Topari might act the country novice, but he wisely wanted an agreement set in stone, sealed, filed in the national archive, and the agreement removed from his local politics, so that his neighbors could not change their minds.
· · ·
“I have something for you, indeed,” Bren was able to say, finally. He had anticipated the encounter, and had a member of his secretarial office in attendance with a set of papers. He smiled, showed Topari into the now-vacant conference room, and beckoned the young man with the briefcase.
The young man set it on the table, opened it, and drew out five, fortunate five packets, laying them in a fan on the table.
“For each district affected,” Bren said with some satisfaction in his handiwork, “indeed, nandi, anticipating that we might meet today, I have prepared a plan, with the requested road work, and there will be an adequate warehouse, and a Transportation Guild establishment in the station. You recall—”
“Foreigners are not acceptable!” was Topari’s immediate and negative response.
“Ah, but the Transportation Guild, in agreement with other changes going on within all the guilds, will recognize your local offices. Representatives of that guild will induct five local residents, one from each of your districts, train them, and then assist them to train other candidates for their guild, setting up a model establishment for others—completely local—to be set up in other districts across the Southern Mountains and southward into the Marid. The original representatives will return to Shejidan when training is complete, leaving your own people in absolute authority over operations at your station. And this office is budgeted in with the road-building, to be sure of that standard you ask.”
Local authority would be indoctrinated, trained, educated, and bound by Transportation Guild standards, regulations, and procedures—including road width. It was a training process that might take years, but he neglected to mention that. He pointed out for the lord, who was not adept with legal language, the salient points of the agreement.
“Local control,” he said, pointing to a paragraph of fine calligraphy. “Local authority—in your office, which will be the first and senior Transportation Guild office in the district, supervising all offices that later exist. You will have complete local control, and there will be no running to Shejidan for approval for matters involving the rail in your district. Your rail center will communicate decisions to subordinate stations, which you may decide to set up, or not. Your rail center will become, in fact, a central office.”
“Central of what?”
“Of whatever you instruct them to be, nandi. As the foremost clan of your local association, and as lord of the territory where the rail office is located, you may choose to negotiate a Transportation office in each of your member districts, but one assumes you will choose to keep the regional Guild office in your rail center, bound together by the several roads.”
He could see the glitter in Lord Topari’s eyes.
“They will be in direct communication with Transportation Guild Headquarters here in Shejidan, so you can be confident any matters you deem important enough to report will go straight to the highest level of the Transportation Guild in Shejidan, at the speed of modern communications—that is to say, instantly. And your report will go from them to the aiji, should there be any problem they cannot resolve. Any of your neighbors’ difficulties will be routed to your local office before being relayed to Shejidan.”
Topari listened to that, and his eyes began to sparkle. “Direct from Halrun to Shejidan.”
“At a simple phone call,” Bren said. “As will be the case, of course, with any other guilds you yourself deem useful to your district. Establish a local office in your district, and establish minor offices reporting to it from other members of your association, and you will be the center of such operations. One would recommend that the Builders’ Guild be among the first to operate on that level. Likewise the Trade Guild might be useful to you. I see that you are amply defended by your bodyguard. But perhaps the Treasurers would be useful, to be sure every report and record is proper and to the established standard. Many districts have found the Treasurers a great convenience, eliminating any confusion about accounts.”
“We are not on the gold standard!”
“Absolutely,” he said. Topari’s folk, poor in that resource, dealt in a mishmash of equivalencies and direct barter of everything from furs to foodstuffs. “Which is all the more reason to have your own local people in the Treasurers’ Guild, trained to deal with exchanges, knowledgeable enough to agree on fair values locally—and to be certain your standards are being observed when the value of items is translated to Shejidani currency.”
A worried and calculating look. “One of my associates will not favor that.”
“Each may have whatever offices he wishes to admit, under your authority—though of course if they want the full advantage of the system—ultimately—they all must deal with the offices in your district, nandi. It will be an advantage to them to have their offices directly connected to the rail office, and to the warehouses we shall build there; and to have them on site where the goods meet the rail in Halrun. So perhaps your lone objector will find the system to his advantage after all, as the operation progresses and profits flow. One is certain he will not want to be left out of your road system—and when he finds that your commerce is proceeding without delays and inquiries, he may wish to participate. Meanwhile your station will gain from rapid processing of exchanges, and if Halrun makes it most convenient for traders, Halrun will get the most benefits. Fortune and geography have settled a great benefit on your home district, nandi, and, as a coastal lord, I can add that with the improvement of the Najida spur, as the dowager and Lord Machigi intend, you will find those warehouses full of goods going not only north-south, but also coming up from the west coast. And of course your local products will always have direct shipment to the Marid and the west coast, rather than going down to Shejidan for packaging and shipping. Your district will derive a fee from goods in storage in those warehouses—fees which have hitherto gone to Shejidan. An efficient operation in your district, perhaps with additional warehouses, as lords become aware of the advantage of a central distribution point, can be very, very profitable.”
“Excellent creature!” Lord Topari exclaimed. “Excellently done!”
And Topari was out the door and off down the hall with his guard.
Bren drew a deep breath, aware of his own aishid around him, doubtless suppressing the strong desire to open fire.
“Nadiin-ji,” he said, choosing amusement, and experiencing a certain satisfaction, “your restraint is admirable.”
“You have inserted an Assassins’ Guild office into that territory,” Banichi said, in that dry tone of on-duty humor. “Manners must soon follow.”
“Creature!” Jago repeated.
“Views will change,” Bren said, “slowly. The man may even realize his slip—and worry about it later. Or his guard may.”
“It is important his guard know the problem, however,” Algini said, and Banichi nodded.
“Indeed,” Banichi said. “Tano.”
Tano left their company on his own mission, to pass a word to Topari’s bodyguard, namely that the paidhi had magnanimously forgiven the small slip in protocol, but that the paidhi’s guard strongly suggested that a reconsideration of vocabulary in private might prevent future incidents in public—lest he make that reference in the hearing of the aiji-dowager, or with some of the more conservative lords.