Among Thieves

Our walking shadow led us deeper into Ten Ways. The alleys grew steadily narrower as we went, seeming to gather and condense the darkness around us. The buildings on either side went from shoddy to pathetic to practically uninhabitable. Evidence of fires marked several structures, and those that had not collapsed in on themselves looked to be seriously considering the idea. And the stench... It almost made me miss the sewers. Waste, rot, decay — and most of it human in origin. Somewhere alont the way it began to rain, which at least reduced the smell.
The worst part, though, was that things were beginning to look familiar.
"The Barren," I said to no one in particular.
The Kin`s colw turned to face back over his shoulder. "You know it?" he asked.
"I used to live here," I said. Live? More like "survive" — that hadn`t been living. "I swore I`d never return."
"Oaths are meant to be broken," said the Kin.

"If I get over to Ash Street right now, I ought to be able to cover at least a halfdozen pipe sellers before —"
"Nonsense," said Christiana. She clapped her hands. "You`ll do nothing of the sort. And I`ll not sit around waiting while you do."
Josef came gliding into the room, stopped at a respectful distance, and bowed.
"I find myself in need of tobacco pipes, Josef," Christiana pronounced. "A wide array of tobacco pipes."
"Very good, madam. How many tobacconists would you care to interview?"
"Start with a dozen."
"And when would madam wish them to call upon her?"
"Immediately."
Josef bowed again. "I will send runners at once. Shall I have them assemble in the solar?"
Christiana inclined her head. "Please. And inform Cook that Drothe and I will be taking an early dinner in the garden."
Josef bobbed a third time and hurried from the room.
Christiana turned back to me and arched a satisfied smile. "And that, dear brother," she said, "is how a baroness does 'legwork'."

— Огрехов мало, и заметить их нелегко.

— Но ты же заметил, — отозвался Балдезар. — Хорошая подделка тем и хороша, что дилетант не увидит в ней ничего подозрительного. А это письмо не выдержало даже такого испытания. — И он ткнул пальцем. — Вот здесь, здесь и здесь неправильно отрисованы буквы. В третьей и пятой строчке почерк поплыл. И как минимум две затертые и исправленные стилистические ошибки. Подделка документов — это искусство в той же мере, в какой и копирование. А тут поработал не художник, а переписчик.

— Кто бы он ни был, он владел образцами почерка баронессы Сефады, — напомнил я. — И знал, что мы с ней деловые партнеры. Это по-прежнему указывает на тебя.

— Да, и это меня беспокоит, — кивнул Балдезар. — Это значит, что либо кто-то забрался в мой кабинет, либо замешан мой работник. Так или иначе, это плохо. Но у меня нет причин желать тебе смерти.

"I want you to find out what the hell`s going on."
I frowned. I had expected to be told to shadow Rambles`s efforts and report back. "Isn`t that Rambles`s job? He`s in charge down there now."
"Rambles can kick ass and take names with the best of them, but he`ll miss things. You won`t — that`s why I want you Nosing down there. And I don`t want you sharing what you find with anyone but me."
"You don`t trust him?"
"Trust has nothing to do with it: I want to compare what you say to what he says."
Ah. He didn`t trust either of us. Wonderful.

In the "argot of the underworld," as Baldezar would no doubt call it, I am what is referred to as a Nose. This means I make a living by stickign myself in where I don`t belong, sniffing around for dirt, and generally making a nuisance of myself. I`m an information broker, and I gather what I can by almost any means I can: paid informants, bribes, eavesdropping, blackmail, burglary, frame-ups... and even, on rare occasions, roture — whatever it takes to get the story.
That`s what sets a Nose apart from a run-of-the-mill rumormonger: We not only collect the pieces; we also put them together. Any Mumbler can sell you a rumor for the right price; but if you want to know the why behind the rumor, when and where things are coming together, and hot it got started in the first place, you go to a Nose. Noses don`t just gather whispers off the street — we sift and assemble them, putting together the pieces most Kin miss. We don`t just find out something is happening — we find out why it`s happening in the first place.
And then, we sell the information.
Whom you sell it to depends on what kind of Nose you are. If you`re a Wide Nose, you work the street and sell what you learn to the highest bidder, pure and simple. It`s dangerous work, since not everyone wants you sharing what you learn, but a smart Nose knows how to hold just enough information back to keep people from bothering him.
Long Noses, on the other hand, keep their heads down and their information tight. They ply their trade by infiltrating a rival crime lord`s organization and feeding information back to their real boss. Being a Long Nose takes that special mixture of guts and stupidity usually reserved for mongooses and imperial tax collectors. You typically don`t find out someone`s doing the Long Nose until he turns up floating in the harbor.
The third kind of Nose is the Narrow Nose. That`s what I do for Nicco — keep tabs on his people, find out who is or isn`t cheating him, and generally solve minor problems before they get big. It doesn`t exactly make me popular with my fellow Kin, but it does give me something the other two types of Noses don`t have — backing. If anyone wants to come after me, he has to think about what Nicco will do to him in return. That`s not a bad place to be. However, like everything else, it has its trade-offs, one of which is that I have to answer to Nicco — a lot.
It`s that last part that comes back to haunt me, usually at the worst possible times.

Вот что я скажу насчет Клятв: их не дают вслепую, они меняются со временем, и их не так легко разорвать. Я даже думать не хочу, сколько клятв за последнее время нарушили у меня на глазах, но понял одно: все клятвы сдержать невозможно. Как ни старайся – просто невозможно, и все. Приходится выбирать, причем не только что́ именно выполнять, но и как. Нужно заглянуть дальше слов и дальше смысла, который тебе приятен, чтобы выяснить, о чем идет речь на самом деле. Когда произносишь слова Клятвы, тебя все устраивает и все понятно, но суть клятвы не в этом. Обещание должно изменяться вместе с тобой и, главное, с обстоятельствами, в которых ты оказываешься. Смысл не в том, чтобы сдержать слово, а в том, чтобы остаться верным намерениям, с которыми ты его давал.