“Market?!” - Captain Aitan responded: “Really? You, you, you know the time and location of one?!”

I acted as if I had not heard his question: “By the way, dear rabbi, I remember I suggested you to keep your family and relatives together and keep them from travelling? I now have a small suggestion for your community as well.”

Bewildered rabbi asked, confused: “Yes, well, I did, of course. What are you suggesting?”

“Nothing much.” - I lightly waved around the cup in my hand: “It depends on you, but being able to gather resources, turn the credits, digital and so on financial assets into solid property might be a wise idea. As well as securing sufficient necessities, for example in the form of retail store stock or warehouse storage. Perhaps in a well-secured locations, which might accidentally have sufficient self-sufficient facilities and living space…”. I left my words hanging, taking a sip of my tea. It was good that I could convert most of it into energy while exhaling the excess water as vapour.

“You suggest… to start hoarding?” - Aitan Es was not a fool, and he could quickly reach the conclusion I expected. He asked: “What you find during the convention... Something bad is going to happen, soon?”

I showed a carefully arranged thin smile: “And about the information about the market, your… forces did not know?”.

I had managed to confuse him well enough, while giving a great deal of useful suggestions. It was now up to him to make use of those. I hoped, that it will pay off really well in the future.

---

He caught himself, took a deep breath before carefully replying: “I believe, you are aware that most governments have… certain issues, if that can be said so, with the occult side of the society. History, religion and so on.”

“Yes, Captain, of course. But only most, not all.” - No. And you just told that to me.

Aitan Es sighed and continued: “Well, as unfortunate as it is, I am forced to admit that Britain is one of the countries belonging to the majority. There are some shady areas around the throne I am not privy to, but at least we have no official contacts or even proper intelligence in that part of the society. And as far as I know, in the last one and half hundred years we have been unsuccessful in establishing any contacts. Even most of the arrests had ended up with forced terminations of the targets, and those taken into custody are either incapable of cooperation or unable to divulge any information.”

I raised an eyebrow: “Do you really suspect Ministry of Magic?”

“You won’t believe it,” - Aitan covered his face with his free hand: “They did have a period of suspicion. There was a team keeping the author under surveillance and we all had to keep detailed diaries in case of memory wipe. Everyone was even issued a full set of books, to read, as they said, ‘Just in case’. People were really happy to get such a free gift for their children before they were told that it was all the property of the state and had to be returned. Now, somewhere deep in the military warehouses there is a huge batch of Harry Potter books, properly labelled, marked and given identification number.”

I hummed in response while I fixed the kippah that had almost slipped off my hair. I was ready to bet they had some interesting stuff in their possession. I drummed my finger on the table and asked: “I am just visiting here, Captain, so I don’t want to stick my head into the local politics. But…”

“Yes, ruach?” - Rabbi Es bent closer towards me.

“While I can’t offer my help just because I want to,” - I kept talking bullshit while keeping a straight face: “I am sure it can be done if we form a mutual agreement. An exchange, of sorts.”

Rabbi scratched his bald head and grunted a short laugher: “Equivalent exchange…?”.

I rolled my eyes as I remembered a boy in red coat and a moving suit of armour. I remembered that animation series which I had been forced to watch by the girlfriend I used to have back then. I had not liked it much but it had a few memorable moments. Apparently, rabbi had seen it aswell.

Meanwhile, Aitan continued without noticing my reaction: “Esteemed one, I’m not sure if I can satisfy your requirements…”

I shook my head: “Captain Es, I am doing it mostly because I got some free time and decided to find out more about the British side of the arcane. So I won’t make it hard for you.”

Rabbi Es made a small sitting bow: “Please.”

I told him: “As I want to see what is going on, I don’t mind participating. It just so happened, that when I had arrived, I didn’t bring much with me, and now the transport from abroad is somewhat difficult. So, I suggest that in exchange of the copies of your gathered reports on the local supernatural community, I will tell you where the event will be taking place. If you are willing to bring out some of the trinkets that are likely gathering dust in some secret warehouses, for a share, I may join your group there, and even help during the exchanges.”

Rabbi Aitan Es showed a quick change in his expression, then asked: “May I, contact my superiors?”

I showed a wide smile: “Of course.”.

---

He did not leave the room and neither did he ask me to do so. Was it a show of goodwill or a test? I could not tell. So I sat, sipping my tea while keeping my eyes half-closed.

Rabbi repeated his name, rank and some numbers several times while he was reconnected between the lines. Finally, he reached somebody and began to quickly explain the situation. He referred to me as “powerful person”, and I mouthed to him “from Scandinavia” what he then passed on. I could hear a heated discussion on the other end, but I confident enough in the attractiveness of my offer.

First, I had asked for a hoard of information in exchange for an obviously insufficient offer. Then, I added second point, where they benefitted a lot while I took a step back. For them, a powerful, but unfamiliar potential ally offered help only in return for some data accumulated over the years and artifacts that could likely be useless. For me, I would not only get some objects to trade, information to learn, but also backup in the unknown situation and positive karma with the government.

---

After a full twenty-minutes talk, Rabbi Es put down the phone. He turned to me: “We agree, but I was ordered to inform you that we will need a contract.”

I waved my hand: “Not with blood, pentagrams and smells of sulphur, I hope?”

He squeezed out a slightly tired smile: “No, apparently our researchers had once tried to make that rumored thing with blood contracts work. But apparently, they were missing something. We really got no trained magic users, what a pity.”

“What about ‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live’?” - I teased.

Aitan grunted: “It is m'khashepah in Torah. A woman who uses witchcraft to harm others. We got nothing against others. And anyway, when we are on duty, Law comes first. Even old Thomas has to put up with that, and he is a Puritan.”

---

After a while, the contract was delivered by a group of stern-faced suited men. They looked very odd with kippot on their heads, though, as these really ruined their MiB image. I had to focus in order to smother the laughter.

I read through the contract, resisted an urge to facepalm at the lines “Victor of Scandinavia” and used an offered pen to strike out the points that forced me to work under the full jurisdiction of Ministry of Defence, pointing out that it was going to be an independent cooperation. After some haggling with the men and repeated phone calls, we agreed on my increased share of the artifacts we were going to get as operation funds. In return, I promised to cooperate “according to the situation, with safety of the civilians as priority”.

The men in black, as I had almost unconsciously begun to call them, were checking the contract in detail, busy signing, stamping, sealing and otherwise turning a piece of ordinary paper into a veritable totem of bureaucracy-mancy. From the snippets of the discussion, I understood that all that mess was only needed for accounting and reporting purposes between a number of shady departments hidden inside the governmental apparatus.

---

The market was going to be held in the vicinity of Newcastle. Or, as proper name of the city was, Newcastle upon Tyne. Not very far from Scotland, according to the maps I had checked. And the date was just a few days away - starting on Friday.

Bewildered Benjamin was standing by the entrance into the synagogue, observing rows of stern-faced men moving in and out. Aitan had to leave somewhere as well, so he departed after giving an apologetic smile to the Binjamin.

We had agreed that I will be picked up after the next day, on Thursday evening. That was supposed to give enough time for scouting and briefing and early arrival in case of unforeseen circumstances. I did not mind that either, as it gave me some extra time to read up on common folklore in the internet.

Pity they did not agree to give me their collected data in advance. I could not dispute that either, because I had to keep the appearance as if it were my simple leisurely interest. Psychological advantage was my strongest point in our cooperation and I intended to do everything to maintain it.