The Londum Omnibus Volume One (The Londum Series Book 4) by Tony Rattigan

Author:Tony Rattigan [Rattigan, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-08-01T07:00:00+00:00

***

‘Are you mad??’ said Cobb. ‘After I’ve recovered the Seal once, you want me to go back to the man who stole it in the first place … and then ask him to steal it again?’

‘Yes … I know it sounds a bit strange but as I explained, for this little plan to succeed, it is necessary for the Seal to be stolen from wherever the duke keeps it and returned to the rightful family heir. Do you think you are up to that task?’ Thornton asked him.

Cobb thought for a moment. ‘No,’ he admitted.

‘And we want to keep this as quiet as possible, so who better than him? He’s already involved, so it saves bringing in an outsider. The less people that know about this, the better.’

‘What makes you think he’ll do it?’ asked Cobb.

‘Well, you know him, I don’t. What will it take to get him to agree to help us? Money? A Royal Pardon? A title? What does he need?’

‘Nothing that I can think of, he seems to take care of himself very well. And I’ve never heard of any outstanding warrants against him either. He’s got a clean slate, so there’s no help there either.’

Cobb wandered over to the fireplace where Won Lungh had set a roaring fire and stared into the flames. They were both silent as they considered their options.

Thornton had called round to Cobb’s house at lunchtime the day after meeting with Emm. Adele had been delighted to see him and insisted he stay for lunch. They had taken a light lunch together and then Thornton had asked Cobb if he could have a private word with him to discuss some business. Cobb had taken him into his office. There, Thornton had explained everything about his meeting with Emm the previous night and what Emm was expecting from Thornton.

Finally Thornton broke the silence, ‘Anyway, putting our thief aside for the moment, will you do it? There’s a lot at stake and that makes it dangerous.’

‘And this is necessary for the security of Albion’s interests in Europe?’

‘Definitely. There’s a lot of sabre-rattling coming from the other side of the Alpen Mountains. Our spies tell us that the Ostro-Ungarian Empire is keen to expand its territories. Unless we can respond quickly enough with troops to counter the situation when they move, then we could lose half of Europe to them,’ Thornton explained. ‘And for that, we need the access through the mountains that Pils-Holstein gives us. It’s in a prime position.’

‘Well can’t we just station a load of troops in that area in readiness?’ asked Cobb.

‘Oh it’s the usual thing, when there’s trouble the countries at risk are happy to see the “Brave Albion Army” marching into to defend them to the last man. But when things are quiet they accuse us of having Imperialist designs on them and refuse to allow us to position men in their back yards.’

‘We should let them get taken over,’ said Cobb.

‘Yes, but then in time we would end up with a Europe controlled by Osterreich and Ungary.

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