Dangerous Silence

Chapter 15

"The secret to his downfall?" I couldn't have sounded more incredulous at the moment. Was there really some secret, a chip in the armor of the ruler of the entire Indian subcontinent and Mr. Ambrose's sworn enemy? And Mr. Ambrose had it in his hand? "What do you mean?"

"I meant exactly what I said, Mr. Linton." Turning around abruptly, he reached the door in three large strides, and disappeared behind it without another word. My jaw slackened as I hurried to follow him out of the door, shaking my head at his rudeness. What did his governess teach him? No manners, no politeness, only freezing cold glares. Or, knowing him, he probably glared at the governess and scared her away. Poor girl.

Opening the door, I looked around in his office to see no sign of the icy cold presence of a certain rude employer of mine. Rubbing my hands together to keep them warm, I entered my own office to see the safe door open and a small light making the rows and rows of files shine in the darkness. A tall silhouette stood in front of one of them, as if inspecting them and I joined him, curious to know what did he exactly mean.

"Close the door partially behind you." Leaving the door partially ajar, I stood silently for about a minute, observing him as he went over the file numbers, until my curiousity made me feel like I was about to burst.

"What is in the file?"

"Have some patience, Mr. Linton." I ignored his inappropriate addressal for yours truly as he took out file S638XVI89 and slid his hand into the small gap in the shelf in the place of the file and I silently observed what he was doing. There was a click sound and some whirring sounds from behind the cabinet and I nearly jumped in surprise as the sounds revebrated in the small room. "What's that?"

Very surprisingly, he ignored me and stationed himself in front of the opposite shelf and I promptly followed him. Opening my mouth to enquire about his more than slightly suspicious behaviour, I realised that I had to pick up my jaw from the cold tiles as the entire cabinet in front of me shifted itself ahead with a click. What kind of sorcery was this?

A dark gap which had been created when the shelf moved ahead, protuded out in the dim light of the candle and I stood there rooted in my place as Mr. Ambrose simply put his hand in there and pulled out an unsually small blue file. It was a plain one without any kind of marking or labels on it.

He handed it out to me and I silently took it, carefully examining the available half of the cause of all the trouble brewing since the past few days. My mind idly wondered how such a small bunch of papers could get me kidnapped and threatened as I opened it. I went over the contents and a moment of silence ensued. Then:

"You know Latin?"

"No. This is Greek."

"Looks the same to me." I muttered under my breath and glowered at the undecipherable script, trying to recognise any pattern in the letters, but I didn't find any.

I handed the file back to him, looking at him expectantly, but when he remained silent and started arranging the papers back inside the file, I spoke up. "What is written in it?"

"The secret to Dalgliesh's downfall."

I gave him my best sarcastic smile ever. "Oh. Thank you so much for that information. I would never have guessed it, if you had not told that to me minutes ago."

He arranged the papers and closed the file, not even looking at me as he replied. "Indeed, Mr. Linton."

"Hey! Aren't you going to tell me what's written in it?"

"Respect, Mr. Linton."

"Fine! Aren't you going to tell me what is written in it, sir?"

He finally opened his mouth after a few seconds of silence, as if contemplating his words before trusting me with. "The secret to the success of trade with a dangerous rival waiting for a chance to put you down, is information. Timely information. Without the latest information about market forces, economical and political powers, it is impossible to conclude a business deal profitably, let alone run an entire subcontinent. Or keep an eye on business rivals and their activities. And the sources of Dalgliesh's information-"