“You called the Admiral “Uncle Thomas” so I got curious and checked it out. Only one girl in the Americas that fits that bill you know. Katherine Vernor. I heard you were a party girl and a bit useless, but anyone that's willing to dangle off a line to help out a vessel in need can't be all bad. Just, you know, pull your weight the same as you did a few weeks ago and everything should go fine. Right? I don't know why you'd want to be a loader, but we've been a man short, Darnell being on shit duty.” He looked embarrassed suddenly.
“Sorry about the language...”
“Don't worry about it. I use a lot worse daily and I'm sure I will today, since I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. Just treat me like any other trainee and I'll try to keep up. Seriously, if you'd normally yell at me for a screw up or to hurry or whatever, then just do it. And, um, if you could keep who I am to yourself for now? Strictly speaking no one's supposed to know. Gloria doesn't, unless you told her?”
He shook his head and made a buttoning motion with his fingers on his lips, at least she assumed that's what the gesture had been. It wasn't one she'd seen before, anywhere.
She chugged the rest of the coffee and they headed back to the loading dock. Gloria glanced at her when she walked up and winked.
“You two getting friendly back there? If it took any longer, I'd have had to go look for you...” The woman didn't seem too put out by the idea, but Gwen didn't want her to get the wrong idea either.
“Nah, nothing interesting like that. Smitty just went over the schedule, told me to get with one of you if I needed to kill anyone, that kind of thing.” She kept her face deadpan and so did Gloria.
“Good. Grab a second cup if you need it, once the load gets in we don't stop until it's secured. Ghost Smitty and do what he says. I expect him to ride your ass, so don't come crying to me if your feelings get hurt, hear?” She winked again, then turned, as the lorrie wagon, which looked just a little smaller than a semi-truck with a flat bed, pulled up across the back of the hangar, broad side.
The work was fast, but not frantic. Smitty taught her how to tie things down and load the containers using the cradle harness. She didn't get to use the controls yet, since only Gloria or her second, Groundling, did that. Smitty did yell at her to hurry, but not too much, since she managed to keep her speed up fairly well. It was the hardest work she'd ever done outside of martial arts training, since she'd never had a manual labor position before. She'd be sore at the end of the day, not being in shape for it.
To get Mathews she'd do a thousand times more. For all she knew that's what it would take. She forced herself to push harder and not stop.
When that lorrie was unloaded, another pulled up starting a string of them that lasted for nearly twelve hours solid. They didn't even stop to eat and had to coordinate when they went to the restroom, taking it in shifts so that there were enough people to keep things going steadily all the time.
They were given more coffee by a woman in a uniform, a long red and white striped dress and an apron, named Sue. Gwen didn't get to talk to her, but Smitty said that Sue would be doing the food when they all had a chance to eat. Later.
They finished loading just as darkness fell outside.
“Right. Not a half bad job. We'll eat, then check to make certain everything is all secure before takeoff.” Gloria called out to them.
Everyone walked into the Peregrine, so Gwen followed, finding that everyone went in to the galley, where food had already been laid out on the table. No one ate until everyone sat down, not even touching anything until the last person settled. The food came out on large platters, everyone taking what they wanted, then passing them along. Feeling hungry, she snagged some of each item as it came past herself, loading her plate – though not as full as Smitty or one of the other men, Billet, who both looked half-starved and ate twice what anyone else did.
Gloria looked at her and grinned as she started to eat, nodding.
“Eat up. You, being another girl, are on shift with me, you too, Smitty. That means we work for the next sixteen hours straight. It's going to be a long night. We've got coffee.”
Gwen didn't groan, though she already felt tired. If she had to stay awake for the next week, the next year, she'd do it in order to take down Mathews.
That murdering fuck was going down.
It kind of put little personal hardships in perspective.
Chapter twenty-five
Most of the work they wanted Gwen to do seemed simple enough. Check the load and make sure nothing shifted, which they took turns doing once per hour, sweep and clean, polish wood and brass. Occasionally she took coffee to the officers on deck. The pilot house actually, a little room that had large glass windows in the bow of the ship, so that they could see where they were going.
She learned that, since he commanded the ship right now, the Admiral was called the Captain, but off the ship – in port or somewhere else – he would still be the Admiral. Or Uncle Thomas, depending on who was listening. Beth, not being a Westmorland for this trip, turned out to be addressed as the First mate, or for someone at Gwen's remove from her, ma'am. The name on her papers said she was Beth Cabot, and had been a pilot for the last three years.
Gwen just used Katherine's papers, since in this world, unlike hers, it would be almost impossible for anyone to track her movements, barring the use of magic. If anyone watched that way, then no problem, since her working here fit her current claim to be attempting reform. Just to throw off any watchers, Beth was supposedly en route to the main Westmorland compound, having quit the Constabulary suddenly, possibly recalled for reassignment.
They worked her hard enough, but no harder than anyone else, even if she was the lowest person on the totem pole. The only interesting part came up when it came time to shower, since the ship had been designed to be crewed only by men. No separate facilities at all. The Captain fixed this by sending Beth down at the same time that Gloria and Gwen were to shower and barring everyone else from the room for half an hour. They had to conserve water, so good hair washing was out, but at least they could knock off the sweat and grime once a day.
When it came time to sleep she shared the tiny crew quarters with Smitty, which apparently everyone had thought she would be outraged over at first. She didn't worry about it at all. Smitty didn't so much as hint at anything other than sleeping and always gave her the room when it came time to change, even though that meant he had to do his own changing in the hall. The one time that one of the other guys, Meter, had even joked about it, Groundling had simply walked over and punched the man in the stomach. Not hard, but enough that the guy apologized before he even stood back up all the way.
They put in to London first, offloading most of the cargo, which took just as long as getting it on had. Then they headed to Paris, where they dropped the rest of the load, and were scheduled to stop over for an unspecified time, waiting on their return load. Normally the crew would get leave at this point, but since no one knew when the new load would come in, the crew had to stay ready. The other loaders grumbled slightly, but no one complained too loud. After all they were there to earn a living, not play with foreign girls, Gloria told them more than once, and the faster they turned around, the more money they all made, since they all got crew portion, two percent of the profit got divided evenly between them all. That included the pilots and Sue, the cook, but was on top of salary. So literally, the less downtime they had as a ship, the more money everyone made.
Gwen and Beth left in the middle of the night to go find Baron Mathews, who hadn't even bothered to hide or use an assumed named, but rather just checked into a hotel, counting on Europan law to protect him. Gwen mused out loud that you would think a criminal would think twice before using the law for protection, but Beth told her that it was actually pretty common thinking.
“They suddenly don't remember how easy the law is to break when it comes to their own safety and well-being for some reason. Probably because it's always worked for them in the past.”
The only snag that Beth could see was that she didn't speak Mongolian and neither did Gwen. Since that was the main language spoken, it seemed like it would be a huge problem, but it turned out that a small minority still spoke French in the area. It wasn't exactly like what Gwen had learned in high school, but the locals found her effort both understandable, after a bit of hand waving and pointing, and “charmant”. They found a taxi driver that was willing to help two foreign ladies find their “ill” grandfather and take him back to the airship. Since he could speak Mongolian, it made the whole thing much easier.
The driver checked for grandpere at the front desk for them while they went directly to the room, already knowing the number. Beth dropped into her telepathic state outside the door, then came out when asked, reporting the man to be alone. Gwen knocked and simply hit the man when he opened up, taking him off guard this time. She didn't give him a chance to use any magic, clocking him in the back of the head with a small wrench she'd borrowed from the workshop on the Peregrine as soon as he hit the floor.
Then they carried their “sick” grandfather down to the cab, an actual horse drawn carriage, the driver helping them get him loaded. The man, looking to be in his mid-twenties, even helped them get Baron on the airship, all for the price of cab fare. More expensive than in the Americas – by about three times – but well worth the price in Gwen's estimation. They hid Mathews in the officers' quarters, which were shared between Captain Welk, Beth, and Gloria.
Luckily Gloria had to spend the time until they left on duty, supervising the loading, since the new shipment, amazingly, started coming in about an hour after they had Mathews secured. It still took a little over twelve hours to load up, since the goods all came on regular wagons, pulled by horses. That meant a smaller bundle each time.
The Europans had regular lorries, she'd seen them on the street, but for some reason the traditional horses were favored. When she asked, Gloria just told her that they really liked horses and didn't add any more. Gwen wondered if it had to do with using them as a food source at first, but then remembered that the Mongolian hoards had conquered on ponies, so they may have brought that idea, love of horses, with them when they took over here. She would have loved to learn more about the city, but had other things to do at the moment, she thought menacingly.
After dinner, a tradition after loading it seemed, no matter what time of day or night the work finished, Gloria finally noticed the old man tied up in her room.
Beth asked her to keep it quiet about it until they were over international waters, about half an hour of flight time later. Gloria raised an eyebrow, but went back to work in engineering. The Engineer didn't even bother asking why Gwen stayed with the strange man.
Gloria came back after the bell rang, signaling international waters had been reached. It was important, since it meant that what they were doing was technically legal now. Or at least not against any law.