The Clocks

During lunch, everyone kept sneaking looks at Genie when they thought she wasn't looking. All were thinking the same thing, "Who is this person who looks like Eugenia but is acting so differently?"

Genie had, of course, noticed what they were doing, but the happiness bubbling up inside her refused to let the others put a damper on her feelings.

When they'd finished Genie excused herself with, "I've got to get back to studying if I'm going to make the top 10 in the City Exams." After so saying, she practically ran back down to Sara's hidden room.

Miranda was incensed. What in the world could the girl be thinking? She was completely ignoring her instructions. As she stood to follow Genie, Mimi appeared at Sara's elbow and took Luigi. "He will sleep for another hour. I shall care for him while you remonstrate with Madame."

Once again Sara was amazed by how well the 'Mimivine' worked, but she was grateful that she had both hands free as Miranda attempted to storm past her. Spinning in place, Sara hooked her arm through Miranda's and let Miranda's momentum pull them outside the dining room.

Sara smiled up at Miranda's irritation and said, "It would probably be best if our discussion were private. Shall we go to your office?"

Miranda opened her mouth to say, something, when she noticed the almost absurd contrast between Sara's calm voice, her smile, and the steel in her eyes.

Catching herself, she closed her mouth, then spoke softly, "Yes. Why don't we?"

They walked, arm-in-arm, to Miranda's office where they settled in the two armchairs.

Sara said, "Silence if you please."

Miranda wove a silence over the door then thought to start speaking but paused. Perhaps she needed more information.

Seeing O'Malley's wink in her mind's eye did nothing for her temper, but did help her restrain her urge to speak.

Sara nodded. "You've made several mistakes. If not corrected, they will eventually result in some extremely unpleasant events that we'd all rather avoid. However, you can't avoid what you don't see coming, which is why we're talking like this today."

She smiled thinly then went on, "You're not thinking. You've followed the protocols your predecessors left you, but you didn't take the time to see if they still made sense. In this particular case I'm referring to Genie, but if you're making that mistake with her, you're probably doing it in other areas as well. What those might be I'll leave to you, Akane, Hiroshi, and Blair to sort out after you understand your error here.

"I'll be brief. As an agent, Genie needs to be unobtrusive, yes. BUT....

"Let me pose you a question. How unobtrusive is someone who is attending Ingvold, comes from a family known to contain some of the most brilliant people in The City, but, for some unknown reason, has only a relatively mediocre score when she takes the City Exams? Wouldn't people, possibly unfriendly people, start asking questions you'd rather they didn't? Wouldn't it make more sense for her to score near the top? Given who she is, not one person in The City would be all that surprised."

Giving Miranda a piercing look she asked, "I assume you take my point?"

Miranda's face went totally blank. She stood and slowly walked to an ornamental pillar at the side of the room. Once there she slowly and gently began to bang her head on it, over and over. Not too hard though. She didn't want a concussion. She just wanted to see if so doing would get the stuck gears in her head turning again.

Sara resumed speaking, "Secondly, you're forgotten something else important. Henrietta recruited you when you were in your teens. Paolo and I, along with some others, have been working with her son Henri for almost two years now. Leaving him ignorant of most of your plans has been a large mistake."

That statement was followed shortly by some rather more vigorous head banging, but Sara judged that it still wasn't enough to cause damage.

"Finally, and possibly most important, you've failed to notice how the population of The City has grown. A hundred years ago, one person could reasonably manage your position. You started to wrap your mind around the idea that it was no longer true, barely, after Akane pushed her way into your group.

"The problem is that you're a micro-manager. You need to delegate, starting about now. If you don't, you're going to start missing more and more things, and you're going to work yourself into an early grave, for which, by the way, your family will never forgive you.

"That difficulty will no longer exist once I assume your position, but I'd prefer not to have to do so for at least another 30 years. This time I don't want that kind of responsibility before my grandchildren are all born. Murasaki was kind enough to become a roving agent when you took over from her, but she was a widow by then. Your family will need you to be here for decades yet.

"Therefore, the only logical conclusion is that you need to create a group of subordinates with defined duties. They'll provide you a synopsis of what they're doing, but you need to spend most of your time from now on as one who decides policy. The actual procedures for accomplishing your policies won't be up to you any more unless one of your people asks for help."

She waved a hand. "Obviously I'll be the one creating the information gathering procedures for the libraries and bookstores and filtering that information, which is why you haven't been getting any reports from the libraries the past two months."

She peered at Miranda. "You didn't even notice, did you? You've been too busy to even think about looking for them, right?"

There was a sudden flash of light, followed by Lady Blue. She wasn't laughing this time. "It wasn't but a moment ago that I was rather firmly put in my place by Mimi and having reality thrown in my face. I still feel rather raw from the verbal flaying. You have the good fortune of having received a much more gentle reminder of how things are and how they ought to be in your field of operations. Don't waste it. If you don't listen to Sara, I'll have to do something, and right now that would be just about as painful for me as it would be for you.

"So let's not do it that way. Just get to work. Set up a weekly meeting involving Henrietta, Henri, and your various senior people. Once you get things organized, once a month should be adequate."

She leered at Miranda and let some of her usual humor show. "You'll find that you have a lot more free time for cuddling once you get caught up on your sleep."

Blue disappeared, leaving Sara and Miranda staring at the space where she'd been standing.

Sara stood and brushed herself off. "While I have no intention of having another child for a while, the idea of cuddling more often sounds good to me. I imagine it does to you too?"

Miranda smiled back at her. "On that particular subject, I think I can say with confidence that we are in complete agreement."

They laughed, put their arms around each other's waist, and left to face the world and whatever challenges awaited them.

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Mario returned almost exactly when they expected, only one day behind his original prediction. Somewhat to their surprise, he arrived with all the mules fully laden. That evening at dinner, he reported that there were almost a thousand additional books that should arrive over the next month or so, depending on the weather. Some were coming from as far away as Sicily, so delivery dates were rather fluid.

"After having Sara and Patricia beat all that information about book values into my head over the winter, I figured that I should put it to use. What I've ordered and brought back will be what we need to start about three small libraries besides the bookstores we want to get up and running.

"A few books on order are rather rare and/or in fairly high demand. They'll be coming by ordinary post. If they get special attention of any sort, they're likely to be stolen somewhere along the way." He darted a mischievous look at Sara. "I believe that several of them are on your want list."

Before she could embarrass herself by jumping up and down, he turned to Robert. "I met with the principles of all the small and medium size banks you suggested. The most common reactions were relief and/or gratitude. They were relieved that there weren't any new plots to deal with, and grateful that such an important bank as yours would show concern for them."

He added, with a twinkle in his eye, "I doubt that you'll be surprised to know that some of them intend to seek more formal ties now that they know you'll be willing to discuss them."

Robert contrived to look innocent, which prompted a spate of generalized laughter.

After that, Mario regaled everyone with tales of happenings on the road and in the cities and towns he'd passed through. While everyone enjoyed them, Genie was deliriously happy. Only another six weeks and she'd be leaving with him and able to see for herself!

Later that evening, after they'd had a private celebration of Mario's return and were getting ready for bed, Genie told Mario about Sara's manipulations. "How about that? It's wonderful! Now I'll be able to brag openly about how smart my wife is. It galled me to have to pretend that you were anything other than the genius I know you are."

She whacked him with a pillow. "Braggart! You just want to bask in the glory of my superior intellect. That and use me to distract customers while you put one over on them."

Putting hand over wounded heart he moaned, "I can't believe you'd say something like that. I'm a completely honest, upstanding, manipulative merchant."

Looking puzzled he said, "Oh. I guess you should leave out that last part when you tell others about me."

Laughing loudly, they threw their arms about each other and fell on the bed. Once there, they decided that another celebration would be in order, so they did, after which they fell asleep while still wrapped in each other's arms.

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The next few weeks passed in the proverbial blur. Genie spent all her free time studying, except on Saturday afternoons, when Mario drilled her in trail procedures until she could manage in her sleep. Twice he dragged her out in a pouring rain to make sure that she could properly handle the tasks even in the worst conditions. Both times they returned with blue lips, but Genie's confidence climbed steadily.

Learning how to make every moment count when setting up and tearing down a camp helped immeasurably with her studies. She developed the knack of focusing on only the most important part of what she was reading and then moving on to the next.

The net result of her improved study techniques was that rather than 5th or 6th in the City Exams, she managed to tie Paolo and come in third. This time, what with Genie being a student at Ingvold and expected to do reasonably well, Sara and Paolo only managed to quadruple the money they bet on her. However, as they wagered almost five times as much as they had four years earlier, their profits were close to 50,000 ducats.

(In the ensuing five years, things became bad enough that any bookie who saw them coming somehow managed to disappear before either Sara or Paolo could speak to them. After that, they had to use proxies to place their wagers.)

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Wednesday, May 30, in The Year 725 After the Founding

As Sara and Paolo were coming in the door after work, they were met by Stavros and Consuela heading the opposite direction. Once they were outside, they broke into a sprint.

They watched as the twins disappeared down the street then turned back to find Mimi in front of them. "They will be having dinner at the Fukui's tonight. Madame Fukui has graciously accepted both their presence and that of Guiseppi and Robert Macklin. When you add in that tomboy daughter of hers, she's going to have her hands full.... Or she would if things were as usual."

Mimi grinned mischievously. "But, given the situation, I rather suspect that this one night Rebecca will be too busy with other things to get into trouble with Consuela and Stavros."

She leaned forward and whispered in a conspiratorial manner, "It seems that she has a bit of a crush on Guiseppi. She'll probably be practicing how not to be obvious when flirting with a boy rather than acting up."

She paused briefly, then added, "So, Mrs. Akane probably won't be troubled by the children in the way she is expecting, though she's likely to be at least moderately distressed when she realizes what Rebecca is doing.

"If you'll excuse me, I still have preparations to make for dinner." So saying she turned and headed toward the kitchen, but not before both Sara and Paolo heard the faint snickers that trailed her down the hall.

They smiled at each other, but the smiles were touched with worry. If the children were gone from both their home and the Macklin's, it was a sure bet that Blair and Hiroshi would be here tonight. Also, Mimi had mentioned that Akane would be dealing with the children. That was what really bothered them.

Mimi never, ever misspoke. She hadn't mentioned Jason and the twins, which meant that they too were likely to be here. There had to be something major in the offing.

They took each other's hands, finding that both their palms were a bit sweaty. Shrugging their shoulders, they hurried upstairs to their room. They'd best put on some of their better clothes for dinner.

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Genie and Mario were just a hair late for dinner, though not enough to merit a reprimand. Miranda noticed Genie flashing a look of gratitude in the direction of Hibiki and Yoko. Combining that with the very slightly rumpled front of Genie's dress, Manda supposed that the twins had warned her to change into something even better than what she'd originally planned to wear.

Darn! She'd been looking forward to seeing how embarrassed Genie and Mario were when they arrived wearing casual clothing. Oh well. You don't get everything you want. She....

The shock of seeing an image of O'Malley glaring at her with an incredibly disgusted look caused Manda to pitch forward, due to losing control of her upper body for a moment. She barely was able to stop before she banged her head on the table.

As she straightened she saw concerned looks all around. "It's nothing. I just slipped."

Ignoring the dubious looks from everyone, she began by looking at Hiroshi and Blair and then the twins and Jason. "Thank you for coming on such incredibly short notice. Please, let's have our meal first. I'm not entirely sure how long our discussion will last, so we'd best be well fortified."

So saying she turned to Mimi. "Please begin serving."

For the duration of their dinner, there were four separate conversations. Manda and Blair caught up on nothing of much import. Robert and Hiroshi did likewise regarding their banks. Sara, Paolo, and Mario talked about books, and travel. The twins, Jason, and Genie were seen to do nothing but eat, though all knew that they were busy with a "twin" discussion about what might be going on.

Everyone ate mechanically, which resulted in the meal lasting less than half as long as it usually would.

Once they'd finished and everything had been cleared away Miranda stood. That action was followed by many apprehensive looks. There had to be something important that had happened, or was about to, if she had felt the need to hold such a large meeting on the eve of Genie's and Mario's departure on their first expedition.

Miranda twitched an eyebrow at Mimi who responded by exiting the dining room through the swinging door that lead to the kitchen. She returned less than a minute later with a huge cake, followed by Sven who was carefully cradling three bottles of wine. Behind him was Ailin, with a tray holding a forest of goblets.

Mimi placed the cake in the middle of the table, after which Sven opened the wine and served. Mario noticed that the wine was one known to be particularly fine and in short supply.

Throughout the procedure, Miranda had remained standing. Once everyone had a goblet of wine she raised hers. "A toast! To Genie and Mario. May their travels bring them wonderful new experiences."

She grinned at them. "Oh, and while you're at it, send back as much information as possible. If you don't, we'll make you pay for the party when you return. As I'm sure Mario has noticed, this wine is one that's incredibly expensive."

Everyone laughed. They were reasonably certain that she was joking.

Mimi served cake to the family, after which she, Ailin, and Sven served themselves and joined the rest of the family in their celebration.