“Smuggling’s a pretty good way to get rich, sir,” Hogg said. “A pretty common one, too.”
The buildings had shops on the ground floor and housing on the upper stories. The brick used to build them had a rustier shade than the peach and pale yellow general in Kostroma City. The broad pavement between the buildings and the harbor was brick also. Goods were stacked there, sometimes under tarpaulins, but the only permanent structure was an octagonal brick office for the harbormaster.
The harbor sheltered at least a hundred vessels. Small boats were in the majority, many of them racked three and four high in roofed sheds. A number of barges and yachts lay along the quay.
The community built around this little harbor wasn’t as abjectly terrified by the coup as Kostroma City. Windows were shuttered, but lights were on inside as the residents waited for the next act in the drama. The harbormaster’s office was lighted also. It seemed to be the headquarters for the twenty-strong garrison.
Daniel assessed the guards coldly: thugs, few of whom had taken the trouble to pin on Zojira colors. Much as he and Hogg had expected.
The headlights had warned the garrison of company coming. Each had a submachine gun, and many wore pistols or knives to look even more threatening. In addition to personal weapons, there was a six-wheeled flatbed truck with an automatic impeller pointing out over the cab.
The heavy weapon was aimed at Daniel and Hogg. That was as expected also.
“Okay,” Hogg said softly as he slowed the van to a stop twenty yards from the harbormaster’s office. The armed flatbed was parked alongside, while most of the thugs used the seawall as a trench and aimed their weapons over it. “It’s Ganser’s lot, okay. I’ve done business with him, but he’s not one I’d ever want to turn my back on.”
“All right,” said Daniel. He and Hogg opened their doors together, slowly and smoothly. “You deal with him and I’ll brief the detachment.”
“You bastards turn around and go back where you come!” a male voice called from the office. “This is ours, do you hear?”
“It’s me, Ganser,” Hogg called. He stepped in front of the van so that the headlight fell across him at an angle. Hogg had a big Kostroman pistol shoved under his belt, but he kept his hands clearly in the open. “Time for us to do some trading, that’s all.”
Hogg sauntered toward the office. Daniel nodded in acknowledgment to the garrison, then walked to the back of the van and opened it. He didn’t need to have seen the jitney riddled to know what a burst from the automatic impeller would do to everyone in the back of the van.
He smiled pleasantly to reassure any watching thugs who might have itchy trigger fingers. “Get some distance between you,” he said to the ratings poised tensely within. Sun now had the pistol Woetjans had given up when she moved to the gun truck. “If anything happens, run for the marsh.”
Whistling, his hands in his trouser pockets as he mimed carefree innocence, Daniel walked to the gun truck. Woetjans had stopped twenty yards away. She’d switched off her headlights so that they didn’t silhouette the van if shooting started.
The ratings with stocked impellers had spread out from the vehicle; one of them watched the road behind in case the garrison’d had sense enough to set an outpost there. Daniel doubted they had, but it was a professional concern that spoke well of his personnel.
Woetjans remained in the driver’s seat. Lamsoe, the gunner, had his automatic weapon aimed not at the garrison’s truck but at the harbormaster’s office. A burst would disintegrate the small brick building. Adele Mundy, looking more like an officer than anyone else Daniel had seen in a Kostroman uniform, stood slim and disdainful beside the gun truck.
Daniel’d been amazed at the way the librarian had breezed them through the checkpoint. He’d been counting on the confusion to get his Cinnabars out of Kostroma City. The Zojiras weren’t organized enough to freeze all movement, and Daniel’s story of being on a personal mission for Grand Admiral Sanaus was both believable and impossible to check in the present chaos. His accent was a danger, but this wasn’t a night they could hope to survive without danger.