The characters belong to Eoin Colfer, etc., etc.


Taisez-vous! Les oreilles ennemies vous écoutent

For a bodyguard he was astonishingly gullible.

All one had to do, while pondering a move, was mention his charge and the stories flowed ceaselessly. Information revealed with no thought as to the use the 'enraptured' listener might make of it.

There was no denying how useful those stories were, although the feigned admiration for their subject induced nausea with every recital. But chess was just another form of warfare and the irony of a bodyguard supplying information that would annihilate his principal was amusing.

He hadn't realised why Sun Tzu was on his shelf. His stupidity was truly incroyable.


Author's note: Enough clues here to guess the subject. The title translates as 'Be quiet! Enemy ears are listening to you.' Anybody else find Moby Dick and The Art of War suspicious? Then there's Gormenghast: could Marie-Suzanne be Steerpike?