Book 3, Burton Crane
Chapter 3IT WAS A PICTURESQUE building of medieval character with sagging red beams. The Baron’s estate office in Landshut had a brass plaque beside the wide hardwood door with a cryptic inscription: “Urdr”.
The middle-ages were a pretense.
As Burton Crane crossed the threshold, he entered the air-conditioned efficiency of a modern computerized office. On a stand near the front desk, a prospect on the Urdr investment fund gave a list of companies in which the fund held substantial interests. Partly owned by the Baron, the fund was controlled by him. Crane guessed that a lopsided part of the profits lined the Baron’s pockets while the fund carried the costs. Smart and probably legal.
Crane presented himself to the lone secretary, prim, able and pretty, giving his na
