Thief: Kingdom of Maidenhead Book One, page 6
I now have a plan, but it requires a business agent, so I make an appointment with Mr. Kling. I have to let him know most of my plan, which is quite uncomfortable for me. After our greetings, he asks me why I am here.
“At the request of the master thieves council, I need to thwart a foreign individual who has entered our kingdom and started an organized crime ring. I expect to get a confession from him regarding his activities, including his future plans. He has lasted long enough without crown intervention that he has to have help from among the nobles. I plan to get their names. Once I have that information, I will create an affidavit I would like you to witness and notarize.
“In addition, I want to force him to sign over all his wealth to people I designate. And I mean all. All land, money, businesses, titles, and any other asset he has. I will make him fear for his life to the point where he won’t hesitate to sign.
“All his worldly goods have likely been acquired through, or in support of illegal actions. I will not be present at the signing, and nothing will be signed over to me, so it is only quasi-extortion at best. The law is quite vague on that point since it only speaks of legally owned goods, money, and property. Believe me, he won’t press charges and will abandon our kingdom as soon as he is able after the signing. He will likely not meet all my conditions, so he may cease to exist shortly after the signing.”
“Do you have any idea what he owns or has?” Mr. Kling asks.
“Very little. I know he has a fair amount of gold in his room at the inn they stole. Most of that is going to go back to the local business owners that they extorted it from in the form of a protection racket. He does have a personal vault at the Bank of Maidenhead.”
“I will create a series of documents that may be amended after the notarization then if any properties happen to be found. As for the other more portable goods, we can create a generalist-type form that can cover everything. I need the names of the people that you intend all this to go to.”
I give him the names Betsy James, Elizabeth Thoms, and Bethany Sun. They are all personae that I have been working on or at least thinking of. Betsy herself could be seen in public in an emergency. Elizabeth is more than a concept, but not by much. Bethany is a figment of my imagination at this time. I’ve worked up something of a back story by now. But not much else.
We create a number of legal documents that will be signed in the near future. I also set a timeline with Mr. Kling for future meetings. One part of his task will be to enter the lion’s den, though all the lion’s teeth should be pulled by then. Just the same, I arrange for four guards to go with him. Ones that I have employed several times before. Finally, all but one of my plans are set.
Now I have to find a dinghy. I head down to the North Docklands. At one time, this port was the main port for our kingdom. The piers are long stone affairs that are still in very good repair. The only thing they are now used for, with one exception, is fishing boats, and that is apparently sporadic.
The problem is the harbor is silted up. The Savran River runs through our city, and at some point, the channel shifted. The river used to keep the port clear, but then the city built the breakwater for the navy port in the South Docklands. The river formed a slow eddy into the North Docklands, allowing the slow-moving water to dump its silt load.
I head to the waterfront and start talking to some of the sea-going folks there, and they all but turn their noses up at me. I finally spot the harbor master’s office and step inside.
“Good morning to ye, lad. What can I be doin for ye?” the Harbor Master asks.
“Good morning, sir. I have a need for a dinghy for a little bit of work I plan to do in a few days. Do you know if there is someone around who would be willing to rent or, if needs be, sell one to me?” I request.
“Do I want to know what business ye’ll be doin?”
“Not really. I can say it will be to the detriment of Alber Maines.”
His face, which had been the most friendly I’d seen all day, became thunderous.
“I thought there were organizations that handled that kind of scum. Why is he still operating?”
“We expect the official government organizations have been hampered by noble conspirators. The master thieves council is now aware and taking action. The first thing Mr. Maines did when entering the city is to murder the person who would normally have informed the council, so they are late to the game. They are taking action, and I expect the issue of Alber Maines will be solved within the next few days. Restitution will be made to those most affected not long after that.”
“Is this dinghy in lines with those actions?”
“Yes, sir. I need a dinghy and someplace to tie it up for a few days.”
“Stay here, lad. I may be able to help ye, but it will cost ye. Don’t mention Mr. Maines during negotiations.”
He leaves and comes back with a middle-aged lady.
“This is Mrs. Carmacle. She has a dinghy that ye may be able to buy, but she’ll require you to buy some additional things as well,” the Harbor Master says.
“Like what, for instance?” I ask.
“Just some items that her husband left her, nothing too onerous.”
“What are we looking at for price?”
“Next to nothing, maybe one hundred seventy-five golds.”
“What? Is she trying to sell me an ocean trader? I only need a dinghy. I should be able to buy a used one for a few silvers.”
“It’s going to be that or nothing, I’m afraid.”
“I can’t see paying that kind of price. I’m sorry, I’ll have to figure something else out,” I say in a bit of a huff.
“Just a moment, lad. Let me talk to her.” He steps over to the lady, and they murmur back and forth. I realize I’m an outsider here, but she should be able to work up the courage to speak to me in the harbor master’s presence.
“She’ll drop down to one hundred fifty. Be aware that she will be including two fishing smacks in the deal, along with some other property.”
“What other property?”
“She doesn’t want to give out much in the way of details, but I can tell you that more than two warehouses are included.”
This is sounding like more of a deal. If the fishing smacks don’t sink, I should be able to sell them for about twice the cost by taking them across the river. I know that the North Docklanders are, by their nature, the most insular people in our kingdom. They should still make an effort to deal with people outside of their borough.
“Okay, I’ll agree to the one hundred fifty golds. I’ll speak to my business agent, and he will send a representative down here first thing tomorrow morning to finalize the paperwork. The rep will bring the money and will be able to sign for me. He will take possession of any land deeds and titles at that point. I expect the rep to be able to inspect the dinghy to ensure it is seaworthy.”
The harbor master looks over at Mrs. Carmacle, who nods.
“Very good, lad. Ye don’t know it, but ye’ve done a very good thing here today. Some of the local folks might even speak to ye after this.”
I shake his hand, and I nod my head at Mrs. Carmacle. This has to be the strangest deal I’ve heard of. I next head over to the Guillen Packet. I ask to see the captain, who is kind enough to talk to me. I let him know that Alber Maines will be trying to escape justice in four days. I ask him to do something for me to allow me to prevent that. He agrees to my request. I also ask him to give a message to the morning Packet’s captain not to allow the man onboard if he tries to leave early.
I then head back uptown to Mr. Kling’s office and let him know about the deal, and to arrange for one of his reps to meet with the harbor master in the morning. After that, I head back to my penthouse to get everything together for three nights from now.
The next day at around lunchtime, I get a message from Mr. Kling asking me to come by his office. When I get there, he asks me how I swung purchasing a quarter of the port of the North Docklands for only one hundred fifty golds.
It seems that I bought six of the port’s twenty-four piers, eight warehouses, two rooming houses, an inn, a fish processing plant, two modest-sized shipyards, five fishing smacks, and three large schooners. The fishing smacks are only suitable for fishing in the Maiden Sound. The larger schooners are intended for fishing offshore waters. All for the exorbitant price of one hundred fifty golds. I would have expected the worth of all this to be in the thousands if not tens of thousands. With the depressed local economy of this area, I guess the one hundred fifty must be all they are worth. I’ll have to look into fixing that.
The second day after the deal, I start staging everything in place. I take my handcart over to near the bank. I purchase a bicycle that ends up in the tunnels as well, except this one is down near the North Docklands Inn. I know, in general, what my escape route will be, but I walk it a bit to make sure. I need to do a little setup as well.
There are boards nailed vertically over a broken-out window with a very low sill across the alley from the target inn. I pry two of the boards out at the bottom and loosen the top enough to allow the bottoms to be swung away. In the far wall of this building, there is a hole in the wall that allows access into a large warehouse that is empty of everything except some debris. There are some broken crates near a door in the far wall of the warehouse. The door lets out into an alley between the warehouse and the Docklands Inn. I stash a mottled, light gray cloak behind the broken crates. That cloak won’t be out of place in this borough.
I stop by Mr. Kling’s office to take a last look at the documents that Alber will be signing. We arrange for an early morning meeting two days from now.
I’m outside the inn at dinnertime the day before my planned confrontation with Alber. Once I’m sure he and all his people are in the banquet room, he likes to rule over the evening meal. I scramble up a cast iron downspout near his window. The second floor has a ledge that must be twenty inches wide running around the entire building.
I use the ledge to move over to his room’s window and slip open the latch. I take one more look around to ensure I haven’t missed where he is storing paperwork. I’m certain he has more with his main money stash, but I don’t want to risk the time trying to find it. I’ll get it the day after our confrontation. I leave a slim backpack on top of the high wardrobe where he won’t see it.
I step back out onto the ledge and push his window closed. It stays shut on its own, but I use a stick I found to prop the window shut. If I don’t do that, the window may crack open when he opens the door due to the change in air pressure the door swing causes. I have colored the stick the same color as the building’s bricks.
Now I have to loiter around until after everyone has gone to bed. After full dark, I start looking again at my escape route, as this will be the time of night I will be using it. There is a lot of moonlight that will illuminate me when I’m on the ledge after I leave the banquet room. It can’t be helped, though. Once I go back down to ground level, I can stay close to the inn, and I should be out of sight of anyone on the second floor.
About an hour after midnight, I slip into the banquet room window the same way I went into Alber’s room. I check out the drapes covering the windows and see they have three different layers. They are also longer than they need to be. I practice trying to make them billow out into the room and decide they will be perfect.
I look at the room’s layout. It has a large squared-off U-shaped table. The table has chairs running down both sides of the legs of the U. Located in the center of the bottom of the U is one huge throne-like chair. I’m sure Alber sits in this pseudo-throne like he is royalty or something. There are two chairs on each side of his. I expect two of the six thugs will be on guard duty by the double doors at the far end of the room.
I figure that I’m as prepared as I can make myself, so I step back out onto the ledge. This window I’m leaving unlatched as well. The window is larger than Alber’s, so I use a larger stick to prop it closed, with this being the back of the inn. The stick is less likely to be seen. I head back to my apartment and get as much sleep as I can.
I spend some time on the morning of my intended confrontation with Alber Maines, working a small market. I don’t find any marks here, but I do find some nice things for my penthouse. That afternoon I put on some nighttime working clothes and bring my mask. I take a trolley down as close to the inn as I can get. Then I have to loiter for almost an hour until it is dinnertime. I watch a steady stream of thieves go in the door. I don my mask and sneak up onto the ledge. I quietly remove the stick from the banquet room’s window. I walk around the ledge to the opposite side of the inn from Alber’s room and break into an unused-looking room and wait.
Chapter eight
The Confrontation
Once I’m sure they’ve started, I leave the room and head for the banquet room. Once outside the banquet room, I unlatch the double doors. I take a deep breath and slam both doors open. The two thugs who are on door duty tonight spin in from the sides to face me with their shoulders almost touching. Not a great move on their part, as they should have kept some distance between them.
They are only starting to raise their hands when I strike. I was moving forward even as they spun. I go low and punch them both in the boysticks. My momentum allows me to slip between them. Once at their backs, I pirouette, then lash my fists out again, nailing them both in the kidneys. They end up on their knees, still holding their crotches. My hands each pull a sap out of a pocket, and I smash the saps into the vulnerable part of the backs of their skulls. They are now laid out by what may have been a killing blow, but tonight I don’t care. I’ve killed before, and I will almost certainly kill again before I leave this room. The only important thing is that these two are out of the fight.
I spin back to the room. Sure enough, my main target for the evening is sitting on his throne. The glowering piece of garbage is starting to rise and will start pompously giving orders any moment.
I decide to let him know who is really in charge here. I pull and throw two daggers in a single motion. They bury themselves through the thick halo of his hair on either side of his head and into the high back of his pseudo-throne. I see his eyes flicker from one side to the other as he looks at the hilts of my daggers. He starts to raise one of his hands as if he is going to grasp on of the daggers. His hand stops when he notices me shaking my head. He lowers his hand back down to the table.
I see that both sides of the table are lined with local thieves, some of whom I know. The thieves sitting at the end of the table have spun in their chairs to see the commotion. I move to my left since the two thugs at the head of the table on this side are the other two grapplers. I step onto the knee of the thief there at the end of the table, then up onto the table top itself in one smooth motion. I start to here whispers of ‘The Cat’ susurrate around the room. I didn’t know that I had developed a moniker.
I slink along the top of the table as gracefully as I can muster. If I’m going to be called something neat, I may as well live up to it. Somehow I see and note the abject fear in the faces of some of the thieves seated at the table. I’ll let the council know to watch them.
As I near the base of the table, the two grapplers start to rise together. My patience is running thin, so I skip toward them, drop into a full splits that causes some of the men in the room to groan. I use my forward momentum and all the strength of my well-defined shoulders to make another double strike. This time, I want my fists as pointy as I can make them. I leave my fingers straight until the second knuckle, where I bend them back. My strikes hits them both perfectly in the throat crushing their larynxes. They fall to the floor, gasping and grasping their throats with both hands. If they get a healer soon, they will have a better chance of not asphyxiating.
Since I seem to be growing a legend, perhaps I should enhance it more by showing off a little. I place the palms of both hands flat on the table in front of me. I bob my head and shoulders down and lift my butt up in the air while maintaining my legs in the split position. When I get my butt directly above my shoulders, I straighten out my arms and bring my feet together in a slow, smooth motion. The moment they touch, I use my wrists and a subtle arm bend and straighten to flip myself back onto my feet. I land lightly on the balls of my feet, having twisted enough to be starting at Alber when I land.
Sadly the two fighters on his far side have learned nothing. They start to stand and reach under their jackets. Their lifeless bodies soon slump down to the floor after their right eyes seem to have grown the hilt of a throwing knife. The seven-inch long needle-like blades of the knives are nowhere in evidence.
Alber’s terrified eyes are turned to look at the fighters. He can’t turn his head for fear of cutting his ears. His eyes snap to me when he feels the tip of a dagger under his chin and another at the ribs over his heart. I had to drop into a squat to properly align my knives.
“They mean nothing to you now. Your entire focus needs to be on me,” I speak my first words since entering the room. “Do you understand?”
“Ysss”, he says through clenched teeth.
“Good.”
The only sounds in the room are the gasping of the two suffocating thugs, the ticking of the clock on the wall, and the clinking of glasses on a serving girl’s tray. The two fighters fell at her feet, and she is terrified and has no idea what to do except stand there and shiver.
“Patty, please set your tray on the table,” I say.
She stares at me in abject fear. No one who works in this class of inn is foreign to violence. The rapidity of death I unleashed is something altogether different.
“It’s alright, Patty. You’ll be fine,” I say with reassurance in my voice.
She nods and sets her tray down with only a slight clatter.
“Good. Now I need you to pull the knives out of the goon's eyes and set them on the table near my foot,” I tell her.
