Free The Infinite Library by Kane X Faucher

begrudging attitude manifest in Angelo that was noticeable from time to time, especially when I peppered him with questions. I had attributed this to my being a novice at this job, and his need to train me was slowing him down. Or perhaps my employment under Castellemare was taking away funds from Angelo’s own feedbag.
    “Have you worked with a partner before?” I asked him, breaking the silence on our way to the airport.
    “Yes. We won’t always be paired up. Some jobs require two reacquisitionists, while others are manageable for just one. But for now, while you learn the ropes, you aren’t ready yet for solo ops.”
    His action flick dialogue was getting the better of my credulity.
    “Is your other partner still working for Castellemare?”
    “No. He was canned. He was a good one, too, knew the job perfectly. An intuition and predisposition for it, as if he were born to work in this trade. That was Setzer. He was perhaps too good, and the fatal flaw was that he knew it, he knew he was indispensable – or at least thought he was until he took one too many liberties. You might say that he was to me what I am to you. I apprenticed under him for a time until I gained my second degree.”
    “What did he do?”
    “There are rules to this gig that you should know and follow. We have ironclad protocol for a reason since detection or greed-based betrayal of any kind is unacceptable. I should apprise you of these rules so that you will never pull a Lucifer on Castellemare. You see, Setzer got greedy and began bending the rules – of course, the rules were implied back then, much to the boss’ later chagrin. On account of that incident, everything had to be written down as law. Setzer nailed every job thrown his way, which made the boss immensely happy. Setzer was a pro, and he did it with an efficiency and ease that is still remarkable. He was even better than I am now, which is saying a hell of a lot. So, like any pro who gets bored with no increase in challenges, he started upping his price to the boss, and the boss – drunk with the delight of Setzer’s fine work – assented. But even that wasn’t enough. Setzer started making unreasonable demands to keep some of the books he reacquired on the boss’ behalf. He wanted to have his own library of Babel, and he began challenging the boss, even outright lying to him. The clincher was when, on a routine reacquisition, he effectively held the book for ransom and demanded in exchange not only an obscene amount of cash, but a list of books from the boss’ Library. That was a fla grant abuse of power and trust, so Castellemare cut him loose.”
    “So what happened to the book Setzer kept?”
    “The thing you have to understand about this business, Gimaldi, is that if you can reacquire a book, someone else can reacquire it from you. That’s where I came in. It was the toughest assignment I ever had because he had been expecting this very thing to happen. I had to wait for months and months until he let his guard down for a moment, and it was a very small window of opportunity. Setzer was not a reacquisitionist like us, but a deep-down thief. It was really tough for me since my loyalties were put to the test, divided like that. I had spent a long time with Setzer, you have to understand, and he was my teacher. The nature of the business is that you see more of your partner than you do your boss, but I had my scruples about me; I knew what was at stake, so I chose to be on the side of angels, really.”
    “So, I take it that one of the rules in this job is to not follow Setzer’s bad example.”
    “Yes, that is one of the rules. The other is to work diligently and never arouse suspicion, never give up any information no matter what. If you get caught, you say that you were working alone. Never implicate the others, and least of all the boss. But the most important rule of all is never violate the boss' trust. Always obey, give back the books you reacquire, and never