Kings and Pawns

Chapter 5

I had just finished dressing from my bath when I heard a knock on my door. I opened it and  much to my surprise, there stood Clayton Ebbersol, the head record keeper. "Mr. Ebbersol," I greeted him, though I had no idea why he was here at my door.

"I'm sorry to show up unannounced, I hope my presence isn't an intrusion, " he apologized uncertainly.

"No, no, this isn't an intrusion," I assured him.

He glanced nervously towards the courtyard. "Sir, if you have the time, might I speak to you privately for a moment?"

His anxious behaviour interested me. Whatever he had to say was obviously important somehow. He looked nervous almost to the point of guilt. I held the door open wide for him. "Please come in Mr. Ebbersol."

He entered, looking like a sheep going into a lion's den, cautious and unsure.

I led him to my sparsely furnished sitting room and offered one of the three hard chairs it contained to him. I was reminded again why Caliet and I always met in her apartment when we needed to discuss something, mine was not exactly up to comfortable standards for visitors.

We both sat and he began to fidget in his seat. After a few moments it was evident that he was not about to start the conversation, so I did.

"Mr. Ebbersol," he jumped a little at the sound of my voice, and then focused on me. "Why have you come here?" I asked him, "What is the purpose of this meeting?"

"Yes, Sir William, I do have a purpose for this meeting. I have something that I need to tell you."

He stopped again. He seemed to have some sort of battle going on in his mind, as if he was fighting to decide whether or not he should tell me what he came here to tell me.

"Is something wrong Mr. Ebbersol?"

"It's just that, well, something happened in the records room that I risk losing my job over."

Now I understood the turmoil, when one's career is on the line one does not make hasty decisions. With one look at this man's face, I knew that he could not have done anything deliberately worthy of losing his job over. 

"Mr. Ebbersol, I can assure you that won't happen. I can personally vouch for your dedication and credibility, and should the need arise, I will take your case before the Emperor."

"You can? You will?" he asked hopefully.

I nodded, "That is, if I know what's going on."

The relief he felt was visible all over his face. "And now might we get down to business?" I asked.

He nodded, "Right." He immediately launched into the explanation for his appearance. "after you left the records room the other day, I got curious as to the reasons for your search for that shipment. I began to examine the records for the other shipments that were sent from the same location as the one you were looking for. At first, I din't find anything, for there were many files to look through, but then I discovered one of the records had been tampered with. The cargo, iron and copper ore was changed to include silver ore as well. The longer I looked, the more I found, the dates of the oldest shipment go back many months. That means that someone has been illegally importing silver ore and hiding it with legal shipments. And, to make it worse, I let whom ever it was into the records room many times and gave them access to the files multiple times!"

Mr. Ebbersol looked about ready to faint, and with very good cause. He started to ramble nervously, "Now I won't be trusted and there will be an investigation, and the clearks will be useless and workless, and I'll probably lose my job, and..."