The next morning, a well-dressed man in his early thirties walked into the mayor's office in the bustling port city of Marseilles. Everything about him screamed "foreign businessman", from his crisp blue coat and pristine white vest to his clipped accent that marked him as English.
"Sir," he said, getting straight to business, "I represent Thomson & French Trading Company from Rome. We've had a partnership with the local shipping firm Morrel & Son for over ten years now. The thing is, we've loaned them around a hundred thousand francs, and we're hearing some pretty disturbing rumors about their financial situation. I came all the way from Rome to get the real story."
