The Mayor's Abduction by Noah Alexander

Author:Noah Alexander [Alexander, Noah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-09-03T22:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

The Minister of Order

Ernst had been to the Ministry of Order only once before, two months ago, to get a few files signed from the Minister of Order. And his memories from that visit weren’t particularly pleasant. He had to spend five hours waiting in the visitor’s hall as his files were shunted from office to office until they reached the minister, who unceremoniously declined to sign them citing improper format.

But Ernst was sure that today wouldn’t go so bad. Not for him at least. He had, after all, very little role to play in the emergency meeting that he was attending. Claude Labarthe, the Minister of Order, who was also the Deputy Mayor of Cardim and had taken over the reins of the city upon the disappearance of Norman Sinclair, had called the meeting to review the progress made in the mayor’s kidnapping. Ernst did not know why he needed an army of people to tell him the news that the whole city knew. No progress had been made. Nothing that really mattered, anyway.

Director Leonard Rostum, who was leading the efforts to find the mayor, was convinced that the clue to the mystery lay with the smuggling syndicates, so he had divided Cardim into zones and asked the High Guards in each zone to raid and arrest known or suspected smugglers.

Ernst, who had been greatly affronted by the director during his visit to the mayor’s mansion, had lost all zeal in the case. He had not pursued his theory that the kidnapper had come to the council office on the evening of the incident, nor had he made any effort to go out of his way to investigate the case any further. In fact, he had even told Horace Ibrahim, the director of the Vasco Constabulary, that he would like to have nothing to do with the case and with this arrogant army of Greycoats. But Horace Ibrahim, who cared nothing for Ernst’s opinion, had still made him responsible for the Vasco zone of Leonard’s plan. And for that purpose, he had been invited to this meeting along with a dozen of the most powerful men in Cardim. They included the chief of all the 8 divisions of Cardim High Guards, Junior Minister of Order, the Head Whisperer or the Chief of Intelligence, as well as Leonard Rostum.

The group was seated in the Tunnel, the central chamber of the Ministry of Order, so called for its long cylindrical shape, lack of windows, and jet black walls. A row of portraits of gloomy-looking men gleamed towards the long central table from the wall. These portraits were of previous Ministers of Order.

Claude Labarthe stood at the end of the table in front of his own imposing portrait. Once all the men had assembled in the room, the tall pale man with grizzled hair and a long nose surveyed the assembly with a long keen glance, moving his eyes from one to the next till they came to halt on Leonard Rostum who sat immediately to his right.

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