Jade War

CHAPTER 25 Interception

Maik Kehn steadied himself on the deck of the motorboat as it sped up, throwing white spray into the air as it jumped the swells of the cargo ship’s wake and pulled up alongside the much larger vessel. Kehn did not particularly like being on the water, especially given the cold drizzle of rain flying in his face; he would much rather be on the familiar streets of Janloon—the noisy, dirty streets that he and his Green Bones ruled. But the clans needed to protect and patrol far beyond the city these days—up in the mountains, along the coast, even hundreds of kilometers out to sea. Kehn suspected that he might be the first Horn, at least in his generation, to hijack a ship in international waters. That was part of his job, though, adapting to the enemy’s moves—and he’d learned from Kaul Hilo to always lead from the front.

Juen, his First Fist, fired the grappling hook, which went sailing over the railing of the cargo ship and caught, tethering their motorboat. Unlike some large men, Kehn had no difficulty with Lightness; seizing the taut rope, he swung his feet onto it and ran halfway up its length like a lizard on a thin branch, crossing the last few meters to the ship’s deck in a bound. He landed quietly, talon knife drawn.

Two men armed with handguns were running toward the railing. To his surprise, Kehn sensed jade auras, shrill with hostility and alarm. At the sight of him, they stopped and opened fire. The Horn leapt straight for the guards, releasing tight twin Deflections that cleared his path as he went airborne and landed between them. He clamped onto the barrel of the nearest weapon with his left hand, twisting it away from the gunman with a burst of Strength as he hurled the man on the right backward with a Deflection that sent him crashing across the rain-slicked deck into the nearest metal wall of stacked containers.

Kehn tossed the gun overboard; its former owner drew twin triangle-headed durbh daggers—fighting knives of the Uwiwa Islands—and came at the Horn with vicious, swift stabs. Kehn hooked and controlled the man’s left wrist with his talon knife and caught the blade of the right-hand dagger with his Steeled hand. His opponent reacted instantly, letting go of the weapon and driving his fist into Kehn’s solar plexus with enough Strength that the air went out of Kehn’s lungs with a painful grunt. He felt the telltale flex in his opponent’s jade aura as the man gathered himself to Channel a lethal blow.

Kehn battened his torso with Steel; the durbh blade he’d caught in his hand cut sharp into suddenly unprotected skin. Dropping it, he Channeled first, fast and quick, a nonlethal jab to the heart, just enough to shock. Grabbing a fistful of the man’s shirt, he let out a bellow as he shoved, then yanked forward hard, whiplashing his opponent’s face into a head butt that connected with an audible crack. The Horn dug his shoulder into the limp man’s chest and heaved, sending him over the ship’s railing and tumbling into the white-capped water far below.

Kehn turned around. His Fists, Juen and Iyn, and two Fingers, Lott and Dudo, had leapt to board the ship right behind him, leaving one Finger, Ton, behind to man the motorboat. Iyn was stalking after the second guard as he tried to stumble away from her with a broken leg. As she drew her moon blade, Kehn ordered, “Leave him alive for now.” It occurred to him that he shouldn’t have thrown the other one into the sea; now the man’s jade, even if it was not much, was at the bottom of the ocean. At least it was no longer being worn and used disgracefully by a hired half bone cur.

He strode down the deck of the ship between fifteen-meter-tall walls of red, orange, and blue shipping containers uniformly stacked like his nephew’s building blocks. The three-hundred-meter-long cargo vessel was too large for him to be able to Perceive everyone aboard, but he knew his Fists and Fingers would split up to sweep the ship; they would find and kill any additional barukan guards and round up the crew. Kehn wrapped his hand in the hem of his shirt, putting pressure on it to stop the bleeding as he headed toward the bridge.

Twenty minutes later, the captain and his officers were gathered together in the ship’s dining room. The captain was a man of about forty with a curly orange beard and sideburns—Captain Bamivu eya Kijdiva, according to his nameplate—an Ygutanian, like several of his officers. The crew, which had been rounded up and placed in the mess hall, was mostly Uwiwan. Though Kijdiva acted admirably calm, sweat stood out on his brow and Kehn could Perceive his heart beating much faster than normal. He obviously didn’t know anything about Green Bones and thought his ship had been attacked by pirates who might steal his cargo or harm his crew.

“Don’t worry, no one will be hurt,” Kehn said. Either the man did not understand or was not put at ease by the assurance. “You speak any other languages?” Kehn asked. “Uwiwan? Espenian?”

The captain spoke passable Espenian, which was fortunate as Lott also had a decent grasp on the language, having studied it during his years at the Academy. That seemed to be popular these days; with more foreigners and foreign businesses in Janloon, it was useful even for Fingers to know another language besides Kekonese. Kehn asked Lott to translate. “Tell him we want to see the ship’s registration and freight manifest.”

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.