Sir Roger: "'I've reason to believe the Ashenkoghli lord here on Boda plans to join us. Then many other clans of theirs are sure to do likewise, if only to keep him from gaining too much power.'"
The Tertiary Eggmaster of the Northwest Hive (Ethelbert): "'What makes you think so? He of Ashenk is known to be a cautious one.'"
Sir Roger: "'Certes...Therefore he's not about to announce his intention openly. But his staff...some of 'em blab, or can't resist dropping a hint -'"
Ethelbert: "'This must be investigated!'"
Next, Sir Roger:
visits a young Ashenkogh eager for fame and wealth from war;
learns from him details of organization, record-keeping and communication;
tells him what documents to forge for Ethelbert's spies to find, what to say when drunk and how to make clumsy attempts to bribe local officials.
Before long, everyone but the Ashenkoghli ambassador knows of his plan to join the English and Sir Roger has emulated Dominic Flandry's tactics on Scotha.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And this reminded me of how Sir Roger told his friends that any half witted prince of Germans could have seen thru his maneuvers and not been fooled by his intrigues. And that was because sheer necessity made it imperative for leaders in a chaotic and turbulent Europe (and by extension, all Terra) to be on their guard for such tricks.
All one has to do is read such manuals as Sun Tzu's THE ART OF WAR (and its chapters on spies to see how ancient such things are!
Sean
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