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

the rebuild efforts. Without you doing your part, everything that I’m working on wouldn’t matter in the long run. We’d all just be fugitives looking for a place to hide.” Dailen brushed some of the dirt from his hands as he looked at Cooper from the corner of his eye, “Seriously?” Cooper turned to face Dailen directly, “Absolutely. You don’t think we’re doing all this just to give you something to do?! The ideal situation will be that we build an entire neighborhood, but with underground sewers like in the Grid.” Dailen looked surprised, “The Royals would notice that. They’d send the Watch, and the Army… it’d be worse than before!” Cooper shook his head, “We’re working on that. You just keep the work crews on task. As long as we stay on schedule and can handle things properly, those concerns should never surface. Our main cause for concern will be when the local merchants send sellswords our way once they realize how much competition we’ll be.” Dailen raised an eyebrow, “That’s supposed to make me feel better?” Cooper smiled and shrugged, “At least it wouldn’t be the Army. Besides, once the merchants learn they can do business with us rather than hire sellswords, fail, and then face our retaliation, they’ll increase our income even further.” He left Dailen to consider what he’d said and began walking south. As he looked around the Ruins, at all the property that Jarell had purchased using Guild funds, he thought of the last conversation he’d had with the former Master of Coin. He wondered how much of the reconstruction might actually be what Jarell had originally intended.

Upon reaching the House in Miller’s Flats, Miss Camilla was quick to approach him, “I’d say we could try moving everyone tonight, but there are a couple of them that I’m still concerned about.” One of the men walked near, Cooper recognized him as the porter who had been close to death. Considering that, he looked fairly well now, though still far from fully recovered. Despite his current weakness, Cooper could see that the quarry hadn’t broken him or robbed him of his spirit. The man interrupted their conversation, “I might be speaking when no one asked, but I’ll say my piece an’ go back to sit by the fire. You kids risked a lot to come break us out. You risked a lot again by hiding us here. If you need to move us somewhere else tonight, somewhere safer –whether safer for us or for you don’ matter; we’ll do it. I speak for all of us when I tell you that not one of us will whimper or complain.” Cooper nodded to the man and turned back to Camilla. She smiled awkwardly and said, “Well then, I guess we’re ready. Tonight?” Cooper watched the man as he walked over to the fire. The ladies had arranged several pots, pans and utensils nearby and were well into the ritual of cooking breakfast. His stomach grumbled as he replied, “After breakfast, I’ll go and set things up for tonight. I might not be back until this evening though. When I left this morning it seemed that our people in the Ruins would be ready for us, but I’d rather look in and make sure.”

As he awaited his turn for breakfast he considered that he’d planned on informing the Watch of one of the other Lukasi storehouses tonight. That would now have to wait. He didn’t want any extra activity in the Waterfront while they were moving through. He looked around the room, making sure he had an accurate count of all the people. After speaking with Mardon, he’d return to the Ruins but not just to check on progress. There were other arrangements to be made as well.

His walk to the Wharf City and subsequent visit with Mardon left him no more knowledgeable regarding the Apex trade, but he and Mardon agreed that waiting until after midnight to move the passengers was unnecessary. As Cooper put it, “It might be better to leave the Dregs boardwalk an hour before midnight. By the time they paddled across the bay, and got everyone into and out of the Wharf City and then entered the Waterfront, there would still be a few people about.” Both of them knew that moving a small crowd through deserted streets would leave nothing else for the City Watch to look at. Even if they wanted to look the other way, it would be difficult for them to justify. As he stood to leave he informed the First, “We’ll have twenty-nine people with few personal belongings, but count on carrying thirty to allow for any extra weight.” The First Merchant nodded, “We should only need four boats, but I’ll send five.” The man patted his pouch, “With that many boats, and that many oarsmen, you’ll still have a little left on account. But it will have dwindled significantly.” Cooper shook the First’s extended hand, “Let me know if there’s no remaining balance before we conclude the business we discussed earlier. I may require one more service from you before then.”

Cooper made his way quickly through the Waterfront, not looking for Apex merchants and avoiding the addicts who seemed to have become more prevalent than ever, and more desperate.  During his observations yesterday, one man that was very far along his downward spiral of addiction had accosted one of the secret police. The addict had been killed outright. No arrest. No effort to detain him had been made. Cooper had wondered whether that was an indication of just how far things had fallen, or whether the Watch and the Army had new orders regarding how Apex merchants and addicts were to be dealt with. Most likely, the secret police had killed the man simply to give the citizens the impression that they were sellswords. In any case, the addict was dead and the secret police had drawn even more attention to themselves.