The Merchants' War: Book Four of the Merchant Princes

by Charles Stross

  She pushed herself upright with her walking stick. “Put yourself in their shoes. They want nothing to change, because they feel threatened by change—their status is tenuous. A postal network is a packet-switched network, literally so. If world-walkers drift away from it, the bandwidth drops, and thus, its profitability. New ventures divert vital human capital. They’re against exploration, because they’re scrambling to stay on top of the dung heap.”

  “Sounds like—” Mike could think of a number of people it sounded like, uncomfortably close to home—change the subject. “What about the progressives?”

  “We want change, simple as that. Miriam observed that we are mired in a business that scales in direct proportion to the number of world-walkers, like a service business. She suggested—and her uncovering another world provided the opportunity—that we switch to what she called a technology-transfer model, trading information between universes.”

  “How many are there?” he asked, side-tracked by fascination.

  “At least three. We thought two, until a year ago. Now we know there are three, and we suspect there are many more. Yours is the most advanced we know of, but what might be lurking out there? We can trade, Mr. Fleming. We could be very useful to the United States of America. But first we need a…change of management? Yes, a change of management. We originated in a feudal realm, and our ability is hereditary: don’t underestimate the effects of reproductive politics on the Clan’s governance. Before we can change the way we do things, before we can end our unfortunate reliance on illegal trafficking, we need to break the grip of the conservative factions on the council, and to do that we need to entirely overturn our family and tribal foundations.”

  “Your family structures?”

  “Yes.” Olga pulled a face: Iris either ignored it, or pretended to do so. “You must be aware of the implications of artificial insemination. There’s been a quiet argument going on within the Clan’s council for a generation now, over whether it is our destiny to continue existing as braided matrilineal families in a patriarchal society, or to become…well, not a family organization any more, but one open to anyone born with the ability, whatever their parentage.”

  Mike shut his eyes. I think my brain just exploded, he thought. “Who are the progressives?”

  “Myself for one, to your very great good fortune. My half-brother for another, although he is as circumspect in public as befits the head of the Clan’s external security organization—a seat of significant power on the council. There are others. You do not need to know who they are. If you’re captured or tortured, what you don’t know you can’t give away.”

  “And the conservatives?”

  “Miriam’s great-uncle Henryk, if he’s still alive. He was the late king’s spymaster in chief. My mother, Hildegarde, who is also Miriam’s grandmother. Baron Oliver Hjorth, about two thirds of the council…too many to enumerate.”

  “Okay. So you want me to set up a covert channel between you—your faction—and, my agency? Or just me?”

  “Just you, at first.” Iris’s cheek twitched. “You’re injured. When you are back on your feet I will contact you. You will excuse me, but I am afraid I will require certain actions from you in order to demonstrate that you are trustworthy. Tokens of trust, if you like.”

  I don’t like the sound of this. “Such as…?”

  “That’s for me to know and you to find out.” She relented slightly: “I can’t do business with you if I can’t trust you. But I won’t ask you to do anything illegal—unlike your superiors.”

  Mike shivered. She’s got my number. “What makes you think they’d issue illegal orders?”

  “Come now, Mr. Fleming, how stupid do I look? How did you get here? If your superiors could move more than one or two people at a time they’d have sent a division. They sent you because their transport capacity is tiny, probably because they’re using captured—or renegade—world-walkers. Probably the former, knowing this administration; they don’t trust anyone they haven’t bought for cold cash.” Her expression shifted into one of outright distaste. “Honor is a luxury when you reach the top of the dung heap. Everybody wants it, but it’s in short supply. That’s even more true in Washington, D.C. than over on this side, because aristocrats have at least to keep up the appearance of it. Let me give you a tip to pass on to your bosses: if you mistreat your Clan prisoners, their relatives will revenge them. The political is taken very personally, here.”

  “That’s—” he swallowed “—it may be true, but that’s not how things work right now. Not since 9/11.”

  “Then they’re going to regret it.” Her gaze was level. “You must warn your superiors of this—the political is personal. If the conservatives think your government is mistreating their prisoners, they’ll take revenge, horrible revenge. Timothy McVeigh and Mohamed Atta were rank amateurs compared to these people, and Clan security probably can’t prevent an atrocity from happening if you provoke them. You need to warn your bosses, Mr. Fleming. They’re playing with fire: or would you like to see a suicide bomber invite himself to the next White House reception?”

  Whoops. Mike cringed at the images that sprang to mind. “They’re that crazy?”

  “They’re not crazy!” Her vehemence startled him. “They just don’t think about things the same way as you people. Your organization is trying to wage war on the Clan: all right, we understand that. But it is a point of honor to avenge blood debts, and that suicide bomber—that’s the least of your worries.” She paused for breath. When she continued, she was much less strident: “That’s one of the things Miriam thought she could change, with her reform program. I tend to agree with her. That’s one of the things we need to change—it’s one of the reasons I reintroduced her to her relatives in the first place. I knew she’d react that way.”

  “But she’s your daughter!” It was out before he could stop himself.

  “Hah. I told you, but you didn’t listen, did you? We don’t work the way you think we do—and it’s not just all about blood debts and honor. There’s also a perpetual inter-generational conflict going on, mother against daughter, grandmother for grandchild. My mother is a pillar of the conservative faction: by raising Miriam where Hildegarde couldn’t get her claws into her, I temporarily gained the upper hand. And—” she leaned forward again “—I would do anything to keep my granddaughter out of this mess.”

  “You don’t have a granddaughter,” Olga commented from the sidelines, “do you?”

  Iris glanced sideways. “Miriam has not married a world-walker, so I do not have a granddaughter,” she said coldly. “Is that understood?”

  Olga swallowed. “Yes, my lady.”

  What was that about? The carriage bounced again, throwing Mike against the side of the seat and jarring his leg painfully. When he could focus again, he realized Iris had been talking for some time.

  “—Stopping soon, and we will have to lock you in the carriage overnight. I hope you understand. When we get to the waypoint Olga will carry you across, put you somewhere safe, call for an ambulance, then leave. I hope you understand the need for this? Olga, if you would be so good…”

  The Russian princess was holding a syringe. “No!” Mike tried to protest, but in his current state he was too weak to fight her off. And whatever was in the needle was strong enough that it stopped mattering very shortly afterwards.

  Miriam had just been through two months under house arrest, preceded by three months in carefully cosseted isolation. Then she’d managed a fraught escape and then been imprisoned yet again, albeit for a matter of days. Walking the streets of New York again—even a strangely low-rise New York wrapped around the imperial palace and inner city of New London—felt like freedom. The sight of aircraft and streetcars and steam-powered automobiles and primitive flickering neon signs left her gaping at the sheer urban beauty of it all. As they moved closer to the center of the city the bustle of the crowds and the bright synthetic colors of the women’s clothing caught her attention
more than the gray-faced beggars in the suburbs. I’m in civilization again, she realized, half-dazed. Even if I’m not part of it. Erasmus paused, looking at a news vendor’s stand displaying the stamp of the censor’s office. “Buy me a newspaper, dear?” she asked, touching his arm.

  Erasmus jerked slightly, then recovered. “Certainly. A copy of the Register, please.”

  “Aye, sorr. An’ here you is.”

  He passed her the rolled-up news sheet as they moved up the high street. “What bit you?” he asked quietly.

  “I’ve been out of touch for a long time. I just need to—” I need to connect, she thought, but before she could articulate it he nodded, grinning ironically.

  “You were out of touch? Did your family have you on a tight leash?”

  She shuddered. “I had nothing to read but a grammar book for two months. And that wasn’t the worst of it.” Now that she had company to talk to she could feel a mass of words bubbling up, ideas seeking torrential release.

  “You’ll have to tell me about it later. I was told there was a public salon here—ah, that’s it. Your hair, Miriam. You can see to it yourself?”

  He’d stopped again, opposite a diamond-paned window. Through it she could just about make out the seats and basins of a hairdresser: some things seemed to evolve towards convergence, however distinct they’d been at the start. “I think I can just about manage that.” She tried to smile, but the knot of tension had gotten a toehold back and wouldn’t let go. “This will probably take a couple of hours. Then I need to buy clothes. Why don’t you just tell me where the hotel is, and I’ll meet you there at six o’clock? How does that sound?”

  “That sounds fine.” He nodded, then pulled out a pocket book and scribbled an address in it. “Here. Take care.”

  She smiled at him, and he ducked his head briefly, then turned his back. Miriam took a deep breath. A bell rattled on a chain as she pushed the door open; at the desk behind the window, a young woman looked up in surprise from the hardcover she’d been reading. “Can I help you?”

  “I hope so.” Miriam forced a smile. “I need a new hairstyle, and I need it now.”

  Six hours later, footsore and exhausted from the constant bombardment of strangeness that the city kept hurling at her, Miriam clambered down from the back of a cab outside the Great Northern Hotel, clutching her parcels in both hands. The new shoes pinched at toe and heel, and she was sweating from the summer weather: but she was more presentable than she’d have been in the shabby out-fit they’d passed off on her at Hogarth Villas, and the footman leapt to open the doors for her. “Thank you!” She smiled tightly. “The front desk, I’m meeting my husband—”

  “This way, ma’am.”

  Miriam was halfway to the desk when a newspaper rattled behind her. She glanced round to see Burgeson unfolding himself from a heavily padded chair. “Miriam! My dear.” He nodded. “Let me help you with those parcels.” He deftly extricated her from the footman, guided her past the front desk towards an elevator, and relieved her of the most troublesome parcel. “I almost didn’t recognize you,” he said quietly. “You’ve done a good job.”

  “It feels really strange, being a blonde. People look at you differently. And it’s so heavily lacquered it feels like my head’s embedded in a wicker basket. It’ll probably crack and fall off when I go to bed.”

  “Come on inside.” He held the door for her, then dialed the sixth floor. As the door closed, he added: “That’s a nice outfit. Almost too smart to be seen with the likes of me.”

  She pursed her lips. “Looking like a million dollars tends to get you treated better by the kind of people those million dollars hire.” She’d ended up in something not unlike a department store, buying a conservatively cut black two-piece outfit. It was a lot less strange than some of the stuff she’d seen in the shops: New London’s fashion, at least for those who still had money to spend, was more experimental than Boston’s. The lift bell chimed. “Where are we staying?”

  “This way.” He led her along a corridor like any other hotel corridor back home (except for the flickering tungsten bulbs), then used an old-fashioned key to unlock a bedroom door.

  “There’s, uh, only one bed, Erasmus.”

  “We’re supposed to be married, Miriam. I’ll take the chaise.”

  She blinked at the acrid bite of his words. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “I’m sorry.” He rubbed his forehead. “Blame Margaret’s sense of humor.” He looked at her again, appraisingly: “With hair that color, and curly, and—you’ve been using paints, haven’t you? Yes, looking like that, I don’t think anyone’ll recognize you at first sight.”

  “I think it’s ugly. But Mrs. Christobell—she ran the salon—seemed to think it was the height of fashion.” She carefully hung her hat and jacket on the coat-rail then touched her hair gingerly. “That feels really odd. Better keep me away from candle flames for a while.”

  “I think I can manage that.” He laid his hat and newspaper on the occasional table. “You did very well at making yourself look completely unlike yourself—it’s going to take some getting used to.”

  “That goes for me, too. I’m not sure I like it.” She headed for the table, but before she could reach it he ducked in and pulled a chair out for her. “Thanks, I think.” She sat down, bent forward to get closer to her shoes, and sighed. “I need to get these off for a bit—my feet are killing me.”

  “Did you spend everything, or do you have some money left?”

  “Not much.” She focused on his expression. “Did you think I can keep up appearances by looting your shop?”

  “No, but I—” He rubbed his forehead wearily. “Forget it.”

  “I had to do something about my appearance, make myself less recognizable. And I had to get hold of a respectable outfit, if I want to pass for your…spouse. And I had to buy shoes that fit, and a couple of changes of underwear, and some other stuff. It costs money, and takes time, but it’s necessary. Are you still taking your medicine?”

  He frowned at her effusion: “Yes, every day, as you said.”

  “Good.” She managed to smile. “One less problem to solve.” She crossed her legs. “Now, what have you been up to?”

  “Getting the job done.” He looked in her direction, not focusing, and she shivered. Who is he seeing? “I’m supposed to catch the train back to Boston tomorrow, but I wasn’t planning on staying long—I’m needed in Fort Petrograd, out west.” He blinked suddenly, and looked her in the eye. “You don’t have to come with me—you can stay in my apartment if you prefer.”

  “And do what, precisely? Sit down, pacing like that is making me itch.”

  “I don’t know.” He pulled out the chair opposite and sat down. “I’ve got a job to do, and you turned up right in the middle of it.”

  “I could keep the shop open.” She sounded doubtful, even to herself. Do I want to be on my own in Boston? What if Angbard sends someone to look for me? It would be the first place they checked. Best not to wait until they start looking, then.

  “That’s not practical.” He frowned. “I trust you to do it—that’s not in question—but there are too many problems. Business is very poor, and I’m already under observation. If I take a wife that’s one thing, but employing a shop assistant while I take off to the wilds of California is something else: the local thief-takers aren’t completely stupefied. I’m supposed to be a pawnbroker, not a well-off store-holder.” He shook his head. “Unless you’ve got any better ideas?”

  “I think…well, there’s some stuff I need to pick up in Boston. And then I need to get back in touch with my relatives, but carefully. How about if I went with you? How long will you be gone?”

  “At least a week; it’s three days each way by train, and flying would attract the wrong kind of attention.” He smiled lopsidedly. “Frankly, I’d be grateful if you’d accompany me. It’d strengthen my cover on the way out—we could be traveling on our honeymoon—and if we arrived back togeth
er I could introduce you to the neighbors as someone from out west. Wife, sister, brother’s widow, whatever. And, to be truthful, the three days out—one gets tired of traveling alone.”

  “Oh yes,” she said fervently. “Don’t I know it.” It was traveling alone that got me into this mess, that courier run to Dunedin. That, and boredom, and wondering what Angbard was doing funding a fertility clinic—“Before we skip town, though. There are some things I left in my office, at the works. I really need to get my hands on them. Do you think there’s any way I could retrieve them?”

  “You left your relatives running the business, didn’t you? Do you know if it’s still going? Or if you’d be welcome there if it is?”

  “No.” She realized she was shaking slightly. “No to both questions. I don’t know anything. I might not be welcome. But it’s important.” She’d left a small notebook PC locked in a drawer in her office, and a portable printer, and a bunch of CD-ROMs with a complete archive of U.S. Patent Office filings going up to the 1960s. In this world, that was worth more than diamonds. But there was something on the computer that was even more valuable to her. In a moment of spare time, she’d scanned her locket using the computer’s web cam, meaning to mess around with it later. If it was still there, if she could get her hands on it, and if it worked—I’m free. She could go anywhere and do anything, and she’d had a lot of time to think about Mike’s offer of help, back in the basement of Hogarth Villas. It wasn’t the only option, but just being able to get back to her own world would be a vast improvement on her current situation. “I need to get my stuff.”

  “Would it be—” He licked his lips nervously. “It’s not safe, Miriam. If they’re looking for you, they’ll look there.”

  “I know, I just need—” she stopped, balling her hands into fists from frustration. “Sorry. It’s not your fault. You’re right, it’s risky. But it’s also important. If I can get my things, I can also world-walk home. To the United States, that is. I can—”