Chapter 66: Scarred Man Assessment

Chapter 66: Chapter 66: Scarred Man Assessment

Constantinople, Fatih — 4 June 1917

The school library was quiet in the afternoon, and the only sound was the scratch of Cevdet’s pen at the end of the long reading table.

He had laid three bound sheets before Ayaan and Zeynep and covered each with a blank leaf.

"For thirteen years I have watched the House and written my reports in my own head," he said. "I wish now to write them in ink, and to read them to you before any other person has seen them."

"Why now?" asked Zeynep.

"Because the House is large enough that a mistake in it would be remembered by the state, and because I am older than I was." Cevdet touched the first sheet. "I shall assess three things in turn, which are the House’s body, its people, and the man who holds it together."

Ayaan looked at the third sheet and then at the old scar upon Cevdet’s cheek, white against the grey beard.

"Read them in that order," he said. "I will not ask you to soften any of them."

"I would not have begun otherwise, Efendi," said Cevdet. "A softened assessment is only a flattery with a date upon it."

II

Constantinople, Fatih — 11 June 1917

Cevdet read the first part aloud in a voice that did not change its pace.

"I have read the House as the Berlin firm would read it, if it had four weeks and a patient clerk," he said. "I find that the strong room has two locks and three keys, and that two of the three keys are carried by the same man."

"Samuel Aboab carries the key of the reserve and the key of the book," said Zeynep. "I gave them to him in March."

"It was convenient, Han?m, and it is the weakest point in the House’s body." Cevdet turned the page. "If Samuel were taken ill or taken in debt, the House would have a single door and a single man."

"What do you advise?"

"That the keys be held by three different persons, one at the Financial Office, one at Emin?nü, and one at the Compact’s hall under Agop Efendi’s seal." He drew a line beneath the paragraph. "The second weakness is that the Friday count letters are kept in a tin box in a cupboard, and I recommend an iron one."

"The third is the yard at Rüstem Pa?a, where one man is both the porter and the night watchman," he said. "A man who sleeps by day and guards by night will be too tired to notice what a patient thief would arrange."

"Then we shall hire a second man, and Elias shall choose him," said Zeynep.

Zeynep wrote all three recommendations in her own book without comment.

"The iron box will be bought on Monday," she said. "I would have done it in January if I had thought of it."

III

Constantinople, Emin?nü — 18 June 1917

The second part of the assessment concerned the people of the House, and Cevdet read it in the study with the door closed.

He named eleven men, and beside each name he had written what that man could lose and what he might be offered.

"Elias Benveniste has a mother in Salonica who is old and ill, and he would do anything for her that was honest," he said. "I recommend that the House pay for her doctor, openly and in the books, so that no stranger may do it."

"It shall be done," said Zeynep.

"Mihran Efendi has a brother at the Ottoman Bank who is in debt to a lender in Pera, and the Berlin house has not yet noticed." Cevdet paused. "I would speak to Mihran myself, with your leave, and offer him the House’s guarantee."

"And Hakk? Bey?"

"He is ambitious and clean, and he will rise, and he will remember who helped him when he did not need to be helped." Cevdet closed the page. "The man to watch is not the one who asks for a favour, but the one who never does."

Ayaan, who had listened without speaking, asked a single question.

"Which of the eleven do you trust least?"

"None, Efendi, for I have not written the name of a man whom I trust least, only the names of men who could be tempted," said Cevdet.

"And Agop Kalfayan?" asked Zeynep.

"I can find no weakness in Agop Efendi, and for that reason I advise that he should never hold more than a third of anything." Cevdet almost smiled. "A man without a weakness is a man whose strength has not yet been tested."

IV

Constantinople, Fatih — 25 June 1917

The third part was shorter than the others, and Cevdet read it standing at the window with his back to the room.

"The man who holds the House is Ayaan Hassan, and he is the House’s greatest strength and its greatest danger," he said. "He sees events before they come, and he tells no one how."

Ayaan did not move, and Zeynep laid her hand upon the table beside his.

"I have kept a second book since 1909, Efendi, and I have written in it every occasion on which your judgment was proved right before the fact," said Cevdet. "There are nineteen entries."

He read the first five aloud.

They were the April of 1909, the Balkan war of 1912, the length of the war in the summer of 1914, the ultimatum, and the rate of the crown a week before it moved.

"I do not ask where you learned these things, and I have decided that I shall not," said Cevdet. "I tried for thirteen years to prove that you were the agent of some power, and I failed, and I have written that failure in the book."

"Is it a failure?" asked Zeynep.

"It is the best result that I have ever obtained, Han?m." He turned from the window. "My danger is not that Ayaan has a master, but that he has none who can replace him."

Ayaan lifted his eyes to the old man’s face and found nothing in it but attention.

"What would you have me do?" he asked.

"Make yourself less necessary, Efendi, by teaching what you can and writing what you must," said Cevdet. "A House that depends on one man is a House that must be afraid for him."

Constantinople, Emin?nü — 2 July 1917

That night Ayaan and Zeynep sat in the upper room with the lamp between them and the assessment untouched upon the walnut desk.

"He has not asked a single question that I cannot answer," said Ayaan. "He has asked me nothing at all, and it is the question that I cannot bear."

"He has chosen not to ask, and the choice is a gift." Zeynep took his hand. "I think he would accept a little of the truth if it were offered, and I do not think that he would use it."

"What could I tell him that is not the whole?"

"That you carry knowledge that has no master, that you cannot name its source, and that you will never sell it nor turn it against the House or the Empire." She paused. "It is true in every word, and it is what he has written in his own book."

Ayaan was silent for some time, and then he nodded.

"He has watched me longer than I have known him," he said. "A man may be given a little trust in return for thirteen years."

"And if he asks for more?"

"Then I shall say that I have told him all that I may, and he will not ask twice." Ayaan smiled faintly. "I have never known him to ask the same question twice."

VI

Constantinople, Fatih — 9 July 1917

The library was empty, and Cevdet had set two cups of tea upon the reading table before they arrived.

Ayaan sat opposite him and spoke without preface.

"There is knowledge that I carry which I cannot trace to any book or any man," he said. "It does not belong to any government, and I will never sell it, and I will never use it against the House or against the Empire."

Cevdet listened without any change in his face.

"Is it knowledge that has harmed anyone?" he asked.

"Not by my hand, and I have tried to see that it does not." Ayaan folded his hands. "I cannot tell you more, Cevdet Efendi, and I would not insult you with a story that was not true."

The old man took up his cup and drank slowly.

"I was instructed in 1904 to learn what you were for, and I have long since stopped asking the question that my instructions gave me," he said. "I ask only what you will do, and I find that the answer has been the same every year."

He set down the cup and held out his hand.

"Allah is merciful to those who tell what they can and keep what they must," he said. "I accept it, Efendi, and I shall not ask again."

VII

Constantinople, Galata — 20 July 1917

Zeynep read the new arrangements to the partners in the Financial Office, and every man present listened in silence.

The keys of the strong room were to be held by three persons, and Agop Kalfayan had agreed to keep the third under his own seal.

Elias Benveniste was named deputy to the Financial Office, with the right to sign in Zeynep’s absence for sums under five hundred liras.

"And the plan of the House for the next three years shall be written in an Open copy and a Closed copy," said Zeynep. "The Closed copy will be known to Ayaan, to me, and to Cevdet Efendi, and to no other person."

"Why Cevdet Efendi?" asked Agop.

"Because the House has a rule that no plan lives in one head, and Cevdet Efendi has proved that he can be trusted with the head that is hardest to replace." She laid the sheet upon the table. "I propose that the Closed copy be kept in the iron box beside the Charter of Wartime Credit."

Ayaan, who sat at the end of the table, spoke only once.

"I shall write the Closed copy myself, and Zeynep shall read it before it is sealed," he said. "If it contains a figure that she cannot check, I shall strike it."

"Allah keep the House from the habit of single heads," said Agop, and he put his seal to the sheet.

Elias Benveniste read the new rule of the keys aloud, and then he asked whether a deputy might still see the ledger of the reserve on the first of the month.

"He may see it, and he shall sign that he has seen it," said Zeynep. "A deputy who has not seen the book cannot be a deputy for long."

VIII

Constantinople, Fatih — 30 August 1917

Cevdet delivered the final assessment in a plain envelope, with three signatures upon the cover.

It was nine pages long, and it ended with a paragraph that he had written in a firmer hand than the rest.

The House is sound in its body, careful in its people, and held together by one man whose judgment is better than his protection. The first has been mended, the second is being watched, and the third has been shared. I assess the man as trusted, with reasons.

Zeynep read the paragraph twice and passed it to Ayaan.

"The reasons are the part that I like best," she said. "I think that a trust with reasons is a trust that can be audited."

"I wrote it so that it could be," said Cevdet.

Ayaan read the last line and laid the page upon the walnut desk, and he found that he could not trust his voice.

"Thirteen years," he said at last. "I do not know what I did to deserve them."

"You did nothing, Efendi, for that is why I stayed," said Cevdet. "A man who tries to earn a watcher is a man to be watched, and a man who does not is a man to be trusted."

"Will you keep the second book?" asked Zeynep.

"I shall keep it, Han?m, but I shall write in it only what the House may read." Cevdet bowed. "That is the whole of the change."

Zeynep took the small ledger of the Financial Office from the shelf and wrote beneath the entry of May.

The ninth quarter of the office: Keys in three hands. Eleven persons assessed. Closed copy sealed. The Scarred Man’s assessment delivered.

Ayaan wrote one line in the small notebook.

A watcher who is told a part of the truth will keep the whole of the trust.