The Travels of Anadrasata Nearabhigan: Day 18 Amnestri - Part 3
The struggle with this piece was to make the villain not be so stupid that he wouldn't just spill his guts in public - because his back history in my head means that he isn't that stupid. Mind you, his usual support structure is nowhere to be seen and to be fair about that, how many of us travel with their retained solicitor in their entourage?
Anyway, this piece runs to 4,020 words and I hope that you enjoy it.
I am also very happy to be out of this man's head - it is not a nice place to be.
Index Page.
Amnestri was rapidly losing novelty value for the passengers of on the Empress Mhaihild. Their short stay in the city was now an extended one while the processes of the Board of Inquiry took their time and those passengers who had to be in ports and other places beyond Amnestri by particular dates were making other arrangements and leaving the ship. Indeed, so many of third and second class passengers were in this position that it made financial sense, apparently, for the Northern Stars Line to hire a smaller passenger vessel from another line to get those passengers to their destinations. Caitus dh'Lhong didn't see why the third class, or even the second class, passengers deserved any consideration from the company but if the alternative was refunding them their fares for the rest of their journeys he supposed there was a point - particularly if sending them off on another ship was going to be less expensive than keeping them on the Empress Mhaihild and feeding them. Personally, he would have kicked them off the ship when the costs of housing them reached the amount they'd paid in fares - well too bad, so sad if they weren't at their destinations, that wasn't his problem. It was a pity that the pretty ones were leaving too, of course. He hadn't made as many forays into second class as he'd thought he might.
Even in first class, the passenger numbers were reducing. Soon they would be down to those who couldn't or wouldn't make other arrangements for their travel, and wouldn't that be interesting. Caitus dh'Lhong cast his eye around the restaurant that he and the organised shore excursion he'd joined were lunching in. He had unfinished business with the little ringleted beauty who was companion to the Mhipainphy girl, and hopefully when he went to finish it the old besom who was hired companion to Mrs Nainhaikhar wouldn't be around to interfere. Come to that, he had unfinished business with Mrs Nainhaikhar too, not that she or her companion were here today, and he'd like to have business with her crony and fellow widow, Mrs Bhaindh as well. Oh yes, his days in Amnestri might be getting humdrum but he did have some entertainment lined up.
Mr dh'Lhong's private musings while his table companions were talking to each other were interrupted by a stir at the restaurant's front door. A trio of men were speaking to a staff member and one of them had pulled something out of an inner coat pocket and showed it to the waiter, and that was what had gotten the attention of the tables nearest them. By the time Mr dh'Lhong was paying attention all he saw was the object going back into an inner coat pocket. Then the man with the object in his pocket asked a question, and another man at the table nearest him, Bhailtus dh'Scairh, pointed in the direction of the table Mr dh'Lhong was at. Everyone at that table turned around to look in dh'Lhong's direction and he wondered which of his dining companions the men wanted.
As the men got closer, he realised that one of them was some sort of Naval non-officer - he could tell from the position of the rank insignia on his arms. The other two were in civilian clothes, the man with the pocketed object was better dressed than his companion who was more muscled, much like a professional boxer. The larger man was wearing a leather satchel across his body. The others at his table had realised that the men were coming to them now and Mr dh'Lhong could tell from their expressions that they didn't have any idea of what the men wanted either.
It was the better dressed civilian who spoke, excusing himself and his companions as they passed other diners, and then addressing the table when he reached it. "Mr Caitus dh'Lhong?"
The other four men at the table looked Mr dh'Lhong, while the sole lady, seated next to her husband, looked at the naval man, and smiled. "I am Caitus dh'Lhong," he replied, and judging the man by the cloth and cut of his clothing added, with a touch of superiority and no bow, "and who are you?"
The man replied without a bow, "Aidhain Vhainh, Imperial Adjutant's Office. Caitus dh'Lhong, I have here two Warrants requiring an immediate search of your person to recover effects believed to be in your possession, and a Summons requiring your immediate attendance at the current session of the hearing before the Board of Inquiry into the aerial navigation incident on 21 Ochd of this year." He added, "We are willing to delay the search of your person long enough for the four of us to move into the cloak room here to give you some privacy."
"Look, man, I'm in the middle of my lunch." dh'Lhong let his annoyance at the impudence and temerity of these three seep into his speech. "When I'm done here, I'll make my way to your offices to discuss this...intrusion with your superiors and sort things out like gentlemen." The fools didn't move so he mentally added more insolence to his list of complaints, or stupidity if they couldn't recognise when they were being dismissed by their betters.
"Do you realise, Mr dh'Lhong," replied Vhainh, "that non-compliance with a properly issued and sealed Imperial Warrant or Summons is punishable by arrest?"
"Are you threatening me?" Caitus dh'Lhong's eyes narrowed. It would be a very pointed call at the office of the Imperial Adjutant here in Amnestri.
"Stating facts," was the matter of fact reply. "Caitus dh'Lhong, as a duly warranted officer of the Throne and Scepter, I am placing you under arrest for failing to cooperate with and obey three duly issued directives over the Imperial Seal. Mr Khaidair," he addressed the big civilian who was now behind Mr dh'Lhong, "please get the prisoner on his feet."
Caitus dh'Lhong's chair, with him still firmly seated on it, was pulled out and away from the table. Then a large hand grabbed the back of his collar and hauled upwards. As soon as his weight had moved off the chair, it was pulled out from under him, and he had no choice but to stand.
"Petty Officer Ghaignnaim," went on Vhainh, "if you could please conduct the Warranted search of the prisoner?"
Petty Officer Ghaignnaim was thorough. First, he went through the outside pockets. Then, in a move so smooth that Caitus dh'Lhong, conditioned from having a valet dressing him all his adult life, didn't realise it was happening, the Petty Officer eased his lavender silk coat off him and started going through the inside pockets. His waistcoat pockets were next, and as Petty Officer Ghaignaim went to undo the waistcoat buttons, Mr dh'Lhong protested, "You cannot mean to strip me in public!"
Mr Vhainh replied calmly, "You were offered the privacy of the cloak room, but you declined to cooperate. I suggest that you do not offer any further resistance to the exercise of these Warrants."
"Do you know who I am?" In Caitus dh'Lhong's experience this phrase had been the beginning of his victories over officialdom.
"It's part of my job not to care." The look that Vhainh gave him chilled Caitus dh'Lhong. This was not the way things were supposed to go.
By the time Petty Officer Ghaignaim was done, Caitus dh'Lhong was standing in the restaurant dining room in his stockings, short smalls, and shirt. He had been allowed to retain the shirt after Petty Officer Ghaighnaim had declared that he wasn't wearing a corset, and that the shirt had no pockets. The contents of his pockets were neatly laid across the portion of the table where his table setting had been before it had been moved out of the way. Vhainh had looked across those contents and brusquely told the Petty Officer to, "Put everything back that's not covered by the Warrants." The Petty Officer Ghaignaim had redressed his victim neatly and efficiently, and somehow the most disturbing part of that was the way he had effortlessly restored every item laid out on the table to the spot from which it had been removed. He had also creditably retied Mr dh'Lhong's used cravat into something that seemed to be acceptable, which was an admittedly admirable skill - if the man had been a valet.
All that was left on the table was two keys.
The large, threatening man in civilian clothes produced several small boxes, an indelible pencil, and a book of chits. Each key was placed in a box, the man filled in two pages of the book, and then a portion of each page was torn off with the two pieces handed to Mr dh'Lhong. "These are your receipts for the effects," the threatening man told him. "Keep them safe."
As the little boxes were closed up and stowed in the satchel, Caitus dh'Lhong protested, "But my stateroom key..."
"I'm sure the Chief Purser on your ship can help you if you don't get it back tonight," replied Mr Vhainh. "Now, we have a hearing to get to. This way, thank you, sir."
As he was steered out of the room, Caitus dh'Lhong was aware that everyone was looking at him. His peers, his few superiors in the group, and his inferiors. It was not the good sort of attention. Mrs Bhaindh looked pleased, and the ringleted companion was letting hate show on her face, not that her feelings would matter when he got back to the ship tonight. He was going to have to do a lot of work to recover his status among his fellow passengers after this embarrassment and showing that chit exactly where she stood in the scheme of things would be an enjoyable way to start.
Once they'd arrived at the hearing building, Caitus dh'Lhong had been allowed to use an otherwise vacant men's retiring room under supervision and had then been left in a waiting room. The provided chair was comfortable enough, but there was no entertainment, and he'd been left there for over an hour. His pocket watch had confirmed that the extended passing of time was not in his bored mind. Consequently, he'd been happy to follow along when some officious young man, not Vhainh, opened the door and said cheerfully, "They're ready for you now, sir. This way please."
From previous experience with senior officialdom, he expected a comfortable office, good furniture, and a comfortable chat to get the official facts of the matter straight and uncomfortable issues glossed over. On the other hand, the part of his brain that dealt solely with the here and now was telling him that this situation didn't fit his standard operating parameters - this time he was officially in custody, and the subordinates were not (or not yet) suitably intimidated by him. The slightly off kilter feeling wasn't helped when he checked over his shoulder and found that they were being followed down the corridor by the large and intimidating man from the restaurant, now without the satchel. Then the man in front was ushering him through another door and he wasn't in an office, it was a courtroom full of spectators or other onlookers, and his seat was at a desk facing the long table at which five aerial Naval officers sat.
Uniformed officials, sneered part of his mind, the part that usually dealt with business dealings and other peoples. Titled, uniformed officials, pointed out the here and now portion of his brain, and those uniforms put them in charge of men with weapons - these are gentlemen not mere functionaries.
The officer in the middle of the table spoke. "Your name please, for the record."
"Caitus Dhaign Andrakh dh'Lhong." A simple enough question and nothing for him to object to.
"Age?" It was the middle officer again.
"Thirty-six. How is that relevant?" Bordering on the impertinent, was Mr dh'Lhong's thought, immediately followed by the recollection of an early morning conversation.
"Identifying information, Mr dh'Lhong. Occupation?" The officer dipped his pen in the inkwell and tapped it on the lip to remove excessive ink.
Caitus dh'Lhong considered this question. It was not one he got asked often because people, well people at home, knew who he was. He decided on, "Gentleman industrialist."
"Thank you." The officer made a note and then gestured at the tipstaff. "Administer the oath please, Mr Meyettar."
Mr dh'Lhong bridled as the tipstaff approached him, a paper in his hand. "Oath? Why do I need to take an oath? Surely as I am a gentleman among gentlemen, a private conversation is all that's needed for you to find out what you need to know from me? This," he indicated the hearing room, "is unnecessary."
"Mr dh'Lhong, this is a public hearing, therefore it is held in public." The officer in the middle of the table had the tone of someone explaining things in very simple words - Caitus dh'Lhong was used to being the person using that tone. "I note that you are already in custody for failing to cooperate with two Warrants to search your person and the Summons to attend this hearing. Refusal to take the oath to provide truthful testimony would lead to contempt charges against you. Is that the way you want this day to go?"
"Look here, dh'Khaitheer or whatever you call yourself, I will not be spoken to like that." This, he felt, he could and should claim back right here and now.
The officer looked at him and spoke in an icy voice, the pen in his hand apparently forgotten. "In consideration of your social status, Mr dh'Lhong, you may address me as Rear Admiral Lord Raiph or sir. Those are your options. Now, will you take the oath, or will we explore the details of your contempt charges?"
Mr dh'Lhong grudgingly took the piece of paper from the tipstaff and read out the words on it, putting in his name where the instructions told him to. It was the standard oath used in court cases, and that put him back on a more confidant footing - giving the testimony he wanted to give was a familiar game. He settled back comfortably into his chair.
Rear Admiral Lord Raiph asked the first question. "Mr dh'Lhong, how did you gain access to the bridge of the Empress Mhaihild on the morning of 21 Ochd of this year?"
"I wasn't on the bridge at that time, sir." Caitus dh'Lhong gave his questioner a tight, closed mouth smile.
The officer sitting immediately to the Rear Admiral's right asked, "Are you sure of that, Mr dh'Lhong? Perjury is at least as serious an offence as contempt."
"Indeed," added the Rear Admiral. "Given that we have numerous witnesses that place you on the bridge on that morning and/or being escorted from the bridge that morning, I strongly suggest that you reconsider that answer."
Mr dh'Lhong sighed. "Yes, I was on the bridge that morning. I was trying to avoid mentioning the presence of the lady I was escorting." There, that was a nice touch, if he did say so himself. He'd thought he'd shut the mouths of everyone else who'd been on the bridge that morning, or that the captain would tell them not to talk, but he hadn't thought of the people who'd seen him leaving the bridge - a tactical error that.
"The question, Mr dh'Lhong, was how did you gain access to the bridge," reiterated the Rear Admiral.
"I have, correction, had a key." That was the truth, and he knew they had it so there was no point in prevaricating about it now.
"And where did you get this key from, Mr dh'Lhong?" The Rear Admiral was regarding him with apparent polite interest.
"I picked it up when I visited the company offices in Mhaiphrial before I boarded the Empress Mhaihild," replied Caitus dh'Lhong cheerfully. "As a company owner, I find it's best practice to keep an eye on both my managers and the shop floor, so to speak. That means I need access to where the work is done." And all of that is true, he thought to himself.
"So, a check of the restricted keys register in the Northern Stars Line office in Mhaiphrial will find the entry where you were issued that key, will it Mr dh'Lhong?" The Rear Admiral was leaning forward, elbows on the table and hands vertically clasped together with folded fingers in front of his chin.
"I...didn't see a register," replied Mr dh'Lhong uncertainly.
"So, you obtained a bridge key without sighting or signing the restricted keys register, is that correct?" The Rear Admiral made a note.
"Yes," agreed Caitus dh'Lhong, nodding his head in confirmation.
"Given that Imperial regulations demand that bridge keys be controlled, and their chain of custody documented, just how did you manage that, Mr dh'Lhong?" To Caitus dh'Lhong's mind, Rear Admiral Lord Raiph now resembled some energy efficient beast of prey, intent on devouring him alive.
"I took it out of the safe," admitted Mr dh'Lhong, seeing the open pit before him but not sure how to avoid it.
"And how did you get into the safe?" All of the seated Naval officers looked up making from their notes and waited for him to speak.
"Uh," he looked at the faces in front of him, and admitted, "I took the chief clerk's keys out of his office when he went to relieve himself and unlocked it with those."
"Did you return the chief clerk's keys?" That came from the officer on the far left of the Rear Admiral
"Yes, they were back in his desk drawer before he returned from the retiring room," shot back Caitus dh'Lhong. "I didn't want to keep them - the bunch was almost the size of my fist."
"So, having obtained the bridge key, why did you use it on the morning of 21 Ochd?" That was the officer immediately on the Rear Admiral's left.
"I was slightly inebriated from the night before," Caitus dh'Lhong thought it best to look slightly shame faced about this, "and I was trying to impress the lady."
"And how did you try to that?" Back to the Rear Admiral.
"Showed her a part of the ship that only I could get her into," said Caitus dh'Long promptly.
"Did that work?" The officer to the Rear Admiral's immediate right, the one who'd mentioned perjury, sounded interested. Not quite over after dinner brandy interested, but almost sympathetic.
"She played hard to get, so I arranged a little rush of blood to warm her up," he gave the officer who'd asked the question one of convivial, we're-all-men-of-the-world-here smiles.
"So, how did you do that?" The question was delivered with just that after dinner, brandy under the belt tone.
Caitus dh'Lhong opened his mouth to answer then realised that what he had been about to say shouldn't be said out aloud in public. He had, after all, been counting on everyone else keeping their mouths shut. "I prefer not to say," he replied primly. Let them make of that what they would.
"If you would prefer not to say, Mr dh'Lhong," said the Rear Admiral, "we can summarise the testimony we've already been given and ask you yes or no questions. Or you can tell us in your own words."
The witness said nothing. He was beginning to appreciate how hard his solicitor back home had worked to make his punitive court cases against strike raisers and the like come out in his favour.
"On the morning of 21 Ochd of this year, did you depress the horizontal controls on the Empress Mhaihild causing the ship to descend rapidly in a dive?" The Rear Admiral dipped his pen in the inkwell again and waited for an answer.
The only way out of this was to dare them to make an issue of it. "What if I did? I'm a director of the Line and a substantial shareholder. Shareholders are owners; therefore, the ship is mine to do with as I wish, in a manner of speaking."
The special counsel assisting the Inquiry stood, and with a nod from the Rear Admiral, spoke first, "Mr dh'Lhong, are you, by any chance, the sole proprietor of your industrial holdings?"
"Yes, what if I am?" Caitus dh'Lhong turned a puzzled eye on the other man.
"It does help clarify how you've survived in business with such a particular understanding of the relationship between ownership of a company and ownership of the company's property," replied the special counsel. "Thank you, Mr dh'Lhong." The man sat back down.
The Rear Admiral continued, "Mr dh'Lhong, did anyone on the bridge with you attempt to reverse what you had done to the controls?"
This sounded like safe ground, "The boy idiot tried to level out the ship before I was ready for that to happen and hit me when I tried to stop him. And that wretched, ungrateful woman hit me about the head with her reticule. I should have had them both charged with assault when we got into port."
"To summarise then," said the left-hand side officer, the man's voice suddenly harder, "you accessed the bridge of the Empress Mhaihild using a key that wasn't issued to you, and that you had obtained illegally, in order to impress a person who was also not authorised to be on that bridge. To further impress that person, you then unlawfully interfered with the navigation of the Empress Mhaihild and then fought with the crew member who was trying to restore safe running order. Have I left anything out, Mr dh'Lhong?"
"The parts where they assaulted me," retorted Mr dh'Lhong.
Several hours later, Caitus dh'Lhong had to admit that the day had gotten worse from there. He'd been arrested on both aerial navigation and theft charges, despite pointing out that he was a director and shareholder of the company so he couldn't actually steal the key from himself. And then they'd corrected him and said, "Keys," which is when he'd realised that his stateroom had been searched too. Without telling him, but he'd bet that there'd been a Warrant.
The Northern Stars line's local manager had refused to help him get a solicitor to sort the problem out, and the Line's legal man here in Amnestri had refused to help too, simply saying, "Conflict of interest," and walking away.
The only person who hadn't walked away had been his valet, Saibhairn. The man had arrived moments ago with a solicitor he'd found somewhere in the building Caitus dh'Lhong's cell was in. The solicitor was going to apply for bail and was going over the likely conditions, "And you'll need a permanent address here in Amnestri. It can be rented rooms or a house, but it can't be an inn."
"That's ridiculous," replied Mr dh'Lhong, "I've got a perfectly good stateroom on the Empress Mhaihild."
"Flight risk," replied the solicitor succinctly. His name was a local one, something like Ameyettair.
"Also, sir," added Saibhairn, "you don't have a stateroom on the Empress Mhaihild anymore. I was advised this afternoon that it's no longer available. I have a letter for you from the ship to that effect. Also, they've refunded the rest of your fare...." The man let the sentence trail off, no doubt due to the look on his employer's face.
"That means you should have the cash to make bail then," said the solicitor cheerfully. "I'll go set you up with a hearing in front of a magistrate, your man here can go and organise somewhere for you, him and your luggage to lodge, and all being well you might be out of here before close of business. Depending on the magistrates' schedules, of course."
The cheerful expression on the man's face made Mr dh'Lhong look at him more closely and realise just how vulgar the man's choice of clothing was. He closed his eyes for a moment, opened them again, and said, "Yes, please. Both of you, please get me out of here."