Evidence of agreement¶

Nothing in writing, as far as we can establish. We note that “as far as we can establish” is doing considerable work in that sentence.

In Ankh-Morpork, this is not unusual. The Assassins’ Guild does not issue receipts. The Patrician governs through decree and implication in roughly equal measure. An unwritten agreement here can be more durable than a written one, since both parties holding professionally inconvenient information about each other is a remarkably effective substitute for a contract. This is called mutual understanding. The MCLU calls it something less flattering, but we are still writing formal correspondence and will maintain the distinction for as long as that remains useful.

No memorandum, no contract, nothing signed or dated, nothing with a subject line readable in court. The arrangement had no termination clause, which the MCLU submits is not an oversight.

We did find several instances of unusually prompt technical assistance provided to the cloud provider when their monitoring infrastructure encountered difficulties. Assistance implying familiarity with the systems that one would not normally develop without sustained access. We are noting this. What we are noting it for will become apparent when we have evidence that survives contact with a barrister.