The Last Ring-bearer - Kirill Yeskov [102]
The result of all this activity was a twelve-page document that historians now call 'Grager's memorandum.' Putting together the rising profit margins of the caravan trade (as it was followed by the stock and commodity exchanges in Umbar and Barad-Dur), the introduction of a number of protectionist bills in the Mordorian parliament by the agrarian lobby (a reaction to the sharp increase of local growing costs), and a good dozen of other factors, Grager and Tangorn proved conclusively that import-reliant Mordor was incapable of waging prolonged war. Being totally dependent on caravan trade with its neighbors (a position totally incompatible with war), it was interested in peace and stability in the region above all else, and therefore posed no danger to Gondor. On the other hand, the safety of trade routes was a matter of life and death to Mordor, making it likely to react harshly and perhaps not too judiciously to any threat to these. The spies concluded: "Should anyone wish to force Mordor into a war, it would be very easy to accomplish by terrorizing caravans on the Ithilien Highway."
Faramir took these conclusions to a special session of the Royal Council in another of his attempts to prove, facts in hand, that the much-belabored 'Mordorian threat' was nothing but a myth. The Council, as usual, listened respectfully, understood nothing, and ruled on the matter by addressing the prince with its by now familiar litany of reprimands and instructions. These boiled down to two points: "gentlemen don't read each other's mail" and "your spies have gotten lazy and do no real work." Thereafter Grager's memorandum was sent to the archives, where it gathered dust with the Faramir's intelligence service's other reports until catching the eye of Gandalf during a visit to Minas Tirith…
When the war began exactly following their script, Tangorn realized with horror that it was all his doing.
"…'The World is Text,' eh, man – just the way you like it. What's your problem?" Grager smirked woodenly, pouring yet another shot of either tequila or some other moonshine with an unsteady hand.
"But we wrote a different Text, you and I, totally different!"
"Whaddya mean – different? My dear aesthete, a text exists only in its interaction with a reader. Everyone writes their own story of Princess Allandale, and whatever Alrufin himself wanted to say is absolutely irrelevant. Looks like we managed to create a real work of art, since the readers," the resident waved a finger near his ear, so it was impossible to say whether he meant the Royal Council or some really Higher Powers, "managed to read it in this rather unexpected way."
"We betrayed them… We got played like little kids, but that's no excuse – we betrayed them…" Tangorn repeated, staring fixedly into the murky opalescent depths of his glass.
"Yep – it's no excuse… Another one?"
He could not figure out which day of their binge it was – not considering themselves in any service, they did not keep track. They started the day the head of the trading house Algoran & Co. heard of the war and raced to Umbar, running down several horses, and learned the details from him. Strangely, they more or less held up when apart, but now, looking each other in the eye, they recognized clearly and at once – this was the end of all they held dear, and they have destroyed it with their own hands. Two well-meaning idiots… Then there was the nightmarish nauseating hung-over dawn when he awoke because Grager poured a pitcher of ice-cold water over him. Grager looked his usual self, quick and sure-footed, so his bloodshot eyes and several days' growth of beard seemed a part of some not too successful disguise.
"Up!" he informed drily. "We're in business again. We've been summoned to Minas Tirith to brief the Royal Council on the possibilities of a separate peace with Mordor. Immediately and with utmost secrecy, of course… Hot damn, maybe we can still fix something! His Majesty Denethor is a practical ruler; looks like