Six thirty and not a soul dreamt of leaving the Bank. The blood was on the floor now, quite literally, and it was freshened every minute. Xiatokmai was leading teams of auditors through each department and subdivision, scraping up every grift, every little hustle they could find. With years of preparation, they could find quite a lot, very quickly. To her genuine surprise, their careful preparation had barely scratched the surface of the theft and corruption within the Bank.
A Clan run business like the Grand Redoubts Bank was roughly equal parts nepotism and self trading, with a little schmear of honest business over the top to give the appearance of respectability. There were unspoken and harshly enforced rules about how much grift was permitted by whom. However, these rules were only unspoken rules. The actual, written down rules were… severe.
Expert Xiatokmai looked soft. All buttery rolls and easy smiles with stout hands at the end of thick arms. She was choking a senior account manager, bending her back over her desk, ignoring her feeble attempts to hit her, to push her off, each strike or scratch getting weaker as the account manager’s face turned a darker and darker purple.
Under ’Mai’s pillows of fat were stoney muscles. An atavism, her enemies correctly claimed, to some Bo ancestor. Her teachers had carefully considered her impeccable exam scores, her demonstrated leadership ability, her instinctive grasp of numbers, and most crucially, the bribes from the parents of her bullies. She had left the Clan’s schools and was sent directly into a mercenary company as a grunt. Xiatoktok had found her two decades later. The pay was better in banking, though the work was surprisingly similar.
Her guard was numb to the sight. This was the fifth person Expert Xiatokmai had strangled since lunch. He wondered how much the woven aluminum bracelet the Expert wore was worth. Hard to imagine metal could be polished to such a mirror finish. Six months salary, he guessed.
The guard was wrong. It was worth twice his yearly salary, if he could even find someone to make one for him. Which he couldn’t. These days, ’Mia could insist on being paid her worth.
The light had almost left the managers’ eyes, and her limbs could barely move. Xiatokmai let go. The manager gasped for breath, half rolling to the side and crying. When she tried to breathe in, her breath came in raspy wheezes. The pain made her cry harder.
“Tell me where your account book is. Your real account book. I don’t have all day, but what I do have? It’s enough for me to claim a bounty on your head from the Clan. Now.” She petted the middle aged woman like a child. “Take a moment. Breathe. And tell me where the ledgers are.”
“I… don’t… I’m loyal…”
“Oh honey. This is going to be a bad day for you, isn’t it.”
Xiatokmai was soft and rich. And horribly strong. Her hands wrapped irresistibly around the woman’s throat, and started squeezing again.
“Expert Xiatokte? There are some people who want to see you? They aren’t on the calendar.”
“Do I look like I have the time?” His hollow eyes were red rimmed and burning. He had to answer to everyone, and everyone wanted to know what was happening.
“There are… quite a lot of them.”
“They can get-” He buttoned his lip. “Who, and how many?”
“I counted twenty, but there were apparently more out in the halls and outside. It’s the Chanticleers, Expert. Maybe not all of them, but-”
“Easily a quorum. Lead them to the Endless Jade Spring room.”
“Already booked by accounts receivable for the spot review.” And there is no time to mop up and air out before the Chanticleers get there. Blast.
“Alright. Where is there enough space?”
“Brilliant Clock garden? Have the meeting outside?”
“Oh that’s great. Yeah, sure.” He buried his face in his hands for a second. “Get it done, I will be out in a moment. Just need to freshen up.”
’Te reached into his desk for a nice little tortoise shell box full of chemical pick-me-up, and hesitated. He left the box in his desk.
“Welcome, welcome! I know most of you, I think, but not all of you. What brings you from your peculiars so soon after evensong?”
There were thirty of them, and the crowd was growing. Each Chanticleer was still in their brilliant riot of colors. They seemed to glow under the radioactive light cores strung above the garden. The Chanticleers raised their voices as one.
The tune was bouncy, jaunty, Dancing Souls, a song every child of Cold Garden could sing before they could be trusted without diapers.
We danced in the morning
When the world was begun,
And we danced in the moon
And the stars and the sun,
And we came down from heaven
And we danced on the earth,
In each other
We saw our worth.
The Xia Clan guards, their very expensive, well trained local born guards, were humming along. They didn’t realize they were doing it.
Dance, then, wherever you may be,
We are the souls of the dance, joyous we,
And we'll join you all, wherever you may be,
And we'll join you all in the Dance, say we.
And that was it, wasn’t it. The ethos of the whole city. You went hungry, so your neighbor could eat. You accompanied each other through laughter and tears. The highest law- love shared multiplies, pain shared is divided. Each neighborhood would select a Chanticleer to lead them in their faith, in civic matters, to improve their harmony with their neighbors. The Chanticleers might not know what was going on in the Bank, but something was, and they would bring it into harmony.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
They cut us down
And we leapt up high;
We are the joy
That'll never, never die;
They sang with awful resolve. The moral authority born of faith. Faith in a higher power. Faith that they had the support of their people. Faith that they could bring the world into joyful order. Even if it hurt.
I'll live in you
If you'll live in me -
We are the souls
Of the Dance, say we.
The Vigiles, the not-quite-police were here. A selection of City Counselors had turned up. They hung around the back of the crowd but were singing hard. Xiatokte joined the chorus. He bowed to the crowd as the song ended. ’Te professed no faith, but there was something about Dancing Souls. Its sincerity always brought a small tear to his eye. He could never really explain why.
“My thanks. The Grand Redoubts Bank is honored to support Cold Garden, as the Xia Clan is honored by your hospitality. Five Cities now move as one, but we are still sorting out-” He smiled at the crowd “how all the legs go.” This got him some small smiles in return.
“Soon sorted, I am happy to say. The Bank is stable, your deposits secure. The name Xia is as eternal as gold. I know you will want more specific details of what is happening and what we are doing, but it is hard to have a thirty sided conversation. I see Counselor Tuomo in the back there, along with some of her colleagues. Would it be acceptable if they discussed things with me, and reported back to you all?”
There was some grumbling, but a quick consensus was reached. Xiatokte discreetly signaled a servant to tidy up his office. Not how he expected to have this meeting, but… it would do.
“Thank you for your concern, Counselor, but this is the sort of periodic re-org and rightsizing you see in large banks when there is a systemic change of this magnitude. Frankly, we should have started doing it years ago.” He winced. “Nobody wanted to go through the trouble when the currency union was only a maybe.” Xiatokte served a select group of City Counselors tea with his own hands and a quirky smile.
“From what we see, this is more than a simple reorganization. For example, that young man right there.” The Counselor pointed out the window at a young man being dragged through the gate behind a cheve. A leather thong had been threaded between his ankle bone and tendon, then tied with hemp rope to the saddle, to more efficiently drag him screaming and bloody along the ground. “Fairly sure that’s a crime, actually, regardless of your Clan’s rules.”
“I am quite certain that everything is being done in compliance with all City laws and regulations. Cold Garden is our home too, and we like it here. More than half of the Xia in Cold Garden were born here. I was born here! We were celebrating the currency union just last night at the Golden Sparrow.” It went without saying that the Counselor in question owned the Sparrow.
“More to the point, our accounts?” A different, even less subtle Counselor asked.
“Safe as always. I took the liberty of bringing you each current ledgers.” He handed them out. “If you are truly concerned, you may withdraw immediately. I have been instructed by Acting President Xiatoktok to waive all early withdrawal fees.”
“How generous.” The third counselor said dryly. “And we would invest it where, exactly? The Grand Redoubts is the only sizable bank based in Cold Garden. For some reason.”
“Couldn’t possibly say. Frankly, we have the best rates, best advice, and best service. It was sensible for those who couldn’t compete in quality to leave the market. But if you want your money, it is all there.”
The first City Councilor rolled their eyes.
“There were a number of projects that President Xiatoklu flatly refused to fund. Would now be a good time to discuss them again?”
“Certainly. The Grand Redoubts Bank is always willing to invest in the City. With Expert Xiatoktok at the helm, at any rate.”
The free population of the Grand Redoubts Bank, that is, the portion not taken in by the Clan Disciplinary Teams, had decreased by a third. The arrests started with middle management, then spread up and down the organizational chart. Quiet whispers spread between desks, sharing rumors of very senior offices becoming vacant. Even quieter, less substantiated whispers, of homes being raided, of senior Clan members being invited for a glass of wine at Central House. Of hidden ledgers, boxes of charters and deeds recorded with the City, but not the Clan. Tens, even hundreds, of millions of Rads, outside the Clan’s regulation… and taxation.
That was unendurable for the Clan. Just because everyone was in on it, didn’t make it acceptable. So long as not everyone’s sins were revealed, that is. Not every patronage network was getting hit.
A two wheeled meadowbrook was pulled by a cantering cheve right to the front door of the bank. The driver lept out and helped her passenger get down. The passenger seemed rather worse for wear.
“Where is he!” A feminine yell bounced off the building. “Where THE HELL is fucking ’TOK!”
“Oh my. Is that Vice-President Xiatokbui? We are in for a good show now.” An account manager murmured.
“Not so sure about that. Look how she’s sweating. If I can see it in the lantern light, from two floors up…”
“No way, she has to be here to-”
“Keep it behind your teeth, idiot!”
“What? We all know that- wait, what?”
Xiatokbui keeled over in the street, thrashing violently as bloody foam poured from her mouth.
“I didn’t see anything. You?”
“How could I dare look away from my work, stranger I have never met before?”
“Sometimes I talk to myself. Sometimes I even imagine voices answering me. Hahaha.” They both ran back to their desks. “She’s of the Main Line, the MAIN LINE!” echoed through their minds, growing with horror every reverberation.
At ten minutes to midnight, Xiatokte was summoned to Central House to give an accounting to the Patriarch and to those members of the Clan Business Counsel as were not imprisoned in the punishment cells below. The room was gently lit with recessed light cores of the highest quality, picking out the details of the fine paintings. The carpets were plush, deep and blindingly white. You entered barefoot and reverent. The Counselors wore iron toed, wooden heeled boots.
“You are aware that President Xiatoklu has been found dead?”
“Yes, Patriarch.”
“Are you aware of the circumstances of his death?”
“Nothing reliable enough to repeat, Patriarch. I believe that the truth will come with time.”
“Mmm. A very serious theft. Two murders of full blood Clansfolk, both of whom were your direct supervisors. A huge budgetary shortfall that threatens the finances of the whole Bank, and by extension the whole Clan, thanks to your investment banking division. The business interests of numerous of my oldest and closest friends have been damaged or ruined. Their servants and clients have been tortured, imprisoned or killed. You have also badly harmed the functioning of the Bank by removing so many staff. Am I missing anything?”
“Perhaps a silver lining, Patriarch?”
“Enlighten me.”
“The seized assets are more than enough to cover the budgetary shortfall in the short term, and the revenue from the property and business interests recovered will likewise help shrink the hole long term, all while filling the Clan treasury. The removed parasites were costing the Bank far more money than they were bringing in. It is only to the Bank’s profit that they are gone. Not to mention the low cost investment opportunities now available for interested high net worth individuals.” Xiatoktok smiled with gentle wisdom. Not for nothing was he called Bloodless ’Tok.
“Monetary profit, of course, is an illusion. Money is a lie we teach the world. What really matters is time, of which profit is an accumulated surplus. And if there was a sudden outlay of time anywhere, the punishment cells are currently filled with… unrealized temporal assets.”
The Patriarch flicked a tiny, meaningless smile. The rest of the Council had unpleasant, hungry looks in their eyes.
“I see. Depending on the Bank's needs, that might be the best way to resolve matters. Though the next Bank President would find themselves on a very hot seat indeed.”
“Yes, Patriarch.”
“You have a stony bottom?”
“I prefer to remove the fire before roasting, Patriarch.”
“Very good. You will quickly learn that a person will sooner forgive the death of a parent than the loss of an inheritance. Report to me in person at seven in the evening tomorrow, President Xiatoktok. The Grand Redoubts Bank is yours. If you can keep it.