Archibald Chisholm waved over
Sera, to ask for a second serving of
the excellent -- truly tasty! he had exclaimed earlier to the over-worked
waitress -- roast beef and mashed potatoes. Basic fare, to be sure,
but
of such a high quality that if he had been a food critic, he would have
given it at least 4 stars, if not 4-1/2. As it was, Archie found
himself
as incipient-publisher, having purchased wholesale the assets of the
apparently defunct Montfort Mime. In between platefuls of food, the
bearded, running-to-stout, Archie Chisholm reviewed once more the list
of
everything he had bought from Rosh Valdokka.
He was quite satisfied, even
though for the present time there was
a bit of a problem with gaining access to his assets. The Mime building,
after all, had been wrapped up in wardings for months, and Valdokka had
warned him that given the present touchy situation in Montfort, it might
be best to leave the real estate protected. No need to draw the attention
of the Church of the Redeemer ... Archie had no interest whatsoever
in
taking up where the Mime staff had left off, raising the flag or banner
or
tattered pennant of the Refusers. He just wanted to make money --
or at
least launder some -- and running a newspaper or two in Montfort seemed
a promising way to do it. Or, at the very least, it would be a mildly
interesting way to do it, and if things needed spicing up, there was
always the possibility of a rival rag, one that would aim for less
objectivity (if the original Mime could have been called objective with
anyone keeping a straight face) and more for the tabloid.
Yes, The Montfort Inquisitor
might be a nice addition to the local
journalistic scene. Given the present dearth of any journalistic
scenery,
anyway.
When Sera brought his second
plate, Archie crammed all his papers
into a rather messy folder and set to with as much gusto as he had
displayed in attacking the first plate. -A bulletin,- he thought,
eyes
drifting towards the bulletin board. After all, a publisher/editor,
even
an incipient one, needed some staff to do the grunt work....
[to be continued]