Page 66 of Skinwalker's Bane
“Electronic?”
“Not reliable enough,” Haydn replied. “We’re going to have to go back to basics. People.”
“Most people aren’t sneaky like you,” Adam pointed out. “You slid through the ship for years trying not to be noticed.”
“The Civil guards, out of uniform, will do. They know how to watch people. Magorian will authorize it.”
They were rounding the big curve of the top of the tankball arena, heading for the Colinas Gate and the number of people had thinned out. There was no one ahead of them. From the back side of the arena, Adam could hear the train halting at the platform, with the little squeak of the magline against the underside of the carriage. No other machinery on the ship made quite the same sound.
Adam glanced at Haydn as they walked. “Is that why you brought me to the Bridge today? You wanted me to see how easily the ship can be threatened?”
Haydn walked several paces before he replied. “I thought you’d get it, eventually. That’s not the only reason I pulled you out of the Palatine this morning, though.”
Adam scowled. Haydn had come very close to saying he had deliberately separated Adam from Devin.
Haydn glanced at him. “I wanted you to see, to experience, what I do when I’m not playing nursemaid to you and your crews.”
Adam raised his brow. “Is this a typical day for you then?”
“That’s the point. I don’thavetypical days. Every day, there’s something new, something I’ve never seen before. It usually involves figuring out what in the stars we’re supposed to do to deal with it.”
“That has to make life interesting,” Adam said.
“And now you’ve had a tiny taste of it.”
“Why did you want me to see it?”
Haydn took a few more paces to answer. They were well into the Colinas now. Their footsteps echoed faintly from the walls on either side. Haydn said casually, “Someone has to replace me one day.”
Adam stared at him.
Haydn gave him a small smile. “Keep that in mind when you’re weighing up your choices, Wary.”
Chapter Seventeen
It was a great day, despite lack of sleep from Adam’s middle of the night arrival. Devin floated through the day. Everything broke right. Everyone she spoke to was pleasant, interested and listened to her. She got positive responses. The overriding sensation was that she was winning the approval war. Mina Rask beamed at her when she contacted her to say thank you for the seat at the Chairman’s table at the soiree. Rask didn’t mention the two days it had taken Devin to get around to making the call.
Even the complaints Devin received she resolved inside an hour and the complainers were incredibly happy afterward. One of them was a market stall owner in the smaller hand goods market in the Aventine. Barry came to see her about the rent on his stall being raised again because of the amount of square meters his stall covered.
“I sell artwork, Devin!” he complained. “It takes space to display them properly to catch buyers’ attention. It’s not as if I’m selling jewelry like Julia, on the next stall. She can pack all her goods onto one table top!”
Devin promised to look into it for him. She didn’t put it off—today was not one of those days when everything seemed overwhelming. Instead, she called Travis Amerin, the owner and landlord of the market, immediately. He took the call without hesitation and when she outlined the issue, he nodded.
“Wouldn’t you be better off charging rent based on their profit, Travis?” she asked reasonably. “At least, in Barry’s case, it would be fairer. He needs the room the others don’t.”
Travis scratched his head. “It’s good you’re trying to help out, Devin. It’s nice. You’ve missed a point, though. If I charge a percentage of their profit, they’ll make sure there is no profit after expenses. I’ll lose all my revenue inside a year.”
Devin chewed her lip. “I see your point. It also seems unfair to charge by the square meter, too.”
“Tell me another way to do it and I’ll consider it.”
“What if you make a special arrangement with Barry and Julia? They split the total square footage of the two stalls between them? Julia doesn’t need the space and Barry does. They’re both good tenants. They’ve been there for years. I think I’ve bought art and jewelry from both of them.”
“They are that,” Travis said slowly. “Julia may not like having her rent raised.”
“Ask her if she really wants to risk having another tenant move into Barry’s space that competes with her business. There’s another stall at the bridge end that sells trinkets, too.”
“You have a convoluted mind, Devin,” Travis said. “I’ll see what I can do.”
