by The Great Nevareh » Wed Jan 26, 2005 11:14 pm
"You ever tried stealing one out of an apartment? They're bulky, heavy, and they might leak. Not cooperative at all, like jewelry or easily carried art."
She stretches and lays herself out on her couch before she starts talking again.
"Mmkay, I could use an appretice. Adults are easier to handle than kids, though not as receptive. Sconner always kept one of those little wankers around, so I might as well keep the tradition going. If you try to steal from me, feel free. I won't miss anything. If you go to the police, I doubt you'll get anywhere. When a wanted fugitive can walk on the streets without the guard noticing, then they've got something else on their minds. This whole shenanigan with the Castle would have made the crime rate skyrocket if most people knew what it meant. If I really wanted to, I could go on a petty theft spree by myself and stay safe and sound because the guard's got other things on its mind. Still, that won't net me much aside from living expenses for about a month or two. Hence, I'm going after bigger game."
She emphasizes this with another stretch and a yawn. Despite the fact that she's basically selling her "Master Plan" to other people, she seems quite bored.
"That game is the Airship. You've been around, you've heard the rumors. People think that Airship plans have been stolen from the Castle. Tons of nobs from around Igala are here, many of them not exactly too friendly but not hostile either to Baron."
She scratches the back of her head. Oh, the drama!
"No, I don't know who or what started that fire, and I don't know why. I do, however, have some very brilliant friends who lack common sense and are designing an airship for me as an intellectual exercise. I get to keep the plans, which, on a whim, I'm asking them to make a final draft of on extremely durable, well-made, high grade vellum which I had lying around. These plans should, to any engineer outside of Cidolfas, seem genuine enough to be real. They'll be an imitation of the secret ace Baron has had up its sleeve since the War of the Crystals: How to build military airships."
She arches her back and makes herself more comfortable on the couch.
"Any country in its right mind would be thrilled to have airship plans for an airship that can mount and fire artillery without terrible difficulty and inefficiency. Any nobleman in their right mind would love to be around to present those plans to their monarch. And, if my friends are doing it right, no one will suspect a thing until someone tries to actually build one. They may be brilliant, but I doubt they can succeed where others have failed for four hundred years. Our game will be to work the nobles until we find someone who'd be interested in purchasing these plans, rig up an exchange, and take all the money out of this city to turn it into something else. The only big thing I think we might have to worry about is the group of people who actually attacked the castle, if they exist. The Crown Investigators won't tie us into the incident because we're under the radar and I have a rock-solid alibi that not only garuntees that I didn't do it, but I couldn't contact other people who did."
She sits up, finally, and fluffs a pillow in her lap while finishing her spiel.
"The true beauty of this plan lies in the details. I'll try to avoid not telling you things that would be useful to know, but I won't be giving everything up to you all right away. There might be honor amongst thieves, but that honor tends not to stick around when big piles of money come into the equation."