From the article archive
World A Week: Detective III
I explained on the dock as the sun set over the harbor how this shipyard was being defrauded by a client rep who was supposed to be on their side, and help them understand the point of view of the other company, the shipping one, as a liason man. He seemed to be in the pocket of the shipping company and using his influence inside the shipyard illegitamately. But I could not prove any of this.
As the sun set, my agent, a retired shipping exec with a unquiet stomach, a Mr. Jack Black, started looking down in the mouth.
"This wouldn't happen to be Halston Shipping, would it?"
I nodded.
"You planned to run a scam posing as another corrupt shipowner using me and my yacht as your frontman, right?"
"I thought I wasn't so juveniley obvious." I muttered in chagrin.
"In this, you are 'juvenile' as you put it. You do not seem to be used to subtlety and the interplay of office politics. I rather expect most of your enemies know you did them in. Me, I still have people who think they are my friends a decade later after I got them fired."
I looked back on my long career, and acknowledged his point. The hammer of tyrants rarely bothered with suavity. It was not in my nature. I was nice to friends and ordinary people, but enemies tended to get both barrels in the face.
"Besides, I would not call you juvenile. There's something odd about you. I'm not sure what it is. How about if I figure it out before you tell me, I get another question."
Since the likelihood of him figuring out that I was a multi-dimensional visitor seemed slimmer than a skinned fish's scale, I agreed.
"So, you are known to the people at Halston. What about Tychor?"
"Maybe not. There's a good bit of turnover at companies where people cheat, y'know." He added with a grin after a bit of thought.
We sat there and thought, and he broke out some sea bass he had caught earlier that day. Without thinking, I whipped out my dagger, and began skinning the fish with professional skill. Only after, I saw him staring at me using a combat dagger with gold inlay on the hilt did I realize I might have to conceal a bit from his curious mind.
"You look like you've done that for years."
My mind flashed back to a time when they called me King along the Irish coast. Master of about fifty families like the dozens of other kings that sprouted all over the land of Eire in that day. I flashed a grin at him.
"You might as well give up."
"And now would ye want someone who gave up easy, laddie?"
I admitted the justice of his point, and then I realized he had recognized the style of the land's knifework in my own. He was sharp.
His trophy wife came up, another perfect blonde, with an wagon loaded with strawberry cream cake, and other goodies. We had a fine party on the back of the "Ruthless", and my hosts were charming, and never pried much past a sharp question or two.
I borrowed a cel phone after almost using my wristwatch to connect to the local microwave net (which it could do), and told my boss what was up. He mentioned that someone from Tychor had called to check up on me. Seemed a mite nervous my boss thought.
The lady of the ship came into the bridge area, and waited for me t get off the phone. She was stunning, of course, and I was a bit nervous wondering what her aims were.
"I'm glad you came along. Jack's a good man, and he has been mooning around looking for something to do. I call him my modern day pirate."
Jack came in at that moment, and got a kiss and smiled easily. For a long moment, I saw his face at the helm of a ship from some years back. I had traded fresh water in casks for a barrel of apples and a new spar while I roamed the oceans under the nom de guerre, the "Dread Pirate Roberts." This was the doppleganger of that captain in the other world.
"Indeed." I croaked, and Jack just grinned pleasantly while his mind filed data bits away. He had me off balance.
To get back on track, I explained the whole situation again to Jessica. She seemed quite intelligent.
"Why don't you go talk to this mistress? I bet she's not happy about it. Probably wants him to dump his wife so she can become lady of the house. And like most men in that situation, he probably just wants to keep playing the game."
I nodded and a thought unworthy occurred to me, and I did my best to supress it.
"Nice poker face, Mr. Taduesz. But the obvious question is how do I know about this. Well, let's just say I had abundant opportunities to become a toy, but I passed looking for the real deal."
I looked blandly at her not admitting anything, and she and him laughed together.
"Very good, Taduesz. In addition to a decade spent in Ireland, time on the sea, multiple masteries in several styles of the arts with the knife, a gold knife so we know you are not hurting, add to that a poker face worthy of a professional card shark, when you feel like bothering."
I busted out laughing.
"I need to get home before you pry out all my secrets. Remember, we are going to have a go at getting them tommorrow."
We shook hands, and they said "Tommorrow" with me. Evidently, Jessica wanted to join her husband in the crookbusting fun. Fine with me. She could talk to the mistress, maybe.
We still had only fragments of a plan but it was starting to come together.
Taduesz
As the sun set, my agent, a retired shipping exec with a unquiet stomach, a Mr. Jack Black, started looking down in the mouth.
"This wouldn't happen to be Halston Shipping, would it?"
I nodded.
"You planned to run a scam posing as another corrupt shipowner using me and my yacht as your frontman, right?"
"I thought I wasn't so juveniley obvious." I muttered in chagrin.
"In this, you are 'juvenile' as you put it. You do not seem to be used to subtlety and the interplay of office politics. I rather expect most of your enemies know you did them in. Me, I still have people who think they are my friends a decade later after I got them fired."
I looked back on my long career, and acknowledged his point. The hammer of tyrants rarely bothered with suavity. It was not in my nature. I was nice to friends and ordinary people, but enemies tended to get both barrels in the face.
"Besides, I would not call you juvenile. There's something odd about you. I'm not sure what it is. How about if I figure it out before you tell me, I get another question."
Since the likelihood of him figuring out that I was a multi-dimensional visitor seemed slimmer than a skinned fish's scale, I agreed.
"So, you are known to the people at Halston. What about Tychor?"
"Maybe not. There's a good bit of turnover at companies where people cheat, y'know." He added with a grin after a bit of thought.
We sat there and thought, and he broke out some sea bass he had caught earlier that day. Without thinking, I whipped out my dagger, and began skinning the fish with professional skill. Only after, I saw him staring at me using a combat dagger with gold inlay on the hilt did I realize I might have to conceal a bit from his curious mind.
"You look like you've done that for years."
My mind flashed back to a time when they called me King along the Irish coast. Master of about fifty families like the dozens of other kings that sprouted all over the land of Eire in that day. I flashed a grin at him.
"You might as well give up."
"And now would ye want someone who gave up easy, laddie?"
I admitted the justice of his point, and then I realized he had recognized the style of the land's knifework in my own. He was sharp.
His trophy wife came up, another perfect blonde, with an wagon loaded with strawberry cream cake, and other goodies. We had a fine party on the back of the "Ruthless", and my hosts were charming, and never pried much past a sharp question or two.
I borrowed a cel phone after almost using my wristwatch to connect to the local microwave net (which it could do), and told my boss what was up. He mentioned that someone from Tychor had called to check up on me. Seemed a mite nervous my boss thought.
The lady of the ship came into the bridge area, and waited for me t get off the phone. She was stunning, of course, and I was a bit nervous wondering what her aims were.
"I'm glad you came along. Jack's a good man, and he has been mooning around looking for something to do. I call him my modern day pirate."
Jack came in at that moment, and got a kiss and smiled easily. For a long moment, I saw his face at the helm of a ship from some years back. I had traded fresh water in casks for a barrel of apples and a new spar while I roamed the oceans under the nom de guerre, the "Dread Pirate Roberts." This was the doppleganger of that captain in the other world.
"Indeed." I croaked, and Jack just grinned pleasantly while his mind filed data bits away. He had me off balance.
To get back on track, I explained the whole situation again to Jessica. She seemed quite intelligent.
"Why don't you go talk to this mistress? I bet she's not happy about it. Probably wants him to dump his wife so she can become lady of the house. And like most men in that situation, he probably just wants to keep playing the game."
I nodded and a thought unworthy occurred to me, and I did my best to supress it.
"Nice poker face, Mr. Taduesz. But the obvious question is how do I know about this. Well, let's just say I had abundant opportunities to become a toy, but I passed looking for the real deal."
I looked blandly at her not admitting anything, and she and him laughed together.
"Very good, Taduesz. In addition to a decade spent in Ireland, time on the sea, multiple masteries in several styles of the arts with the knife, a gold knife so we know you are not hurting, add to that a poker face worthy of a professional card shark, when you feel like bothering."
I busted out laughing.
"I need to get home before you pry out all my secrets. Remember, we are going to have a go at getting them tommorrow."
We shook hands, and they said "Tommorrow" with me. Evidently, Jessica wanted to join her husband in the crookbusting fun. Fine with me. She could talk to the mistress, maybe.
We still had only fragments of a plan but it was starting to come together.
Taduesz
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