Mayer Alan Brenner - Spell of Intrigue

“Could they be holding you for treason?” the lawyer asked cautiously.

“Treason?” Groot said incredulously. “Against whom? This is a free city!”

“Consorting with enemies, then.”

“ Whose enemies? Treason? Of course not. “

“You do have many foreign contacts,” Julio said.

“I’m a trader!” said Groot. “I’m supposed to have foreign contacts!”

“That could be at the root of your arrest, “ Snee said thoughtfully. “Not the seizures of property, but perhaps the arrest. If some Council member had evidence that you were in contact with hostile foreigners, they could have used that as a basis for drafting an order to hold you preemptively for the good of the state. Such an order could be kept secret for a limited amount of time, especially if there was evidence of other members of an active conspiracy still free and active. Technically, the order would have to be made official eventually, though. “

Groot shook his head. “This all sounds too autocratic for my liking. What’s the purpose of due process if you can get around it whenever you want? Do we have an independent judiciary, or is that just another figment, too?”

“Is that a serious question?” said Snee. “I’ll be trying to get you a judicial hearing, of course, but I have to tell you that no judge is going to want to get in the way of the Council in a matter such as this, whether it involves state security or just a struggle between individual Council members. Any judge in his right mind would defer to the Council itself when it’s using its own extraordinary judicial powers. And as you well know, Oolsmouth’s own autocratic past is not so far behind it that there are not vestiges of it still hanging around here and there. Some of them even remain statutory.”

“Damn,” said Groot. “So I’m just supposed to sit here, rotting in the filth? One of the reasons I clawed after personal success and wealth was to insulate myself from annoyance. Are you telling me I was wasting my time?”

“The law is your friend,” observed the lawyer, “except when, occasionally, it isn’t.”

“Thank you,” Groot said. “Thank you very much. I will treasure that pearl of wisdom, alone in this squalid cell. I assume you have not learned what’s behind all these property seizures either?”

Snee looked at the damp ceiling, at its close-fitting stones. “Unfortunately not. I’m trying to lay hands on one of the order sheets the police have been waving about. That may give us more information, but they’re obviously under instructions not to let anyone actually read the things. “

Groot looked at Julio. “Who do we have who could obtain one of these sheets?”

Julio hesitated; more bad news, no doubt. “You realize, Meester Groot, that you can’t actually pay anyone at the moment. All assets are frozen. You don’t have to worry about me, sir,” he added hastily, looking away. “I’ve been - well, you just don’t have to worry about me, that’s all. It’s not just a matter of money.”

Groot had made Julio a partner in Haalsen Traders, under terms that made it in his interest to stay with him, but Groot was willing to accept Julio’s statement at face value for whatever it worth beyond that. Groot wasn’t going to turn totally paranoid, at least not yet, and anyway who else did he have who was acting for him on the outside? “Who else is loyal or motivated enough, or paid up sufficiently in advance, then?”

“I’m not sure I want to hear this,” stated Snee. “I don’t know what means you intend to use to obtain the order sheet, but if it’s not strictly aboveboard then we’ll all be safer if I don’t know about it. Beforehand, at any rate. If you do secure one of these sheets, let me know, but don’t tell me how you’ve done it. I’ll keep on trying through my own means.”

“Very well,” said Groot. “How long will it take you to get to the bottom of this?”

Snee put on a cagy look. “In this case, I’m positive that evidentiary discovery will be a tricky process. There are clearly many things we don’t yet know -”

“That is the whole point, isn’t it?”

The lawyer shrugged. “I’ll do what I can. You may want to pursue your own means as well.”

“Thank you.” said Groot with a trace of a snarl. “Why don’t you get down to it, then?”

Snee rose. “I will take my leave.” He bowed to the reclining Groot, then backed out the door.

“Of course I’ll pursue my own means,” Groot muttered, staring after the lawyer with a dark gaze. “I’m not a fool, except perhaps in thinking I could rely on a lawyer to get me out of a mess with the law. “ He looked up at Julio. “We’ll have to round up as full a Council session as we can get this time of year. Try to find out where the others stand first, as far as you can.”

“Dooglas?” said Julio.

“I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s a much more blatant move than you’d expect, but who else is the leading candidate, anyway?”

“Indeed,” Julio said in a dour voice. “You haven’t been spending much time cultivating your faction, have you?”

“No, I haven’t, as you know perfectly well,” said Groot. “That doesn’t look like a very good move in retrospect, does it?”

“No, sir, I have to say it does not.”

“Hmpph.” Groot thought for a moment. “What does Sy have to say for himself? Where has he been in all this? Why didn’t he see something coming?”

“He wasn’t at any of the facilities I visited, and I didn’t have a chance to swing round his house.”

“Perhaps he’ll show up.” Sy Gazoont was the company sorcerer and communicator. “We only have a few days to get all this wrapped up or our friends heading down the river will appear right in the middle of it. “

“Indeed, yes, sir. I take your meaning. If there’s nothing more, perhaps I should be moving along myself?”

“Yes,” said Groot. “Is Eelmon still out there? You can take him if you want; you may need another pair of legs more than I need a runner on call here. Find out what’s behind this and who we have to fight.”

“I’ll check back with you later,” said Julio. He vanished through the doorway. The jailer promptly reappeared, checked Groot’s shackles to make sure no one had tampered with them under the cover of the meeting, tugged his forelock, and edged out of the cell again. The thick door thudded back into place.

This was a fine kettle of fish, no question about it. Groot got to his feet, clanking conspicuously, and set to examining the features of the cell, not that there were many features with which to be concerned. With the exception of the wood of the door and its cast iron crosspieces, the rest of the cell was faced with stone. Even the floor was stone, not dirt - no, on closer inspection, the floor was some type of concrete. Could this be part of the foundation? Was he really that far down in the building? The light from the single candle was fairly weak, making Groot’s examination not only tedious but a matter of judgment as well. Then again, he had all the time he needed to absorb the sights since he didn’t seem to be going anywhere else any too rapidly.

Groot took a better look at one wall. Perhaps the regular rectangular stones making up the wall had also been cast, not quarried. Concrete was generally more crumbly than genuine native rock, but this stuff seemed quite hardy. His fingernail failed to scratch it, and the only sediment left on his finger after the attempt was not white cement dust but plain old filth. It would be ridiculous to try to tunnel out, that much was clear. The only existing exits were the door and the tiny barred ventilation shaft in the ceiling that angled who knew where; there wasn’t any daylight showing through it, surely enough. Up there, though, on the outside wall just below the ceiling, that discolored area - what was that?