Charade

[Pher 0]

Pher walked aside Argyle, thinking. A bad habit, perhaps, but maybe someone ought to give it a try?

 

As far as she could read from Troy, he seemed to accept that he had gotten into trouble legitimately. She’d have to ask, eventually, but it didn’t seem the time with Argyle listening. Oh, she didn’t doubt that Troy could get into trouble, or Shane, or Byblos, or anyone else on the crew up to and including Joe. That was the crew’s specialty, getting into trouble.

 

But if this Argyle was so good at getting them out of trouble, had he helped get them into trouble in the first place? Part of this charade was an attempt to create a debt and some trust. The whole thing was proceeding nicely to that end. Pher just wasn’t sure how much of the charade was a charade.

 

She also wasn’t sure how much it mattered. If he was good enough to set up the double level charade, he was perhaps worthy of working with anyway. He might not be worthy of trust, and perhaps the apparent debt wasn’t real, but whatever was coming down this Argyle had obviously played games and survived at Gular’s level. He knew what he was doing, and was playing on his home turf.

 

Which the Qob crew didn’t, and rather obviously didn’t. So far, he seemed to be taking the Qob crew seriously. Pher wasn’t quite sure if he was more obtuse than he seemed, or whether her own perceptions of the crew were overly pessimistic. Likely some of both.

 

Point one. If he was with Gular first and primary, the mission was over. His eyes were that good, and his attention was on them.

 

Point two. They needed inside contacts. Samus had a few people on the inside, but nothing at all like the full organization Argyle was showing them.

 

Point three, they weren’t going to be able to work with another inside group. Argyle was going to be looking for a cut. If he didn’t get it, if the only way to get a piece of the action was to play informant to Gular, he was apt to play informant with Gular. Besides, even given there were other groups like Argyle’s, each one they contacted would increase the risk.

 

Point four, if he was as smart as he was going out of his way to show he was, he already likely knew precisely what was going down, and he wanted in. The Qob group wasn’t likely to be the only one fishing around for what they were after, just the group that Argyle was able to catch at it going in.

 

This all led to the conclusion that Pher was going to have to deal him in. The question was how far in. Pher was accustomed to playing for high stakes, risking the lives and freedom of her friends to win the lives and freedom of her friends. She was almost inclined to introduce Argyle to Samus, accept a small agent’s commission, and deal the Qob out entirely. Argyle apparently had a better organization and was better placed to get the job done.

 

Thing is, Joe tended to play for lower stakes, for latinum. He’d want to keep the lion’s share of the cut, which meant his people had to do the lion’s share of the work, take the lion’s share of the risks.

 

Males.

 

So, how to play it? How to get Argyle involved, but not too involved? How does one use him to cut the risk without too much cutting into the profit?

 

And how to delay that call a bit? Argyle had to have a reputation, and Samus would know something of it. She was going to have to play the game blind, but would prefer not all the way blind. She’d also like to touch bases with Joe on the percentages.

 

And just how deep in had Shane and Byblos got themselves?