Dragon in Exile - eARC by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee Read Free Book Online Page B

Boss particularly fault her for being angry.
    “We do not collect insurance,” he told her, keeping his voice smooth. “None of the Bosses on the council collect insurance. It is, in fact, illegal, to collect insurance.”
    “Illegal” was not, perhaps, a concept that sat easily with Baker Quill. Indeed, to most of the residents of Surebleak, the concepts of allowed and disallowed behavior were…alien to their everyday lives. The reality of the streets had for…several generations been that strength prevailed. The strongest of all—in terms that favored brute force over mindfulness, or even mere cleverness—rose to become Boss.
    In a rational system, the Boss would have then exerted herself to protect those weaker than herself. On Surebleak, however, the Boss had preyed upon those he should have held safe in his care. In particular, Bosses sold insurance —protection from their own spite—and made examples of those who did not—or could not—pay.
    The sale of insurance had been the very first thing that the Council of Bosses had forbidden in its new table of laws.
    “He said,” Baker Quill continued, as if he hadn’t spoken. “He said he’d burn down my place, if I didn’t have the vig when he come back, in two-day. He’d take some of it in bread, he said, but he wants six hunnert, cash. I ain’t got that kind o’money, and if I did, I wouldn’t pay it. My mam, she paid the insurance money, and what’d it get her? Broke an’ made a zample, ’cause the Boss’ ’hand put ’er money in his pocket an’ tole the Boss she didn’t pay.”
    He bowed his head slightly.
    “I am sorry to hear of your mother’s tragedy. You are very right to bring this matter to me. The Bosses no longer collect insurance, and there is a law—” Another uneasy word—“that forbids the collecting of insurance. Anyone caught doing it will be taken up by the Watch, and will be assessed fines.”
    “Fines,” she repeated, and he could believe that she was measuring fines against the loss of her livelihood, and possibly her life.
    “There are other deterrents, for those who persist, but yes, for a first offense, fines. Now. You say that this insurance salesman has promised to return for his payment in two days?”
    “That’s what he said.” She hesitated, then added, “My old turf, sometimes they come back early; and if you didn’t have the money, they added a surcharge .”
    Gods, what a planet.
    He nodded.
    “Here is what we shall do, if you will consent to it. I shall ask Mr. McFarland, my head ’hand, to assign one of my own security staff to you. This person will leave with you this evening, and will remain at your side until the insurance collector returns for the money. At that point, my staff member will remove this person from your orbit, using what force is necessary, and will bear him to the Watch, where he will be imprisoned until the Bosses call upon him to explain himself.”
    He paused, considering her set face, and asked, gently.
    “Does this proposed course of action satisfy you?”
    To her credit, she took time for consideration. He folded his hands atop the desk and waited.
    Eventually, she said, “That’ll cover, ’s’long’s he don’t have backup. If he’s got backup…”
    “You are correct; that is something which should not be left to chance. We will not leave you without protection. Instead, your security will call the Watch to retrieve the insurance salesman, and will remain with you until it had been ascertained that he is either working alone, or his partner has also been apprehended.”
    She nodded, once, decisively.
    “That’ll do it, then.”
    “Excellent. Let us bring Mr. McFarland in our conference.”
    He touched a button on his desk. The office door opened almost immediately, and Mr. pel’Tolian stepped within.
    “Sir?”
    “Please tell Mr. McFarland that we have need of his expertise in my office. And please ask Cook if we may have refreshments.”
    “Yes, sir; at