Walter Ambrose

?Walter Ambrose? Kyle told Brenan ?He said you had talked to him before and that he had a job for you.? Brenan had talked to Ambrose before, in fact the very day he finalized the sale with Davy, Ambrose had found him at a bar and struck up a conversation. There was something about the man that Brenan disliked, but he had shipping jobs, money and a whole bunch of contacts, not just here but up and down the island chain and on the Veertor mainland. One of the down sides of owning your own ship was having to deal with blood eels like Ambrose.

?So did he say he?d come back or am I supposed to go find him?? Asked Brenan, knowing that Ambrose would want him to come to him. Brenan would not have been surprised if Ambrose had had the ship watched and waited to approach the schooner when he knew Brenan wouldn?t be there.

?Said you could find him in the ?Hammer and Anvil? until sunset tonight and that then he was off to see another schooner captain that had been bugging him for work.? Kyle smiled as he heard Brenan swear under his breath like a real sailor, not some merchant who had never been to sea. ?Good news is that Davy stopped by with some new hammocks and other supplies, said he?d just add them to your tab. Tyler and I showed the new guys where to store them and how to rig their hammocks for sleeping."

"Hey, did you know Davy knew the boys grandfather?" Brenan wasn't too surprised, the islands were not all that crowded, and Davy seemed to know most of the people involved with the shipping business.

"Did he seem to like them?" Brenan asked curious to see if his initial impression of the boys would be confirmed by Davy as well.

"Well enough I guess Captain. They're better than most raw hands, and didn't give me any shit when I put them to work carrying down the new supplies." Brenan relaxed a little when he heard that. The two brothers clearly came from a fairly well off family, and some of the elite thought they were above manual labor. He was starting to feel better about his crew.

"Davy brought us, a bunch of sailcloth and rope, a barrel of pitch and a couple more of paint. He also brought a couple sails made of dark brown canvas, said the last owner had them and that might find them useful." They might be useful if Brenan ever decided he had to run a blockade at night.

"Oh, yeah." There were two crates of sour grapes.? Kyle?s face broke into a carefree grin. ?Told us we should suck on them when we needed something sweeter to deal with than your sourpuss face.? Brenan laughed out loud at Kyle?s grin and said:

?You?re smiling now, but in a week or two you might realize he wasn?t joking.? A flicker of doubt crossed the seaman?s face then disappeared as he grinned again. Brenan suspected that the twins slept with broad smiles on their faces. ?OK, show me where you had James and Julien stow the supplies, and then I?ll have to swallow my pride and go see Walter.? As he headed down the hatch towards the galley he had one more thought.

"Did Davy see Sasha when he was on board?"

Kyle shook his head imediately, "No sir, Tyler wisked her into the front cabin as long as Davy was about. No way he could have known she was here."

For the next hour Brenan saw the ship was in good shape. Julien and James were sitting with Tyler on the wheel deck going over several of the basic knots and he checked that the supplies were stowed in a logical manner. Sasha seemed cheerful with her new position and pressed a cup of coffee into his hand when she saw him in the main hold.

Changing into a clean shirt and a loose vest that covered his Defender pistol, Brenan headed out to the ?Hammer and Anvil? to meet with Ambrose and see what he had to say.

(taken largely from ?Well Enough? written by gunde)

?Ah, Brenan!? Ambrose greeted Brenan with a smile that made the ex-soldier?s stomach turn. Out of habit Brenan scanned the room, a couple other merchants were eating an early dinner. A pair of well dressed gentlemen sitting at a table engaged in a heated conversation, and over by the bar were two of Ambrose's men checking him out as he took his seat.

?Ambrose.? Brenan nodded at the small man and Ambrose waved down a waitress.

?Hello my dear, a glass of your finest port for my good friend.? Ambrose talked to the waitress as though she was a part of the tavern?s décor, and Brenan reflected on the fact that the merchant was the sort of man who would buy you an expensive drink and then try to rob you blind while you drank it.

?I?m so glad you?re here,? Ambrose greeted Brenan again, with a friendliness that was so obviously false that it drove Brenan to wonder if he was attempting to provoke him.

?What?s the job, Ambrose?? Brenan asked, hoping to get away from the detestable little man as quickly as possible.

?Ah, straight to business, it?s a good quality in a captain,? Ambrose began, ?But like I told you earlier this week, I have some cargo that needs to be shipped, and I?d like to give you a good start in your new life.?

?What kind of cargo?? Brenan was doing his best to keep Ambrose from talking too much about nothing, which he was very prone to do. Again, Brenan suspected that it was a tactic that the merchant employed to gain the advantage on the people with whom he was negotiating, wearing down their concentration by excess speech until he could strike a deal which was very advantageous to him.

?Well, it all depends on how much money you want to make,? Ambrose replied, seemingly a little disturbed by Brenan?s bluntness, ?I have one cargo of a perfectly legitimate nature, although the perishable quality of its components is such that it requires a fast ship and a skilful captain to bring it safely to its intended port, less its value should be irrefutably lessened by the merciless advance of time.?

?What?s the cargo?? Brenan cut in, both because he was very keen on interrupting Ambrose and because he wanted to hear about the other cargo, which he suspected would be a lot less than legal.

?Perishable fruits and vegetables, grown and harvested right here on this very island, bought by me to be sold to the good people of the Empire,? Ambrose explained, and Brenan couldn?t help but suspect that he knew of his attitude towards said good people of the Empire.

?And the other cargo??

?Ah?? Ambrose strangled his voice until it was barely more than a whisper, after which they were interrupted by the arrival of Brenan?s glass of port. ?Aren?t you going to drink it?? Ambrose asked of the glass which Brenan left sitting in front of him on the table.

?Maybe to celebrate our deal,? Brenan responded.

?Oh well, anyway, the other cargo is decidedly not so legal, but very profitable?? Ambrose was once more interrupted by Brenan asking what exactly it was. ?In a word, cheese.? Ambrose explained.

?Cheese?? Brenan asked, he didn?t know what Ambrose was going to say, but he wasn?t expecting it to be ?Cheese?

?Why yes, cheese and some wine, nothing but the finest quality products from Cryn. As you no doubt are aware of, the consumption of products from said nation is unbecoming to any patriotic Veertorian, but some people are such that they rate their culinary fancies above their love of country, and who am I to judge them for it??

?Huh?? Brenan exhaled as he considered his options. The transport of fruit and vegetables was less profitable but more secure choice, Smuggling cheese and wine on the other hand would mean that he would have to avoid the Veertorian ports and instead make landfall in a bay or something like that. The rendezvous point would be one that Ambrose and his partners had picked in advance, which meant that he would have to trust the ratty merchant?s judgment.

Either option would bring Brenan some much-needed cash, and both of them came with their own set of problems to deal with.