“If they disappeared, then that is using fear. The ones who remain will wonder what happened to the missing man. They will imagine the worst.”
He does have a point.
Marquis raised the tea to his lips, sipped from it, and then put it down. He waited a moment and stroked his close-trimmed beard before nodding his concession. “True enough. I never gave it much thought. Just an easy way to handle any problems that came up.”
But it does seem like Marquis didn’t take advantage of that on purpose. He may have benefitted from fear, but if he didn’t really mean to, did he still use it?
There was a long pause. Both drank their tea.
Lung rumbled, “I find you change your mind too quickly.”
What, you having a problem with the fact that Marquis is conceding points?
“Do I?”
Lung nodded, then put one hand on the table and began tapping a fingertip against it, hard. Speaking slowly, with his accented voice, he jabbed one finger in Marquis’s direction. “I think you are losing this argument on purpose. You are not so stupid a man.”
On purpose? Why would he?
Marquis took another sip of tea. “Nor are you, it seems.”
But it seems like Lung’s right.
“You want something from me, yet you insist on dancing around the subject. Tell me why you seek these meals with me.”
Ahh, that should be enlightening, if Marquis complies.
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