Exploitable Weaknesses by Brian Keller (red queen free ebook txt) 📗

but managed to find him again. When Naro had selected his vantage point, Cooper walked to him. He was still thirty feet away when he spotted Spen. Spen noticed him as well. The boy was seated but stretched his arms out and flashed a quick wave, getting Naro’s attention. Spen then gestured toward him and Naro looked behind him, one arm coming up slightly to serve as a shield if needed, and the other dropping toward his belt. His entire posture deflated when he recognized Cooper and he audibly expelled the full breath he’d just sucked in, “Why would you do something like that?” Cooper ignored the question and sat against a shack near Naro. He asked, “Which house is it?” Naro lifted his chin in a direction that was outside of Cooper’s view, so he shifted his position so he could look. After looking, he thought he knew which house Naro had indicated. He asked, “Entrance facing north? Two boarded up windows and a door made of six boards?” Naro squinted and leaned slightly to his right. He must’ve been counting the boards. Naro nodded, “Yep.”

Cooper stepped away and found a vantage point of his own. Twenty minutes later he turned to greet Rukle, who was still fifteen feet away, “It didn’t look like anyone really noticed the three of you, except for those merchants you spoke to.” Rukle’s expression darkened, “Checking up on me? Worried that I can’t handle a simple task?” Cooper shook his head, “I have complete trust in you. I just wanted to see where this place was for myself, and took the opportunity to see if anyone was watching you.” Cooper turned to look back at the house and noticed a young kid, seated on a porch a few buildings away, dangling his feet off the edge while he picked his nose. Cooper asked, “Is that one of the kids replacing you?” Rukle leaned in to follow Cooper’s gaze, “Yep. I told them to change out every time a crew came and went.” He pointed a finger to another kid that was using a stick to dig something out of the mud. “That’s another one.” he said. Cooper nodded as Rukle continued, “At lunchtime, Spen, Naro and I will go to those vendors we spoke with and pick up the bread, meat, and cheese, as we discussed earlier.” Cooper nodded, “Good. It’s good for the Houses to know that we’re involved. And know that we take an interest in them.” Rukle took a deep breath, “You know, I can manage the Houses, and most of the collections. I don’t require supervision.” Cooper leaned back, a little confused, “You feel like I’m breathing down your neck, or something?” Rukle shifted uncomfortably, “A little, yeah. Those House Father’s, in Batter’s Field… I coulda handled that… I didn’t need help.” Cooper explained, “I know that. I wasn’t supervising. I needed to know where those Houses were - which ones were posing a problem. I needed to see the occupants for myself. If they’d all teamed up, they might’ve killed you, and maybe Loryn too. I needed to know where to strike back if something happened to either, or both of you. Plus, it’s better for you if I’m the ‘absent bad guy’ since you’re the one to deal with them on a near-daily basis.” Rukle shrugged, looking satisfied, though a little embarrassed, “All right. That’s fair. I guess I hadn’t thought of it that way.” Cooper breathed a sigh, “No problem. I can see where you’d feel the way you did.”

Chapter 8

When Cooper returned to their camp in the Ruins, Birt was digging in the dirt. Out of curiosity Cooper walked closer to observe but he didn’t speak. Birt broke the loosened clods of dirt and began piling it up. Birt looked leaned on the shovel (Cooper had the fleeting question of where he’d acquired the shovel) and looked at the eastern sky then walked to the north side of the small pile of earth and knelt down and began digging and forming dirt with his hands. Cooper could no longer resist, “I don’t believe digging in the dirt is a suitable pursuit for a Guildmaster.” Birt stopped and replied without looking up, “Temporary Guildmaster, if you please. And I’m merely addressing a request made by our leading Assassin, that demanding pain-in-th-” Cooper interrupted, “So this will be a representation of the quarry then?” Birt stood up, an exasperated expression on his face, “Well, I’m not gardening. I can assure you of that.” Cooper chuckled as he bent to pick up the shovel, “Need any more dirt?” Birt smiled, “I’d like to say that I do, just to watch you dig, but in fact I think I already have all I’ll need.” He paused then continued with a thoughtful expression, “Why don’t you nap for a couple hours? Someone will wake you for lunch, and I should be ready to explain all this by then.” Cooper shook his head, “We’ll be putting crews to work building the vault, and the building that’ll stand above it, soon. If a temporary site to hide the coin hasn’t been selected already, I’ll do that.” Birt raised an eyebrow, “And if that’s already been done?” Cooper smiled and shrugged, “Then I’ll help move the coin.” He stepped into the structure they’d been staying in and saw Gaff and Naro working in one corner, digging with a pick and shovel. He thought, “Well, I guess that explains where Birt’s shovel came from.” Naro noticed him and stopped digging while he offered an explanation before Cooper could ask, “We decided that it’s better to hide the coin here, where we don’t have to post an extra guard or worry about it being discovered as work crews move about the area.” Cooper nodded, “That makes sense but I guess I was also thinking that we’d have workers in here, improving our living conditions, too.” Gaff stopped swinging the pick,