Down: Pinhole by Glenn Cooper Page B

explosives. I knew all sorts in those days, from lords to scoundrels. Caffrey supplied me with a cask of black powder that I placed in the basement of Coopersmith’s house in Tavistock Square while he was in attendance. I lit a long fuse and made my escape. I brought that house down, John, upon the heads of Coopersmith, his wife and his children. The police came to suspect me and in time, moved to make an arrest, but I eluded them for a spell until, in despair for the life I had lost—not Coopersmith’s life, I assure you—I threw myself off the highest possible point of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, and immediately thereafter, I found myself here, in Hell, in a rather sodden field, quite remarkably intact. Caffrey was caught and hanged within weeks. Allow me to introduce him.”
    The guard with red hair, who was standing at the wall, nodded his head.
    “Our fates are intertwined,” Wisdom said. “Caffrey serves me still.”
    John muttered, “Incredible.”
    “Isn’t it?” Wisdom said. “After so many years, one tends to forget how incredible all of this is, but we do tend to relive the experience with each new arrival. To return to my tale—I was picked off the streets of our London town by a filthy crew of sweepers and taken to a gentleman named Cosgrove who lived not far away. Cosgrove was a seventeenth-century man, a banker in his day. He was an agreeable enough fellow who took the time to thoroughly explain things to me. You see, a goodly number of arrivals here are not, what you would call, men of refinement. They’re what you would expect, the scum of the Earth, like our friend Dirk here.”
    “I take no offense,” Dirk said.
    “I am so relieved,” Wisdom replied. “Cosgrove took a liking to me. He and I were birds of a feather and rather than passing me along for his usual fee, he took me under that feathered wing of his and taught me his trade. I learned how to be, well, let me be quite candid with you, a flesh broker. The sweepers pick up new arrivals and bundle them off to men like me who are sprinkled throughout the realm. We make an assessment of any particular skills they might possess and make transfer of that person to the most suitable lord in need of those services. If they have no desirable skills we will usually have them returned to the jurisdiction of a local lord who will invariably need men to work their fields or empty their latrines. My business is to know what my clients are looking for and more importantly, what they are willing to pay.”
    John looked at him squarely and said, “I don’t want to insult you, Solomon, but it sounds pretty unsavory. You’re a slave trader.”
    “Everything here is unsavory, a game of raw power and naked leverage. I am but a cog in a huge, filthy wheel. I make no apologies. But I am a clever cog. I know who wants a man of science for his employ. I know who needs warriors. I know who wants builders, tradesmen. I know who wants women—well, they all want women, don’t they, as they are in such short supply. And the fetching ones, they are the real prize. I digress. Cosgrove treated me well enough. He saw the merit in expanding his capabilities and the two of us were, I’m told, the busiest brokers in Brittania. When misfortune struck Cosgrove after a time, removing him from his lofty perch, I assumed his duties and I have prospered greatly over the many years.”
    John saw a smirk cross Wisdom’s face when he spoke of Cosgrove’s misfortune. He suspected that Wisdom might well have been its architect but let it pass.
    Wisdom continued, “I earned enough gold and silver to build this very house, a replica of my boyhood home in Greenwich. It wasn’t on this spot. The Royal Observatory was here, of course. But this hill has a good aspect, don’t you think?”
    John signaled for Caffrey to refill his wine cup and said, “I think I need to understand the way things work around here.”
    “Let me start from the beginning,” Wisdom said. “You