A well-dressed gentleman strolled down a dank tunnel. Though the elaborate precautions comforted him, he intensely disliked letting this man tell him where to be and when. His hooded lantern showed an iron-bound door ahead; he knocked and awaited admittance.
"So good to see you, monsieur. I trust you are satisfied with my work?"
"It took longer to convince this one than it did the last." He strove to master his tone - the man might pick the time and location, but he was the one paying.
"True, true. I had to spoon-feed him proof of crime after crime before he found the courage to arrest His Majesty's right-hand man."
"I heard that the Commissioner was poking around in matters that truly concern us."
The man stood up, paced over to a small cabinet wholly out of place in this oubliette-like room, and poured two drinks. The well-dressed gentleman took the proffered claret and sipped at the dark purple liquid while he waited for his answer.
"I am not so certain it is true, but to be safe, I had my men search his office and his home. There are no papers in either, and whatever is in his head will soon be parted from his shoulders."
"And if he should prevail on their king? Or failing that, be excused or retained by the Minister?"
The man laughed out loud. "Oh, you do not know our Minister. He has an over-large, I think you would say, spleen. This will gall him as nothing else can; he will see to it that our Commissioner is removed from the scene. Were you to walk up to him and offer incontrovertible proof, he would still see the Commissioner burn - he never forgives." The man took another sip. "And while His Majesty will never convict, he will once again doubt and that doubt will eat at him as it did before, doubly so since this is his second man to be so accused in nearly as many years. Again, he will feel there is no one in whom he can confide. We will keep all whom he might trust bickering with one another, cutting at another's throats, until the end."
"And what if the Minister begins tracking you down?"
"You worry too much, monsieur. Let me do the worrying for both of us. We have kept him busy with one wild goose chase already, have we not? And should foreign parts prove no longer interesting, this business with the Commissioner will provide another." The man finished his drink and stood up. "The most powerful man in the country, both in government and military, stands accused in His Majesty's eyes. I would say I have unequivocally delivered all and more than I promised."
The gentleman removed two heavy pouches from his belt and placed them gently on the table. The clink of finely crafted jewelry echoed off the stone walls. "This will see to your immediate expenses. I have arranged for delivery of the sum you requested by private coach - you should have it in a few days. And there will of course be more if you pull off the end-game as well as you have the rest. Good day to you."
