Thief: Kingdom of Maidenhead Book One, page 7
She shakes her head, and her body shakes even more. That is something to see with her epic breasts on full, nearly indecent display. I sheathe the knife that is aimed at Alber’s chest. At this moment, every eye is on Patty, so I very much doubt that anyone sees me drip a couple of drops of clear fluid out of a vial into Alber’s drink. He’ll be sleeping like a baby tonight when I come back later.
"It’s all right, Patty. They’re beyond feeling it. Just take hold of the hilts…good, now look at me… quickly pull straight up as hard as you can.”
She does as I tell her. She jumps and gives out a little “Eep” as one of the thug's heads thumps against the floor. When she pulled up on the knives, one of them stuck in the thug's head and lifted the head off of the floor before the blade released.
“Good, Patty. Now wipe the knives off on their clothes and set them on the table next to my foot.”
When she finishes, she steps back. I quickly sheath the two knives. Patty looks at me in a way that Bundi used to from time to time. I’m sure that I sent the same look back at Bundi on a daily basis. Patty’s look, combined with her heaving bosom, makes me believe that if I ask her, she will let me take her on the table, right here, right now, with no hesitation, regrets, or remorse.
Instead of on-the-table sex, I pull five ten-gold coins out of my pocket. I flick the coins one by one with my thumb, so they land on the top of Patty’s breasts near her cleavage. Every living eye in the room, except for those belonging to the two gasping goons, is on her breasts. One by one, the coins slip down into the deep crevasse that is her cleavage.
“I want you to give one of those coins to each of the other staff members, keeping one for yourself. All five of you need to leave the inn as quickly as you can. Come back in three days to help the Nuons clean and refurbish the inn so they can reopen it,” I say.
She nods. I make a quick head tilt toward the servant’s door. With a swirl of her skirt and a quick skip step, she’s gone. With a quick shiver-like shake of my head, I turn my focus back to Alber. My expression turns end of the Earth cold when I look into his eyes.
“When you arrived in our fair city, you took it upon yourself to kill the regional master thief. The master thieves council looks unkindly on that. You have been operating an organized crime syndicate in our city. Doing that brings the wrath of the crown down on us. Usually by massive sweeps of the police and SIS. They usually get the army involved as well. That makes it difficult for any of us to function. That is another thing the master thieves guild frowns upon.
“When they find out about the things you are doing, they send me to fix the problem. I am not a nice person. I am not a forgiving person. I have found out you are extorting money from the local businesses by running a protection racket. The profits those business owners earn go to feed, clothe, and house their families. Those profits you are stealing from them are their very lives. That makes me incandescent with rage.
“I am going to possibly go against my worst nature and give you one, and only one, chance to still be alive twenty-four hours from now. You are going to divulge every accomplice you have in this city and this nation. You are going to name names, particularly those of the nobles that must be involved. You will also tell me who sent you here.
“I will have a business agent here in the morning. He is going to have an affidavit that you will sign. It will be notarized at that time. The affidavit will identify all those people and will describe everything you know about the conspiracy you are part of. There will also be additional documents that you will sign. Those documents will transfer ownership of all money, titles, leases, ownership documents, deeds, and all other assets you have. Ownership of all of that will go to the people I designate on those documents.
“You will be allowed one duffle that may contain up to three changes of clothes and the necessary toiletries. All other wealth here in Maidenhead and abroad in other countries will be transferred out of your name. Fail to do any of this, and you won’t see tomorrow’s sunset. You will leave the city on the 4:00 PM Guillen Packet tomorrow. Before you get on the Packet, you will return every copper of the extorted money. You will be watched. Attempting to leave the city without carrying out my directions will be lethal.
“This, Mr. Maines, is how one coerces another. Now start naming names,” I order.
The idiot starts naming names that I know have never been anything more than hired thugs. None of them are conspirators.
“I don’t care about people you hire to carry out tasks.” I interrupt him. “You will start naming names of people who are part of your conspiracy. You will start from the top,” I demand.
“Baron Greybrier,” he finally admits.
“And? Come on, Mr. Maines. I know there has to be several nobles involved. One noble isn’t enough to protect you.” To emphasize my point, I unsheathe a dagger and place its point against his crotch.
“Countess Greenstar, Earl Greenstar, Countess Millania, and Baronet Riven,” he says.
“Better. Now start in with the government officials.”
The foreigner starts to spill his guts. We have names and responsibilities. I now know that there is a second part to the plot.
“Who sent you here?” I demand.
“The Doge of Otticanali.”
“Who are the other foreigners involved?”
“Duke Eric of Anderslan.”
“How were those two involved?”
“The Doge is the one who contacted me to be involved. Then the Duke identified my compensation,” Alber answers.
“What was your compensation going to be?”
“I was going to be given several noble titles in Anderslan, Etru, and Guillen.”
“Do you have any foreign contacts here in Maidenhead?” I ask.
“There are two who come to see me as a pair twice per week. I don’t know their names.”
“Describe them.”
He does, and I recognize them from his description. I have seen them from time to time. I now wish I had followed them. Based on his info, they won’t be back for three days. I have little doubt that they will hear about tonight and won’t come back.
“What did you pass between you.”
“They provide me operating funds, and we pass any applicable information back and forth.”
“Is there anyone else you shared information with?”
“I would pass sealed packets on to the baron. I also placed items and money in a shared location with the baronet. I have no idea what is in the packets or the crates.”
At this point, I feel I’ve got all the information out of Alber that I can for this evening. Tomorrow afternoon will be another story. I sheathe the daggers in my hands. Then I work loose the two daggers embedded in the back of his ridiculous chair. As I draw them back, I use the points to trace a path along his jawline until the tips touch his chin. With very light pressure, I draw blood. The two pricks on his chin cause Alber to slam the back of his head into the chair back behind him.
While he’s distracted by that, I sheathe my daggers, then explode out of my crouch and perform a twisting flip over the back of his chair. I land on the balls of my feet, facing the room. I reach behind me and grab the window curtains. I fling them out while spinning behind them. I push the window open wide enough to slip out and step onto the ledge. I close the window with a light thump. It is hard enough to cause the latch to fall down, relocking the window. I hope the sound of it is lost in the sound of the still billowing curtains.
I scamper along the ledge to the corner. I know I need to be quick getting to Alber’s window. The ledge is well-lit by the moonlight, and I want to get off of the ledge as soon as safety allows. I slow down because I don’t want to lose my balance going around the corner. I also don’t forget about the downspout I have to step over around the corner. After the downspout, I move to the third window and remove the stick that is propping the window shut. I slip in through the window after I partially open it.
I retrieve my backpack from the top of the wardrobe. I stuff the pack with every piece of paper I can find. Once I think I have everything. I do another search for paper. I leave the gold for later, as it isn’t as important as information at this point. Right after I start my search, I hear Alber’s loud voice nearing with a string of curses. I can also her his stomping feet in the hallway. I slip out the window and close it the same way I did the banquet room window.
I move quickly back to the downspout and use that to climb down to the ground. The ledge is only about twelve feet off the ground. I could have jumped, but a twisted ankle will ruin my night. I stay next to the inn, which will keep me under the ledge and out of sight of the people on the second floor. I run toward the front of the inn. I slow down as soon as I enter the shadow of the building across the alley from the inn.
I creep across the alley to my prepared window and move the boards out of the way. This allows me to slip into the building. I sprint over to the door in the shared wall with the warehouse. Once inside the cavernous storage room, I lope over to the door to the next alley. I stop short and find my stashed cloak, which I put on. I remove my head covering and fold it into a deep pocket sewn on the inside of my cloak.
I step out of the warehouse into the alley and head for the street. For all anyone knows, I left the side door of the Dockside Inn. The street is lit by moonlight as well as gas lamps. I calmly walk across the street and head toward my target alley. I have to pass the North Docklands Inn to get there, so the way I move has to be as normal as possible. As I walk, I see a steady stream of thieves leaving the inn.
Approaching me, I see a thief I have interacted with before. As she approaches, I see her draw a breath to give me a greeting. I surreptitiously wink at her. She passes me with a minute quirk of the corners of her mouth. Such goes some greetings by those in our profession. I wonder if she will put two and two together and get six.
As I pass the inn, I worry that some of the thieves may actually be in cahoots with the foreigner. I make it to the alley I need without being accosted. As I move into the alley, a heap of something resting in a dark shadow starts to shift and rise. It only takes me half a moment to unsheathe my longest dagger. I position it to point out and up from my hip, where it will be well-backlit from the streetlamps. The heap instantly goes back down to its resting position. My dagger is sheathed almost as quickly. By mutual silent agreement, I give the heap a wide berth. The heap doesn’t so much as quiver.
I make it into the offshoot from the alley and go through a door. Now in the tunnels, I move a short distance to a hidey-hole that I recently set up. I wait until an hour after midnight. A time when I know that Alber is already asleep. He should be in a deep sleep based on the Micky Finn that I slipped into his drink.
I creep into his room. My primary desire here is to get his personal vault key. I find the two keys in a pocket of his pants. I take them both. I also access his money stashes, stealing everything that isn’t hidden under his bed. I expect his main stash is under his bed. Taking the easy-to-access money won’t make him focus on his keys so much. I even nab the pocket change from his pants.
A few minutes after I leave the inn, I am back in the tunnels pedaling west. My bicycle has a small oil lamp attached to the handlebar to light my way through the tunnel. It takes me half an hour to cover the three miles to the center of the city.
I would have gotten there faster, but it is a gentle upslope almost all the way to my destination. I stop where I have pre-staged my cart in the tunnels under the building across the alley from the Bank of Maidenhead. The Bank of Maidenhead is the semi-official bank of the kingdom. I have a pair of large-capacity shoulder bags, as I don’t expect to have too much to take. One of the bags contains a very large number of wax impression plates since I saw how many keys there are in the key safe.
Chapter nine
The Bank
Iknow there is no one inside the bank itself after closing. The bank is difficult to see into, even if the blinds are open. They are down at night, so I should be able to move around with impunity. I execute my entry from one of the clerestory windows on the roof. There is quite a bit of steel structural work up here that is in a lattice-type arrangement. This makes entry and dropping down to the main floor quite easy.
I use a special lamp that only casts a little light. The first thing I do is go to the vault manager’s desk and pick the drawer locks. I look through the personal vault ledger name by name. I find Alber’s name twice. The second vault is shared with Baronet Rivet. The name is somewhat familiar to me. I know that Alber named him, but I can’t place where else I know the name from at the moment.
I look through her desk and locate the manager’s key for the key safe. I open it up and pull out the two keys for Alber’s vaults. When I look into his solo one, It is one of the smaller vaults but still moderately voluminous. I find well over five hundred of the one-thousand-gold notes. There are also several large bundles of five hundred, one hundred, and fifty-gold notes. Four moderate bags of gold and two bags of silver coins are in here as well. He also has more paperwork in here. At a quick glance, it looks like he has several patents of nobility. I split the take between my two carry bags and lock up his vault.
When I find the other vault, I see it is one of the largest-sized vaults. I look inside it and see multiple bags of coins and several bundles of banknotes. There are two dozen of what appear to be artwork crates. Some fine furniture is in here. The rest of the contents are gold and silver housewares, cutlery, and dinnerware. I don’t take anything away from this vault at the moment, as I don’t know who put all this in here. If it is the baronet, and he’s not a bad person, I don’t want to steal from him.
The last two things I intend to do now are to make a complete copy of the vault ledger and to make wax impressions of all the keys in the key safe. It takes me almost two hours to accomplish those things. The keys are not only for the personal vaults but also for the other keyed doors in the bank.
I compare Alber’s two keys to the bank’s copies. The bank’s keys have a little protrusion out of the end of the key shaft and a slight protrusion out of the side about midway along the key’s bits. I try the personal keys in the keyhole for the bank’s key. They slide in but won’t turn. The bank’s keys won’t fit into the personal keys’ slots. I find that the bits of the bank’s keys are identical to the personal keys. I verify this with the keys for the unrented vaults, which are all in the key safe. I also verify that at least one of the large vaults is available.
I’m a little ahead of schedule, so I decide to have some fun. I go behind the teller’s counters and try to open the day money vault. This only takes me about five minutes. There looks to be over two million golds in this room alone, and it’s not even the main vault. So that is my next target.
Without being rushed, I give the main vault a try. By my watch, it takes me twenty-three minutes to get the door open. There are tens of millions of golds in here. I don’t take anything from either of the two bank vaults. I do leave a note on bank stationery in the main vault. It reads, ‘I thought it would be harder to get in here.’
Now I exit out the back door of the bank. The door is self-locking, so I don’t have to worry about the investigators determining how I entered or left the bank itself. My bags are now heavy with money but manageable. As soon as I get them down into the tunnels, I deposit them in my fairly-well-hidden cart.
I get back on my bicycle and ride down to the port. Luckily it is gently sloped down most of the way, but I’m now on schedule, so I don’t have time to coast. I re-enter Alber’s room and hang the key, for his now empty personal vault, from a string above his head.
I make the uphill ride up to my cart, place my bicycle on top of it, and start pulling it toward the basement of my penthouse’s building. Once there, I unload the cart straight into my cellar. The main work on modifying my basement is done. I now know that my walled-off portion is more secure than the bank’s day-money vault but probably not quite as secure as the main vault. On the other hand, my cellar vault would likely take me much longer than the bank’s main vault if I could get into it at all.
I don’t even have time to count my take for tonight. I have to get upstairs and begin my conversion to Betsy. I only have enough time to get my corset on and do the first round of lacing when I need to leave for my business agent’s office. This is the first time I’ve worn a corset under my loose Bit clothes, and it feels oddly good. Mr. Kling arranged to meet me at 7:00 AM in his office for a final discussion, just in case anything has changed. That is now good forethought on his part, as something has changed.
I arrive and am shown into his office.
“Good morning, Bit,” Mr. Kling says. “You are looking a little stiff this morning.
“Good morning, sir. It has been a long night. Thank you for arranging this meeting, as there has been a slight change in plan. I recently found out that Mr. Maines has an extra half vault rented with a Baronet Riven.” I can tell he is not buying the long night story but is letting it ride.
“That little monster is the son of Baron Greybrier. His father uses the son’s name to distance himself from some of his more nefarious schemes. Neither is worth the dirt you scraped off your boots on the way in.”
“What about the mother?”
“Countess Grenedy is one of the best people in existence.”
“Ah, I’ve heard of her. I’ll have to agree with your assessment of her.” I agree with him about her husband too. I’ve heard nothing good about him. If he ever went to a market himself, I’d run the entire width of the city just to steal his coin purse.
“What is the change in plans?” he asks.
“I’ve acquired Mr. Maines’ key to the shared vault, so I intend to empty it out before he can get there. I need you to arrive before he leaves for the bank. If you would, please send two of the guards to the inn as soon as they arrive, with his description. They can prevent him from leaving before you arrive to have my documents signed by him. I want you to delay him so that I have at least a good half hour in the bank before he can get there. Longer would be better.
