Soul Bound

1        Soul Bound
1.3      Making a Splash
1.3.3    An Unrequited Love
1.3.3.21 Muster

What had been that second lesson?

Kafana's day dreaming was interrupted as she finally caught up with the others, just as they entered a dreary cobbled square surrounded by featureless grey stone walls. Even by the waning evening light it was brighter than the surrounding streets, but that wasn't saying much. Bored beadles and other clipboard-carrying functionaries stood on top of bench-lined drays while pinch-faced workers crowded before them, hoping to gain their approval. The only touch of colour came from the barding on the horses that pulled the drays, which indicated the company, guild or noble house where those selected to fill the benches would be working a night-shift.

Tomsk caught sight of her first and some of the worry left his face as he beckoned her towards a nearby archway that the others were disappearing through.

Tomsk: "Kafana, over here."

He led her down a short alley to the delivery yard behind a tavern. Several groups of Chartists had been given faster routes and were already exhaustedly sitting around tables in its center, talking quietly or nibbling at the least manky end of meat-surprise sausage. A few tables had also been shoved against one wall, where the last rays of the sun were falling. Pierrot was laid out flat on one of these as Trolezzo carefully splinted his leg. She seemed to be teasing him about a colourful kerchief tied carefully at his throat. Was that Columbina's? She didn't get a chance to ask as Tomsk drew her towards an isolated table in the opposite direction, almost hidden in the darkest corner of the yard, where the other Wombles were waiting.

Bungo spoke up first, half joking, half hopeful: "Hey, Kafana. Did you slow down so you could think up an amazing plan?"

She shook her head.

Kafana: "No plan here, other than staying free and alive for another two and a half hours. Those poisoned kids who delayed us? Sorry, I couldn't bear leaving them in pain like that. I took a moment to help them. I was as quick as I could be, honest!"

Wellington looked a little irritated but Alderney elbowed him in the ribs before he could speak, under the guise of giving Kafana a big 'thumbs up' gesture.

Tomsk smiled reassuringly: "No harm done. We're just waiting for the remaining groups to arrive here or send word that they reached their homes safely. It doesn't look like Pazzi is about to chase in here any time soon - apparently he's busy looting some market and rousing off-duty guardsmen to come help deal with all the complaining merchants. So perhaps luck is on our side, and we can afford to rest for a bit while we take stock and decide what to do next."

Alderney twitched: "That doesn't sound right. Pazzi being lazy or indecisive man isn't compatible with the things I've heard about him. If he's not taking any effective action that we know about, I have a feeling that just means he's taking effective actions that we have not yet found out about. I don't like it. I overheard Tridella, one of the bosses at the foundry we visited this morning. He was having a private chat with a short pug-nosed guy, rather blunt, who went by the name of Riqueti. I'm pretty sure they didn't realise I was by the door, or they wouldn't have kept haggling over the price Riqueti was asking to smuggle metal ingots into Torello past the pirate blockade. According to him, any time that Pazzi discovers a smuggling operation that that doesn't pay him their dues, he's as ruthless as a surgeon excising infection - he doesn't stop until every last person in the chain is dead, decapitated, and their impaled head is on display above Barracks Gate. Giving up the chase? It's out of character."

Bungo looked a bit sickened: "Infection like a gangrene in a leg? Or like a slum where a sailor has just died of bubonic plague?"

Alderney shrugged: "He didn't say."

Bulgaria mused: "Either would be poetic. I rather like the latter interpretation. The way ideas evolve as they spread from mind to mind has a lot of similarities to the way pathogens evolve as they spread from body to body."

Kafana sympathised with Bungo: "Eww. You're equating the noble ideals of Chartism with one of the most horrific life-destroying diseases known to medieval man, and the Chartists with ferociously foul rats who are maliciously trying to spread that disease faster than the kind-hearted healers can cope with. We need a nicer way to explain this. Anyone who hears it said like that, is half-way towards seeing us as vermin. And not cute ones!"

Tomsk grinned, and patted Kafana on the head: "I don't care if the analogy is cute or not. What I need to know is: does it help us predict what Pazzi is up to?"

Wellington sat still for a couple of seconds, his head slightly tilted, then spoke up: "Yes, it helps. A surgeon behaves differently towards a man who has been shot in the leg and a man whose leg has a metastatic cancer tumor. With the shooting victim, if the surgeon doesn't remove all the bullet fragments the first time, they'll probably get a second chance. With the cancer victim, if the surgeon doesn't find every last fragment on their first try, then by the time they find out, it may be too late to save their life, let along their leg. Achieving 100% certainty rather than just 'good enough' requires a different approach. Tomsk?"

Tomsk was nodding. "If you chase a group too closely, they'll scatter and you probably won't catch every last one of them. Better to take your time, scout them and the area, consider all the options for luring them into a trap before picking the best you can afford to resource and preparing the forces needed to execute your chosen plan without making stupid mistakes. Add reserve forces, contingencies, countermeasure and multiple layers until your have sufficient overkill, then strike hard and fast; be relentless."

He shrugged: "At least, that's how I'd do it."

Bungo nodded reluctantly, and gulped as a realisation stole over him.

Bungo: "So the reason that Fra Meschino and Captain Farinacci's forces stopped chasing us once we entered the Scarrow is because, by making one parish seem safer than the others, Lord Jacopo Pazzi hopes that all the Chartists will gather together in a single spot, giving him time to encircle us while we wait for stragglers, and allowing him to choose when to tighten his grip?"

Tomsk: "Yep, most likely. There's a description of the Contain-Stabilise-Reduce doctrine in every textbook on policing that I've listened to, because it is gets used on everything from hunting fugitives to controlling riots. Firstly you contain the problem by restricting their movement and establish control over a perimeter surrounding them. Secondly you stabilise your control over the situation by reinforcing the perimeter as you gathering more resource and forces, deepening their isolation to cut them off from doing the same. Lastly you reduce the problem; sometimes you can reducing their will to oppose you by using propaganda or even by negotiating honestly about issues causing disagreement; sometimes you can reduce their expected gains by offering bribes and deal, or by increasing how many lives and livelihoods their allegiance will cost them; mostly, though, you have to finish off by carrying out a sweep - systematically clearing the danger zone city by city, street by street, house by house and room by room until the problem has been eliminated."

Stolen novel; please report.

Tomsk always sounded confident but in his voice Kafana now heard another tone, not authority exactly, but something that made her think he spoke not just from dry books, but from his own experience and a lesson painfully learned.

Kafana: "So it is vital that we keep moving? Even a momentary pause to allow the injured to bind their wounds, the missing to catch up and the exhausted to catch their breath might allow him to trap us here? When does it end?"

Wellington: "Quarantines are most useful in the early stages of a epidemic, when you can keep track of individual cases, who they have been in contact with and, for each area, the chances of it containing people who have been exposed. As the epidemic spreads, so do holes your knowledge caused by data being delayed, incomplete or inaccurate; resources spent on trying to maintain quarantines offer diminishing returns. A tipping point is reached when the authorities realise and are willing to admit that the epidemic has now spread so widely that resources will no longer be most efficiently allocated by maintaining the previous priority given to quarantines."

Alderney: "In other words, there are two things we need to consider, both of which could be a danger to Pazzi and are in danger from him. The obvious thing is our people; the immediate danger we see to them from Pazzi is that they will be trapped and caught if they stay pinned here; the immediate danger that Pazzi sees from them is that some of his forces will die if the people fight back with swords and magic."

Kafana nodded, and Alderney continued, this time wearing a cocky grin on her gamine face and twirling her broad-brimmed raggedy hat on and upraised finger.

Alderney: "The less obvious thing is the message the people are carrying. That's what Pazzi really cares about, not a handful of cheap-to-replace workers and whether or not they get punished for some minor misdemeanours. If support for the Charter spreads beyond the Ghetto, to more prosperous and public parts of Basso, or even into districts of Torello where Pazzi's forces have no authority because they are loyal to other Counts, then the matter will be beyond his control - he would be seen as partially responsible for the movement starting and spreading; and he doesn't know how much that liability would harm his finances and reputation. His desperation is real, even though it is based upon potentials and guesses rather upon reliable information about actual intentions and planned actions."

Bungo: "So the sooner we convince Pazzi that Chartism has spread too widely to be suppressed, the sooner he'll order his forces to stop the hunt and return to barracks? As long as the people needed to carry the message move quickly, it is safe to let the weak and injured stay here in the shelter of the Scarrow?"

Bulgaria: "Maybe. It depends on Pazzi's personality and how secure he feels his position is. He might order his forces to carry out their planned operation, even if he believes it is too late to achieve its primary objective, if he is petty and vindictive or short sighted. He might even have a rational basis to believe it is in his best interests to be seen to enforce his will here, because he's in some high-stakes negotiation that know nothing about, in which boosting his reputation for being decisive will be a great advantage."

Bungo: "But his disposition wouldn't have actually changed. Pretending you're a deadly swordsman won't help you for long in an actual sword fight."

Bulgaria: "In a social confrontation, perception can be more vital than the reality..." he held up a hand as both Bungo and Wellington gave him a puzzled looks. "Give me a moment, let me see if I can phrase that better." He took a breath, visibly composing himself, then drew himself up to his full height.

Bulgaria: "I agree the Chartists' ideas about worker's rights and welfare are important and that spreading them as widely and quickly as possible is of fundamental importance. But I don't think that's enough. It isn't just a piece of paper we want to deliver. It's a narrative. A story about how and why the document was created and handed to the recipient. Each time we are the first ones to present a copy of the Charter to a new person is an event, an opportunity to deliver not only a piece of paper but a performance, a chance to frame their beliefs about what the document and events mean - which details and issues they should think of as relevant and important. It's the difference between Pazzi seeing us as worthless troublemaking scum, and his knowing that his peers are viewing us as loyal concerned tax-paying citizens doing their best to contribute positively to Torello's welfare and finances by rising above injustices done to them in order to constructively present solutions, for open discussion, stakeholder consensus and city council authorisation to an issue of general economic impact."

Wellington was frowning a little: "I think I understand the difference. Gaining reputation doesn't put more weight behind a warrior's sword swing. But it can put more weight behind the words a general swings when persuading an ally to join a battle. Before Jiang Socrates, finance used to be like that. Whether a central bank was correct to say that the stability of their currency should be trusted by investors had more to do with the strength of its reputation than with any underlying economic trends or problems."

Alderney: "Nah. All the wordy old coot means is that it isn't just what you say, but how you say it."

Bulgaria was entirely unoffended but something about his overly-bland expression reminded Alderney of Carlo before he'd handed back her newly-crafted set of hooks, combs and rakes - the one she'd been too busy boasting about to notice him filching from her pockets. Sounding much more suspicious, she added: "Or is this something more specific than that? Is your Sense Information Flow skill prompting you towards a concept I don't have yet, because you've done more gossip quests?"

Bungo held his head in mock agony: "I don't want to know. I just want a decision. Are we splitting up or not? You two gossip-geeks could argue for hours and time's a-ticking." Tomsk and Wellington both shrugged, so he turned pleading eyes towards Kafana. "Your call, boss."

She remembered something she'd once overheard Bahrudin muttering, in a cranky voice, as Vedad had dithered about ordering a final drink before her kafana closed for the night. "It doesn't matter if your decision isn't perfect, as long as you make it while there is still time for it to matter." She got their attention then addressed them, doing her best to imitate the manner and confidence used by Tomsk.

Kafana: "Tomsk, Wellington - you stay here. You're in charge of people. Monitor their status, tell them what to do and where to go, aid them and coordinate the transfer of resources, information and orders. Find a way to make copies of the Charter, select the destination for each copy and best person to take it there."

Kafana: "Bungo - you're coming with me. We're going to get Pierrot to Dottore, then while I try to win his cooperation, you focus on being the Chartists' liaison to players, player guilds and and groups like the Chaldeans on The Burrow. Maybe some will be interested in gaining in-game reputation with the Chartists?"

Kafana: "Bulgaria, Alderney - you're going to rove. I'd appreciate it if you could escort Bungo and myself until we've reached Dottore, but your focus is going to be different because you have skills, contacts and experience that the rest of us can't match, and it would be a shame to waste them. You can move faster and learn more, even beyond Scarrow; and you know more about narratives and the people who influence their spread and reception. Work out what it will take to persuade Pazzi that Chartism has spread beyond his ability to stop it, and that it is being received in the right way by the right ears to make it in his best interests to call off the hunt. Rough out an over-all plan for achieving that and hand it off to Wellington to flesh out, optimise and execute. Then use your initiative."

She paused for a heartbeat, making eye contact with each of them in turn, before deliberately posing, one hand on her hip and putting a lilt into her voice.

Kafana: "Any objections?"

There were none. Even Tomsk looked a little stunned, light reflecting from his face. It took a moment for her to realise that she was source of sudden illumination, rather than a nurse trying to shine a bullseye lantern on some writhing patient's wounds. How hard had Sys decided her Aura of Power skill should flare to match the persona she'd tried to use when giving orders? There were crisp shadows being cast on the wall by each of the five figures frozen into immobility. Oops? On impulse, she decided to act as though she'd intended to do it, rather than apologise. If nothing else, Alderney would have fun editing the sense experience recording for their broadcast channel.

Kafana: "None? Then, let's move it!"