Bank of Grantville – October 1635
"You been flying lately?" Coleman Walker was leaning on the corner of Marlon Pridmore's desk.
The question was definitely not what Marlon was expecting. "Sure, Coleman. Almost every weekend, especially when the weather is good. You want to go up for a ride, or something?"
Coleman grinned. "Now why would I want to do that? No, it's about this thing I have on my desk. Come on."
Together they walked into Coleman's office. There was a packet of parchment, beribboned and stamped with wax. Marlon considered the document. "What is it? Somebody trying to buy us out?"
Coleman sat down in his leather chair and motioned for Marlon to sit. "I'm not really sure. It comes from someone named Cornelius Holgarssen, who represents something called the Merchant Bankers of Copenhagen. They're making noise about some kind of financial agreement with us. But they will negotiate only with you. They want to meet on their own ground, and they want you to bring your airship."
"I haven't really heard any rumors about Denmark lately," Marlon said. "Do you have any idea what they really want?"
Coleman picked up the document and flipped a couple of pages, then found what he was looking for. "They say it's something about establishing common guidelines for financial transactions, but that's just fancy double-talk. It could mean almost anything. It doesn't really sound like enough to drag somebody in person all the way to Copenhagen."
"Coleman, how long do you think this meeting of theirs will run? You know it's going to take a while just to get there."
"I don't know, Marlon. But the bank, and Grantville for that matter, can't afford to alienate any of the parties in Europe right now."
"Are they offering enough to make it worth our while?"
Coleman handed the papers to Marlon. "Yeah, I think so. I really think you should go."
Marlon took a couple of minutes to look over the highlights of the request, and stood up. "Reva'll enjoy the chance to get away for a while. And my trainee, Manfried, seems to be working out pretty well. I was about ready to cut him loose, and let him try it solo. Now's a good time. When do I need to be there?"
"They've requested you to attend a meeting on the first of December. I'd say give yourself three weeks travel time, so that would give you about three weeks or so to get ready and to close up anything you have on your desk here."
"There's no telling how long I might be gone. It seems down-timers can't buy a pair of shoes without haggling for a week."
Coleman laughed. "Take all the time you need, just don't fall out of your balloon and forget to come back."
* * *
Marlon came out of the office, and went over to his wife's station. "Reva, you busy? Let's go get some lunch."
Reva shook her head. "You know very well that it's a good hour and a half after lunch time. If I let you, Marlon, you'd spend all day at a restaurant wasting time."
"Yeah, I know. But there's things we need to talk about, and I need a cup of coffee."
* * *
Reva leaned forward and put her elbows on the table. "Now just exactly what was in that fancy message that got you and Coleman tied up in knots?"
"It's a request for a meeting with a bunch of money people in Copenhagen. They want us to come out and do some business. You've been wanting to get away for a vacation anyway, and they asked for us by name. They want us to take the Upwind, but that doesn't surprise me. Everybody wants to see it. Coleman thinks that there's more than to it than that but he's not sure what. You feel like going?"
Marlon knew that Reva always loved travel, even with the uncomfortable carriages and bad road conditions. She'd loved new places all of her life.
"When do we have to be there?"
Marlon loved watching her eyes light up at the thought of going somewhere. "The papers request my presence on December first. Coleman thinks it will take about three weeks to get there. We'll have to figure out how to bring the Upwind along. And I haven't got all of that thought through yet. Heck, I haven't even really got a finalized hauler arrangement."
The food arrived, and they took a moment to eat a bit before continuing. Marlon said, "Coleman thinks it may all be just an excuse to see one of them newfangled flying machines. Still, they're talking about a lot of money, and some agreements we could really use. Seems like a lot just to see some flying thing. What do you think we need for the trip?"
Reva considered. She was always the one to organize their various excursions in the past. "Well, I don't want to sleep in the dirt this time, so you better find some way to get us off the ground while we're traveling. And I don't want to walk the whole way either."
"Well, I got an idea about that. I think I can cobble together a small trailer house for you. We could take that old gooseneck pole trailer and put that little 8 x 12 shed out back on it. I'll build a rope bed, and we can put our mattress on that. We'll have room for your foot locker, and food and everything. Then we can get that friend of Bernard's with his short wagon and horses. We put a fifth wheel connection in the bed of the wagon and we have our fifth wheel. You might even be able to nap as we go. And it will save us setting up camp every day."
"That sounds good. We could take a gas camp stove too. Why do you think they want you to take your toy?"
"Funny thing, they asked for it specifically. Seems it's a bigger celebrity than we are. We'll probably need to take a five hundred gallon propane tank too. Especially if we need to fly that thing more than one or two times. But if it helps to sell the deal, I don't mind flying around with them."