I've Come to Collect the Balance
Five thousand gold coins had never been the whole deal.
They were only the down payment.
I ran my eyes down the names written on the paper again.
Twelve of them.
There were nobles among them, and Imperial Palace officials as well. Looking at the names alone, you could not tell how any of them were connected to one another.
At the very bottom, only a short sentence remained.
Settle before the Crown Prince's investiture ceremony.
The balance will be paid in the same manner as before.
The inspector leaned in beside me and peered at the paper.
"I will have the Argen Merchant Group sealed at once."
"You will not."
He turned to look at me.
"Why not?"
"I still haven't received the rest of my payment."
The inspector's face went rigid.
Both secretaries froze with their pens in midair at the same time.
Why is everyone looking at me like that?
"I'm joking."
No one laughed.
"Halfway joking, at least."
The inspector opened his mouth slowly.
"My lord Count."
"Yes."
"While we are investigating the charges against you, if you announce that you intend to take another bribe, how exactly am I supposed to react?"
"I mean I will pretend to take it."
"And you expect me to believe that?"
"Don't believe it."
I folded the paper.
"Just watch from the side."
The inspector's eyes narrowed.
"What are you thinking?"
"This paper alone cannot prove that the Argen Merchant Group tried to put twelve people on the list."
"It came out of a sack of gold coins."
"They will simply claim they know nothing about it."
"If we examine the handwriting and the paper—"
"Within two days?"
The inspector shut his mouth.
Adelia had given me two days.
Half a day was already gone.
There was no time to match the composition of the ink, trace the source of the paper, or seize and interrogate the courier.
I needed something faster than that.
"I am going to make them confess with their own mouths."
"How, exactly?"
I looked at the statue of the goddess standing in the middle of the garden.
The Argen Merchant Group had bought it for five thousand gold coins, and yet the thing still stood naked in our house, spraying water.
"Butler."
The butler standing nearby flinched.
"Yes, my lord."
"How did you communicate with the Argen Merchant Group?"
"Communicate, my lord…?"
"You exchanged five thousand gold coins. Letters or people must have gone back and forth."
The butler flicked a glance at the inspector and the secretaries.
"If you hide anything now, you will be recorded as an accomplice."
"It was the goddess statue."
"That indecent thing?"
"If a red cloth was tied around the right hand, the Argen Merchant Group would send someone."
I looked at the statue.
Its right hand was stretched toward the sky.
A thoroughly confident pose.
"Why on earth did you use that as a signal?"
"His lordship said… it was the object that stood out the most and that no one ever wanted to approach."
The original Cassian had apparently had an eye for people.
Just pointed in a slightly different direction.
"Tie the red cloth."
"Pardon?"
"We are continuing the deal."
The inspector looked at me.
"You are not truly planning to take the money, I trust."
"The moment my hand touches the coins, arrest me on the spot."
"Yourself?"
"A second offense would make me a habitual criminal, after all."
Before the sun set, word came from the Argen Merchant Group.
Tonight.
Third riverside grain warehouse.
East counting room.
Come alone.
"They say come alone," the inspector said.
"Tell them I will."
"Does that mean you will not bring the Imperial Guard?"
"Not where they can be seen."
The third grain warehouse belonged to the Argen Merchant Group.
If the other side chose the place, they would have people hidden as well.
That did not mean I could get cold feet and abandon the deal.
I spread the warehouse floor plan out for the inspector.
"Have the guards wait at the western loading dock and the rear door. Inspector, you will be in the grain inspection room on the upper floor."
"Will we be able to hear the conversation?"
"There is a small hatch in the ceiling of the counting room for lifting ledgers."
That was the layout the butler had described.
Apparently the original Cassian had conducted several deals there himself.
The inspector still looked doubtful.
"The moment they admit to the transaction, I will go in."
"Not yet."
"What else is left?"
I showed him the twelve names written on the paper.
It was a copy.
Nearly identical to the original, except for one name I had changed.
Imperial Physician Edrick Senel.
I had removed that name and put a palace procurement officer in its place.
"I am going to make them correct this list with their own hands."
The inspector examined the copy.
"And if they do not correct it?"
"Then they either smelled the trap, or they never checked the list properly. In that case we will have to open their mouths another way."
"And if they do correct it?"
I tapped the name Edrick Senel written on the original.
"Then we will know exactly whom they must kill."
When night fell, the third grain warehouse was as quiet as if it were empty.
The sound of the river striking the banks.
The creak of timber swollen with damp.
The smell of grain dust and rats.
I opened the door to the east counting room.
A single man was waiting inside.
A fellow who looked about forty.
A neatly trimmed beard.
An expensive coat.
A ring on every finger.
It was Raoul Argen, head of the Argen Merchant Group.
He did not even rise when he saw me.
"Count Berdel."
"Master of the Argen Merchant Group."
"I hear you delivered gold coins to the Imperial Palace."
Fast, wasn't he.
Not even half a day had passed since the coins were moved.
That meant the merchant group had eyes inside the palace as well.
I sat in the chair opposite him.
"Her Highness took a bit of a fancy to my property, you see."
Raoul's eyes narrowed.
"Did you confess?"
"Confess?"
I twisted my face into an expression of distaste.
"I paid tribute."
"All five thousand gold coins?"
"Her Highness has a larger hand than I expected."
"Then the deal is finished, is it not?"
"What a cold thing to say."
I took the copy of the list from my coat and laid it on the table.
"I've come to collect the balance."
Raoul did not look at the list.
He studied only my face.
"The situation has changed."
"So has mine."
"The Ministry of Finance is sealed, and I hear you even seized the manor yourself."
"People have eyes, after all."
"The Imperial Princess suspects you, Count."
"Which is why I need more money."
The corner of Raoul's mouth twisted.
"Do you mean to buy your life with coin?"
"In the Imperial Palace, most things can be bought with coin."
"Even the Imperial Princess?"
"She is a little expensive."
I held up two fingers.
"Fifty thousand gold coins."
The smile vanished from Raoul's face.
"What did you say?"
"The balance will be fifty thousand."
"Are you in your right mind?"
It was a look I had been seeing rather often lately.
"The original agreement was five thousand down and five thousand on completion."
Good.
One admission already.
I tilted my head as if I had never heard such a thing.
"Was it?"
"The first twelve names were already entered, and we agreed you would receive the balance once the remaining twelve were handled as well."
The first list and the second list had been a single transaction.
The price of twenty-four lives: ten thousand gold coins.
I leaned back in the chair.
"It seems I set the price of those necks far too low back then."
I pushed the list on the table toward him with a fingertip.
"Especially once you add the price of staking my own neck."
Raoul looked down at the list.
"Even so, fifty thousand gold coins… That is no different from demanding I hand over the entire merchant group."
"You understand perfectly."
"Is this a threat?"
"It is a price adjustment."
"And if we refuse?"
"Then the list will not be processed either."
Raoul's gaze turned cold.
"You will not walk away unscathed either, Count."
"Which is why I am suggesting we help each other."
I leaned back again.
"I need to bring money to Her Highness if I want to live, and you need those twelve people to disappear if you want to make money."
"…"
"You bought me far too cheaply."
Raoul glared at me for a long time.
Then he picked up the list.
"Fifty thousand is impossible."
"Then how much is possible?"
"I will check the list first."
He began reading the names line by line.
I sat there as if nothing were wrong.
Above the ceiling, the inspector and the secretaries were hidden.
My voice.
Raoul's voice.
They would be recording every word.
Raoul's finger stopped at the eighth name.
His brows drew together.
He checked again from the beginning.
"A name is wrong."
I tilted my head.
"Which name?"
He set the paper down on the table.
"It is not Palace Procurement Officer Marten."
"Then?"
"Edrick Senel."
The Imperial Physician.
The name I had deliberately removed.
"Correct it yourself."
I placed a pen and ink in front of him.
Raoul hesitated for a moment.
"Why must I write it?"
"Because you, Master, said it was wrong."
"You correct it, Count."
"I might mishear you, might I not?"
Raoul looked at me with suspicion.
I smiled.
"When people's lives are on the line, one must be precise."
In the end he took up the pen.
He drew a line through Marten's name and wrote Edrick Senel beside it.
Good.
He had confirmed the name himself and corrected it with his own hand.
Above the ceiling, every word of the exchange was being written down.
"Satisfied?"
"I have one more question."
"What now?"
"I understand the others. Nobles, officials, merchants."
I pointed at Edrick's name.
"But why must the Imperial Physician die?"
Raoul set the pen down.
"You do not need to know, Count."
"He is someone I must put on the list at the risk of my own neck."
"It is the client's business."
"Client?"
Raoul's expression stiffened.
I did not miss it.
"Was the list not chosen by the Argen Merchant Group itself?"
"The first list was our demand, yes."
The first one.
"Then these twelve?"
Raoul shut his mouth.
I tapped the table with a finger.
Once.
Twice.
A tiny sound of wood rubbing against wood came from the floor above.
The inspector was ready as well.
"Fifty thousand gold coins," I said.
Raoul clenched his teeth.
"That discussion is over."
"Tell me the client's name and I will lower the price."
"I cannot do that."
"Then at least tell me why you mean to kill Edrick."
"That either."
"Forty thousand."
"Count."
"Thirty thousand."
Raoul wavered.
Money really did seem to make people honest.
"I cannot speak the name."
"Only the reason."
"…The day the Emperor collapsed."
He spoke in a low voice.
"That man was inside the bedchamber."
I did not change my expression.
"He is the Imperial Physician. Is that not natural?"
"The client said his mouth had to be closed."
"What did he see?"
"I was not told that far."
"Hard to believe."
"It is the truth."
Raoul lowered his voice further.
"We only received the names. The other eleven were mixed in to hide Edrick."
I stopped tapping my finger.
"That is enough."
"Enough of what?"
I rapped the table twice.
Bang!
The hatch in the ceiling flew open.
At the same moment, Imperial Guards burst through both doors of the counting room.
Raoul shot up from his chair.
"What is the meaning of this!"
The inspector came down the upper stairs.
Behind him the two secretaries followed, ledgers clutched to their chests.
"Raoul Argen."
The inspector spoke.
"You are under arrest on charges of falsifying the list of treason suspects, offering bribes, and soliciting murder."
Raoul's face went paper-white.
He turned to me.
"You are an accomplice as well!"
"That's right."
"What?"
"Which is why they sealed my manor first."
Raoul stared at me with his mouth open.
"You mean to sell me out and survive alone?"
"I am under investigation myself, you know."
"Traitor!"
The one who trusted a sycophant and tried to have people killed is the one in the wrong, isn't he?
Hmm.
The guards seized Raoul by both arms.
Even as they dragged him away he thrashed.
"You were the one who proposed it first! You said you would put the names on the list! You said if I just paid, you would make anyone a traitor!"
The room fell quiet for a moment.
The inspector looked at me.
The secretaries' pens began to move again.
Scratch.
Scratch.
I cleared my throat.
"Record that part without omitting a word as well."
"We already are."
"Very diligent of you."
"Not as diligent as you, my lord Count."
I had nothing to say to that.
The Argen Merchant Group's main office and warehouses were sealed at the same hour.
I had already given the order to move the moment a confession of dealings with Cassian came out.
The Argen Merchant Group's main office and warehouses were sealed at the same hour.
I left the asset verification to the inspector and the Ministry of Finance secretaries.
What mattered now was not the sum of money.
It was arriving before they could eliminate the real target.
A hurried on-site comparison showed twelve thousand gold coins.
Three grain warehouses.
Six river barges.
Lease rights to the harbor warehouses.
A portion of the eastern grain transport rights.
Plus the merchant group's own bonds and shares in other houses.
The inspector handed me a provisional appraisal.
"Even calculated conservatively, sixty-three thousand gold coins."
"Her Highness will be pleased."
"Adding the five thousand you received makes sixty-eight thousand."
"Let's not bother adding that."
"We already have."
Diligent people were exhausting.
Among the seized items I unfolded again the list Raoul had corrected with his own hand.
Twelve names.
From what we had confirmed through the night, eleven of them had no connection whatsoever to Imperial Physician Edrick Senel.
Nobles.
Merchants.
Officials.
They were merely people who would die together so the real target could be hidden.
Edrick Senel.
The man who had been inside the bedchamber on the day the Emperor collapsed.
There was a client who wanted his mouth shut.
And we had made a great deal of noise at the scene of the transaction.
Word that the Argen Merchant Group had been seized would spread soon enough.
If the client was not a fool, the next move was only one.
I folded the list.
"Have the Imperial Guard prepare a carriage."
The inspector asked,
"Where are you going?"
Imperial Physician Edrick Senel had been removed from the Emperor's treatment immediately after the collapse.
He was currently confined to his residence under investigation for responsibility.
"The Imperial Physician's residence."
"Now?"
"It has to be now."
It had never been a deal to kill twelve people.
It had been a deal to hide one man among the corpses of eleven others.
The physician who had stood closest of all on the day the Emperor fell.