The Last Ring-bearer - Kirill Yeskov [118]
Chapter 44
When the last vestiges of the scandal died down and the leper regained his customary place, Almandin asked with curiosity:
"Listen, suppose you were planning this instead of that idiot Marandil. I'm not asking whether you'd capture the baron (that'd be an insult), but I'd like to know how many people you'd need as against his thirty-two?"
Jacuzzi spent half a minute considering something while scanning the embankment, and then concluded:
"Three. Not any kind of super-swordsmen or hand-to-hand experts, either; the only necessary skill is facility with silk throw nets. Note that all three canals join the lake under low bridges, less than ten feet clearance. I'd put a man on each bridge; that the target was the gondolier was pretty obvious, but in any event we'd have prearranged signals. When he's passing under the bridge, the operative would drop the net, then jump down straight into the gondola and prick him with a mantzenilla-smeared needle… You're absolutely right, chief – this whole adventure was a fool-trapping scheme. The leper diversion was very good, but that doesn't change the fact that no professional would have risked his neck like that. He is, indeed, an amateur – a brilliant and lucky one, but he'll be lucky once or twice and the third time he'll break his neck…"
"Look at that," Almandin interrupted, pointing with his eyes across the square, "our incomparable Vaddari already has poor Marandil by all the private parts in his rough hand! This one will get his every time… By the way, are you going to recruit the captain yourself or send somebody?"
…The café looked exactly the same as the one where the DSD bigwigs sat – the same wicker chairs, the same striped awning – but the mood at the table was much less celebratory. The Gondorian chief of station sat in stunned silence, staring at the badge on the table in front of him (Karanir, Sergeant of the Secret Guard of His Majesty Elessar Elfstone), nodding dumbly to the phrases Vaddari was doling out:
"Today the baron was simply checking whether you mistook him for someone else back at the Seahorse Tavern, or were actually hunting him. Now it's clear, so he's sending you this badge and the following message, quote: 'I never bothered you, but if you want war, you'll get one. Since seven dead bodies isn't enough for you, I'll hunt your people throughout Umbar, and you'll find out what a lone master can do to a bunch of fat bums.' But these are your affairs, I don't care about them. We have our own business."
"What business?" It looked like Marandil did not care any more. Even his musclemen, watching from a table in another corner, could see that the boss was in bad shape.
"Very simple. If Tangorn failed to meet me, that's one thing. Whereas if he did but you guys messed up and didn't twig who the gondolier was – that's quite another. Dunno about your head, but you'll lose your officer's cords for sure. I'm gonna have to write my report about the meeting now, since Tangorn's letter arrived at our station by regular mail and was duly logged… Stop that crap! Signal your gorillas to sit down – I'm not alone here, either! You think offing me will save you? Good… yes, like that… sit down quietly. What's with this northern habit of grabbing by force what you can buy? It doesn't matter any for my report who the gondolier was... Well? Say something!"
"I don't understand."
"Man, this screw-up must've struck you dumb. It's a simple deal – five dungans, and there was no gondolier. I mean, of course there was one, but he wasn't Tangorn. Whaddya think – is your captain's badge worth five dungans?"
...By the time Vaddari got back to his inhospitable bachelor pad, he had had enough time to consider Tangorn's offer. Of course, it was not to dispatch three Gondorian operatives and officially declare war on Marandil that the baron risked everything today. His real objective, strange as it may seem, was simply to meet Vaddari to offer him a certain delicate assignment. The job was to be fairly simple