X-Marks: Stealing Shadows

The Docks

I had never visited the docks, but least one person I knew would be there, and this time it wasn't Mat.

I opened a heavy door in the main kitchen. On the other side, my boots sinked into fine sand and my lungs filled with the pine scented air.

I walked along the path to the water. Scraps of metal and wood blocked my way. I continued to look for a familiar face when a man stopped me.

"You Maggie's daughter?" a missing toothed man said with wide, hungry eyes, "Come to bring us some food I assume."

The man's dingy pants were tied by a rope to his thin frame. He looked me up and down as if he were ready to eat the manuals if he could.

"No," I said and gripped the manuals tighter.

"Then what did you come here for? This isn't usually the place for ladies," the man said and looked down at a rat scavenging through the litter.

"Alger sent me."

"Alger?" the man said, "That grumpy loon? What's he going around sending little girls to do his work?"

"He told me to give these to -"

"Oh yeah! The manuals Neirin's been going on about," the man said and tried to take the papers from my hand, "I'll make sure he gets them."

"If you don't mind," I said and held the paper closer to my chest, "I had something to tell Neirin myself."

"If you'd like," the man said and raised his brows, "It's not every day someone wants to speak with Neirin, but find out for yourself."

The man made his way through the trash. His bare feet stepped on the coarse litter in his way. He led me to the edge of the water where men worked. One man lounged on a caved rock perfectly weathered for sitting.

"Get on!" the man on the rock shouted.

His water stained shirt barely contained the girth of his stomach as he flopped across the rounded rock like a fish out of water.

"Who is it now?" the man on the rock said as spit flew from his lips.

"Alger sent her," the other man said.

"Did he make my manuals yet?" the man on the rock said and fixed his bulging eyes on me.

It was clear this was Neirin. He was in every way as he was said to be.

"Right here," the other man said and took the stacks of papers from my hand.

"Good, good," Neirin said with a grin that turned cold, "What about the tracker? Can't catch fish if we can't find them."

Tracker, the word made me freeze. I knew of the tracker but had no idea what it was for or how to recite what Alger had told me about it.

I had to say something.

"Alger's working on it," I said.

"Then what's taking them so long?" Neirin said as blood rushed into his already sunburnt face.

"The disabler," I said.

It was the only word I could remember.

"What about the disabler?"

"Buggy's coming back," I said and paused to think, "With a new one!"

"What they need a new one for?" the other man chimed in.

"The Allies, they're - they're," I mumbled.

"Get on with it girl," Neirin shouted even louder.

Neirin shouts made the men at the edge of the water stop their work.