The Sid Ponders

The Sid had a problem. That problem being Bradford Hold. Somehow, despite all the precautions that Uncle Vic had taken, Bradford had deduced that he knew about The Box. This message ring either contained a threat to wipe out Borgia Hold if he did not desist in spreading knowledge of The Box around, an offer to cut a deal sharing the information that The Box yielded or, perhaps, some other bribe.

Had Vic, that crafty old fox, thought he could successfully use the mere knowledge of the Bradford's possession of the device to cut a deal regarding it's shared use, he would have done so. He hadn't. He was also now dead. Sid didn't figure he was half the Master Manipulator Vic had been. Yet. So if Vic figured he couldn't trust the Bradfords, Sid didn't figure he could either. Besides, with the information dependent upon the Bradfords themselves, Sid would never know what was true dirt and which was false dirt that the Bradfords had planted to set Borgia up. He had to assume that Bradford would feed him true information up to the critical last piece. And then leave him hanging over the Pit of Doom.

That, after all, is what he himself would do in similar circumstances.

So that left a threat. Lay off or we paste Borgia Hold. 'BFD', thought Sid, 'You're already slowly destroying Borgia Hold by stealing all our good secrets.' Fast. Slow. What was the diff?

Besides, open warfare against a Major Hold was bound to raise inquiring eyebrows. Like *why* Borgia burned to the ground some Saturday night. Such inquiries would eventually lead back to Bradford even if they had blackmailed an intermediary hold into doing the job. Even if they had excellent security.

This *was* Salta we were talking about after all.

So Sid figured Borgia was doomed one way or the other. Was Bradford stupid enough to try a frontal assault? Were it not for the Borgia causalties it would cause he almost wished they would. More than a few Holds had thought that they were clever enough to eliminate another Hold in it's entirety only to reap the winds of retribution from other quarters, who thought such actions bad precedents.

So. Should he have Corbel read the message?

He *detested* the idea of giving Corbel any more leverage on him than he already had. Principles, here. Was there anything the Bradfords could say that he would trust or be detered by?

Not that he could think of.

And the Bradfords wouldn't know for sure that he had received the message. So they couldn't carry out a threat to Borgia without verifying that he had. What would be the point besides pissing him off even further? With Borgia gone, they would have to realize that Sid became a Man with a Mission. They really wouldn't want that. Little did they know that killing Vic had made him that already. No, they'd try to buy or fob him off somehow. And they'd have to wait a bit regardless for the message to get to him.

Maybe he could have Corbel send word back to the Bryants that the message could not be delivered to the individual that they had described. That he did not know an El Sid Borgia by that name. Ask where could he be found. That would keep them guessing a bit.

Yeah, that was the ticket. Hold the ring a few weeks, then send it back unread and untampered with. That would have to make the Bradford's hesitate. They didn't even know for sure that Sid was still alive. Yeah. Buy some more time. Sew a little more confusion...

"Hey, Corbie baby, after you fill me in on the K'rackHeads, tell me if you can lift the message off of that ring without leaving any traces...Yeah, no traces of tampering...Bradford may figure Bryant would be curious and do a scan or two but I don't want Bradford to think that I got the message...Yeah. That's right. Send it back via the Bryants...Yeah, you got it, 'Return to Sender. Address Unknown'...Yeah. Exactly...They'll shit bricks...Who said anything about being 'nice'?...So what would you do?...PAH! Get real! You're too honest for your own good, Corbin...Yeah, that's r-i-g-h-t. *They're* the bad guys here...Naw, your not getting old, Corbet, ol' chum, you just have a lot on your mind, that's all...Krinn? Oh, she's fine...Yeah...Says she misses you a lot...Yeah, yeah, sure, sure...Yeah, no sweat...OK...What about these K'rackHead characters? Can we trust them?...Yeah. The Libary...Uh-huh... ...OK...You sure?...Ok, then, see if you can skim the ring, if not, just send it back. And we'll let you know what deal we cut with the Rev...yeah...No! That's Wilco, not Bunko!...Yeah...Roger...OK! OK, already! Don't worry about Krinn, fer chris' sake we'll take care of her!... Yeah...Ciao, bambino... Yeah...And keep the 'bugs off your bumpers'...What? Oh, never mind..."