The silent room seethed with anger.
A man in a suit sat in a chair, the cigarette in his hand glowing and dimming.
"The Pasman Family botched it. That's certainly rare. You've always been reliable, but now it seems my trust in you was misplaced."
"This wasn't my fault!"
Another man, powerfully built, growled under his breath. Beneath his enormous frame, the chair looked like a toy.
"Now isn't the time to assign blame."
A third man reached up and adjusted his glasses.
"The goods are missing. We have to find a way to recover them. Can we find out who stole them?"
"There aren't many people in Casablanca with the nerve to steal from the Pasman Family. Besides..."
The burly man snorted and looked at the man with glasses.
"The only people who knew what it was were members of your Beredi Family, weren't they? My men had no idea what was inside!"
"So you're suggesting my men leaked the information?"
At the burly man's accusation, the man with glasses adjusted his frames, a cold gleam flashing in his eyes.
"That's enough, gentlemen."
As the two argued, the man in the suit stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray.
"Now isn't the time to argue. The auction starts in a week. We have to recover the goods before then. This auction is extremely important to us."
"Speaking of the auction, that reminds me of something else."
The man with glasses turned toward the man in the suit.
"I heard on the news that the Empire is conducting military exercises in Crodo over the next few days. Have you heard anything?"
"I asked around. It's just routine defense training."
The man in the suit shrugged.
"Apparently, tensions outside the Empire have been rising lately, so they're holding defense exercises across