Exploitable Weaknesses by Brian Keller (best interesting books to read txt) 📕

doubt they would ever be questioned, even by His Royal Highness himself.” Cooper didn’t add, “That would depend on who’s in possession of the genuine documents.” A concerned expression must’ve found its way onto his face, or Mister Ysel was just that good at reading subconscious hints. The man reassured him, “These documents only verify actual, legitimate business dealings. There should be no reason for anyone to doubt their authenticity.” Though that thought did nothing to allay his concerns, he placed a hand on Mister Ysel’s shoulder and presented a reassured smile, “I’m sure you’re right, sir.”

Cooper collected a few pieces of paper, quill and ink from where Mister Ysel had been working and began writing a letter of his own. He had a few stops to make tomorrow. It wouldn’t do to be unprepared if certain opportunities were to present themselves. He took a few minutes to make sure he had several key points in his mind and once he felt he had everything phrased correctly, he settled in to write.

The following morning, his first stop was a silversmith in the Trade Quarter. In his ‘new’ clothes he was ignored initially until he flashed a gold coin for the tradesman to see. He placed his order and was told that it would be at least two days before the order would be ready. The man could get the material easily enough, but he didn’t have it on hand, “I don’t suppose ye’d rather have your order done in silver? Silver I got, an’ plenty of it.” Cooper shook his head, “No, sir. I came to you because you do specialized work with soft metals. This needs to be done right. I’ll pay half now, if you prefer, though the materials shouldn’t cost much.” The smith shook his head, “Not necessary, lad. Jes’ pay me in full when the job’s done.”

He spent the remainder of the day observing addicts and peddlers, he was curious whether they’d changed their methods after being attacked and robbed yesterday. He noticed a few ‘citizens’ who didn’t belong. Their clothes were right but their posture and mannerisms weren’t. These men were the first of the Spymaster’s actual ‘secret police’ he’d seen with his own eyes. They were obviously veteran City Watch that the Spymaster trusted and had ‘awarded’ a special duty that required they trade in their armor for normal clothes. By the way they moved and acted, they’d been wearing armor only yesterday and they tended to cluster together now for support, or perhaps commiseration. The townspeople saw them too, as had the Lukasi peddlers. For a radius of a couple of blocks surrounding the police, the men from Lukasi were nowhere to be seen. He wouldn’t learn anything new unless he could find where the drugs were being sold now. He decided that all he’d need to do was follow the addicts. It took a couple hours but he finally found that the drugs were being sold through a new, and completely fraudulent, fish vendor cart. Cooper almost smiled at the thought of an actual fish vendor in the Waterfront. Wharfsiders already had that market saturated. Collectively, they couldn’t sell all they caught daily and they filleted the excess and either salted, dried, or added ingredients to it in order to entice customers who were looking for something other than raw fish. They were probably very pleased to sell a cartload of their fish to these peddlers, but once it got reported that a fish vendor on the Waterfront was selling Apex, that might affect all fish vendors. That result would certainly rile the entire community. He’d wait and see if this tactic continued for more than a day. If it did, he could inform either the Watch, or even better, the Secret Police about the specific stall and address both problems with one conversation.

He spent that night in the Ruins. He greeted everyone warmly enough but waved off attempts at conversation and he curled up under a blanket and fell asleep quickly. In the first light of morning he checked the progress of the reconstruction. Dailen was already awake and setting stones in place for the floor of the forge. The walls had already been rebuilt and reinforced. Cooper teased, “You sure you know what you’re doing there?” Dailen’s head jerked upward and he looked around, his eyes settling on Cooper, “I didn’t see you come in.” He gazed around the rocks he’d recently lain, “I think so. I’ve been watching the masons. They position the stones to fit them together, then pull them up, sometimes dig out the space to make the stone lay right, toss in some sand, replace the stones, tamp them down and then fill the gaps with mortar. They should be finishing up with the walls on one of the other buildings this morning, the place where we’ll move the folks from the quarry. Carpenters should have that roof patched by lunchtime. I thought I might save the masons an hour or so this afternoon by placing as many of these stones as I can.” Dailen stood and straightened his back. Cooper was impressed with Dailen’s strength. He doubted whether he could do more than simply roll some of the stones. Dailen looked around the Ruins, “Do we have enough coin to pay for all of this?” Cooper looked around as well, “Yes, but we’ll have many other expenses at the same time. We will start Collections again, once we gain a bit more strength and stability. We have several additional options for generating more income that’ll be opening up during the next couple of months. Either that or we’ll all be in chains or dangling at the end of a noose.” Dailen shuddered, “I think I’d rather not know all that, if you don’t mind. Just tell me how I can help. Other than that, I’ll consider ignorance to be a blessing.” Cooper shrugged, “You’re already doing it. You’re managing most of