dinner tomorrow.
Chapter twenty-five
Acquisitions
The next morning Charlie and I head out in the buggy, with me crammed in the back seat between Anna and Shawna. We let Ogunn sit next to Charlie in the front as he is the second biggest of us. I’ve no doubt that he and Shawna would be happy with her sitting in his lap. But I don’t want a sudden lurch of the buggy to catapult her out into the street.
I’m now dressed as Bit, as I will be leaving them sometime after Charlie and I ensure it is safe for the two women. I need to start gathering watchers to cover the houses of espionage. I really need to find that fourth house while I’m at it.
The first of the spur dikes is in place and looks like it rises about six feet above the high water mark. There is a reflector post at the end of it as a temporary navigation marker. Looking at it, I realize the spur dikes and breakwaters may be vulnerable to sabotage. I will have to send a message to the leader of the nine. At some point, I will likely need to have some personal interaction with them, maybe even join them. But I will put that off as long as I can. Hopefully forever.
We see the tugs downriver working on the second set of spur dikes. After Shawna is satisfied with the progress, we move down to where the work is going on. They already have about half of it up to the surface of the river, but the tide is not far off of low right now. I look at Shawna’s map and see that this sticks out into the river thirty feet, and the outer end is twelve feet under low tide level.
“How many more of these spur dikes are there going to be?” Ogunn asks.
“There will be one more pair of thirty-footers, then two forty-footers and two fifty-footers,” Shawna says.
“There is something I forgot to tell you, Shawna. I intend to put timber cribbing around the bridge supports on both sides of both channels for all five bridges. The center support will be in line with the river from before the upstream piling to past the downstream pilings. It will be over three hundred feet long and a little over thirty feet wide at the center. The two supports on either side will be about sixty feet long and up to twenty feet wide,” I say.
“That shouldn’t be an issue. It should actually help with the river flow. Are you going to put rip-rap in?”
I’m somewhat surprised that she knows what that is.
“I will. I’ll put it upstream of the cribbing and the rest of the supports and pilings. I also intend to put rip-rap style boulders inside the cribbing.”
“That should all work just fine.”
I wait here for a couple of hours. I figure that Artemis will send a messenger to the tugboat captains at some point. Soon, I see a younger girl coming down the path along the river from the upstream. When she gets close, a see a winsome girl of about nine with limped grey pools in place of her eyes. At least, it seems like that. Her eyes are so large they look like one could get lost in them. Paired with nearly white hair, she is going to be a stunner someday. This girl is going to be in a lot of trouble in a few years if she stays on the streets.
