Lucius Lessard-Newton, Ep. 3 Downtime

Lucius waited impatiently as Jeffery's manager counted the money. It was all there, of course, just as Lucius promised - he was no spendthrift, especially when it came to something this important.

"Alright, 500 dollars. What do you want again. I think you need to be real clear."

Real clear? Lucius briefly entertained the idea that the man was wearing a wire, but that seemed unlikely - not only were such things rare enough as to be improbable, by all accounts Gary Bucknell was a tremendously unimaginative person, if competent enough at his job.

"Very well, friend Gary. I want you to write up a summary of any substantial order that Jeffery gives you, and I want you to give it to me. Just substantial orders, mind; I don't want pages of nonsense such as what he had for lunch."

"And what are you going to do with it?"

Lucius narrowed his eyes. "I'm going to pay you for it. That's all you need to know. I'll contact you in a few days - I expect an accurate summary at that point. If I like what I see, there'll be more money and more work."

Gary nodded thoughtfully, and Lucius waited for him to go away. He hated dealing with this kind of subterfuge - Grandfather would never have stood for it. He'd have called Jeffery out and they'd have settled their differences one way or another. However, Lucius held no illusions about how his combat skills compared to Grandfather's; at any rate, shooting a man who's ill would hardly be sporting. The confrontation would come soon enough, but to know just when might require Lucius to get his hands dirty a bit.