Istanbul
Is picking up my Assistant mandatory when I land on a place where I left one?
The rulebook's wording ("cannot or do not want to") supports optional, but replies in the threads disagree.
By the rulebook's wording it is optional, but declining ends your turn on the spot: no action, no payment and no encounters. You never leave a second Assistant on a place where one of yours already waits, so in practice you pick it up if you want to do anything there. A Dutch-edition reader reports it as always mandatory, and one reply says you cannot decline, but the English text says "cannot or do not want to".