Dockingboys

Chapter Seven

Declan froze. The two other boys stayed at his doorway, waiting patiently for an answer.

"Yeah, Declan. Why are you out at this time of night?" Toland asked.

Declan looked around, then sighed and stepped through his doorway. "Come on, I found something."

After both of the boys had stepped in, Declan closed the door to his bunk and sat down on the floor, already taking out the envelope. "I found this after dinner. Don't ask me who sent it or why send it to me, but it was sitting in my doorway."

Toland took a brief scan and gasped. "Are you serious? Rake couldn't have been murdered. I mean, come on. Freaking murdered?"

Declan shrugged. "Don't ask me."

Rusty pointed at the back of the second paper. "Look. Something's going to happen at the South Docks on this date. Do any of you have any idea of what will happen?"

Declan shook his head. "Nah, man. I only know that it's five days away from my birthday, but that doesn't help. What about you, Toland?"

Toland looked up and paused to think for a minute. "Well, I can't really think of anything. But look at the code. It's designated to the black Titan container that the crew's so pissed about. And it's called 'Package'. Way to go for creativity."

Rusty looked down again. "Oh yeah, that's right. But what does that have to do with anything? And should we go check it? Like, to make sure there's nothing wrong with it?"

Declan held up his hand. "No need. I already went there. Now, one of the guys in the flashy suits knows that some dockingboy was snooping around on the ship at ten PM."

Toland widened his eyes. "Oh man, that's not good. No wonder you're so sweaty."

"Yeah. His name's Xavier, I think. When I made a run for it, he almost hit me with a revolver."

Rusty nodded grimly. "Did he see your face?"

"No, I had my hood over my head."

"Good. So what are we going to do? This mysterious writer obviously wants us to go to the South Docks on that specific date," said Toland, pointing at the paper.

"Well, we'd have to find the writer first, and try to avoid Xavier, because he might recognize my jacket," replied Declan.

"Easier said than done," Rusty pointed out, shaking his head.

"I know a girl in the city that we can trust."

"Who is she, your girlfriend?"

"Ew. Dude, it's Irene. But we can also check on my old friend. He might know something. But be warned, he has a hell of an annoying sister."

"Oh. Sucks to be you," said Rusty, grinning.

Toland raised an eyebrow. "Uh, guys? Who's Irene?"

"Irene's my big sister. She's rich, and she's really famous in Oakton."

"Irene Graham? You mean, like the super pretty celebrity from the city that everyone in school's in love with?"

Declan pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yep, that's her. Don't tell me you like her too."

Toland shook his head. "No, she's not my type. But she is very pretty."

"For Christ's sake, she's 25. Seven years your senior, Toland, seven years."

"Yeah, I know. Anyway, why are we going to her?"

"Only because she's at the top in the city. In other words, she's the queen of queens. If anybody knows stuff about the writer of this letter and what he or she knows, it's Irene."

Rusty nodded. "We can see her tomorrow, right?"

"Wait, wait, wait. I never agreed to bring you two with me. I was just going to see if Irene knows anything, then maybe go to the South Docks and see what'll happen," Declan said, skeptical.

Rusty rolled his eyes. "Eh, too bad. You're stuck with me."

"Yep! Me too!" said Toland, raising his hand.

Declan sighed again. "Fine. But we can't tell Eli about this."

Toland tilted his head. "Why not? He's an adult after all. He has to know."

"No, he can't. If he finds out I was snooping around at night, I'd be in trouble. More importantly, if Xavier catches word about who he saw, I'd be in even more trouble."

"Good point. What if Irene doesn't know anything? You'd be confessing to her."

"Then so be it. She's my older sister, alright? The only thing she loves more than popularity and fame is me."

"Yeah, makes sense. Should I tell Marcus and Yangshi?" Rusty asked, referring to the other oldest boys on the team.

Declan shook his head. "No, the less people that know, the better. Marcus and Yangshi might be good guys, but the younger boys might overhear something and go on blabbering about stuff."

"Okay. So it's all set then? We'll go out tomorrow to see Irene?"

"Yeah, at eight. If we go earlier, then it reduces the risk of the others noticing."

Rusty nodded. "Good. But I'm still a little confused about how Rake died though. He was a good kid."

"We still don't have any solid proof that Rake was actually murdered. But if it comes to it, we'll go to the police," replied Declan.

"Alright. See you in the morning."

As the other boys left his bunk, Declan placed the envelope onto his nightstand. He'd forgotten to shower or brush his teeth, but he didn't care. He shrugged off his jacket, stowed it away in his closet, and started drawing. On nights he didn't go to school, Declan always sketched. He was a talented artist, with his strokes of a pencil looking like it came from a liquid. The content of his sketches varied, from drawings of his Irene to drawings of the docks and the other boys. He had three whole stacks of clean white paper, and two sets of 15 different pencils. But tonight, he could barely focus.

Every time he put his pencil to the paper, his hand shook. Declan couldn't take his

near-death incident, and he couldn't forget the look of pure hatred on Xavier's face as he opened fire on him with his revolver.

With a sigh, Declan put down his art supplies and paper, turned off the light, and climbed in bed. He wouldn't be able to sleep tonight, thinking about Rake's apparent murder and wondering what was wrong with the black Titan container, the one called Package. Well, he knew what was wrong- there were bullet holes all over it. But why? His assumption that the government had used it as an experimental target for the prototype machine guns was obviously stupid and dumb, but if it wasn't that, what was it?