The Last Suitor. A J McMahon
Читать онлайн книгу.
are three conditions which apply,’ Nicholas interrupted. ‘Firstly, you talk too much. Just say what is necessary. Got that?’
‘I will curb my natural loquacity given the —’
‘Secondly, you will not pretend to be less intelligent than you are. Got that?’
‘I assure you, my dear Mr —’
‘Thirdly, you will choose between a continued loyalty to Jolly, or a participation in a scheme of things that is not in Jolly’s favour.’
Tagalong said nothing for once after hearing this, but his eyes shifted to all the money on the table. He took a deep breath and exhaled loudly.
‘Now we begin,’ Nicholas said. ‘I demand satisfaction from you for the deception which you have practised on me. Do you accept my challenge?’
‘Mr Raspero, I can only beg pardon for —’
‘Do you want to go to the kitchen?’ Nicholas said furiously. ‘Any failure to answer any of my questions and you will spend the rest of the night having no idea of what is happening. Now, answer me: do you accept my challenge, yes or no?’
‘No, Mr Raspero. I ask you to —’
‘You are not a gentleman, are you, Mr Longman?’
‘I am indeed a gentleman, sir. I have fallen on hard times, Mr Raspero, lamentably so, but —’
Nicholas gagged him. Tagalong made muffled protests for a while. Nicholas waited, organising his thoughts. Tagalong fell silent after a while so Nicholas resumed speaking, ‘I will explain to you what I am about. You will then demonstrate an ability to participate in my scheme, in which case you might well profit from tonight’s developments, or you will fail to demonstrate any intelligence, in which case I will remove you to the kitchen and you will play no further role. I will remove your gag now. If you still have the sense you were born with, you will not babble and you will confine your comments to only those which you judge I will find of interest. Now, let us see whether you do indeed have any intelligence.’ Nicholas ungagged Tagalong.
‘I shall endeavour to fulfill all your expectations, Mr Raspero,’ Tagalong said and carefully stopped there.
‘Jolly has many men working for him, does he not?’
‘Yes, Mr Raspero.’
‘How many?’
‘That is difficult to say. Anything from one to ten thousand, depending on how you count them. This is because —’
‘I get it. Bribed officials and the like now and then.’
‘Yes, Mr —’
‘If a flying carriage were to fall on Jolly tonight, who would take over running all this?’
‘There is no clear successor to Jolly, Mr Raspero. He is not a man who tolerates rivals or successors.’
‘If I were to sit Jolly here in this room, tied to a chair, bound and helpless, and bring his top lieutenants into this room, and leave them all here together with all this money before them, would they free Jolly and continue to serve him, or would they make another choice?’
Tagalong paused. He looked at all the money on the table. More than twenty million strada! ‘There is a lot of money on that table, Mr Raspero. But Jolly commands a lot of loyalty. It is not an easy question to answer.’
‘What would you decide to do yourself, Mr Longman?’
Tagalong thought about this. He thought about himself, he thought about his situation, and he thought of what answer Nicholas wanted to hear. ‘I would choose to turn against Jolly, Mr Raspero,’ he said, thankful that Jolly was not there to hear him, ‘but only if his downfall was guaranteed. Jolly is not a man to lightly cross.’
‘Let us reason from first principles, Mr Longman,’ Nicholas said. ‘Jolly’s time has come and gone. This is simply the way things are at this time. Therefore, someone has to take over from Jolly. But who should it be? Who would you nominate as a candidate, Mr Longman?’
‘Naturally, Mr Raspero, it is clear to me beyond rhyme or reason that you stand aligned to the vertical, such that to you alone amongst —’
‘Try again, bozo,’ Nicholas interrupted. ‘Think harder. Jolly’s successor has to be at least something like him. I am nothing like him. Give me a name.’
‘May I ask how long I may have to deliberate on such an important matter, Mr Raspero?’ Tagalong asked with his very best manners.
Nicholas sighed at the difficulty he was having in getting Tagalong to see his own interests. ‘What if you took over from Jolly, Mr Longman?’ Nicholas asked.
Tagalong laughed. ‘Alas, Mr Raspero, I fear that such a development, despite being unheralded, although even if heralded by a comet emblazoned with the letters of my name, would nonetheless —’
‘If Jolly’s lieutenants fight amongst themselves, and none of them see you as being a rival, your chances of taking over are very good. All you have to do is be the last man standing.’
Tagalong’s visible amusement showed how little persuaded he was by this argument. He was an educated man but not educated enough. Nor had he properly grasped the strategy Nicholas had outlined. Although in the coming weeks and months he reflected often on what Nicholas had said.
Nicholas appeared to have given up on this idea, but, in fact, he knew that he had already planted the idea in Tagalong’s mind and now it was time to implement his strategy in such a way that Tagalong would not himself realise what was going on. Tagalong might well be an expert in how to deceive people but Nicholas knew how to get things done. ‘If you were to select those of Jolly’s men who might go against him in return for getting their hands on all his wealth, what names would you come up with?’
Tagalong thought about this. ‘Pay, Fitzroy, No Tin, Kassie, Pastime — perhaps. But with no clear successor, they might well fight amongst themselves. Jolly might play them against each other. Do not underestimate Jolly, Mr Raspero.’
‘Suppose that I supervised their discussion, thus requiring them to discuss the matter as reasonable men?’
Tagalong licked his lips. He would either be dead tonight, or rich and free from his servitude to Jolly. The stakes were as high as they could be. ‘You are a man who might well succeed in such a task, Mr Raspero. Naturally, I hope that as I am to participate —’
‘Where would these men be who you mentioned?’
‘Pay and Kassie are in the Tavern at this very moment,’ Tagalong said. ‘No Tin was last with Jolly. The others could be anywhere, maybe not even in New Landern for all I know. Jolly is a man with international interests.’
Nicholas walked to and fro thinking things over. Tagalong waited, unable to keep from looking discreetly at all the money on the table. A love-struck teenager could not have been so secretly attentive. Nicholas looked about him until his attention was caught by a tapestry on the wall. The tapestry showed a man being tortured in a cellar by ten monsters — the detail of the tapestry was lurid and red and stomach-churning — Jolly liked to observe the reactions of people on seeing this tapestry for the first time, for their reactions gave him one of the several measures of their character that he sought to know. Nicholas took down this tapestry with a wave of his wand and settled it over the table to hide Jolly’s treasure from sight. He gagged Tagalong again and carefully inspected his bonds. He took down a nearby cloak and ripped it into strips with which he tied the chair Tagalong was tied to so that Tagalong was unable to move this chair an inch. Then he left the room. He re-wrote the wand protection on the door leading into Jolly’s quarters so that now only he would be able to open it again and left the tavern. He took the flying carriage back to Angela’s apartment. He knew by now exactly what he was going to do to Jolly.
8:00 PM, Saturday 7 May 1544 A.F.
Nicholas’s