Captain Bangion stared at Mudon coldly across his desk.
”What a sorry lot you are!” he snapped. ”The woman is nothing but a bookworm from The Houses of Lore, and you manage to lose her in a busy marketplace!”
”She was helped.”
”Aye, by a common housewife. Where are you keeping her, by the way?”
”Uh, nowhere, Captain. Her husband is a revenue magistrate.”
”You don’t have to worry about revenue much longer, you incompetent fool!” Bangion said. ”Delioron has disappeared, and now his woman too. I thought you said you made a proper impression on her.”
”Gellinastor gave her a beating, sir.”
”Gellinastor!” Bangion rolled his eyes. ”Now there’s another half-wit, just what I lack. Why have I been cursed with all the stone-brained fools of Minas Tirith?”
Mudon waited, anger prickling at his neck. He was mad at both Captain Bangion and himself.
”I want you to ride to Pelargir”, Bangion said. ”Go meet Captain Fangnir and try to find out what is going on on his end.”
”Is the situation with Delioron connected to Captain Fangnir, sir?”
”It is now. Delioron has figured out that Fangnir is working with the Umbarrim spy ring and we need to prevent him from spilling it to Parthadan. Denethor must not hear about it! A few weeks ago I did not care about Delioron one way or the other, but lately I have become to hate that pest with a vengeance!”
Mudon thought that if Bangion hated Delioron so much, then why did he not take a sword and go after him personally? He did not say it aloud.
”Do you want me to leave for Pelargir right away, sir?”
”No. I want you to pay a midnight visit to that housewife, Elwil. Give her a proper talking to!”
”What about her husband, the revenue magistrate?”
”What about him? Set the Warden of the Coffers upon him. Let a tiding reach the Steward’s clerks. Remind him who decides which messages fly swiftly and which take a longer road. I want you to squeeze that housewife for every scrap of truth she’s hiding. Lean on her until her tongue runs faster than the Anduin!”
”And Fangnir?”
”I want you to ride for Pelargir first thing tomorrow, as soon as you have reported to me about Elwil. Find Fangnir and let him in on the situation. Let Fangnir use every resource available to him to hunt down and bury that pest. Try to get our fat friend to understand that it would be in his best interest to do so as much as it is ours.”
