After some back and forth, the requested documents were brought over from the bridge. The MV Amaric Pride, owned and operated by an Ygutanian company but registered in the Uwiwa Islands, had left Tialuhiya two days ago, bound for the northern port city of Bursvik in Ygutan. Normally, ships bound for Ygutan went south around Shotar and through the Origas Gulf, but the waters near Oortoko were currently a war zone full of Shotarian, Espenian, and Ygutanian warships.
Kehn frowned as he flipped through the manifest. The ship was carrying nearly twenty thousand tons of cargo—apparel, consumer goods, canned fruit. There was no way to search it all. The captain asked a question, and Lott said, “He wants to know if we killed those men, the four guards.”
Juen and the others had encountered two other barukan as they took over the ship. “Those men worked for a smuggler in the Uwiwa Islands,” Kehn said to the captain, not answering his question. “Do you know what they were guarding?”
The captain swallowed. “I didn’t ask questions,” he said, through Lott. “I was paid for their passage. It’s typical for us to have four to ten paying passengers aboard. I don’t know what’s in the boxes; I never see any of it. I just move it.”
Kehn left the captain and officers under Juen’s guard and went back up onto the deck with Lott. The sky was still spitting weak, intermittent rain, but the sun had come up now. The barukan that Iyn had left alive was tied to the railing, his leg bent at a disturbing angle, his face a sickly hue. Iyn had stripped him of his jade. The Fist was sighing with disappointment as she leaned against a nearby container, pulling the links of the gemstone necklace apart and flinging the nephrite pieces into the ocean, pausing only to pocket two pieces of real green. Junior Fists like Iyn were the most anxious to prove themselves, vying with their peers to gain additional jade, territory, responsibility, and Fingers to command. Kehn made a mental note to himself to give her another chance to earn jade sooner rather than later. He’d come to realize that the bulk of the Horn’s role was managing people, and although he wasn’t naturally gifted with the personal warmth and magnetism of his predecessor, he tried to always pay attention to those under his command and be strict but fair in his decisions. After two grueling years in the job, he’d become more secure in his own leadership and knew his warriors respected him.
Standing in front of the injured barukan man, Kehn said, “Do you speak Kekonese?” When the man nodded, the Horn got straight to the point: “Which container is it in?”
“I don’t know,” the man said. “Zapunyo doesn’t pay me to know things. Kill me and be done with it.”
“I’m not going to kill you,” Kehn said. “Your leg is badly broken, but it’s a clean break; if I ask the ship’s doctor to come out and set it, you’ll heal and be able to walk again. Or I can have Lott and Iyn here turn it into pebbles in a skin bag, and your other leg as well, then drop you back off in the Uwiwa Islands as a cripple to see what use Zapunyo has for you then.”
The little color remaining in the man’s face drained out. “If I tell you anything, I’m a dead man. Do you know what Zapunyo does to people who steal or rat? Who break the silence of Ti Pasuiga?” His teeth began to chatter as the wind chilled his wet clothes and sweat-drenched skin. “First, he cuts off the feet, then the hands, and finally the head, and he has the parts buried in different places so you won’t be whole even in the afterlife.”
“That’s because he’s an animal,” said Kehn. “We can get you away from Zapunyo. How do you think we knew about this shipment if we didn’t already have informers that we protect? Also, we have the support of the Espenians; they’re at war and want to stop the smuggling as well, to prevent their enemies from getting any stronger. You want to start a new life somewhere far away from Zapunyo’s grasp? Or you want the other option? I’m going to have a smoke while you think about it.” Kehn paced away.
He did, indeed, light a cigarette and walk out of sight to enjoy it. Behind him, he heard Iyn say, “I’m inclined to break your other leg just for wasting Maik-jen’s time. He’s a patient man, but he doesn’t like to talk much, so he’s being extra generous with you and you’re not taking it seriously, you barukan dog fucker.”
Lott said, “Iyn-jen, there’s no need to insult him when he’s in that state.” Speaking to the man in a concerned tone, he added, “Personally, I hope you decide to cooperate. I don’t see what loyalty you owe to Zapunyo that’s worth this much suffering, and I don’t really want to make things worse for you, although naturally I’ll do it if that’s what I have to.” This was said with just the right amount of sympathy, reasonableness, and cold certitude. Kehn made a satisfied noise to himself; Lott Jin had had a shaky beginning as a Finger, but following Hilo’s instruction that he be placed under the tutelage of good mentors, the young man had come a long way and his attitude was much improved.
While Kehn waited, giving the captive a few more minutes, he considered how to propose marriage to Lina. He knew she would accept, as they had spoken of it already. It was the right time; he was an oldest son and hoped to father children of his own soon. As a generally private man, he would personally prefer a small, simple wedding but knew that would not be possible; the marriage of the Horn would be a clan event. All the political considerations and turns of fortune that affected the Kaul family affected the Maiks as well.
When Kehn finished his cigarette, he returned and demanded an answer. Shivering violently now and utterly defeated in spirit, the man directed them to the container that he’d been ordered to protect. It was hard to believe that the barukan were actually Kekonese by blood, Kehn thought, because they were weak willed, but that was a natural consequence of being born and beaten down in a cowardly place like Shotar.
Kehn summoned the ship’s doctor to see to the man’s injuries. Crew members were brought out to operate the shipboard crane to move the indicated six-meter-long container off its stack. When the corrugated blue metal box was opened on deck, Kehn saw it was packed full of cardboard cartons. The first several boxes they inspected contained hundreds of individually poly-wrapped items of clothing—exercise pants, tank tops, swimwear—straight from the garment factories in the Uwiwa Islands. Then Iyn noticed that some of the boxes appeared to have an extra bar code on the side. Kehn opened one of them and held up a woman’s blouse with small green buttons down the front. The buttons were made of jade and the blouse was false—it didn’t even open at the front. The whole box was filled with jade, disguised as mere ornamentation. Nestled in layers of fabric and mixed in with thousands of items of clothing, the gems would easily evade casual inspection until someone on the receiving end in Ygutan took delivery on behalf of a fictitious retailer and collected a fortune in jade.
“That Uwiwan is a clever dog,” Kehn admitted in a grumble, standing among a mess of boxes, plastic, and fabric. He left his Green Bones in charge of the continuing search and went to the bridge to order the captain to change course; the MV Amaric Pride would be docking in Janloon’s Summer Harbor.
CHAPTER 26
Setting Expectations
The news was vaguely reported in the Ygutanian papers and not at all outside that country’s borders, but according to the translated articles Shae received from the clan’s contacts in Ygutan, several targeted bombings had occurred in the past week, destroying chemical factories near Dramsk, Nitiyu, and Bursvik. The Ygutanian Directorate was blaming the attacks on Shotarian loyalist groups from Oortoko, backed by the Espenian government. The articles did not reveal who owned or operated the facilities nor what they were producing that would make them the targets of sabotage, but Shae already knew. The Espenians wouldn’t offer to pay for something if they didn’t plan to use it; she’d met with Ambassador Mendoff and Colonel Deiller in the White Lantern Club eight months ago, and now the Mountain’s lucrative shine-producing facilities were destroyed.