Senlin Ascends (The Books of Babel, #1)

by Josiah Bancroft

Goll continued in his own vein, unperturbed by Senlin’s protest. “But why, I’m sure you’re wondering, why not just recruit a new port master from the comfort of my own port? Why go all the way down to the Basement to scrabble about for talent? All I have to do is sit on my back stoop and quiz the incoming masses. I could just ask every knuckle-dragging mouth-breather through the gate, ‘Are you any good with numbers? Are you loyal? Are you honest? Are you reasonable?’” Goll ticked the virtues off on splayed, thick fingers. “That’s exactly what I did, too, and I ended up with a string of incompetent, unreliable liars who almost robbed me blind. Because, see, by the time they get this deep into the Tower, most have had the character beaten out of them. They are willing to say anything to get what they want. You can’t reason with them or trust them. To know a person, to understand their character, you must know who they were before the Tower shook them to their roots. If you do not know how they changed, you do not know who they became.