Jesper was extremely thankful Nina staying with him and Wylan. Jesper had missed her fiercely over the years she'd been gone. She'd started writing letters in more recent years, but in the months directly after she'd left Ketterdam it had been like she'd left the city and vanished from the world. While Jesper had loved helping Wylan rescue his mother and settle into his position as head of House Van Eck, that first year had been lonely. Nina and Inej were gone, Kaz was pretending not to know him and the rest of the Dregs hadn't known what to do with Jesper's new status as the boyfriend of a member of the Merchant Council.
Still things had eventually gotten better. Jesper's closest friends in the Dregs had gotten over their fear that he'd suddenly become honest and started to visit the house and invite him out again. Inej had dragged Kaz back into Jesper and Wylan's acquaintance by his ear and basically threatened him into visiting them until he got used to it and started doing it on his own. When she'd returned to the seas, Inej had started writing letters to them, describing the less sensitive parts of her mission. Things were good.
The only person who hadn't found their way back was Nina. It took years for her to finally write, and once she did she steadfastly refused to visit. Having her back in Ketterdam was something Jesper had long since given up hope for, but now they had it. She'd been staying at the Van Eck house with them and now that she was here she was more than willing to tell them everything about what had happened to her.
Jesper, Wylan and Nina were hanging out in Wylan's office. Officially, Wylan and Jesper were doing the books for the Van Eck businesses, but unofficially they were just talking. Nina was just telling a silly story about introducing her new girlfriend to some Ravkan food Jesper had never heard of when someone knocked on the office door.
"Yes?" Wylan called.
The housekeeper poked her head inside. "Sander Van Aakster is at the door," she said. "Should I tell him you're unavailable?"
Excluding Wylan, Sander Van Aakster was the youngest member of the Merchant Council. His father had died only four months before and it was quickly becoming blatantly obvious that Sander was not at all ready to take over the family business. He called on Jesper and Wylan often for advice.
"Let him in," Nina, who had never met Sander, told Wylan. "I'm sure he's here for something important."
"You never know with Sander," Jesper grumbled, but Wylan was already telling Mrs. Arent to let the merch in.
Sander entered the office in his nervous, twitchy way. He was at least five years older than Jesper was, but his continual air of uncertainty made him seem much younger. He was also probably the only member of the Merchant Council who had nothing to hide, an honor that even Wylan couldn't claim as that he was secretly a member of the Dregs. Sometimes Sander's naivete got tiring, but whenever it did Jesper reminded himself that it was always good to have the honest people on your side.
Sander did a visible double take when he saw Nina. "Who's-"
"This is our good friend Nina," Wylan said. "She's visiting Ketterdam. We trust her impeccably; you can talk in front of her just like you were talking to us."
A less naive mercher or Barrel rat probably wouldn't have fallen for that. They would have demanded that Nina leave before they got to business, but Sander hadn't quite realized just how cut-throat Ketterdam was, so he raised no objection to Nina's presence and settled in a chair in front of the desk.
"What business?" Wylan asked.
"Did you hear anything about the new stadwatch captain?" Sander said, leaning forward like he was going to hand out a valuable secret.
"Pals is getting fired?" Wylan asked. He sounded hopeful. Pals was the most incompetent of the stadwatch's three captains. Wylan had vehemently hated Captain Pals since an incident the winter before when Pals had managed to arrest Kaz and hold him for a few hours until Wylan had arrived to save the day all while being a spectacularly arrogant ass.
"That's what I came here to ask you," Sander said. "I hadn't heard anything about any of the stadwatch captains being replaced."
"Then why do you think there's going to be a new stadwatch captain?" Jesper asked.
"Councilman Van Dijk was talking about someone coming to help the stadwatch with the new Dregs problem," Sander said.
Jesper's stomach sunk. He fought to keep his dismay off his face, and he could tell Wylan and Nina were doing the same. They'd gotten away with their Church of Barter stunt in part because most of the upstanding citizens of Ketterdam were terrified of them now. Someone coming to the city to take control of things could be a disaster.
"Did Councilman Van Dijk tell you who this person was and what they were going to be doing?" Wylan asked in his level "mercher voice."
"No," Sander admitted.
"You didn't ask?"
"No," Sander blushed furious red. "I may have been eavesdropping."
Interesting. It appeared Sander Van Aakster had a gutsy side; Jesper wouldn't have expected that from him. "Who was he actually talking to?" Jesper asked.
"Councilman Schenck," Sander said. "He was talking about how he was worried that there was no way to keep us safe from the Dregs now, and Councilman Van Dijk said that he knew how to take care of it and suggested bringing in an associate of his."
"Who's the associate?" Nina asked.
"He didn't say," Sander said. "Councilman Schenck said he'd discuss it with some other members of the Council."
"Interesting," Wylan said thoughtfully. He and Jesper both knew that they would hear nothing about this. According to the Kerch constitution, there was no hierarchy to the Merchant Council. In practice, however, there was a very defined hierarchy. People like Van Dijk and Schenck were at the top and Wylan and Jesper were near the bottom due to their-rightly-suspected gang ties. Van Dijk, Schenck and their closest associates were perfectly capable of making decisions which changed the face of Ketterdam without ever bringing the issue before the whole of the Merchant Council.
"So what should we do?" Sander asked. "Do you think I should admit to Councilman Van Dijk that I overheard him and ask him to explain what's going on?"
"No!" Wylan said. "Don't do that. Whatever you do, don't tell him you overheard him."
"Then what should I do?" Sander asked. He was so trusting. Not for the first time, Jesper mused that it was lucky he and Wylan weren't Kaz. Kaz would probably con Sander out of his every worldly possession without a flutter of conscience. Sander could have fallen in with far to many people who would use him in Ketterdam; he was lucky he'd fallen in with Jesper and Wylan who were just using him for information and gossip that the merchers clamped up about when the two suspected Dregs were in the area.
"Don't do anything," Wylan said. "Jes and I will do some asking around, but there might not be much we can do. Besides, regardless of whether Van Dijk let's the full Council vote on this, he can't bring a consultant for the stadwatch in without at least informing us. We'll know what's going on eventually. I wouldn't worry about it."
"Oh, okay," Sander said. "That makes me feel so much better." He looked relieved too. Jesper wondered what it was like to grow up in Ketterdam and still be that naive.
"I should probably get going then," Sander went on. "I have a meeting and I'm sure you have things to do as well." He got to his feet and straightened his coat.
"Thank you so much for stopping by, Sander," Wylan said, rising and extending his hand for Sander to shake. "Feel free to stop by anytime."
"I will," Sander said. He shook hands with Jesper and Nina as well, and then was gone.
"So the stadwatch getting a consultant really isn't a problem?" Nina asked once they were sure Sander was long gone.
"Of course it's a problem," Wylan said. "But Sander doesn't need to know that."
"We'll have to pass this information on to Kaz," Jesper agreed. "He and the spiders will be able to figure out some more about this."
"I can go talk to him," Nina said. "I was going to take a walk this afternoon anyway; I have a letter for Hanne that I want to post."
"That will probably be good," Wylan said. "Kaz will need time to confirm the rumor and then to prepare if it's true."
"Yeah," Jesper said. "The last time the Merchant Council brought someone in to fix things up was long before I came to Ketterdam, but I'm sure Kaz remembers it."
"I don't remember it very well either," Wylan said. "But it's not like I had anything to do with the gangs at the time. I remember that a lot of people got arrested, though. We need to make sure that doesn't happen again."
"Then I'd best be on my way to talk to Kaz," Nina said. "I'll see you two at dinner tonight." and she hurried out of the office, leaving Jesper and Wylan alone.