The Legend of the Red Specter (The Adventures of the Red Specter Book 1)

by M. A. Wisniewski

  She hissed and wrapped one of the blankets around her shoulders again. But it wasn't that bad—no shivers. She put her sandals on, taking care with the portion that came up the back of her heel and tied around her ankle. She belted her satchel back on and strapped her diving mask around her forehead, for lack of a better place to put it. She decided to keep the blanket for now, wrapped around her shoulders like a cloak. Now for the really tricky part.

  She had no good plan from here on out. A plan needed reliable information, and she’d had none. Ideally, she’d have done all sorts of reconnaissance and scouting beforehand, but if she’d had the time for that, she would’ve had time to contact someone qualified to deal with this instead of her. Everything about this was reckless and stupid—but the only alternative was doing nothing, so here she was.

  Hsiu Mei had told her that the girls were somewhere in the ship’s hold. But she didn’t like the idea of blundering around lost, looking for a hatchway. It seemed too likely that she’d stumble across some crewmen if she wandered around like that. And, even if she found the girls, she still didn’t know how she was going to get them off the ship and smuggle them to the Temple. What Joy needed to do was get as high as she could, all the way to the roof, get a visual layout of the ship and the docks, and then work out some kind of rough plan.

  She cracked the door open, peered out into the hallway, and listened carefully. Thus began her daring stealth mission. The first leg was the worst. There was no place to hide in this corridor. She just had to move quickly, when no one was coming, and hope that things stayed that way. She went back the way she'd come. The top of the paddle wheel extended fairly high up the side of the ship. She knew she'd seen a stairway on the inner side of it.

  The stair was narrow, metal, and so steeply angled that it was practically a ladder. No cover here either. She moved quickly, quietly, and prayed to any god that might be listening that no one else started climbing down from the other direction. She reached the top and poked her eyes just above the deck level. No one in sight. This was the bridge level. She looked about and saw one more stair/ladder nearby, leading up to the roof. There we go.

  She reached the top deck and looked around. Behind her were two very large, angled smokestacks, and all around her was a forest of hooded pipes, their mouths covered by metal grates. Air vents? Anyway, they provided some cover, plus she was fairly confident that she wouldn't be seen from the ground if she stayed low on the deck, at crawling height. From here she was able to do some proper scouting. Most of the Joanne Spaulding was level with the main deck. The highest built-up section was in the middle, where she was. It was also the widest section by far. Joy hadn't realized how much bulk the paddle wheels added, but the deck at the paddle wheel section was easily three times as wide as it was towards both the prow and aft. It made Joy think of a matronly woman with huge hips. The ship had two masts, each located at the far ends of the ship, with cables strung between them, but neither had a crow's nest that she could see, or any sails, or places where you might attach a sail. She wondered why they bothered having masts, then? No matter—it wasn't important. Both the foredeck and aft decks were dominated by large hatches, with very simple manual block-and-tackle crane systems. Joy supposed they were used at ports that didn't have steam-powered crane golems. Hsiu Mei said the rest of the girls were in the hold, but she hadn't said if it was fore or aft. But that wasn't the main problem. The problem was the guards.

  Joy had no problem viewing them. The docks were lit up all around, with gas lamps, and some of the new electric lights as well. It was even worse than she'd thought from her brief survey from the paddle wheel. Triad goons in suits were pacing the docks in pairs. Joy tried counting them and gave up after the first two dozen. The warehouse district was on high alert. Joy had to count herself fortunate that they’d all been directing their attention to the land approach, and not out to the sea, but this was a disaster.

  She was somehow supposed to sneak a half-dozen girls out past all of this? How was that going to work? Maybe sneak them out by sea somehow? After her ordeal getting here, that seemed like a very bad idea. One lone snorkeler might be able to sneak through the harbor undetected, but seven? Trying to swim in a strange area in the middle of the night? What if one or more of them got lost or started panicking? She doubted she could keep track of them all. And what if one or more of them couldn’t swim at all?

  Okay, forget swimming. How about using a lifeboat? Make a break that way? Joy peered over at one of the dinghies, lashed to the deck and covered in a canvas tarp. Yes, just get that unmoored, quietly drop it over the side, and just row away at lightning speed. Totally inconspicuous. No downside there. No, she had to get them on the dock and past the guards somehow. Maybe try bluffing her way past? Pretend to be one of Benny's employees, relocating the girls to a safer spot? And why would they believe her? Especially since she was dressed in a military-issue swimsuit. Like that wouldn't raise any eyebrows.

  This was all so frustrating. Joy peered out past the warehouse district into the city proper. She could see the spires of the Temple jutting out from the city skyline. Not so close, but not so far. Such an easy landmark. Anyone could find their way there, as long as they weren't stopped. But that was the problem.

  The more Joy thought about it, the more her heart started to sink. She was not seeing a solution here. She had to face the possibility that, after coming so far, she might have to abort the mission and return with nothing. What then? Return empty-handed to Hsiu Mei? Oh, so sorry, but your new Big Sister is all talk after all. Just one more person to break their promises and let you down. The world just sucks like that.

  Joy bit down a surge of rage and frustration. Stop it, Joy—that’s not helping. She had to think. At the very least, she could try to figure out where the Joanne Spaulding was headed next. It would give them a way to possibly find Lin Lin later—steal her back from whoever bought her, if that’s what it took. There would have to be documents with that information somewhere on board—logs, manifests, and the like. She peered down at the decks below her. At least the Joanne Spaulding wasn't swarming with people. She'd only seen two people on the ship so far, and only one had seemed to actually be patrolling.

  She made her way down to the bridge, without running into anyone. She found a ship's log with their next several scheduled destinations. She started to tear that page out, but stopped herself before the tear was more than inch long. Missing pages would raise suspicion. She took out her notebook and copied the information by hand. On her way out, she passed a door that said "Chart Room."

  That sounded promising.

  There were tons of documents here, books full of receipts, shipping manifests. She flipped through them and saw page after page of very mundane information—long lists of numbers next to ordinary trade goods. Maybe if she spent a couple of hours studying it, she might find some discrepancies—but she didn't have hours. Besides, if you were engaged in illegal smuggling, would you leave records of that just lying around in the open? Wouldn't you hide it somewhere?

  Well, there weren't any obvious hiding places in here—everything was clearly organized in cabinets lining the wall, secured with simple latches, she guessed mainly to keep the drawers from flying open during rough seas. But one of them did have a lock. Joy retrieved her lock-picks from her satchel and started in on it. About midway through she started to berate herself for wasting time. Probably secret documents would be stored in a completely different place, like in the captain's private quarters, or—

  The lock clicked, followed by another metallic thunk. Joy tested the cabinet drawers. She could open them all now. That had been easy. Surprisingly so. In fact, she was sure she hadn't finished yet. Why had it opened early? She started back in with her picks again, and had her suspicions confirmed. There was another set of tumblers behind the first one. Joy got an image in her mind of a lock that could accept two keys—an ordinary, everyday use one with a short handle, and a second, special key with a long handle
. She got back to work, feeling a surge of excitement. The second set of tumblers weren't nearly as cooperative as the first, but finally she got them to line up, and heard a second click. Nothing happened on the front of the cabinet, so she searched around the side, up and down, finding nothing until she lay flat on her belly and peered through the small gap between the floor and the legs of the cabinet.

  She found a small drawer that hadn't been there before. Inside was a slim notebook, titled "Insurance." Joy flipped through it. It was a long list of names, titles, and numbers. Cash payments. And the names—a lot of them she didn't recognize, but a few she did—major politicians, magistrates, city officials. She wasn't sure what she had, but it felt big. Yeah, it had to be important, or else it wouldn't have been hidden away like that. Could she fit it in her satchel? Yes—just barely. At the back of her head a part of herself was dancing with glee. If she could get this evidence to the KIB, it could blow all the corruption in Dodona wide open. Maybe it would give her enough leverage to convince them to send warships and Jagdkommandos out to retrieve the girls later, if she couldn’t rescue them tonight. She could only hope.

  But first things first. Joy closed the secret drawer. Back to more pressing concerns. She needed to figure out where the girls were being kept. She knew they were in one of the holds, but which one? There was a cutaway diagram on the wall, a full layout of the Joanne Spaulding—just what she’d wanted. It showed the two main cargo compartments, fore and aft, which were further subdivided into several different decks. Now to just cross-check with the shipping manifest.… But, of course, the shipping manifest didn't have any listing for "slave girls." You wouldn't be that obvious, would you? Joy tried to contain her frustration, continued to scan through the long lists of very mundane goods, looking for something to jump out at her—some kind of euphemism. After a minute, Joy found something—an entry for "Wild Orchids." That had to be it. She just had to.… Wait a second. A few columns over, there was another entry: "Exotic Birds." And then, even further over: "Assorted Sweetmeats."

  Joy grit her teeth. Any of those could be the girls, depending on how much of an asshole the captain was—and they were all in separate cargo compartments. Joy stared at the cutaway diagram, stuck by indecision. Was this even worth it? What was she going to do with the girls if she found them? She had no... Wait—now she was doing it, too. Thinking of the girls as things. They were people. Maybe they might have some ideas, something she hadn't thought of. At the very least, she could talk to them, tell them about Hsiu Mei. She could let Lin Lin know that her big sister was okay—that at least there were a few people who were thinking about them and cared enough to help. She could do that much.

  Fine. She didn't know which hold they were in? So check them all. Hsiu Mei had told her they'd all been kept in a large cage. Shouldn't be too hard to find. Joy put all the logs back where she'd found them and snuck back out into the hallway.

  She nearly made it out to the deck when she heard a rough, male voice call out. She spun around, sure she'd been spotted, but there was no one there. Wasn't calling her. But she heard the footsteps on the deck, and a metallic jingle in time with the steps. He was coming this way. She ducked back into the chart room. She'd already switched the lights off, but there was nowhere to hide in here. What if he came in? Joy threw her back to the wall on the hinge side of the door, raised her flashlight up like a club, and waited, heart racing. The events of her fight with Yang and Chen played out again in her mind. She’d come out far better than she’d expected from that, but she wasn’t eager to repeat the experience. Maybe she might get the better of any one crewman she ran into, if she managed to surprise him, but she had no confidence in her ability to knock a seasoned sailor out in one hit, to stop him from yelling and alerting the whole ship.

  Out in the hall, the footsteps resounded on the deck floor, coming closer, along with the metal sound. A key-ring. A big one. The sound of doors opening. He was searching for something. She heard him come closer. Thump-thump/jingle. Thump-thump/jingle. He was right outside her door. She heard the creak of a door handle, the groan of the hinges... from across the hall. Some more sounds, some banging around, then quiet. Joy held very still, tried to breathe shallow, be small and unnoticeable.

  The man's voice boomed out in the stillness, right outside, making her jump. "Jang! Sonam! Taku! Lee—where the hell are you bastards! Shirking duty? In the grog? I swear, when I find you jackasses, I'm gonna strip your rotten monkey hides and leave you out for the gulls."

  No other voices rose up to answer. Joy heard her own shallow breath, the pounding of her own heart, the pulsing of her blood as it ran up through her neck and right beneath her ears. The hull of the ship let out the slightest of groans, more like a sigh, as the deck rocked gently beneath her feet.

  "Worthless assholes," muttered the man outside. "Tonight, of all nights, to pull this nonsense." Joy could hear it now, the undercurrent of fear he was trying to mask with his bluster. "Where the hell... Better not be down in the hold... I warned 'em... They touch the merch.…"

  Joy heard a leathery rustle, followed by the sharper sounds of metal parts sliding against metal. She recognized those metal sounds from her supplemental courses, the ones that had taken her to the firing range. Safety off, bullet in the chamber, re-holster—but looser this time. The man outside wasn't happy at all.

  "Gonna need a new crew." The low growl carried through the wall. "Pain in my ass."

  The thump-jingle started up again, heading away from her. Joy let it recede, let it get a safe distance away, and then she opened the door, slipped out into the hallway, and started following it. It was the most terrifying thing she'd done so far, but in some ways, it was easier. Now she was the one doing the stalking. It was simpler like this--she knew where the danger was. She could hear every step. She also knew how dangerous it was—the man was armed and extremely agitated. But she didn't like any of that business about the hold, and missing crew, and "touching the merchandise." Something ugly was about to go down, and she needed to be there, to do…. well, to do something about it. Whatever she could.

  The hardest part was going around corners. She had to be very careful to peer out without being seen herself--gauge the sight-lines, see what cover she had. The man she followed was on high alert. She had to be careful. Thank goodness for that key ring. Its jingling told her so much about where he was and what he was doing. She could tell when he descended the stair down to the main deck and stepped away from the ladder. She approached the top of the stair on her belly, peeked over the top, just barely. Her view stretched over the empty deck, but she couldn't see the man--the captain? She heard another jingle. He was at the bottom of the ladder. Right below her. She didn't make any effort to find him with her eyes. That would mean sticking her head out further, and that was a bad idea. If she couldn't see him from this angle, then he couldn't see her, either.

  She did see his hands move out into her field of vision, to open a hatch on the floor, leading below decks. And then those hands were yanked away, and there was a brief, muffled sound of protest. Joy heard the key ring rattle about violently, and then that was cut short, too. Then silence. Joy froze where she was, trying to make sense of what she’d heard. What was going on? Joy heard the faintest of scraping sounds. It travelled across the deck to her right, followed by a sort of flapping noise, like a sail in the wind, followed by a noise like someone hurling sandbags. Then all was quiet, except for the cries of the gulls.

  Joy stayed where she was, waiting for the sound of the jingling keys to start back up again, to give away the captain's position, but nothing happened. Cautiously, she leaned further over the edge, and still further, until she could see the entire deck. It was empty.

  Not being able to see the captain made Joy nervous. Did that mean he was hiding, lying in wait now? Joy thought back to the last noises she'd heard, trying to parse out what had happened. It felt like they'd moved right. Joy scanned the deck in that direction. Weren't many places to hide�
�except one. One of the life boats rested in a sort of cradle on the deck, next to a pulley system that would hoist it over the side. It had been lashed down and covered with a canvas tarp. Except one of the corners of the tarp had been undone, leaving a flap hanging loose. It looked suspicious.

  Joy took a deep breath, let it go, and climbed down the ladder to investigate, nerves on edge, flashlight at the ready if anyone jumped out at her. She approached the lifeboat like she was stalking a rabbit, wondering if she was being an idiot. This could be a trap. She scanned left and right, for any potential ambushers, and saw nothing. What if they were hiding in the lifeboat, ready to grab her when she looked in. But did that make sense? It was an awkward ambush position. Hard to get out quickly, and you wouldn't be able to see anything from in there. Something wasn't right. Something weird was going on here. And this was a scouting mission. She needed to know what was going on. She needed to know.

  Joy climbed up to perch on the edge of the lifeboat hull. Balanced there, she noiselessly reached out and grasped the loose corner of the canvas tarp, preparing to spring away if something did try to strike out at her. She yanked the flap open and saw a pile of motionless bodies.

  Joy successfully stifled the urge to scream and leap away, but her muscles got that message a millisecond later than they should've, and Joy wobbled and nearly fell off the lifeboat. She took the time she needed to collect herself. Breathe in, breathe out—slow breaths... Slow and steady. She pulled the corner flap open again and stuck her flashlight inside before switching it on again, so the light wouldn’t attract attention from elsewhere. Now she could see these men had their hands bound behind their backs, with some type of heavy-gauge wire, and their ankles, too. Were they breathing? Well, they should be. Why would you tie up a corpse? Carefully, Joy reached a hand in to put in front of one of their faces, and felt hot air moving across her fingertips. Joy tried to count heads. Eight that she could see. That meant.…