Tiassa Read Online Free PDF

question.”
    “I’m wondering if maybe there’s a way for me to get the money to you, and for you to return me money that hasn’t been tampered with. For a fee, of course.”
    I shook my head. “Can’t do it. Not my kind of thing. But I could make a suggestion.”
    “If your suggestion is the Left Hand, I tried that.”
    “Oh. You’re well informed. Sorry it didn’t work. What happened?”
    “They were willing to do it. For thirteen orbs for each imperial.”
    “That’s what they wanted?”
    “Yes.”
    I shook my head. “It’s like highway robbery.”
    “That’s very funny, Lord Taltos.”
    “Why thank you, Lord Blue.”
    Ibronka glared at me a little, then looked away as if I wasn’t worth her time.
    “I liked it, Boss.”
    “Thanks, Loiosh.”
    He said, “So the Left Hand is out of the question. If you don’t want to get involved in this, do you have any suggestions for who might?”
    “Let me think about that.”
    “I’d be willing to pay for any idea that—”
    “Let’s not worry too much about the paying part. Let me just try to think of something. Hey.”
    “What?”
    “Why am I doing the thinking? You’re the Tiassa.”
    He rolled his eyes; I considered myself answered.
    Did I know anyone who’d be interested in a deal like that? No one I’d want to give it to, at any rate. But it was an interesting exercise, trying to figure a way around it.
    “Boss? Do you care?”
    “Let’s say I’m intrigued.”
    “If you say so.”
    “Any idea who came up with this?”
    “Some Imperial sorcerer. There were complaints about the safety of the roads, you know.”
    “See how it is?” I said. “As soon as you get good at something, they move to cut you off. It’s as if they fear anyone being successful. I sympathize.”
    “Uh huh.”
    “The Tiassa isn’t doing his job, Loiosh. So if anyone’s going to come up with a brilliant idea, I guess it’ll have to be you.”
    “I’ll get right on that, Boss.”
    “How does it work, exactly?”
    “It’s pretty straightforward. It takes a few seconds to do a bagful of coins, and an hour with each one to undo it.”
    “Sort of cuts into your profits.”
    “Exactly.”
    “What if you spend it a long way from where you got it? Every merchant in the Empire isn’t checking.”
    “I’ve been doing a bit of that. But more of them are starting to. The Empire is offering tax reductions to any merchant willing to check coins. They supply—”
    “Oh.”
    “Hmmm?”
    “I heard something about that. Some device, and they’d give me a reduction on my taxes if I—”
    “You’re a merchant?”
    I looked innocent. “I am part owner of a perfectly respectable psychedelic herb shop, thank you very much.”
    “Oh. I see.”
    “I thought it was some sort of listening device they were trying to install.”
    “It might be that, too,” he said.
    “You don’t trust the Empire much, do you?”
    “As much as you do. Less, because I probably know it better.”
    “All right. So it won’t work much longer to just use the coins elsewhere. What do they do if you spend it somewhere that doesn’t have the means of detecting it?”
    “What? I don’t understand.”
    “What if you went to, say, my shop and bought an ounce of dreamgrass. I wouldn’t know the coin was tagged. So then I’d spend the coin somewhere, and—”
    “Oh, I see. They treat it just like they do a coiner: ask you where you’d gotten the coin, and try to work back from there.”
    “I was approached by the Empire about six weeks ago. How long has this been going on?”
    “About that long, more or less.”
    I nodded. “A new program. They’re always thinking, those Imperial law enforcement types. They never let up. It’s an honor to run rings around them.”
    “That’s been my feeling, yes.”
    “So it sounds like the only choice is to reduce the cost of removing the—what were they called?”
    “Tags.”
    “Right. Reduce the cost of removing the tags.”
    “That’s